Thursday, 5 April 2012
Naseem Hameed: Fastest Woman In South Asia
It is an undeniable fact that, mostly, the real talent in sports comes from the poor strata of the society.
Pakistan’s sports history is laden with numerous examples where youngsters, who are brought up in an appalling economic environment with no proper nourishment, equipment, and facilities, are able to carve their niche in international circuit mainly due to their amazing willpower and determination.
Khan family in squash, majority of star cricketers, major chunk of hockey Olympians in the country, footballers, boxers and athletes, who earned international repute, mostly, came from the poor families.
It is not strange in the country like ours, where sports is considered a least important faculty, player with an astounding talent performs amazingly at the international level.
Another star in the name of Naseem Hameed pricked the conscience of the dead authorities on Monday, when she turned out to be a queen of the athletic track of the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka where she emerged as the fastest woman of South Asia by clocking 11.81 seconds in the 100m sprint of the South Asian Games.
This was the career-best feat of the Karachi-based athlete, who was also part of the bronze medallist 4x100m relay team of the country in the 10th South Asian Games held in Colombo in 2006.
She became the first Pakistani woman athlete to achieve a 100m gold, in the 26 year long history of the SAG and turned out to be the third lady after Rehana Kausar (high jump, gold, 1999 Kathmandu), and Shabana Akhtar (long jump, gold, 1995 Madras) to have won gold for the country.
The 23-year old athlete, Naseem, happens to be another force gushing forth from the downtrodden fabric of the society. Naseem, who represents Army at the domestic level, lives with her family in a 40-yard single room house located in the slums of the Korangi Industrial Area. Her father Hameed is a labourer who hardly earns Rs9000 per month.
Naseem, who is very proud for her stupendous show in front of a good crowd in Dhaka, the other day, has no space in her house to keep her medals, which she has won so far in her brief but sparkling career.
Her father Hameed told Geo TV on Tuesday that he is an illiterate man and does not know much but only prays for her daughter and helps her and his other children in their education. Her mother has great contribution in her achievement, he said.
“Naseem had great fondness for the game and adored it from infancy. Our relatives were against her stance to come to the field of sports but it was her willpower which helped her stick to the game and attain such a success,” Naseem mother said. “She is a son for me and I always pray for her,” her mother, who broke into tears, said.
Her sister, Annie, who is a football player, said, players have to do everything on their own to succeed, as the authorities do not properly support them.
After her brilliant performance, Naseem now feels that her feat will definitely add to her responsibility.
“Definitely, after such an achievement, the pressure builds and it will certainly add to my responsibility but I will try to face all the pressure and will struggle to make my career more healthy,” the proud athlete said.
Pakistan’s sports history is laden with numerous examples where youngsters, who are brought up in an appalling economic environment with no proper nourishment, equipment, and facilities, are able to carve their niche in international circuit mainly due to their amazing willpower and determination.
Khan family in squash, majority of star cricketers, major chunk of hockey Olympians in the country, footballers, boxers and athletes, who earned international repute, mostly, came from the poor families.
It is not strange in the country like ours, where sports is considered a least important faculty, player with an astounding talent performs amazingly at the international level.
Another star in the name of Naseem Hameed pricked the conscience of the dead authorities on Monday, when she turned out to be a queen of the athletic track of the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka where she emerged as the fastest woman of South Asia by clocking 11.81 seconds in the 100m sprint of the South Asian Games.
This was the career-best feat of the Karachi-based athlete, who was also part of the bronze medallist 4x100m relay team of the country in the 10th South Asian Games held in Colombo in 2006.
She became the first Pakistani woman athlete to achieve a 100m gold, in the 26 year long history of the SAG and turned out to be the third lady after Rehana Kausar (high jump, gold, 1999 Kathmandu), and Shabana Akhtar (long jump, gold, 1995 Madras) to have won gold for the country.
The 23-year old athlete, Naseem, happens to be another force gushing forth from the downtrodden fabric of the society. Naseem, who represents Army at the domestic level, lives with her family in a 40-yard single room house located in the slums of the Korangi Industrial Area. Her father Hameed is a labourer who hardly earns Rs9000 per month.
Naseem, who is very proud for her stupendous show in front of a good crowd in Dhaka, the other day, has no space in her house to keep her medals, which she has won so far in her brief but sparkling career.
Her father Hameed told Geo TV on Tuesday that he is an illiterate man and does not know much but only prays for her daughter and helps her and his other children in their education. Her mother has great contribution in her achievement, he said.
“Naseem had great fondness for the game and adored it from infancy. Our relatives were against her stance to come to the field of sports but it was her willpower which helped her stick to the game and attain such a success,” Naseem mother said. “She is a son for me and I always pray for her,” her mother, who broke into tears, said.
Her sister, Annie, who is a football player, said, players have to do everything on their own to succeed, as the authorities do not properly support them.
After her brilliant performance, Naseem now feels that her feat will definitely add to her responsibility.
“Definitely, after such an achievement, the pressure builds and it will certainly add to my responsibility but I will try to face all the pressure and will struggle to make my career more healthy,” the proud athlete said.
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
World's youngest Microsoft professional Arfa Karim died
In what could simply be described as an enormous loss for Pakistan, Arfa Karim, the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), Saturday night, lost the battle of life after remaining admitted here at Combined Military Hospital for 26 days, our sources reported.
Arfa Karim was only sixteen years old.
Her funeral prayers will be offered on Sunday at 10 AM in Cantt area.
Arfa Karim remained in intensive care at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) after suffering an epileptic seizure and cardiac arrest a few weeks ago. After battling for life for 26 days, one of Pakistan's brightest brains left this world for good.
Arfa's father Colonel (Retd) Amjad Karim Randhawa, while takling to our sources, said that, she had gone nowhere; she was still alive for her cause was alive. Going forward, Col Randhawa vowed to materialize her dreams.
To a question, he said that Arfa got the best of the medical treatments available, adding he was satisfied with it.
Born in 1995, Arfa Karim got the honor of World’s Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional when she was only 9 years old in 2004. Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft, invited Arfa to visit the Microsoft Headquarters in the USA in the age of 10 only.
Later, in August 2005, Arfa was also honored by the Pakistan Government for the Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of Science and Technology which she received from then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. She was also honored with Salaam Pakistan Youth Award in 2005 which has been set up by Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate Dr Abdul Salam. Moreover, Arfa has won the Presidential Award for Pride of Performance.
Arfa represented her country Pakistan on a variety of international fora. She was also included as the honorable guest by IT Professionals of Dubai for two weeks stay in Dubai. During that trip, Arfa was awarded by a number of medals and awards from various tech societies and computer companies working in Dubai.
Amazingly, she was certified for flying a plane at a flying club in Dubai at the age of 10.
Arfa also participated in Microsoft keynote session in the Tech-Ed Developers Conference held in Barcelona, in 2006. The theme of the conference was “Get ahead of the game” and Arfa was in fact a great example of being ahead of the game.
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