Podcasts about sialkot

What happens when your voice is built through visuals, not volume? In this Unstoppable Mindset episode, I talk with photographer and storyteller Mobeen Ansari about growing up with hearing loss, learning speech with support from his family and the John Tracy Center, and using technology to stay connected in real time. We also explore how his art became a bridge across culture and faith, from documenting religious minorities in Pakistan to chronicling everyday heroes, and why he feels urgency to photograph climate change before more communities, heritage sites, and ways of life are lost. You'll hear how purpose grows when you share your story in a way that helps others feel less alone, and why Mobeen believes one story can become a blueprint for someone else to navigate their own challenge. Highlights: 00:03:54 - Learn how early family support can shape confidence, communication, and independence for life. 00:08:31 - Discover how deciding when to capture a moment can define your values as a storyteller. 00:15:14 - Learn practical ways to stay fully present in conversations when hearing is a daily challenge. 00:23:24 - See how unexpected role models can redefine what living fully looks like at any stage of life. 00:39:15 - Understand how visual storytelling can cross cultural and faith boundaries without words. 00:46:38 - Learn why documenting climate change now matters before stories, places, and communities disappear. About the Guest: Mobeen Ansari is a photographer, filmmaker and artist from Islamabad, Pakistan. Having a background in fine arts, he picked up the camera during high school and photographed his surroundings and friends- a path that motivated him to be a pictorial historian. His journey as a photographer and artist is deeply linked to a challenge that he had faced since after his birth.  Three weeks after he was born, Mobeen was diagnosed with hearing loss due to meningitis, and this challenge has inspired him to observe people more visually, which eventually led him to being an artist. He does advocacy for people with hearing loss.  Mobeen's work focuses on his home country of Pakistan and its people, promoting a diverse & poetic image of his country through his photos & films. As a photojournalist he focuses on human interest stories and has extensively worked on topics of climate change, global health and migration. Mobeen has published three photography books. His first one, ‘Dharkan: The Heartbeat of a Nation', features portraits of iconic people of Pakistan from all walks of life. His second book, called ‘White in the Flag' is based on the lives & festivities of religious minorities in Pakistan. Both these books have had two volumes published over the years. His third book is called ‘Miraas' which is also about iconic people of Pakistan and follows ‘Dharkan' as a sequel. Mobeen has also made two silent movies; 'Hellhole' is a black and white short film, based on the life of a sanitation worker, and ‘Lady of the Emerald Scarf' is based on the life of Aziza, a carpet maker in Guilmit in Northern Pakistan. He has exhibited in Pakistan & around the world, namely in UK, Italy, China Iraq, & across the US and UAE. His photographs have been displayed in many famous places as well, including Times Square in New York City. Mobeen is also a recipient of the Swedish Red Cross Journalism prize for his photography on the story of FIFA World Cup football manufacture in Sialkot. Ways to connect with Mobeen**:** www.mobeenansari.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/mobeenart  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mobeenansari/ Instagram: @mobeenansariphoto X: @Mobeen_Ansari About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson  01:20 Well, hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. I am your host. Michael Hingson, we're really glad that you are here, and today we are going to talk to Mobeen Ansari, and Mobeen is in Islamabad. I believe you're still in Islamabad, aren't you? There we go. I am, yeah. And so, so he is 12 hours ahead of where we are. So it is four in the afternoon here, and I can't believe it, but he's up at four in the morning where he is actually I get up around the same time most mornings, but I go to bed earlier than he does. Anyway. We're really glad that he is here. He is a photographer, he speaks he's a journalist in so many ways, and we're going to talk about all of that as we go forward. Mobin also is profoundly hard of hearing. Uses hearing aids. He was diagnosed as being hard of hearing when he was three weeks old. So I'm sure we're going to talk about that a little bit near the beginning, so we'll go ahead and start. So mo bean, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad that you're here. Mobeen Ansari  02:32 It's a pleasure to be here, and I'm honored to plan your show. Thank you so much. Michael Hingson  02:37 Well, thank you very much, and I'm glad that we're able to make this work, and I should explain that he is able to read what is going on the screen. I use a program called otter to transcribe when necessary, whatever I and other people in a meeting, or in this case, in a podcast, are saying, and well being is able to read all of that. So that's one of the ways, and one of the reasons that we get to do this in real time. So it's really kind of cool, and I'm really excited by that. Well, let's go ahead and move forward. Why don't you tell us a little about the early Beau beam growing up? And obviously that starts, that's where your adventure starts in a lot of ways. So why don't you tell us about you growing up and all that. Mobeen Ansari  03:22 So I'm glad you mentioned the captions part, because, you know, that has been really, really revolutionary. That has been quite a lifesaver, be it, you know, Netflix, be it anywhere I go into your life, I read captions like there's an app on my phone that I use for real life competitions, and that's where I, you know, get everything. That's where technology is pretty cool. So I do that because of my hearing does, as you mentioned, when I was three weeks old, I had severe meningitis due to it, had lost hearing in both my ear and so when my hearing loss were diagnosed, it was, you know, around the time we didn't have resources, the technology that we do today. Michael Hingson  04:15 When was that? What year was that about? Mobeen Ansari  04:19 1986 okay, sorry, 1987 so yeah, so they figured that I had locked my hearing at three weeks of age, but didn't properly diagnose it until I think I was three months old. So yeah, then January was my diagnosis, okay. Michael Hingson  04:44 And so how did you how did you function, how did you do things when you were, when you were a young child? Because at that point was kind of well, much before you could use a hearing aid and learn to speak and so on. So what? Mobeen Ansari  05:00 You do. So my parents would have a better memory of that than I would, but I would say that they were, you know, extra hard. They went an extra mile. I mean, I would say, you know, 100 extra mile. My mother learned to be a peace therapist, and my father. He learned to be he learned how to read audiogram, to learn the audiology, familiarize himself with hearing a technology with an engineer support. My parents work around me. David went to a lot of doctors, obviously, I was a very difficult child, but I think that actually laid the foundation in me becoming an artist. Because, you know, today, the hearing is it fits right into my ear so you cannot see it, basically because my hair is longer. But back then, hearing aids used to be almost like on a harness, and you to be full of quiet, so you would actually stick out like a sore thumb. So, you know, obviously you stand out in a crowd. So I would be very conscious, and I would often, you know, get asked what this is. So I would say, this is a radio but for most part of my childhood, I was very introverted, but I absolutely love art. My grandmother's for the painter, and she was also photographer, as well as my grandfather, the hobbyist photographer, and you know, seeing them create all of the visuals in different ways, I was inspired, and I would tell my stories in form of sketching or making modified action figures. And photography was something I picked up way later on in high school, when the first digital camera had just come out, and I finally started in a really interacting with the world. Michael Hingson  07:13 So early on you you drew because you didn't really use the camera yet. And I think it's very interesting how much your parents worked to make sure they could really help you. As you said, Your mother was a speech you became a speech therapist, and your father learned about the technologies and so on. So when did you start using hearing aids? That's Mobeen Ansari  07:42 a good question. I think I probably started using it when I was two years old. Okay, yeah, yeah, that's gonna start using it, but then, you know, I think I'll probably have to ask my parents capacity, but a moment, Mobeen Ansari  08:08 you know, go ahead, I think they worked around me. They really improvised on the situation. They learned at the went along, and I think I learned speech gradually. Did a lot of, you know, technical know, how about this? But I would also have to credit John Troy clinic in Los Angeles, because, you know, back then, there was no mobile phone, there were no emails, but my mother would put in touch with John Troy center in LA and they would send a lot of material back and forth for many years, and they would provide a guidance. They would provide her a lot of articles, a lot of details on how to help me learn speech. A lot of visuals were involved. And because of the emphasis on visuals, I think that kind of pushed me further to become an artist, because I would speak more, but with just so to Michael Hingson  09:25 say so, it was sort of a natural progression for you, at least it seemed that way to you, to start using art as a way to communicate, as opposed as opposed to talking. Mobeen Ansari  09:39 Yeah, absolutely, you know, so I would like pass forward a little bit to my high school. You know, I was always a very shy child up until, you know, my early teens, and the first camera had just come out, this was like 2001 2002 at. It. That's when my dad got one, and I would take that to school today. You know, everyone has a smartphone back then, if you had a camera, you're pretty cool. And that is what. I started taking pictures of my friends. I started taking pictures of my teachers, of landscapes around me. And I would even capture, you know, funniest of things, like my friend getting late for school, and one day, a friend of mine got into a fight because somebody stole his girlfriend, or something like that happened, you know, that was a long time ago, and he lost the fight, and he turned off into the world court to cry, and he was just sort of, you're trying to hide all his vulnerability. I happened to be in the same place as him, and I had my camera, and I was like, should I capture this moment, or should I let this permit go? And well, I decided to capture it, and that is when human emotion truly started to fascinate me. So I was born in a very old city. I live in the capital of Islamabad right now, but I was born in the city of travel to be and that is home to lots of old, you know, heritage sites, lots of old places, lots of old, interesting scenes. And you know, that always inspired you, that always makes you feel alive. And I guess all of these things came together. And, you know, I really got into the art of picture storytelling. And by the end of my high school graduation, everybody was given an award. The certificate that I was given was, it was called pictorial historian, and that is what inspired me to really document everything. Document my country. Document is people, document landscape. In fact, that award it actually has in my studio right now been there for, you know, over 21 years, but it inspired me luck to this day. Michael Hingson  12:20 So going back to the story you just told, did you tell your friend that you took pictures of him when he was crying? Mobeen Ansari  12:32 Eventually, yes, I would not talk. You're familiar with the content back then, but the Catholic friend, I know so I mean, you know everyone, you're all kids, so yeah, very, yeah, that was a very normal circumstance. But yeah, you know, Michael Hingson  12:52 how did he react when you told him, Mobeen Ansari  12:56 Oh, he was fine. It's pretty cool about it, okay, but I should probably touch base with him. I haven't spoken to him for many years that Yeah, Michael Hingson  13:08 well, but as long as Yeah, but obviously you were, you were good friends, and you were able to continue that. So that's, that's pretty cool. So you, your hearing aids were also probably pretty large and pretty clunky as well, weren't they? Mobeen Ansari  13:26 Yeah, they were. But you know, with time my hearing aid became smaller. Oh sure. So hearing aid model that I'm wearing right now that kind of started coming in place from 1995 1995 96 onwards. But you know, like, even today, it's called like BDE behind the ear, hearing it even today, I still wear the large format because my hearing loss is more it's on the profound side, right? Just like if I take my hearing, it off. I cannot hear but that's a great thing, because if I don't want to listen to anybody, right, and I can sleep peacefully at night. Michael Hingson  14:21 Have you ever used bone conduction headphones or earphones? Mobeen Ansari  14:30 But I have actually used something I forgot what is called, but these are very specific kind of ear bone that get plugged into your hearing it. So once you plug into that, you cannot hear anything else. But it discontinued that. So now they use Bluetooth. Michael Hingson  14:49 Well, bone conduction headphones are, are, are devices that, rather than projecting the audio into your ear, they actually. Be projected straight into the bone and bypassing most of the ear. And I know a number of people have found them to be useful, like, if you want to listen to music and so on, or listen to audio, you can connect them. There are Bluetooth versions, and then there are cable versions, but the sound doesn't go into your ear. It goes into the bone, which is why they call it bone conduction. Mobeen Ansari  15:26 Okay, that's interesting, I think. Michael Hingson  15:29 And some of them do work with hearing aids as well. Mobeen Ansari  15:34 Okay, yeah, I think I've experienced that when they do the audio can test they put, like at the back of your head or something? Michael Hingson  15:43 Yeah, the the most common one, at least in the United States, and I suspect most places, is made by a company called aftershocks. I think it's spelled A, F, T, E, R, S, H, O, k, s, but something to think about. Anyway. So you went through high school mostly were, were your student colleagues and friends, and maybe not always friends? Were they pretty tolerant of the fact that you were a little bit different than they were. Did you ever have major problems with people? Mobeen Ansari  16:22 You know, I've actually had a great support system, and for most part, I actually had a lot of amazing friends from college who are still my, you know, friend to the dead, sorry, from school. I'm actually closer to my friend from school than I am two friends of college difficulties. You know, if you're different, you'll always be prone to people who sort of are not sure how to navigate that, or just want, you know, sort of test things out. So to say, so it wasn't without his problems, but for most part of it's surprisingly, surprisingly, I've had a great support system, but, you know, the biggest challenge was actually not being able to understand conversation. So I'm going to go a bit back and forth on the timeline here. You know, if so, in 2021, I had something known as menus disease. Menier disease is something, it's an irregular infection that arises from stress, and what happens is that you're hearing it drops and it is replaced by drinking and bathing and all sorts of real according to my experience, it affects those with hearing loss much more than it affects those with regular, normal hearing. It's almost like tinnitus on steroids. That is how I would type it. And I've had about three occurrences of that, either going to stress or being around loud situations and noises, and that is where it became so challenging that it became difficult to hear, even with hearing it or lip reading. So that is why I use a transcriber app wherever I go, and that been a lifesaver, you know. So I believe that every time I have evolved to life, every time I have grown up, I've been able to better understand people to like at the last, you know, four years I've been using this application to now, I think I'm catching up on all the nuances of conversation that I've missed. Right if I would talk to you five years ago, I would probably understand 40% of what you're saying. I would understand it by reading your lips or your body language or ask you to write or take something for me, but now with this app, I'm able to actually get to 99% of the conversation. So I think with time, people have actually become more tired and more accepting, and now there is more awareness. I think, awareness, right? Michael Hingson  19:24 Well, yeah, I was gonna say it's been an only like the last four years or so, that a lot of this has become very doable in real time, and I think also AI has helped the process. But do you find that the apps and the other technologies, like what we use here, do you find that occasionally it does make mistakes, or do you not even see that very much at all? Mobeen Ansari  19:55 You know it does make mistakes, and the biggest problem is when there is no data, when there is no. Wide network, or if it runs out of battery, you know, because now I kind of almost 24/7 so my battery just integrate that very fast. And also because, you know, if I travel in remote regions of Pakistan, because I'm a photographer, my job to travel to all of these places, all of these hidden corners. So I need to have conversation, especially in those places. And if that ad didn't work there, then we have a problem. Yeah, that is when it's problem. Sometimes, depending on accidents, it doesn't pick up everything. So, you know, sometimes that happens, but I think technology is improving. Michael Hingson  20:50 Let me ask the question. Let me ask the question this way. Certainly we're speaking essentially from two different parts of the world. When you hear, when you hear or see me speak, because you're you're able to read the transcriptions. I'm assuming it's pretty accurate. What is it like when you're speaking? Does the system that we're using here understand you well as in addition to understanding me? Mobeen Ansari  21:18 Well, yes, I think it does so like, you know, I just occasionally look down to see if it's catching up on everything. Yeah, on that note, I ought to try and improve my speech over time. I used to speak very fast. I used to mumble a lot, and so now I become more mindful of it, hopefully during covid. You know, during covid, a lot of podcasts started coming out, and I had my own actually, so I would, like brought myself back. I would look at this recording, and I would see what kind of mistakes I'm making. So I'm not sure if transcription pick up everything I'm saying, but I do try and improve myself, just like the next chapter of my life where I'm trying to improve my speech, my enunciation Michael Hingson  22:16 Well, and that's why I was was asking, it must be a great help to you to be able to look at your speaking through the eyes of the Translate. Well, not translation, but through the eyes of the speech program, so you're able to see what it's doing. And as you said, you can use it to practice. You can use it to improve your speech. Probably it is true that slowing down speech helps the system understand it better as well. Yeah, yeah. So that makes sense. Well, when you were growing up, your parents clearly were very supportive. Did they really encourage you to do whatever you wanted to do? Do they have any preconceived notions of what kind of work you should do when you grew up? Or do they really leave it to you and and say we're going to support you with whatever you do? Mobeen Ansari  23:21 Oh, they were supportive. And whatever I wanted to do, they were very supportive in what my brother had gone to do I had to enter brothers. So they were engineers. And you know what my my parents were always, always, you know, very encouraging of whatever period we wanted to follow. So I get the a lot of credit goes to my my parents, also, because they even put their very distinct fields. They actually had a great understanding of arts and photography, especially my dad, and that really helped me have conversations. You know, when I was younger to have a better understanding of art. You know, because my grandmother used to paint a lot, and because she did photography. When she migrated from India to Pakistan in 1947 she took, like, really, really powerful pictures. And I think that instilled a lot of this in me as well. I've had a great support that way. Michael Hingson  24:26 Yeah, so your grandmother helps as well. Mobeen Ansari  24:32 Oh yeah, oh yeah. She did very, very ahead of her time. She's very cool, and she made really large scale painting. So she was an example of always making the best of life, no matter where you are, no matter how old you are. She actually practiced a Kibana in the 80s. So that was pretty cool. So, you know. Yeah, she played a major part in my life. Michael Hingson  25:05 When did you start learning English? Because that I won't say it was a harder challenge for you. Was a different challenge, but clearly, I assume you learned originally Pakistani and so on. But how did you go about learning English? Mobeen Ansari  25:23 Oh, so I learned about the languages when I started speech. So I mean to be split the languages of Urdu. You are, be you. So I started learning about my mother tongue and English at the same time. You know, basically both languages at work to both ran in parallel, but other today, I have to speak a bit of Italian and a few other regional languages of Pakistan so and in my school. I don't know why, but we had French as a subject, but now I've completely forgotten French at Yeah, this kind of, it kind of helped a lot. It's pretty cool, very interesting. But yeah, I mean, I love to speak English. Just when I learned speech, what Michael Hingson  26:19 did you major in when you went to college? Mobeen Ansari  26:24 So I majored in painting. I went to National College of Arts, and I did my bachelor's in fine arts, and I did my majors in painting, and I did my minor in printmaking and sculpture. So my background was always rooted in fine arts. Photography was something that ran in parallel until I decided that photography was the ultimate medium that I absolutely love doing that became kind of the voice of my heart or a medium of oppression and tougher and bone today for Michael Hingson  27:11 did they even have a major in photography when you went to college? Mobeen Ansari  27:17 No, photography was something that I learned, you know, as a hobby, because I learned that during school, and I was self taught. One of my uncles is a globally renowned photographer. So he also taught me, you know, the art of lighting. He also taught me on how to interact with people, on how to set up appointments. He taught me so many things. So you could say that being a painter helped me become a better photographer. Being a photographer helped me become a better painter. So both went hand in hand report co existed. Yeah, so photography is something that I don't exactly have a degree in, but something that I learned because I'm more of an art photographer. I'm more of an artist than I am a photographer, Michael Hingson  28:17 okay, but you're using photography as kind of the main vehicle to display or project your art, absolutely. Mobeen Ansari  28:30 So what I try to do is I still try to incorporate painting into my photography, meaning I try to use the kind of lighting that you see in painting all of these subtle colors that Rembrandt of Caravaggio use, so I tried to sort of incorporate that. And anytime I press my photograph, I don't print it on paper, I print it on canvas. There's a paint really element to it, so so that my photo don't come up as a challenge, or just photos bottles or commercial in nature, but that they look like painting. And I think I have probably achieved that to a degree, because a lot of people asked me, Do you know, like, Okay, how much I did painting for and create painting. So I think you know, whatever my objective was, I think I'm probably just, you know, I'm getting there. Probably that's what my aim is. So you have a photography my main objective with the main voice that I use, and it has helped me tell stories of my homeland. It has helped me to tell stories of my life. It has helped me tell stories of people around Michael Hingson  29:49 me, but you're but what you do is as I understand you, you're, you may take pictures. You may capture the images. With a camera, but then you put them on canvas. Mobeen Ansari  30:05 Yeah, I just every time I have an exhibition or a display pictures which are present in my room right now, I always print them on Canvas, because when you print them on Canvas, the colors become more richer, right, Michael Hingson  30:22 more mentally. But what? But what you're doing, but what you're putting on Canvas are the pictures that you've taken with your camera. Mobeen Ansari  30:31 Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. But occasionally, occasionally, I tried to do something like I would print my photos on Canvas, and then I would try to paint on them. It's something that I've been experimenting with, but I'm not directly quite there yet. Conceptually, let's see in the future when these two things make properly. But now photographs? Michael Hingson  31:02 Yeah, it's a big challenge. I i can imagine that it would be a challenge to try to be able to print them on cameras and then canvas, and then do some painting, because it is two different media, but in a sense, but it will be interesting to see if you're able to be successful with that in the future. What would you say? It's easier today, though, to to print your pictures on Canvas, because you're able to do it from digital photographs, as opposed to what you must have needed to do, oh, 20 years ago and so on, where you had film and you had negatives and so on, and printing them like you do today was a whole different thing to do. Mobeen Ansari  31:50 Oh yeah, it's same to think good yesterday, somebody asked me if I do photography on an analog camera, and I have a lot of them, like lots and lots of them, I still have a lot of black and white film, but the problem is, nobody could develop them. I don't have that room. So otherwise I would do that very often. Otherwise I have a few functional cameras that tend to it. I'm consciously just thinking of reviving that. Let's see what happens to it. So I think it's become very difficult. You know also, because Pakistan has a small community of photographers, so the last person who everybody would go to for developing the film or making sure that the analog cameras became functional. He unfortunately passed away a few years ago, so I'm sort of trying to find somebody who can help me do this. It's a very fascinating process, but I haven't done any analog film camera photography for the last 15 years now, definitely a different ball game with, you know, typical cameras, yeah, the pattern, you could just take 36 pictures, and today you can just, you know, take 300 and do all sorts of trial and error. But I tried, you know, I think I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to photography, so I kind of try and make sure that I get the shots at the very first photograph, you know, because that's how my dad trained me on analog cameras, because back then, you couldn't see how the pictures are going to turn out until you printed them. So every time my dad took a picture, he would spend maybe two or three minutes on the setting, and he would really make the person in front of him wait a long time. And then you need to work on shutter speed or the aperture or the ISO, and once you would take that picture is perfect, no need to anything to it, Michael Hingson  34:09 but, but transposing it, but, but transferring it to from an analog picture back then to Canvas must have been a lot more of a challenge than it is today. Mobeen Ansari  34:24 No back then, working canvas printing. Canvas printing was something that I guess I just started discovering from 2014 onwards. So it would like during that this is laid up, Michael Hingson  34:38 but you were still able to do it because you just substituted Canvas for the the typical photographic paper that you normally would use is what I hear you say, Mobeen Ansari  34:50 Oh yeah, Canvas printing was something that I figured out much later on, right? Michael Hingson  34:59 Um. But you were still able to do it with some analog pictures until digital cameras really came into existence. Or did you always use it with a digital camera? Mobeen Ansari  35:11 So I basically, when I started off, I started with the handle camera. And obviously, you know, back in the 90s, if somebody asked you to take a picture, or we have to take a picture of something, you just had the analog camera at hand. Yeah. And my grandparents, my dad, they all had, you know, analog cameras. Some of it, I still have it Michael Hingson  35:36 with me, but were you able to do canvas painting from the analog cameras? No, yeah, that's what I was wondering. Mobeen Ansari  35:43 No, I haven't tried, yeah, but I think must have been possible, but I've only tried Canvas printing in the digital real. Michael Hingson  35:53 Do you are you finding other people do the same thing? Are there? Are there a number of people that do canvas painting? Mobeen Ansari  36:02 I lot of them do. I think it's not very common because it's very expensive to print it on canvas. Yeah, because you know, once you once you test again, but you don't know how it's going to turn out. A lot of images, they turn out very rough. The pictures trade, and if can, with print, expose to the camera, sometimes, sorry, the canvas print exposed to the sun, then there's the risk of a lot of fading that can happen. So there's a lot of risk involved. Obviously, printing is a lot better now. It can withstand exposure to heat and sun, but Canvas printing is not as common as you know, matte paper printing, non reflective, matte paper. Some photographers do. It depends on what kind of images you want to get out? Yeah, what's your budget is, and what kind of field you're hoping to get out of it. My aim is very specific, because I aim to make it very Painterly. That's my objective with the canvas. Michael Hingson  37:17 Yeah, you want them to look like paintings? Mobeen Ansari  37:21 Yeah? Yeah, absolutely, Michael Hingson  37:23 which, which? I understand it's, it is a fascinating thing. I hadn't really heard of the whole idea of canvas painting with photograph or photography before, but it sounds really fascinating to to have that Yeah, and it makes you a unique kind of person when you do that, but if it works, and you're able to make it work, that's really a pretty cool thing to do. So you have you you've done both painting and photography and well, and sculpting as well. What made you really decide, what was the turning point that made you decide to to go to photography is kind of your main way of capturing images. Mobeen Ansari  38:12 So it was with high school, because I was still studying, you know, art as a subject back then, but I was still consistently doing that. And then, like earlier, I mentioned to you that my school gave me an award called pictorial historian. That is what inspired me to follow this girl. That is what set me on this path. That is what made me find this whole purpose of capturing history. You know, Pakistan is home to a lot of rich cultures, rich landscapes, incredible heritage sites. And I think that's when I became fascinated. Because, you know, so many Pakistanis have these incredible stories of resilience entrepreneurship, and they have incredible faces, and, you know, so I guess that what made me want to capture it really. So I think, yeah, it was in high school, and then eventually in college, because, you know, port and school and college, I would be asked to take pictures of events. I'll be asked to take pictures of things around me. Where I went to college, it was surrounded by all kinds of, you know, old temples and churches and old houses and very old streets. So that, really, you know, always kept me inspired. So I get over time. I think it's just always been there in my heart. I decided to really, really go for it during college. Well. Michael Hingson  40:00 But you've, you've done pretty well with it. Needless to say, which is, which is really exciting and which is certainly very rewarding. Have you? Have you done any pictures that have really been famous, that that people regard as exceptionally well done? Mobeen Ansari  40:22 I Yes, obviously, that's it for the audience to decide. But right, I understand, yeah, I mean, but judging from my path exhibitions, and judging from system media, there have been quite a few, including the monitor out of just last week, I went to this abandoned railway station, which was on a British colonial time, abandoned now, but that became a very, very successful photograph. I was pretty surprised to see the feedback. But yes, in my career, they have been about, maybe about 10 to 15 picture that really, really stood out or transcended barriers. Because coming out is about transcending barriers. Art is about transcending barriers, whether it is cultural or political, anything right if a person entered a part of the world views a portrait that I've taken in Pakistan, and define the connection with the subject. My mission is accomplished, because that's what I would love to do through art, to connect the world through art, through art and in the absence of verbal communication. I would like for this to be a visual communication to show where I'm coming from, or the very interesting people that I beat. And that is that sort of what I do. So I guess you know, there have been some portraits. I've taken some landscapes or some heritage sites, and including the subjects that I have photography of my book that acting have probably stood out in mind of people. Michael Hingson  42:14 So you have published three books so far, right? Yes, but tell me about your books, if you would. Mobeen Ansari  42:24 So my first book is called Harkin. I will just hold it up for the camera. It is my first book, and what is it called? It is called turken, and the book is about iconic people of Pakistan who have impacted this history, be it philanthropist, be it sports people, be it people in music or in performing arts, or be it Even people who are sanitation workers or electricians to it's about people who who have impacted the country, whether they are famous or not, but who I consider to be icons. Some of them are really, really, really famous, very well known people around the world, you know, obviously based in Pakistan. So my book is about chronicling them. It's about documenting them. It's about celebrating them. My second book without, okay, most Michael Hingson  43:29 people are going to listen to the podcast anyway, but go ahead. Yeah. Mobeen Ansari  43:35 So basically it's writing the flag is about the religious minorities of Pakistan, because, you know, Pakistan is largely a Muslim country. But when people around the world, they look at Pakistan, they don't realize that it's a multicultural society. There's so many religions. Pakistan is home to a lot of ancient civilizations, a lot of religions that are there. And so this book document life and festivities of religious minorities of Pakistan. You know, like I in my childhood, have actually attended Easter mass, Christmas and all of these festivities, because my father's best friend was a Christian. So we had that exposure to, you know, different faiths, how people practice them. So I wanted to document that. That's my second book. Michael Hingson  44:39 It's wonderful that you had, it's wonderful that you had parents that were willing to not only experience but share experiences with you about different cultures, different people, so that it gave you a broader view of society, which is really cool. Mobeen Ansari  44:58 Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. So your third book? So my third book is a sequel to my first one, same topic, people who have impacted the country. And you know, with the Pakistan has a huge, huge population, it had no shortage of heroes and heroines and people who have created history in the country. So my first book has 98 people, obviously, which is not enough to feature everybody. So my second book, it features 115 people. So it features people who are not in the first book. Michael Hingson  45:41 Your third book? Yeah, okay, yeah. Well, there's, you know, I appreciate that there's a very rich culture, and I'm really glad that you're, you're making Chronicles or or records of all of that. Is there a fourth book coming? Have you started working on a fourth book yet? Mobeen Ansari  46:05 You know in fact, yes, there is. Whenever people hear about my book, they assume that there's going to be landscape or portraits or street photography or something that is more anthropological in nature. That's the photography I truly enjoy doing. These are the photographs that are displayed in my studio right now. So, but I would never really study for it, because Pakistan had, you know, we have poor provinces. And when I started these books, I hadn't really documented everything. You know, I come from the urban city, and, you know, I just, just only take taking pictures in main cities at that time. But now I have taken pictures everywhere. I've been literally to every nook and cranny in the country. So now I have a better understanding, a better visual representation. So a fourth book, it may be down the line, maybe five years, 10 years, I don't know yet. Michael Hingson  47:13 Well, one thing that I know you're interested in, that you've, you've at least thought about, is the whole idea behind climate change and the environment. And I know you've done some work to travel and document climate change and the environment and so on. Tell us, tell us more about that and where that might be going. Mobeen Ansari  47:36 So on tape, note, Michael, you know there's a lot of flooding going on in Pakistan. You know, in just one day, almost 314 people died, but many others you had missing. You had some of the worst flooding test time round. And to be reeling from that, and we had some major flooding some teachers back in. Well, climate change is no longer a wake up call. We had to take action years ago, if not, you know, yesterday and till right now, we are seeing effects of it. And you know, Pakistan has a lot of high mountain peaks. It has, it is home to the second highest mountain in the world, Ketu, and it has a lot of glaciers. You know, people talk about melting polar ice caps. People talk about effects of climate change around the world, but I think it had to be seen everywhere. So in Pakistan, especially, climate change is really, really rearing space. So I have traveled to the north to capture melting glacier, to capture stories of how it affects different communities, the water supply and the agriculture. So that is what I'm trying to do. And if I take pictures of a desert down south where a sand dune is spreading over agricultural land that it wasn't doing up until seven months ago. So you know climate change is it's everywhere. Right now, we are experiencing rains every day. It's been the longest monsoon. So it has also affected the way of life. It has also affected ancient heritage sites. Some of these heritage sites, which are over 3000 years old, and they have bestowed, you know, so much, but they are not able to withstand what we are facing right now. Um, and unfortunately, you know, with unregulated construction, with carbon emissions here and around the world, where deforestation, I felt that there was a strong need to document these places, to bring awareness of what is happening to bring awareness to what we would lose if we don't look after mother nature, that the work I have been doing on climate change, as well as topics of global health and migration, so those two topics are also very close To My Heart. Michael Hingson  50:40 Have you done any traveling outside Pakistan? Mobeen Ansari  50:45 Oh, yeah. I mean, I've been traveling abroad since I was very little. I have exhibited in Italy, in the United States. I was just in the US debris. My brother lives in Dallas, so, yeah, I keep traveling because, because my workshop, because of my book events, or my exhibition, usually here and around the world. Michael Hingson  51:14 Have you done any photography work here in the United States? Mobeen Ansari  51:19 Yeah, I have, I mean, in the US, I just don't directly do photography, but I do workshop, because whatever tool that I captured from Pakistan, I do it there. Okay, funny thing is, a funny thing is that, you know, when you take so many pictures in Pakistan, you become so used to rustic beauty and a very specific kind of beauty that you have a hard time capturing what's outside. But I've always, always just enjoyed taking pictures in in Mexico and Netherlands, in Italy, in India, because they that rustic beauty. But for the first time, you know, I actually spent some time on photography. This year, I went to Chicago, and I was able to take pictures of Chicago landscape, Chicago cityscape, completely. You know, Snowden, that was a pretty cool kind of palette to work with. Got to take some night pictures with everything Snowden, traveling Chicago, downtown. So yeah, sometimes I do photography in the US, but I'm mostly there to do workshops or exhibitions or meet my brothers. Michael Hingson  52:34 What is your your work process? In other words, how do you decide what ideas for you are worthwhile pursuing and and recording and chronicling. Mobeen Ansari  52:46 So I think it depends on where their story, where there is a lot of uniqueness, that is what stands out to me, and obviously beauty there. But they have to be there. They have to be some uniqueness, you know, like, if you look at one of the pictures behind me, this is a person who used to run a library that had been there since 1933 his father, he had this really, really cool library. And you know, to that guy would always maintain it, that library would have, you know, three old books, you know, a philosophy of religion, of theology, and there was even a handwritten, 600 years old copy of the Quran with his religious book for Muslims. So, you know, I found these stories very interesting. So I found it interesting because he was so passionate about literature, and his library was pretty cool. So that's something that you don't get to see. So I love seeing where there is a soul, where there is a connection. I love taking pictures of indigenous communities, and obviously, you know, landscapes as well. Okay? Also, you know, when it comes to climate change, when it comes to migration, when it comes to global health, that's what I take picture to raise awareness. Michael Hingson  54:33 Yeah, and your job is to raise awareness. Mobeen Ansari  54:41 So that's what I try to do, if I'm well informed about it, or if I feel that is something that needed a light to be shown on it, that's what I do. Took my photograph, and also, you know. Whatever had this appeal, whatever has a beauty, whatever has a story that's in spur of the moment. Sometimes it determined beforehand, like this year, particularly, it particularly helped me understand how to pick my subject. Even though I've been doing this for 22 years, this year, I did not do as much photography as I normally do, and I'm very, very picky about it. Like last week I went to this abandoned railway station. I decided to capture it because it's very fascinating. It's no longer used, but the local residents of that area, they still use it. And if you look at it, it kind of almost looks like it's almost science fiction film. So, you know, I'm a big star. Was that Big Star Trek fan? So, yes, I'm in port the camps. So I also like something that had these elements of fantasy to it. So my work, it can be all over the place, sometimes, Michael Hingson  56:09 well, as a as a speaker, it's, it's clearly very important to you to share your own personal journey and your own experiences. Why is that? Why do you want to share what you do with others? Mobeen Ansari  56:28 So earlier, I mentioned to you that John Tracy center played a major, major role in my life. He helped my mother. They provided all the materials. You know, in late 80s, early 90s, and so I will tell you what happened. So my aunt, my mom's sister, she used to live in the US, and when my hearing loss were diagnosed, my mother jumped right into action. I mean, both my parents did. So my mother, she landed in New York, and to my aunt would live in New Jersey. So every day she would go to New York, and she landed in New York League of hard of hearing. And a lady over there asked my mom, do you want your child to speak, or do you want him to learn? Frank Lacher and my mother, without any hesitation, she said, I want my child to speak and to see what put in touch with John Troy center and rest with history, and they provided with everything that needed. So I am affiliated with the center as an alumni. And whenever I'm with the US, whenever I'm in LA, I visit the center to see how I can support parents of those with hearing loss, and I remember when I went in 2016 2018 I gave a little talk to the parents of those with hair in glass. And I got to two other place as well, where I spent my childhood joint. Every time I went there, I saw the same fears. I saw the same determination in parents of those with hearing loss, as I saw in my parents eyes. And by the end of my talk, they came up to me, and they would tell me, you know, that sharing my experiences helped them. It motivated them. It helped them not be discouraged, because having a child hearing loss is not easy. And you know, like there was this lady from Ecuador, and you know, she spoke in Spanish, and she see other translators, you know, tell me this, so to be able to reach out with those stories, to be able to provide encouragement and any little guidance, or whatever little knowledge I have from my experience, it gave me this purpose. And a lot of people, I think, you know, you feel less lonely in this you feel hurt, you feel seen. And when you share experiences, then you have sort of a blueprint how you want to navigate in one small thing can help the other person. That's fantastic. That's why I share my personal experiences, not just to help those with hearing loss, but with any challenge. Because you know when you. Have a challenge when you have, you know, when a person is differently able, so it's a whole community in itself. You know, we lift each other up, and if one story can help do that, because, you know, like for me, my parents told me, never let your hearing loss be seen as a disability. Never let it be seen as a weakness, but let it be seen as a challenge that makes you stronger and that will aspire to do be it when I get it lost all of my life, be it when I had the latest or many years, or anything. So I want to be able to become stronger from to share my experiences with it. And that is why I feel it's important to share the story. Michael Hingson  1:00:56 And I think that's absolutely appropriate, and that's absolutely right. Do you have a family of your own? Are you married? Do you have any children or anything? Not yet. Not yet. You're still working on that, huh? Mobeen Ansari  1:01:10 Well, so to say, Yeah, I've just been married to my work for way too long. Michael Hingson  1:01:16 Oh, there you are. There's nothing wrong with that. You've got something that you Mobeen Ansari  1:01:22 kind of get batting after a while, yeah. Michael Hingson  1:01:26 Well, if the time, if the right person comes along, then it, then that will happen. But meanwhile, you're, you're doing a lot of good work, and I really appreciate it. And I hope everyone who listens and watches this podcast appreciates it as well. If people want to reach out to you, how do they do that? Mobeen Ansari  1:01:45 They can send me an email, which is out there for everybody on my website. I'm on all my social media as well. My email is being.ansarima.com Michael Hingson  1:01:57 so can you spell that? Can you Yeah, M, o b e n, dot a do it once more, M O B, E N, Mobeen Ansari  1:02:07 M O B, double, e n, dot, a n, S, A R, i@gmail.com Michael Hingson  1:02:17 at gmail.com, okay, and your website is.com Mobeen Ansari  1:02:26 same as my name. Michael Hingson  1:02:27 So, okay, so it's mo bean.ansari@our.www.mo Michael Hingson  1:02:35 bean dot Ansari, or just mo Bean on, sorry, Mobeen Ansari  1:02:41 just moving on, sorry. We com, no.no. Michael Hingson  1:02:44 Dot between mobien and Ansari, okay, so it's www, dot mobile being on sorry, yeah, so it's www, dot, M, O, B, E, N, A, N, S, A, R, i.com Yes. Well, great. I have absolutely enjoyed you being with us today. I really appreciate your time and your insights, and I value a lot what you do. I think you represent so many things so well. So thank you for being here with us, and I want to thank all of you who are out there listening and watching the podcast today, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please email me at Michael H, i@accessibe.com that's m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, and we appreciate it if you would give us a five star rating wherever you are observing the podcast. Please do that. We value that a great deal. And if you know anyone else who ought to be a guest, please let me know. We're always looking for people and mobeen you as well. If you know anyone else who you think ought to be a guest on the podcast, I would appreciate it if you would introduce us. But for now, I just want to thank you one more time for being here. This has been absolutely wonderful. Thank you for being on the podcast with us today. Mobeen Ansari  1:04:08 Thank you so much. It's been wonderful, and thank you for giving me the platform to share my stories. And I hope that it helps whoever watching this. Up to date. Michael Hingson  1:04:26 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

In the early hours of Wednesday, May 7—well past midnight—India launched a precise, 23-minute military operation targeting nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. These locations were reportedly strongholds of two of the world’s most notorious terror groups: Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Indian Rafale jets deployed SCALP and HAMMER missiles in the strikes, in what appeared to be a retaliatory act not only against the recent Pahalgam attack, but against a long history of terror incidents—Red Fort, Parliament, Mumbai train blasts, Pathankot, Uri, Pulwama—stretching back to the Kargil conflict. According to Indian government sources, over 100 militants were killed in the strikes. Pakistan launched a retaliatory attack using drones and missiles, reportedly aimed at as many as 15 cities across northern India. The Indian government stated that all incoming threats were intercepted, primarily using its S-400 air defence systems. India then escalated further, crossing deeper into Pakistani territory than ever before. It neutralized an air defence radar installation in Lahore and conducted operations in sites at Sialkot and even near Islamabad. This marks a significant shift in India’s military posture—from punitive strikes to potentially pre-emptive warfare. As the lines blur between militants, soldiers, and civilians, critical questions emerge: Is this the new normal in India’s security doctrine? How long can Pakistan withstand a prolonged conflict, economically and militarily? Will China’s support to Pakistan—currently limited to weapons supply—expand into something more direct? And, crucially, what diplomatic or military paths remain open for de-escalation before the region tips into broader instability? Host Anirban Chowdhury discusses with ET’s Manu Pubby and Hakim Irfan Rashid Tune in You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: Twitter and LinkedinCheck out other interesting episodes from the host like: Tariffs trump trade, The Curious Case of IndusInd Bank, The Influencer Economy’s Quiet Reset, India’s Biggest Hospital has a Chronic Illness and much more.Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on ET Play, The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

pWotD Episode 2927: 2025 India–Pakistan strikes Welcome to Popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 278,690 views on Wednesday, 7 May 2025 our article of the day is 2025 India–Pakistan strikes.On 7 May 2025, India conducted missile strikes on Pakistan and in Pakistan-administrated Jammu and Kashmir, codenamed Operation Sindoor. India said it targeted terrorist infrastructure of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed and that no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted, while Pakistan said India targeted civilian areas (including mosques) and claimed that Indian strikes killed 26 Pakistani civilians, including children, and injured more than 46 people. Pakistan stated that it had retaliated against the Indian strikes, claiming to have downed a number of Indian jets and inflicting damage on Indian infrastructure. India said Pakistani cross-border artillery fire killed multiple civilians, including children.India said that it had targeted terrorist camps across nine locations including Bahawalpur, which is the hub of the Maulana Masood Azhar led Jaish-e-Mohammed, a U. N. designated terrorist organization, Subhan Allah camp, an alleged hub of Pakistan-based jihadist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Muridke near Lahore, a hub of the Hafiz Saeed-led Lashkar-e-Taiba, another U. N. designated terror group. Masood Azhar said that 10 members of his family, including 5 children, were killed in India's airstrikes on the group's headquarters at the Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur.The Indian strikes were in response to the 22 April terror attack by militants in Indian Kashmir killing 28 civilians, mostly Hindu tourists. The attack on tourists triggered the 2025 India–Pakistan standoff, which is part of the broader Kashmir conflict. India accused Pakistan of supporting the militants, which Pakistan denied.According to the Indian media and government officials, there has been an ongoing misinformation campaign after the Indian strikes by pro-Pakistani social media handles, including claims of targeting the Indian airbase at Srinagar, destroying Indian Brigade Headquarters and downing Indian jets which India denies.Similarly, DAWN also reported misinformation from pro-India social media handles, with Indian accounts claiming conflict pictures from Gaza and Lebanon to be from Indian strikes on the Pakistani border city of Sialkot.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:33 UTC on Thursday, 8 May 2025.For the full current version of the article, see 2025 India–Pakistan strikes on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Aria.

This episode we will finish up the travels of Xuanzang, who circumnavigated the Indian subcontinent while he was there, spending over a decade and a half travelings, visiting important Buddhist pilgrimage sites, and studying at the feet of learned monks of India, and in particular at Nalanda monastery--a true center of learning from this period. For more, check out our blogpost page:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-122 Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 122:  Journey to the West, Part 3 The courtyard at Nalanda was quiet.  Although hundreds of people were crowded in, trying to hear what was being said, they were all doing their best to be silent and still.  Only the wind or an errant bird dared speak up.  The master's voice may not have been what it once was—he was definitely getting on in years—but Silabhadra's mind was as sharp as ever. At the front of the crowd was a relatively young face from a far off land.  Xuanzang had made it to the greatest center of learning in the world, and he had been accepted as a student of perhaps the greatest sage of his era.  Here he was, receiving lessons on some of the deepest teachings of the Mahayana Buddhist sect, the very thing he had come to learn and bring home. As he watched and listened with rapt attention, the ancient teacher began to speak….   For the last two episodes, and continuing with this one, we have been covering the travels of the monk Xuanzang in the early 7th century, starting around 629 and concluding in 645.  Born during the Sui dynasty, Xuanzang felt that the translations of the Buddhist sutras available in China were insufficient—many of them had been made long ago, and often were translations of translations.  Xuanzang decided to travel to India in the hopes of getting copies in the original language to provide more accurate translations of the sutras, particularly the Mahayana sutras.  His own accounts of his journeys, even if drawn from his memory years afterwards, provide some of our most detailed contemporary evidence of the Silk Road and the people and places along the way.  After he returned, he got to work on his translations, and became quite famous.  Several of the Japanese students of Buddhism who traveled to the Tang dynasty in the 650s studied under him directly and brought his teachings back to Japan with them.  His school of “Faxiang” Buddhism became known in Japan as the Hosso sect, and was quite popular during the 7th and 8th centuries.  Xuanzang himself, known as Genjou in Japan, would continue to be venerated as an important monk in the history of Buddhism, and his travels would eventually be popularized in fantastic ways across East Asia. Over the last couple of episodes we talked about Xuanzang's illegal and harrowing departure from the Tang empire, where he had to sneak across the border into the deserts of the Western Regions.  We then covered his time traveling from Gaochang, to Suyab, and down to Balkh, in modern Afghanistan.  This was all territory under the at least nominal control of the Gokturk empire.  From Balkh he traveled to Bamyan, and then on to Kapisa, north of modern Kabul, Afghanistan.  However, after Kapisa, Xuanzang was finally entering into the northern territories of what he knew as “India”, or “Tianzhu”. Here I would note that I'm using “India” to refer not to a single country, but to the entirety of the Indian subcontinent, and all of the various kingdoms there -- including areas now part of the modern countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.  The Sinitic characters used to denote this region are pronounced, today, as “Tianzhu”, with a rough meaning of “Center of Heaven”, but it is likely that these characters were originally pronounced in such a way that the name likely came from terms like “Sindhu” or “Induka”.  This is related to the name of the Sindh or Indus river, from which India gets its name.  Xuanzang's “Record of the Western Regions” notes that the proper pronunciation of the land should be “Indu”.  In Japan, this term was transmitted through the Sinitic characters, or kanji, and pronounced as “Tenjiku”.  Since it featured so prominently in the stories of the life of the Buddha and many of the Buddhist sutras, Tenjiku was known to the people of the Japanese archipelago as a far off place that was both real and fantastical. In the 12th century, over a thousand stories were captured for the “Konjaku Monogatarishu”, or the “Collection of Tales Old and New”, which is divided up into tales from Japan, China, and India.  In the famous 9th or 10th century story, “Taketori Monogatari”, or the “Bamboo-Cutter's Tale”, about princess Kaguya hime, one of the tasks the princess sets to her suitors is to go to India to find the begging bowl of the Buddha.  Records like those produced by Xuanzang and his fellow monks, along with the stories in the sutras, likely provided the majority of what people in the Japanese archipelago knew about India, at least to begin with. Xuanzang talks about the land of India as being divided into five distinct parts—roughly the north, south, east, west, and center.  He notes that three sides face the sea and that the Snow Mountains—aka the Himalayas—are in the north.  It is, he says, “Wide in the north and narrow in the south, in the shape of a crescent moon”.  Certainly the “Wide in the north and narrow in the south” fit the subcontinent accurately enough, and it is largely surrounded by the waters of what we know as the Indian Ocean to the west, the east, and the south.  The note about the Crescent Moon might be driven by Xuanzang's understanding of a false etymology for the term “Indus”, which he claims comes from the word for “moon”.  Rather, this term appears to refer to the Indus River, also known as the Sindh or Sindhus, which comes from an ancient word meaning something like “River” or “Stream”. Xuanzang also notes that the people of the land were divided into castes, with the Brahman caste at the top of the social hierarchy.    The land was further divided into approximately 70 different countries, according to his accounts.  This is known broadly as the Early Medieval period, in India, in which the region was divided into different kingdoms and empires that rose and fell across the subcontinent, with a total size roughly equivalent to that covered by the countries of the modern European Union.  Just like Europe, there were many different polities and different languages spoken across the land – but just as Latin was the common language in Europe, due to its use in Christianity, Sanskrit was the scholarly and religious language in much of India, and could also be used as a bridge language.  Presumably, Xuanzang understood Sanskrit to some extent as a Buddhist monk.  And, just a quick note, all of this was before the introduction of Islam, though there were other religions also practiced throughout the subcontinent, but Xuanzang was primarily focused on his Buddhist studies. Xuanzang describes India as having three distinct seasons—The hot season, the rainy season, and the cold season, in that order.  Each of these were four month long periods.  Even today, the cycle of the monsoon rains is a major impact on the life of people in South Asia.  During the rainy season, the monks themselves would retreat back to their monasteries and cease their wanderings about the countryside. This tradition, called “Vassa”, is still a central practice in many Theravada Buddhist societies such as Thailand and Laos today, where they likewise experience this kind of intensely wet monsoon season. Xuanzang goes on to give an in depth analysis of the people and customs of the Indian subcontinent, as he traveled from country to country. So, as we've done before, we'll follow his lead in describing the different locations he visited. The first country of India that Xuanzang came to was the country of Lampa, or Lamapaka, thought to be modern Laghman province in Afghanistan.  At the time it was a dependency of Kapisa.  The Snow Mountains, likely meaning the Hindu Kush, the western edge of the Himalayas, lay at its north, while the “Black Mountains” surrounded it on the other three sides.  Xuanzang mentions how the people of Lampa grow non-glutinous rice—likely something similar to basmati rice, which is more prevalent in South Asian cuisine, as compared to glutinous rice like more often used in East Asia. From Lampa he headed to Nagarahara, likely referring to a site near the Kabul River associated with the ruins of a stupa called Nagara Gundi, about 4 kilometers west of modern Jalalabad, Afghanistan.  This was another vassal city-state of Kapisa.  They were still Mahayana Buddhists, but there were other religions as well, which Xuanzang refers to as “heretical”, though I'm not entirely sure how that is meant in this context.  He does say that many of the stupas were dilapidated and in poor condition. Xuanzang was now entering areas where he likely believed the historical Buddha had once walked.  In fact, Lampa was perhaps the extent of historical Buddha's travels, according to the stories and the sutras, though this seems unlikely to have been true.  The most plausible locations for the Historical Buddha's pilgrimages were along the Ganges river, which was on the other side of the subcontinent, flowing east towards modern Kolkatta and the Bengal Bay.  However, as Buddhism spread, so, too, did stories of the Buddha's travels.  And so, as far as Xuanzang was concerned, he was following in the footsteps of the Buddha. Speaking of which, at Nagarahara, Xuanzang mentions “footprints” of the Buddha.  This is a Buddhist tradition found in many places.  Xuanzang claims that the Tathagatha, the Englightened One, or the Buddha, would fly, because when he walked the land itself shook.  Footprint shapes in rock could be said to be evidence of the Buddha's travels.  Today, in many Buddhist areas you can find footprints carved into rock conforming to stories about the Buddha, such as all the toes being of the same length, or other various signs.  These may have started out as natural depressions in the rock, or pieces of artwork, but they were believed by many to be the actual point at which the Buddha himself touched down.  There are famous examples of these footprints in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and China.  Of course there are also traditions of creating images of the footprint as an object of worship.  Images of footprints, similar to images of the Great Wheel of the Law, may have been some of the earliest images for veneration, as images of the Buddha himself did not appear until much later in the tradition.  One of the oldest such footprints in Japan is at Yakushiji temple, and dated to 753.  It was created based on a rubbing brought back by an envoy to the Tang court, while they were in Chang'an. Like Buddha footprints, there are many other images and stories that show up multiple times in different places, even in Xuanzang's own narrative.  For example, in Nagarahara Xuanzang also shares a story of a cave, where an image of the Buddha could be just barely made out on the wall – maybe maybe an old carving that had just worn away, or maybe an image that was deliberately placed in the darkness as a metaphor for finding the Buddha—finding enlightenment.  This is not an uncommon theme in Buddhism as a whole.  In any case, the story around this image was that it had been placed there to subdue a naga. Now a naga is a mythical snake-like being, and  we are told that this particular naga was the reincarnation of a man who had invoked a curse on the nearby kingdom, then threw himself from a cliff in order to become a naga and sow destruction.  As the story went, the man was indeed reborn, but before he could bring destruction, the Buddha showed up and subdued him, convincing him that this was not right.  And so the naga agreed to stay in the cave, where the Buddha left an image—a shadow—to remind the naga any time that its thoughts might turn to destruction. Later in his travels, at a place name Kausambi, Xuanzang mentions another cave where the Buddha had subdued a venomous dragon and left his shadow on the cave wall.  Allowing for the possibility that the Buddha just had a particular M.O. when dealing with destructive beings, we should also consider the possibility that the story developed in one region—probably closer to the early center of Buddhism, and then traveled outward, such that it was later adopted and adapted to local traditions.  From Nagarahara, Xuanzang continued to the country of Gandhara and its capital city of Purushapura, aka modern Peshwar.  This kingdom was also under vassalage to the Kapisan king.  Here and elsewhere in the journey, Xuanzang notes not only evidence of the historical Buddha, but also monasteries and stupas purported to have been built by King Kanishka and King Asoka.  These were important figures who were held in high regard for spreading Buddhism during their reign.  Continuing through the region of Gandhara, he also passed through Udakhand and the city of Salatura, known as the birthplace of the ancient Sanskrit grammarian, Daksiputra Panini, author of the Astadhyayi [Aestudjayi].  This work is the oldest surviving description of classical Sanskrit, and used grammatical and other concepts that wouldn't be introduced into Western linguistics for eons.  Daksiputra Panini thrived around the 5th or 4th century BCE, but was likely one of the reasons that Sanskrit continued to be used as a language of scholarship and learning even as it died out of usage as the day to day language of the common people.  His works and legacy would have been invaluable to translators like Xuanzang in understanding and translating from Sanskrit. Xuanzang continued on his journey to Kashmira, situated in the Kashmir Valley.  This valley sits between the modern states of Pakistan and India, and its ownership is actively disputed by each.  It is the namesake of the famous cashmere wool—wool from the winter coats of a type of goat that was bred in the mountainous regions.  The winter coat would be made of soft, downy fibers and would naturally fall out in the spring, which the goatherds harvested and made into an extremely fine wool.  In the 7th century and earlier, however, the region was known not as much for its wool, but as a center for Hindu and Buddhist studies.  Xuanzang ended up spending two years in Kashmira studying with teachers there.  Eventually, though, he continued on, passing through the country of Rajpura, and continuing on to Takka and the city of Sakala—modern day Sialkot in the Punjab region of modern Pakistan.  Leaving Sakala, he was traveling with a group when suddenly disaster struck and they were accosted by a group of bandits.  They took the clothes and money of Xuanzang and those with him and then they drove the group into a dry pond in an attempt to corral them while they figured out what they would do—presumably meaning kill them all.  Fortunately for the group, there was a water drain at the southern edge of the pond large enough for one man to pass through.  Xuanzang and one other went through the gap and they were able to escape to a nearby village.  Once they got there, they told the people what had happened, and the villagers quickly gathered weapons and ran out to confront the brigands, who saw a large group coming and ran away.  Thus they were able to rescue the rest of Xuanzang's traveling companions.  Xuanzang's companions were devastated, having lost all of their possessions.  However, Xuanzang comforted them.  After all, they still had their lives.  By this time, Xuanzang had certainly seen his fair share of life and death problems along the road.  They continued on, still in the country of Takka, to the next great city.  There they met a Brahman, and once they told him what had happened, he started marshalling the forces of the city on their behalf.  During Xuanzang's stay in Kashmira, he had built a reputation, and people knew of the quote-unquote “Chinese monk”.  And even though the people in this region were not necessarily Buddhist—many were “heretics” likely referring to those of Hindu faith—the people responded to this pre-Internet “GoFundMe” request with incredible generosity.  They brought Xuanzang food and cloth to make into suits of clothes.  Xuanzang distributed this to his travel companions, and ended up still having enough cloth for 50 suits of clothes himself.  He then stayed at that city a month. It is odd that they don't seem to mention the name of this location.  Perhaps there is something unspeakable about it?  Still, it seems that they were quite generous, even if they were “heretics” according to Xuanzang. From the country of Takka, he next proceeded to the kingdom of Cinabhukti, where he spent 14 months—just over a year—studying with the monks there.  Once he had learned what he could, he proceeded onwards, passing through several countries in northern India until he came to the headwaters of the sacred Ganges rivers.  The Indus and the Ganges rivers are in many ways similar to the Yellow River and Yangzi, at least in regards to their importance to the people of India.  However, whereas the Yellow River and Yangzi both flow east towards the Pacific Ocean, the Indus and Ganges flow in opposite directions.  The Indus flows southwest, from the Himalayas down through modern India into modern Pakistan, emptying into the western Indian Ocean.  The Ganges flows east along the base of the Himalayas and enters the eastern Indian Ocean at Kolkatta.   At the headwaters of the Ganges, Xuanzang found a Buddhist monk named Jayagupta and chose to spend the winter and half of the following spring listening to his sermons and learning at his feet. From there he continued his travels, and ended up being summoned by King Harshavardhana of Kanyakubja, known today as the modern city of Kannauj.  Harshavardhana ruled an immense state that covered much of the territory around the sacred Ganges river.  As word of this strange monk from a far off land reached him, the King wanted to see him for himself.  Xuanzang stayed in Kannauj for three months, completing his studies of the Vibhasha Shastra, aka the Abhidarmma Mahavibhasha Shastra, known in Japanese as the Abidatsuma Daibibasharon, or just as the Daibibasharon or the Basharon, with the latter two terms referring to the translations that Xuanzang performed.   This work is not a sutra, per se, but rather an encyclopedic work that attempted to speak on all of the various doctrinal issues of its day.  It is thought to have been authored around 150 CE, and was influential in the Buddhist teachings of Kashmira, when that was a center of Orthodoxy at the time.  This is what Xuanzang had started studying, and it seems that in Kannauj he was finally able to grasp everything he felt he needed to know about it in order to effectively translate it and teach it when he returned.  That said, his quest was not over.  And after his time in Kannauj, he decided to continue on. His next stop was at the city of Ayodhya.  This was—and is—a city of particular importance in Hindu traditions.  It is said to be the city mentioned in the epic tale known as the Ramayana, though many argue that it was simply named that later in honor of that ancient city.  It does appear to be a city that the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, visited and where he preached.  It was also the home of a famous monk from Gandhara who authored a number of Buddhist tomes and was considered, at least by Xuanzang, a proper Boddhisatva.  And so Xuanzang spent some time paying homage to the places where the Buddha and other holy figures had once walked. “Ayodhya” appears in many forms across Asia.  It is a major pilgrimage center, and the city of “Ayutthaya” in Thailand was named for it, evoking the Ramayana—known in Thai as the Ramakien—which they would adopt as their own national story.  In Silla, there is a story that queen Boju, aka Heo Hwang-ok, wife to the 2nd century King Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, traveled to the peninsula all the way from the foreign country of “Ayuta”, thought to mean Ayodhya.  Her story was written down in the Gaya histories and survives as a fragment found in the Samguk Yusa.  Members of the Gimhae Kim, Gimhae Heo, and Incheon Yi clans all trace their lineage back to her and King Suro. From Ayodhya, Xuanzang took a trip down the Ganges river.  The boat was packed to bursting with some 80 other travelers, and as they traveled towards a particularly heavily forested area, they were set upon by bandits, who rowed their ships out from hiding in the trees and forced the travelers to the shore.  There the bandits made all the travelers strip down and take off their clothing so that the bandits could search for gold or valuables.  According to Xuanzang's biography, these bandits were followers of Durga, a Hindu warrior-goddess, and it is said that each year they would look for someone of particularly handsome features to sacrifice to her.  With Xuanzang's foreign features, they chose him.  And so they took him to be killed.  Xuanzang mentioned that he was on a pilgrimage, and that by interrupting him before they finished he was worried it might be inauspicious for them, but he didn't put up a fight and merely asked to be given time to meditate and calm his mind and that they perform the execution quickly so that he wouldn't even notice. From there, according to the story, a series of miracles occurred that ended up with Xuanzang being released and the bandits worshipping at his feet.  It is times like this we must remember that this biography was being written by Xuanzang's students based on stories he told them about his travels.  While being accosted by bandits on the river strikes me as perfectly plausible, we don't necessarily have the most reliable narrators, so I'm going to have to wonder about the rest.  Speaking of unreliable narration, the exact route that Xuanzang traveled from here on is unclear to me, based on his stated goals and where he was going.  It is possible that he was wandering as opportunities presented themselves —I don't know that he had any kind of map or GPS, like we've said in the past.  And it may be that the routes from one place to another were not always straightforward.  Regardless, he seems to wander southeast for a period before turning again to the north and eventually reaching the city of Shravasti. Shravasti appeared in our discussion of the men of Tukhara in Episode 119.  With the men of Tukhara there was also mentioned a woman from Shravasti.  While it is unlikely that was actually the case—the names were probably about individuals from the Ryukyuan island chain rather than from India—it is probably worth nothing that Shravasti was a thriving place in ancient times.  It was at one time the capital city of the kingdom of Kosala, sharing that distinction with the city of Ayodhya, back in the 7th to 5th centuries BCE.  It is also where the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was said to have spend many years of his life.  This latter fact would have no doubt made it a place of particular importance to Xuanzang on his journeys. From there he traveled east, ending up following the foothills of the Himalayas, and finally came to some of the most central pilgrimages sites for followers of the historical Buddha.  First, he reached Lumbini wood, in modern Nepal, said to have been the birthplace of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.  And then he visited Kushinagara, the site where the Buddha ascended to nirvana—in other words, the place where he passed away.  From there, he traveled to Varanasi, and the deer park monastery, at the place where the Buddha is said to have given one of his most famous sermons.  He even visited the Bodhi tree, the tree under which Siddhartha Gautama is said to have attained enlightenment.  He spent eight or nine days there at Bodhgaya, and word must have spread about his arrival, because several monks from the eminent Nalanda Monastery called upon him and asked him to come to the monastery with them. Nalanda Monastery was about 80 km from Bodhgaya.  This was a grand monastery and center of learning—some say that it was, for a time, the greatest in the world.  It had been founded in the 5th century by the Gupta dynasty, and many of the Gupta rulers and others donated to support the monastery, which also acted as a university.  After the fall of the Gupta dynasty, the monastery was supported by King Harsha of Kannauj, whom Xuanzang had visited earlier.  It ultimately thrived for some 750 years, and is considered by some to be the oldest residential university—meaning that students would come to the temple complex and stay in residence for years at a time to study.  According to Xuanzang, Nalanda hosted some 10,000 monks. Including hosts and guests.  They didn't only study Buddhist teachings, but also logic, grammar, medicine, and divination.  Lectures were given at more than 100 separate places—or classrooms—every day.  It was at Nalanda, that Xuanzang would meet the teacher Silabhadra, who was known as the Right Dharma Store.  Xuanzang requested that he be allowed to study the Yogacharabhumi Shastra—the Yugashijiron, in Japanese.  This is the work that Xuanzang is said to have been most interested in, and one of the works that he is credited with bringing back in one of the first full translations to the Tang dynasty and then to others in East Asia.  It is an encyclopedic work dedicated to the various forms of Yogacara practice, which focuses on the mental disciplines, and includes yoga and meditation practices.  It has a huge influence on nearly all Mahayana schools, including things like the famous Zen and Pure Land schools of Buddhism.  The Yogacharabhumi Shastra is the earliest such encyclopedic work, compiled between the 3rd and 5th centuries—so even if the monk Faxian had brought portions of it back, it was probably not in the final form that Xuanzang was able to access. Silabhadra, for his part, was an ancient teacher—some put his age at 106 years, and his son was in his 70s.  He was one of the few at Nalandra who supposedly knew all of the various texts that they had at the monastery, including the Yogacarabhumi Shastra.  Xuanzang seems to have been quite pleased to study under him.  Xuanzang stayed at the house of Silabhadra's son, Buddhabhadra, and they welcomed him with entertainment that lasted seven days.  We are told that he was then given his own lodgings, a stipend of spices, incense, rice, oil, butter, and milk, along with a servant and a Brahman.  As a visiting monk, he was not responsible for the normal monastic duties, instead being expected to spend the time in study.  Going out, he was carried around by an elephant.   This was certainly the royal treatment. Xuanzang's life at Nalandra wasn't all books: south of the monastery was the city of Rajagrha, the old capital of the kingdom of Magadha, where the ancient Gupta kings had once lived, and on occasional breaks from his studies, Xuanzang would venture out to see the various holy sites.  This included the famous Mt. Grdhrakuta, or Vulture Peak, a location said to be favored by the historical Buddha and central to the Lotus Sutra, arguably the founding document of Mahayana Buddhist tradition. After all, “Mahayana” means “Greater Vehicle” and it is in the Lotus Sutra that we see the metaphor of using different vehicles to escape a burning house.   We've already talked a bit about how the image of Vulture Peak had already become important in Japanese Buddhism: In Episode 112 we talked about how in 648, Abe no Oho-omi had drums piled up at Shitennoji in the shape of Vulture Peak. But although the sightseeing definitely enhanced his experience, Xuanzang was first and foremost there to study.  He spent 15 months just listening to his teacher expound on the Yogacarabhumi Shastra, but he also heard expositions on various other teachings as well.  He ended up studying at Nalandra Monastery for 5 years, gaining a much better understanding of Sanskrit and the various texts, which would be critically important when it came to translating them, later. But, Xuanzang was not one to stay in any one place forever, and so after 5 years—some 8 years or more into his journey, he continued on, following the Ganges east, to modern Bangladesh.  Here he heard about various other lands, such as Dvarapati—possibly referring to Dvaravati, in modern Thailand, as well as Kamalanka and Isanapura.  The latter was in modern Cambodia, the capital of the ancient Chenla kingdom.  Then Mahacampa—possibly referring to the Champa region of Vietnam—and the country of Yamanadvipa.  But there was still more of India for Xuanzang to discover, and more teachings to uncover, and so Xuanzang decided instead to head southwest, following the coast.  He heard of the country of Sinhala, referring to the island of Sri Lanka, but he was urged not to go by ship, as the long journey was perilous.  Instead he could stay on relatively dry land and head down to the southern tip of the subcontinent and then make a quick hop from there across to the island.  He traveled a long distance, all the way down to Kancipuram, the seat of the Pallava dynasty, near modern day Chennai.  From the seaport near Kancipuram, it was only three days to Sinhala—that is to say Sri Lanka—but before he could set out, he met a group of monks who had just arrived.  They told him that the king of Sinhala had died , and there was a great famine and civil disturbances.  So they had fled with some 300 other monks. Xuanzang eventually decided not to make the journey, but he did talk with the monks and gathered information on the lands to the south, on Sri Lanka, and on the islands south of that, by which I suspect he may have meant the Maldives.  While Sri Lanka is an area important to Buddhist scholarship, particularly to the Theravada schools, this likely did not impress Xuanzang, and indeed he seemed to feel that his studies in Nalanda had more than provided him what he needed.  Sri Lanka, however, is the source of the Pali canon, one of the most complete early canons of Buddhism, which had a huge influence on Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. So Xuanzang took plenty of notes but decided to forego the ocean voyage and headed northwest, instead.  He traveled across the breadth of India to Gujarat, and then turned back east, returning to pay respects once more to his teacher in Nalanda.  While there he heard of another virtuous monk named Prajnabhadra at a nearby monastery.  And so he went to spend several months with him, as well.  He also studied with a layman, Sastrin Jayasena, at Stickwood Hill.  Jayasena was a ksatriya, or nobleman, by birth, and studied both Buddhist and non-Buddhist texts.  He was courted by kings, but had left to continue his studies.  Xuanzang studied with him for another couple of years. Xuanzang remained at Nalanda, learning and teaching, expounding on what he had learned and gathering many copies of the various documents that he wished to take back with him, though he wondered how he might do it.  In the meantime, he also acquired quite the reputation.  We are told that King Siladitya had asked Nalanda for monks who could refute Theravada teachings, and Xuanzang agreed to go.  It isn't clear, but it seems that “Siladitya” was a title, and likely referred to King Harsha of Kannauj, whom we mentioned earlier.  Since he was a foreigner, then there could be no trouble that was brought on Nalanda and the other monks if he did poorly.  While he was waiting to hear back from Siladitya's court, which was apparently taking time to arrange things, the king of Kamarupta reached out to Nalanda with a request that Xuanzang come visit them.  While Xuanzang was reluctant to be gone too long, he was eventually encouraged to go and assuage the king. Kamarupta was a kingdom around the modern Assam region, ruled by King Bhaskaravarman, also known as King Kumara, a royal title.  This kingdom included parts of Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.  Bhaskaravarman, like so many other regents, seems to have been intrigued by the presence of this foreign monk, who had traveled all this way and who had studied at the famous Nalanda Monastery in Magadha. He invited Xuanzang to come to him.  Xuanzang's teacher, Silabhadra, had exhorted him to spread the right Dharma, and to even go to those non-Buddhists in hopes that they might be converted, or at least partially swayed. King Bhaskaravarman was quite taken with Xuanzang, wining and dining him while listening to him preach.  While there, Xuanzang learned about the country of Kamarupta.  He also learned about a path north, by which it was said it was a two month journey to arrive at the land of Shu, in the Sichuan Basin, on the upper reaches of the Yangzi – a kind of shortcut back to the Tang court.  However, the journey was treacherous—possibly even more treacherous than the journey to India had been. Eventually word reached the ears of King Siladitya that Xuanzang was at the court of King Bhaskaravarman, and Siladitya got quite upset.  Xuanzang had not yet come to *his* court, so Siladitya demanded that Bhaskaravarman send the monk to him immediately.  Bhaskaravarman refused, saying he'd rather give Siladitya his own head, which Siladitya said he would gladly accept.  Bhaskaravarman realized he may have miscalculated, and so he sailed up the Ganges with a host of men and Xuanzang to meet with Siladitya.  After a bit of posturing, Siladitya met with Xuanzang, who went with him, and eventually confronted the members of the Theravada sect in debate.  Apparently it almost got ugly, but for the King's intervention.  After a particularly devastating critique of the Theravada position, the Theravada monks are blamed for trying to use violence against Xuanzang and his fellow Mahayana monks from Nalanda, who were prepared to defend themselves.  The King had to step in and break it up before it went too far. Ultimately, Xuanzang was a celebrity at this point and both kings seem to have supported him, especially as he was realizing it was about time to head back to his own country.  Both kings was offered ships, should Xuanzang wish to sail south and then up the coast.  However, Xuanzang elected to take the northern route, hoping to go back through Gaochang, and see that city and its ruler again.  And so the Kings gave him money and valuables , along with wagons for all of the texts.  They also sent an army to protect all of the treasures, and even an elephant and more – sending him back in style with a huge send-off. So Xuanzang retraced his earlier steps, this time on an elephant.  He traveled back to Taxila, to Kashmir, and beyond.  He was invited to stay in Kashmira, but because of his retinue, he wasn't quite at leisure to just go where he wanted.  At one point, near Kapisa—modern Bagram, north of Kabul—they had to cross a river, and about 50 of the almost 700 documents were lost.  The King of Kapisa heard of this and had his own monks make copies to replace them based on their own schools.  The King of Kasmira, hearing that he was in Kapisa, also came to pay his respects. Xuanzang traveled with the King of Kapisa northwest for over a month and reached Lampaka, where he did take some time to visit the various holy sites before continuing northwest.  They had to cross the Snow Mountains—the outskirts of the Himalayas, and even though it wasn't the highest part of the range it was still challenging.  He had to dismount his elephant and travel on foot.  Finally, after going over the high mountains and coming down, he arrived back in the region of Tukhara, in the country of Khowst.  He then came to Kunduz, and paid his respects to the grandson of Yehu Khan.  He was given more guards to escort him eastward, traveling with some merchants.  This was back in Gokturk controlled lands, over a decade later than when he had last visited.  He continued east to Badakshan, stopping there for a month because of the cold weather and snow.  He eventually traveled through the regions of Tukhara and over the Pamir range.  He came down on the side of the Tarim Basin, and noted how the rivers on one side flowed west, while on the other side they flowed east.  The goings were treacherous, and at one point they were beset by bandits.  Though he and the documents were safe, his elephant panicked and fled into the river and drowned.  He eventually ended up in the country of Kashgar, in modern Xinjiang province, at the western edge of the Taklamakan desert. From there he had two options.  He could go north and hug the southern edge of the Tianshan mountains, or he could stay to the south, along the northern edge of the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau.  He chose to go south.  He traveled through Khotan, a land of wool and carpets.  This was a major trade kingdom, and they also grew mulberry trees for silkworms, and were known for their jade.  The king himself heard of Xuanzang and welcomed him, as many others had done.  While he was staying at the Khotanese capital, Xuanzang penned a letter to the Tang court, letting them know of his journey, and that he was returning.  He sent it with some merchants and a man of Gaochang to deliver it to the court. Remember, Xuanzang had left the Tang empire illegally.  Unless he wanted to sneak back in his best hope was that the court was willing to forgive and forget all of that, given everything that he was bringing back with him.  The wait was no doubt agonizing, but he did get a letter back.  It assured him that he was welcome back, and that all of the kingdoms from Khotan back to the governor of Dunhuang had been made aware and were ready to receive him. With such assurances, Xuanzang packed up and headed out.  The king of Khotan granted him more gifts to help see him on his way.  Nonetheless, there was still a perilous journey ahead.  Even knowing the way, the road went through miles and miles of desert, such that in some places you could only tell the trail by the bleached bones of horses and travelers who had not been so fortunate.  Eventually, however, Xuanzang made it to the Jumo River and then on to Dunhuang, from whence he was eventually escorted back to the capital city. It was now the year 645, the year of the Isshi Incident in Yamato and the death of Soga.  Xuanzang had been gone for approximately 16 years.  In that time, the Tang had defeated the Gokturks and taken Gaochang, expanding their control over the trade routes in the desert.  Xuanzang, for his part, was bringing back 657 scriptures, bound in 520 bundles carried by a train of some 20 horses.  He was given a hero's welcome, and eventually he would be set up in a monastery where he could begin the next part of his journey:  Translating all of these books. This was the work of a lifetime, but it is one that would have a profound impact on Buddhism across East Asia.  Xuanzang's translations would revolutionize the understanding of Mahayana Buddhist teachings, and students would come from as far away as the Yamato court to study under him and learn from the teacher who studied and taught at none other than Nalanda monastery itself.  His school would become popular in the Yamato capital, and the main school of several temples, at least for a time.  In addition, his accounts and his biography would introduce many people to the wider world of central and south Asia.  While I could go on, this has already been a story in three parts, and this is, after all, the Chronicles of Japan, so we should probably tune back into what is going on with Yamato.  Next episode, we'll look at one of the most detailed accounts we have of a mission to Chang'an. Until then, I hope that this has been enjoyable.  Xuanzang's story is one of those that isn't just about him, but about the interconnected nature of the entire world at the time.  While his journey is quite epic, there were many people traveling the roads, though most of them didn't write about it afterwards.  People, artifacts, and ideas traveled much greater distances than we often consider at this time, well before any kind of modern travel.  It was dangerous, but often lucrative, and it meant that various regions could have influence well beyond what one might expect. And so, thank you once again for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan

Speech - Ustad Syed Jawad Naqvi | Hussain a.s Sab ka Conference | Sialkot - 2nd Feb 2025

CMFI Annual prayer and fasting crusade - KOUME2024. The burden and our heart cry to God is the revival of the people of CMFI worldwide

In 2012, Hayworth's founder discovered that seventy percent of all the world's soccer balls (three million balls per month) were made in one city in northern Pakistan, in a place called Sialkot. He knew he had to go there, he had to see it with his own eyes.There, he explored the phases of ball making, the factories, the layers of production. He went to the homes of stitchers, and he listened to and watched the people who made the balls. He absorbed all he could of the industry's complexity, the beauty of the craftsmanship and the massive teamwork involved in the making of a ball.But he also saw something much darker – an industry rife with grueling labor conditions and exploitative low wage practices. He was as unsettled as he was inspired, and he knew that this would become one of the great endeavors of his life – to build a beautiful soccer ball, and to build it in a beautiful way.In this episode of the podcast, Hayworth's founder, Justin Lea shares his perspective of the beautiful game! He shares how he first got involved with soccer and what ultimately brought him to think about a better way to design our soccer balls.It's been our pleasure to have Hayworth Athletic as the sponsor for our show this whole season and we felt it made sense to bring Justin in to share the story of Hayworth, enjoy!*Humans United FC is proudly brought to you by Hayworth Athletic*Humans United FC is a multimedia storytelling brand committed to sharing the human experience through the lens of sport. We're a multi-talented collective of people elevating stories of the beautiful game which often go overlooked. From the bright lights of Miami, Florida to the quiet streets of Saginaw, Michigan folks are playing soccer. Whether you're using a makeshift or a handstitched ball, footballers come from all walks of life.Come join host Joe Shaw as we explore some of the most interesting stories the world hasn't heard YET. Through audio, video, photos, or articles you'll become familiar with names like Kim Wyant and the 85ers, Jaiyah Saelua and the American Samoa World Cup Qualifying victory, names you might have overlooked but whose impact carries through today.We invite you to unite under the banner of football, futbol, soccer, whatever you call it. Come share your stories and learn about other's. We're all unique and the power of sport amplifies and elevates our differences, forming life-long connections.#HumansUnitedFC

Barsi Imam Komeini r.a || Ustad e Mohtaram Syed Jawad Naqvi || Sialkot_ 2nd June 2024

Join Fabeha Syed on a journey into the unyielding spirit of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, where prison walls could not confine his verse, and bars became echoes for his revolutionary voice. Faiz Ahmad Faiz was born on 13 February 1911 in Sialkot, present-day Pakistan. Dive deep into the poet's life, from his early activism to his periods of incarceration, exploring how confinement fueled his most powerful and poignant poetry. We'll delve into iconic works like 'Hum Dekhenge' and uncover the hidden stories behind them, analyzing Faiz's masterful use of metaphors and imagery to challenge authority and ignite hope. As Prateek Lidhoo sings a rendition of 'Gulon Mein Rang Bhare', we pay a tribute to the indomitable spirit of expression, where poetry becomes a weapon of resistance, and words break free even from the most fortified walls. 

Speech_Syed Jawad Naqvi || Wahdat Ummat Conference Sialkot | 05 Nov 2023

Friends, Guru Nanak dev ji and Bhai Mardana ji, after blessing the people of Sialkot and the likes of Hamza Gaus, Mulla Khatri and travelling a distance of more than 8000 km through Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Nepal and Leh Ladakh; blessing so many people with almighty name and love, becoming Lama Nanak. Guru Nanak dev ji and bhai Mardana ji have completed their Third udasi and are returning to Kartarpur sahib. Tune into this episode to know how Guru Ji met Baba buddha ji.Music: Arms of Heaven by Aakash Gandhi

Guru Nanak dev ji arrives in Sialkot (now Pakistan) and learns of a saint who wants to destroy the city with his powers. Tune into this episode to know how Guru Ji helps the people of Sialkot.music: Arms of Heaven by Aakash Gandhi

34th Barsi Imam Khomeini Sialkot | Agha Syed Jawad Naqvi | 34th Barsi Imam Khomeini r.a || 11th June 2023

In this episode of the Poem of the Week series of the Rekhta Podcast, our host Aqib Sabir recites a beautiful nazm by one of the most celebrated and popular poets, Faiz Ahmed Faiz. When Faiz was residing in Sialkot, in a house opposite to that of his, there lived a girl Faiz was in love with. One unfortunate day, on his return from college, Faiz discovered that the girl had left the city. Aagha Naasir writes that years later when Faiz, having risen to popular fame and appeal, revisited Sialkot, he had a serendipitous meeting with the same girl who happened to be visiting the city at the same time. Her husband was keen to meet Faiz. She urged Faiz to take note of her husband. This became an inspiration for 'Raqib Se!'.For more poetry like this, stay tuned for this special series of the Rekhta Podcast.A new episode airs every Monday.

Qoumi Bain ul Mazahib Conference Hussain Sab Ka || Sialkot || 26 FEB 2023 || Agha Syed Jawad Naqvi h.a

C'est à 1 800 kilomètres des stades qatariens que les ballons de la Coupe du monde ont été fabriqués : à Sialkot, dans le nord du Pendjab, au Pakistan. Le pays fou de cricket est devenu au fil des dernières décennies une grande industrie du football qui a permis à la ville de devenir un fleuron du ballon rond. De notre correspondante à Islamabad, Des milliers de ballons blancs nacrés aux zébrures dorées bleues et rouges sont alignés sur des charriots de l'usine Forwards Sports. Située à Sialkot, dans le Pendjab, au Pakistan, elle garde bien secrètes les étapes de fabrication d'« Al Rihla », le ballon officiel du Mondial 2022. Elle est la seule au monde, avec une autre située en Chine, à le fabriquer. Champion de la fabrication du ballon rond « Et voici pour finir la station d'inspection finale. Ici, nous vérifions le poids du ballon, sa taille, sa rondeur, et aussi son design », indique Hassan Masood, directeur de Forward Sports, une entreprise familiale initiée par son grand-père en 1975. L'usine a fabriqué les ballons des trois dernières Coupes du monde. « Ici, nous avons des travailleurs hautement qualifiés qui ont savoir qui s'est transmis depuis le siècle dernier. Leur savoir-faire, qui a commencé par la couture à la main, s'étend maintenant à la reliure thermique et à d'autres technologies. Mais l'état d'esprit, les compétences et la capacité d'apprentissage des habitants de cette ville sont la principale force derrière le développement de ces productions », assure le chef d'entreprise. Sialkot est la grande gagnante du ballon rond sur le plan économique. Elle a résisté à la montée de la Chine, à l'automatisation et à l'instabilité politique et économique du Pakistan, pour construire un pôle de fabrication de football et de sport de classe mondiale, attirant des marques de premier plan. Sur les terrains, c'est une autre histoire. À l'extérieur de l'usine Forwards Sports, s'étend un terrain de football. Sur la pelouse, aucun ballon rond, mais des joueurs de cricket, le sport favori des Pakistanais, dont l'équipe nationale a été finaliste lors de la récente Coupe du monde en novembre dernier. Quant au football, l'équipe pakistanaise ne s'est jamais qualifiée pour une Coupe du monde de la Fifa. Elle peine à se faire une place et n'a jamais été sélectionnée pour une compétition internationale. Absent des compétitions de football Sur un terrain de Sialkot, Malik Abdul Aziz encourage son équipe de juniors. « Nous devons garder notre défense bien serrée, nous devons bien faire le marquage individuel, et surtout les milieux de terrain doivent être très bons, leur rappelle-t-il. Bonne chance les gars. »   L'entraîneur, professeur de sport et passionné de football, a créé son club il y a onze ans. Il compte à ce jour 500 membres, dont une vingtaine de filles. Il regrette que le ballon rond n'ait pas plus de place au Pakistan. « C'est la troisième fois consécutive que les ballons de la Coupe du monde sont fabriqués dans cette ville, mais Sialkot n'a même pas de stade de football. Les principaux revenus de la ville proviennent de l'industrie du sport, mais il n'y a pas d'infrastructure sportive digne de ce nom », regrette l'entraîneur.  « Nos joueurs manquent de professionnalisme, les entraîneurs ici manquent de professionnalisme, et il n'y a pas de véritable intérêt développé pour le football. Quand vous prenez l'exemple du Sénégal ou du Ghana, ce ne sont pas des pays riches, tout comme le Pakistan. Ils sont même plus pauvres que le Pakistan. Mais ils ont cette culture, tout comme le Qatar qui l'a développée, ajoute Malik Abdul Aziz. Mais ici, nous n'avons même pas cette base de départ. Sans cela, nous ne pouvons pas avoir de bonne équipe au niveau national ou international. » La plupart des joueurs de Malik Abdul Aziz n'ont pas les moyens de payer les frais d'inscription mensuels qui s'élèvent à 750 roupies soit 3,18 euros. L'entraîneur ne demande qu'à 20% des membres de s'en acquitter afin d'encourager les plus démunis à intégrer son club.

C'est à 1 800 kilomètres des stades qatariens que les ballons de la Coupe du monde ont été fabriqués : à Sialkot, dans le nord du Pendjab, au Pakistan. Le pays fou de cricket est devenu au fil des dernières décennies une grande industrie du football qui a permis à la ville de devenir un fleuron du ballon rond. De notre correspondante à Islamabad, Des milliers de ballons blancs nacrés aux zébrures dorées bleues et rouges sont alignés sur des charriots de l'usine Forwards Sports. Située à Sialkot, dans le Pendjab, au Pakistan, elle garde bien secrètes les étapes de fabrication d'« Al Rihla », le ballon officiel du Mondial 2022. Elle est la seule au monde, avec une autre située en Chine, à le fabriquer. Champion de la fabrication du ballon rond « Et voici pour finir la station d'inspection finale. Ici, nous vérifions le poids du ballon, sa taille, sa rondeur, et aussi son design », indique Hassan Masood, directeur de Forward Sports, une entreprise familiale initiée par son grand-père en 1975. L'usine a fabriqué les ballons des trois dernières Coupes du monde. « Ici, nous avons des travailleurs hautement qualifiés qui ont savoir qui s'est transmis depuis le siècle dernier. Leur savoir-faire, qui a commencé par la couture à la main, s'étend maintenant à la reliure thermique et à d'autres technologies. Mais l'état d'esprit, les compétences et la capacité d'apprentissage des habitants de cette ville sont la principale force derrière le développement de ces productions », assure le chef d'entreprise. Sialkot est la grande gagnante du ballon rond sur le plan économique. Elle a résisté à la montée de la Chine, à l'automatisation et à l'instabilité politique et économique du Pakistan, pour construire un pôle de fabrication de football et de sport de classe mondiale, attirant des marques de premier plan. Sur les terrains, c'est une autre histoire. À l'extérieur de l'usine Forwards Sports, s'étend un terrain de football. Sur la pelouse, aucun ballon rond, mais des joueurs de cricket, le sport favori des Pakistanais, dont l'équipe nationale a été finaliste lors de la récente Coupe du monde en novembre dernier. Quant au football, l'équipe pakistanaise ne s'est jamais qualifiée pour une Coupe du monde de la Fifa. Elle peine à se faire une place et n'a jamais été sélectionnée pour une compétition internationale. Absent des compétitions de football Sur un terrain de Sialkot, Malik Abdul Aziz encourage son équipe de juniors. « Nous devons garder notre défense bien serrée, nous devons bien faire le marquage individuel, et surtout les milieux de terrain doivent être très bons, leur rappelle-t-il. Bonne chance les gars. »   L'entraîneur, professeur de sport et passionné de football, a créé son club il y a onze ans. Il compte à ce jour 500 membres, dont une vingtaine de filles. Il regrette que le ballon rond n'ait pas plus de place au Pakistan. « C'est la troisième fois consécutive que les ballons de la Coupe du monde sont fabriqués dans cette ville, mais Sialkot n'a même pas de stade de football. Les principaux revenus de la ville proviennent de l'industrie du sport, mais il n'y a pas d'infrastructure sportive digne de ce nom », regrette l'entraîneur.  « Nos joueurs manquent de professionnalisme, les entraîneurs ici manquent de professionnalisme, et il n'y a pas de véritable intérêt développé pour le football. Quand vous prenez l'exemple du Sénégal ou du Ghana, ce ne sont pas des pays riches, tout comme le Pakistan. Ils sont même plus pauvres que le Pakistan. Mais ils ont cette culture, tout comme le Qatar qui l'a développée, ajoute Malik Abdul Aziz. Mais ici, nous n'avons même pas cette base de départ. Sans cela, nous ne pouvons pas avoir de bonne équipe au niveau national ou international. » La plupart des joueurs de Malik Abdul Aziz n'ont pas les moyens de payer les frais d'inscription mensuels qui s'élèvent à 750 roupies soit 3,18 euros. L'entraîneur ne demande qu'à 20% des membres de s'en acquitter afin d'encourager les plus démunis à intégrer son club.

Sialkot produce alrededor del 70% de todos los balones, entre ellos el del Mundial de Qatar.

Wahdat Ummat Conference Sialkot 11 November 2022 - Syed Jawad Naqvi h.a

Footballs are an indispensable item in the global value chain of the beautiful game.  Manufacturing, distributing and selling the balls is a complex international business.It is difficult to pinpoint where in the world a ball is actually made because the sourcing of raw materials, the design and the production happen in different countries. But one thing is certain: WTO agreements play an important role in easing trade in footballs.WTO experts Roy Santana, Michael Roberts and Úna Flanagan trace the global value chain of footballs from the Servette Football Club in Geneva via Herzogenaurach, Germany to Sialkot, Pakistan. Stopovers in Uganda and Uruguay show how international standards ease trade.We talked to:Philippe Senderos, Sporting Director of Servette FC, GenevaQasim Malik, Vice President of the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce, PakistanNouman Butt, CEO of Capital Sports, Sialkot, PakistanGerardo Cal, Guide at the Estadio Centenario Football Museum in Montevideo, UruguayRobbert de Kock, President and CEO of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry, SwitzerlandGeorge Opiyo, TBT National Enquiry Point, Uganda National Bureau of StandardsOliver Hundacker, Senior Director of product operations at Adidas, GermanySpecial thanks to Arshad Nawaz, Intern at the WTO Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation (ITTC)Links:One match, two balls. The 1930 World Cup in Uruguay featured two footballs with different designs in the final match:Photo of the ball team Argentina used in the first half of the final of the 1930 World Cup in UruguayPhoto of the ball team Uruguay used in the second half of the final of the 1930 World Cup in UruguayAbout the famous Wembley goal — or “Hurst's overtime goal” — in the final of the 1966 World Cup between England and Germany:England v Germany (1966): The Most Controversial World Cup Final Learn more about rules of origin:Rules of origin explainedLearn more about Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT):Technical barriers to trade explainedVideo "Let's Talk Product Quality"Learn more about tariffs:Tariffs explainedVideo "Let's Talk Tariffs"

72 Taboot Majlis e Aza at Sialkot || Ustad Syed Jawad Naqvi || 28 August 2022

Das Fairtrade-Siegel ist vor allem aus der Nahrungsmittel- und Textilindustrie bekannt. Für Fußbälle hat es bislang keine große Bedeutung. Eine Firma in der pakistanischen Stadt Sialkot möchte das ändern.

Jashan e Ahya e Amr e Wilayat | Iftitah Bait-e-Hidayat Sialkot Punjab Pakistan | Agha Syed Jawad Naqvi | 16th July 2022Eid e Ghadeer iftitah Bait e Hidayat , Muzaffarpur, Sialkot.16th July 2022Agha Syed Jawad Naqvi h.aVisit & Subscribe for Latest Videos✅Official Websitehttps://www.islamimarkaz.com✅IslamiMarkaz (Youtube Channel)https://www.youtube.com/c/IslamiMarka...✅Facebook Official Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/ustadsyedjaw...✅Twitter (Official Channel)https://twitter.com/syedjawadnaqavi✅Tafseer e Quranhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtTN...✅Tafseer e Asraar e Khudihttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNd1...✅Hikmat-e-Ali ashttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN_E...

Aur Barkat Waly din atty hain. all about how to spend your 10 days of Zill Hajj.

First published June 19, 2019(Episode 027)

Less than four weeks ago, Pakistanis woke up to some horrific news out of Sialkot in Punjab. The images and videos uploaded on Twitter and YouTube by locals from the area showed a mob beating a single man who could barely defend himself. What was his sin?The actions were incomprehensible and forced Pakistanis to look inward and to inspect the laws of the land. With the rise of far-right and extremist ideologies all over the world, it is now Pakistan's turn to have a long look at the compromises it makes that further legitimise elements in its society that lead to destruction, death and international disrepute.Please note that if you do google the videos and images of the crime perpetrated in this case, consider yourself warned as the images are very triggering.Asia In The Shadows is on social media:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/aitspod/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/aitspodcast Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/aitspod/ Music Credits:Displaced Memories - David HorowitzCursed House - Sergey CheremisinovDISCLAIMER:The views and opinions expressed by the podcast creators, hosts, and guests do not necessarily reflect the official policy and position of Podcast Network Asia, the hosts of the program or other programs of the network. Any content provided by the people on the podcast are of their own opinion, and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amjad Islam Amjad is a living legend of Urdu Adab. He is an excellent poet, lyricist and a screenplay writer. He has been honored with many awards & the most notable is Sitara-e-imtiaz (Star of excellence). He was born on 4th August 1944 in Sialkot, Punjab. He wanted to be a cricketer when he was young and played inter collegiate tournaments before venturing in a career in literary world.If you like our podcast please share it with your friends. Leave a review. Feedback is always welcome.Abdul Raoof Siddiqui  email: raoof3@yahoo.com Instagram @urdu.ghazal Visit our website: www.mstn.in https://www.buymeacoffee.com/abdulsiddiqui   #urdughazal #urdupoetry #amjadislamamjad

Tariq Ali comes back on The Pakistan Experience to discuss the Sialkot incident, rising religious extremism, TLP, The treatment of women, the history of violence, the War in Afghanistan and Julian Assange. We also discuss Tariq Ali's latest book, "The Forty Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold" Tariq Ali is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is the author of many books, including Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power (1970), Can Pakistan Survive? The Death of a State (1983), Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002). Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepakistanexperience And Please stay in touch: https://twitter.com/ThePakistanExp1 https://www.facebook.com/thepakistanexperience https://instagram.com/thepakistanexpeperience The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications. Instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh Facebook.com/Shehzadghias/ Twitter.com/shehzad89 Chapters: 0:00 Religious Extremism: How did we get here 19:00 Economic element in Blasphemy cases 22:30 How to deal with the TLP 28:30 Islamophobia 43:00 Treatment of Women in Pakistan 50:00 History of Extremism 1:02:00 Decolonizing 1:08:30 The Forty Year War in Afghanistan: A Chronicle Foretold 1:34:30 Julian Assange

After latest  horrible Silakot lynching, episode, its time for us to navel gaze. All of us have to go back to basics. Where things have gone wrong?  How can we improve and emerge as a strong nation? We all know the answers, no one. has to tell us, just look inside yourself. Contact_ dildarpakistan@hotmail.com

Uzair Younus is a public policy analyst and the Director of the Pakistan initiative at the Atlantic Council. He is also the host of Pakistanomy. Uzair joins us for a discussion on rising religious extremism, the appointment of Ejaz Akram, inflation, the economy, and what the future might hold for Pakistan. Find out this and more on this week's episode of The Pakistan Experience. Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepakistanexperience And Please stay in touch: https://twitter.com/ThePakistanExp1 https://www.facebook.com/thepakistanexperience https://instagram.com/thepakistanexpeperience The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications. He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tinder. Instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh Facebook.com/Shehzadghias/ Twitter.com/shehzad89

After latest  horrible Silakot lynching, episode, its time for us to navel gaze. All of us have to go back to basics. Where things have gone wrong?  How can we improve and emerge as a strong nation? We all know the answers, no one. has to tell us, just look inside yourself. Contact_ dildarpakistan@hotmail.com

After latest  horrible Silakot lynching, episode, its time for us to navel gaze. All of us have to go back to basics. Where things have gone wrong?  How can we improve and emerge as a strong nation? We all know the answers, no one. has to tell us, just look inside yourself. Contact_ dildarpakistan@hotmail.com    

Stressing the need for the moderate Muslim to raise his voice against the rabid extremism displayed by a few lumpens whether it is at Oxford Street London or setting fire to a Buddhist man in Sialkot Punjab, Sree Iyer says it is high time the moderate voices assert themselves

The episode of lynching a foreigner by mob in Sialkot is horrific . But this did not happen in the name of religion or culture, but just for settling personal scores. However the group used the same slogan, raised by another fanatic group in the past but negotiated by the state. Let's see if the state correct herself this time……

Muhammad Ibrahim Qazi, the grandson of Qazi Hussain Ahmed(Former Ameer of Jamiat-e-Islami), is a strategic analyst. Muhammad Ibrahim joins us on this week's episode of The Pakistan Experience to give the right wing's vision of Pakistan. On this deep dive podcast we discuss the Sialkot incident, Blasphemy Law in Pakistan, Jamiat-e-Islami, Political Expediency, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Maududi, Islamia Jamiat-e-Talba and Anti-Americanism. Find out this and more on this week's episode of The Pakistan Experience. Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepakistanexperience And Please stay in touch: https://twitter.com/ThePakistanExp1 https://www.facebook.com/thepakistanexperience https://instagram.com/thepakistanexpeperience The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications. He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tinder. Instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh Facebook.com/Shehzadghias/ Twitter.com/shehzad89 Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:30 Sialkot Incident and Blasphemy Law 37:00 Mumtaz Qadri and the misuse of the Blasphemy Law 46:00 Why are our religious leaders silent and don't condemn? 58:00 Qazi Hussain Ahmed 1:04:00 JI and Anti-Americanism 1:16:00 JI's support for military dictators 1:22:30 Was Maula Maudidi against the creation of Pakistan? 1:39:00 JI's political expediency 1:45:00 Islami jamiat talba 1:52:00 Peoples questions 2:00:30 Right Wing's vision for Pakistan

مخفی اعمال کا فائدہ Makhfi A'maal Ka Fa'idah Dr. Farhat Hashmi 08-02-2021 Sialkot, Faisalabad, Wazirabad Online

Over the last few decades, India has changed, cricket has changed, our media has changed -- and one man has seen it all. Ayaz Memon joins Amit Varma in episode 246 of The Seen and the Unseen to reflect on some of what he has seen and learnt. Also check out: 1. Indian Innings: The Journey of Indian Cricket from 1947 -- Edited by Ayaz Memon. 2. Cricket-related episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Harsha Bhogle, Sharda Ugra, Ramachandra Guha, Prem Panicker and Gideon Haigh+Prem Panicker. 3. The Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. 4. The Wisden Book of Test Cricket (1877-1977) -- Compiled & edited by Bill Frindall. 5. The Test where India beat Australia at Brabourne Stadium, 1964. 6. Sachin Tendulkar's first Test, Sunil Gavaskar's last Test, Kapil Dev's 175 and the 1983 World Cup final. 7. Opportunity, Choice and the IPL (2008) -- Amit Varma. 8. What cricket can learn from poker -- Amit Varma. 9. The Tamasha All Purists Should Love -- Amit Varma. 10. Beyond a Boundary -- CLR James. 11. Neville Cardus and Jack Fingleton on Amazon. 12. The Picador Book of Cricket -- Edited by Ramachandra Guha. 13. Hardcore History -- Dan Carlin. 14. How Social Media Threatens Society -- Episode 8 of Brave New World. 15. Kicking Schoolbags (2006) -- Amit Varma. 16. The Jubilee Test, 1980. 17. My Cricketing Years -- Ajit Wadekar. 18. Sunny Days -- Sunil Gavaskar. 19. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi -- Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. Deep Work -- Cal Newport. 21. Unlikely is Inevitable -- Amit Varma. 22. The abandoned ODI at Sialkot, October 31, 1984. 23. Mankad's Test, India's first Test win, Gavaskar's 29th, Gavaskar's 30th. 24. R Ashwin's YouTube channel. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader, FutureStack and The Social Capital Compound. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! And check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing.

The tenth episode of this series is about the second match of the ODI leg of India's tour of Pakistan in 1978. It took place at Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot, on October 13, 1978.

In this episode of Joculation, LP shares his unique brand of comedy and satire on the emerging trend of black market buttplug manufacturing in Sialkot, Pakistan, relieving pandemic aggression at the Walmart potato chip aisle with a ten-pound log of ground beef after the restraining order expires, and rubbing one out at work in the name of productivity. If you enjoyed listening to the show, please give it a five-star rating, a review, and please share with your friends. It all genuinely helps others to find Joculation and grow the Circle of Intimacy. Please be sure to subscribe on Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, or wherever you are listening. The Joculation podcast is available across all major podcast platforms. If you would like to experience the live interactive social broadcast of Joculation in its entirety, you can catch Joculation every Friday night 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM Mountain Time (10:00 PM - 12:00 AM Eastern Time) at MSP Waves (https://mspwaves.com), Theta.tv (https://www.theta.tv/mspwaves), VIMM.tv (https://www.vimm.tv/msp-waves) - or join the audience in the Circle of Intimacy in the Peace, Abundance and Liberty Discord Server (https://mspwaves.com/discord). Please take a moment to stop by DShop and pick up some official LP merchandise. New merch is being added regularly and all the proceeds support the show. Check out LP's DShop (https://shop-lpfaust.ogn.app) when you have a moment. Follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/FaustLp) to keep up to date with all things LP and thank you. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lpfaust/message

En la ciudad pakistaní de Sialkot se producen balones de fútbol para el mundo entero. Desde hace algunos años las empresas ahí emplazadas producen de manera más responsable, debido al creciente interés público. ¿Soplan vientos de cambio en el sector?

Sialkot in Pakistan ist der Standort der weltweiten Fußballproduktion. Seit einigen Jahren müssen die Firmen dort mehr Verantwortung übernehmen, denn das öffentliche Interesse an einer sozial- und umweltgerechten Produktion wächst. Weht ein neuer Wind in der Branche?

The Pakistani city of Sialkot lies at the heart of worldwide production of footballs. Located between Lahore and Islamabad, some 40 million balls are made here every year. In recent times, the manufacturers have faced more scrutiny as consumers pay closer attention to where their kits and footballs come from. We want to find out how fair the industry's production processes really are.

Top Ten Childhood Companies, Dope Jerseys, Break a Neck, Todd’s Sleeper Hold, Break a Nose, Break a Jaw, Torque, Cadaver Penises, Covid Sex, Stinky Women, Fuck the Cold, Bananas, Our Home Broadcasts, Sialkot, India, Pakistan, Bathroom Showroom Inventor, Punk T-Shirts, Fiance Flee, Life Long Friends, Ball Jiggler, Reloaded504@yahoo.com, CALL IN! 504-457-8011, Reloaded504.com, New Orleans’ Best Podcast, New Orleans #1 Podcast!

In the 45th episode of The Haryanvi Podcast I narrate the Haryanvi Kissa Bhagat Purnamal. This is a story that transpired in Sialkot, Pakistan and hovers around Purnamal, Noona (Alternatively called Loona in Punjabi), Raja Salebhan and Queen Ichhra. This iconic story has been made more popular by Punjabi Poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi who wrote his epic "Loona" on it and was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award for it in 1967.   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/haryanvipodcast/message

Aik Tehreer Uthaye - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

Ghazi (as) Uth Vekh - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

Samajh Ke Zehra (sa) Sataya Gaya Sakina (sa) Ko - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

Roh Ke Kehti Thi Sakina (sa) - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

Mera Mola Hassan (as) Woh Badshah Hai - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

Hussain (as) Ka Sajda - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

Phupiyan De Peshi Abid (as) Nu - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

Amjad Islam Amjad, PP, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (born 4 August 1944) is an Urdu poet, drama writer and lyricist from Pakistan. The author of more than 40 books in a career spanning 50 years, he has received many awards for his literary work and screenplay for TV, including Pride of Performance and Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) Awards. Amjad was born in the Punjab at Lahore in British India, now in Pakistan. His family originally belonged to Sialkot. He received his secondary education in Lahore, and graduated from Government Islamia College Civil Lines, Lahore. He was also member of the college cricket team and participated in the Inter collegiate tournament. He qualified for Masters of Arts degree in Urdu literature from Punjab University. He began his career as a lecturer in Govt. M.A.O College Lahore. He worked as a director at Pakistan Television Corporation from 1975 to 1979, before returning to teaching. In 1989, Amjad was appointed as Director General of Urdu Science Board. He has also worked as a project director of the Children Library Complex. Amjad is the writer of many drama series for Pakistan Television Corporation including Waris. He has written many columns, translation, criticism and essays while his main focus remained writing Nazms, a type of Urdu poetry. Among his most notable dramas are Waris, Dehleez, Samandar, Raat, Waqt and Apnay Loug. In June 2008, he joined Urdu newspaper Daily Express and writes column with the title of "Chasham-e-Tamasha". In December 2019, Amjad received the Necip Fazil International Culture and Art Award in Istanbul, Turkey. Produced By: Wow Be Creatives For Wow Be Podcast (Urdu) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wow-be-podcast/message

Learning from MDH Owner Mahashay Dharampal Gulati | King of Spices Success Story in Hindi Gulati was born in 1923 in Sialkot, Pakistan. After the partition in 1947, he moved to India and stayed in a refugee camp. so, dropped out of his school in 5th standard. To make ends meet, he opened a store in Delhi's Ajmal Khan Road, Karol Bagh, and officially established MDH in 1959. He soon took our Indian spices to an international level by exporting to various parts of the world, including the UK, Europe, UAE, Canada, etc. Today, MDH Masala exports its products to more than 100 countries. In fact, he was also a king of hearts as 90% of his salary went to charity. In 2019, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in the country, 2019. Economic Times, in 2017, Gulati was the highest-paid entrepreneur at the age of 94 and took home more than Rs 21 crore as salary. At the time of migration, he had 1500 Rs in his pocket. Mahashay Dharampal, known as Masala King, has maintained a philosophy of his life – “Give the world the best you have and the best will come to you.” #life #success #vishadparikh #motivation #inspiration #spiceking #wealth #learning #thinking #skill #philosophy #MDH #DharampalGulati #SuccessStory

1141A.D-The Kara Kitai Turkomans defeat the Seljuks at Amu Darya. 1144A.D-The Seljuks, under Zengi, recapture Edessa.Pope Eugene declares the Second Crusade.1145A.D-The Second Crusade collapses in Anatolia but succeeds in capturing Lisbon in Portugal.End of the Murabitun rule in Andalus.1146A.D-The al Muhaddithin captures Morocco.The assassins murder Seljuk Emir Zengi. 1149A.D-Al Zafir becomes the Fatimid Caliph. 1150A.D-The University of Paris is established. 1151A.D-Al Idrisi constructs a map of the then known world. 1154A.D-The Kurdish officer Nuruddin, in Seljuk service, takes Damascus.Al Faiz becomes the Fatimid Caliph in Cairo. 1157A.D-The al Muhaddithin captures Andalus. 1160A.D-Al Mustanjid becomes the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad.Al Adid, the last of the Fatimids, becomes the Caliph in Cairo. 1163A.D-The Seljuks and the Crusaders compete for influence in Fatimid Egypt. 1166A.D-Death of Shaykh Abdul Qader Jeelani of Baghdad, called Shaykh ul Mashaiq, founder of the Qadariya Sufi order.Death of the geographer, al Idrisi.1167A.D-Establishment of Oxford University in England.1170A.D-Salahuddin takes Egypt from the Fatimids.Al Mustadi becomes the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad. 1171A.D-End of the Fatimid era. Egypt reverts to the Abbasid Caliphate.1173A.D-Ghiasuddin Ghori established the kingdom of Ghor in Afghanistan. 1175A.D-Salahuddin consolidates his hold on Syria and Egypt.Death of Ahmed al Rifai, founder of the Rifaiyah Sufi brotherhood.1177A.D-Muhammed Ghori adds Multan, Uch, Dera Ismail Khan and Sindh to his dominions.1179A.D-Muhammed Ghori starts campaigns to capture Peshawar and Sialkot. 1182A.D-Khwaja Muhammed Ghouse of Sindh introduces the Qadariya order into India and Pakistan. 1187A.D-Battle of Hittin. Salahuddin triumphs and recaptures Jerusalem --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/history-of-islam/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/history-of-islam/support

The Sayeed family based in Gujrat, a city in the Pakistani state of Punjab, has cared for two rare manuscripts of Sri Guru Granth Sahib for over seven decades, handing them over them with respect and reverence to a Gurudwara in Sialkot recently. - ਲਹਿੰਦੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਗੁਜਰਾਤ ਜ਼ਿਲੇ ਵਿਚ ਵਸੇ ਸਈਯਦ ਪਰਿਵਾਰ ਨੇ ਗੁਰੂ ਗਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਜੀ ਦੇ ੧੧੦ ਸਾਲ ਪੁਰਾਣੇ ਦੋ ਸਰੂਪਾਂ ਦੀ ਹਰ ਪ੍ਰਕਾਰ ਨਾਲ ਆਦਰ, ਮਾਣ, ਸੇਵਾ ਤੇ ਸੰਭਾਲ ਕੀਤੀ ਅਤੇ ਹੁਣ ਸੰਗਤਾਂ ਦੀ ਬੇਨਤੀ ਉੱਤੇ ਇਸ ਪਰਿਵਾਰ ਨੇ ਇਹਨਾਂ ਦੋ ਸਰੂਪਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਸਿਆਲਕੋਟ ਦੇ ਗੁਰੂਦੁਆਰਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਕੋਲ ਆਮ ਸੰਗਤਾਂ ਦੇ ਦਰਸ਼ਨਾਂ ਵਾਸਤੇ ਸੌਂਪ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਹੈ।

Woh Khoon Ro Ke - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan) reciting at Imambargah Al-Hasan (A)

Ek Nanni Se Lahad - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan) reciting at Imambargah Al-Hasan (A)

Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan) reciting at Imambargah Al-Hasan (A)

Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan) reciting at Imambargah Al-Hasan (A)

Bazaar Ich Ro Ro Kay Logo Beemar (as) Sada Devay - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

10th Muharram 1442 / 2020 Ashura Asr - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

10th Muharram 1442 / 2020 Ashura Shaam e Gharibaan - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

Soyem Shuhada e Karbala (as) Majlis - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

9th Muharram 1442 / 2020 Veyn - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

10th Muharram 1442 / 2020 Ashura Fajr - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

8th Muharram 1442 / 2020 - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

7th Muharram 1442 / 2020 - Ustad Asghar Abbas Khan (Sialkot, Pakistan)

Season 16, Episode 3. Ngaji Filsafat Tema - Eksistensialisme oleh Dr. Fahruddin Faiz Muhammad Iqbal (Urdu: محمد اقبال), (lahir di Sialkot, Punjab, India, 9 November 1877 – meninggal di Lahore, 21 April 1938 pada umur 60 tahun), dikenal juga sebagai Allama Iqbal (Urdu: علامہ اقبال), adalah seorang penyair, politisi, dan filsuf besar abad ke-20. Ia dianggap sebagai salah satu tokoh paling penting dalam sastra Urdu, dengan karya sastra yang ditulis baik dalam bahasa Urdu maupun Persia. Iqbal dikagumi sebagai penyair klasik menonjol oleh sarjana-sarjana sastra dari Pakistan, India, maupun secara internasional. Meskipun Iqbal dikenal sebagai penyair yang menonjol, ia juga dianggap sebagai "pemikir filosofis Muslim pada masa modern". Buku puisi pertamanya, Asrar-e-Khudi, juga buku puisi lainnya termasuk Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Payam-i-Mashriq dan Zabur-i-Ajam;; dicetak dalam bahasa Persia pada 1915. Di antara karya-karyanya, Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim dan bagian dari Armughan-e-Hijaz merupakan karya Urdu-nya yang paling dikenal. Bersama puisi Urdu dan Persia-nya, berbagai kuliah dan surat dalam bahasa Urdu dan Bahasa Inggris-nya telah memberikan pengaruh yang sangat besar pada perselisihan budaya, sosial, religius dan politik selama bertahun-tahun. Pada 1922, ia diberi gelar bangsawan oleh Raja George V, dan memberinya titel "Sir". Ketika mempelajari hukum dan filsafat di Inggris, Iqbal menjadi anggota "All India Muslim League" cabang London. Kemudian dalam salah satu ceramahnya yang paling terkenal, Iqbal mendorong pembentukan negara Muslim di Barat Daya India. Ceramah ini diutarakan pada ceramah kepresidenannya di Liga pada sesi Desember 1930. Saat itu ia memiliki hubungan yang sangat dekat dengan Quid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Iqbal dikenal sebagai Shair-e-Mushriq (Urdu: شاعر مشرق) yang berarti "Penyair dari Timur". Ia juga disebut sebagai Muffakir-e-Pakistan ("The Inceptor of Pakistan") dan Hakeem-ul-Ummat ("The Sage of the Ummah"). Di Iran dan Afganistan ia terkenal sebagai Iqbāl-e Lāhorī (اقبال لاهوری‎ "Iqbal dari Lahore"), dan sangat dihargai atas karya-karya berbahasa Persia-nya. Pemerintah Pakistan menghargainya sebagai "penyair nasional", hingga hari ulang tahunnya (یوم ولادت محمد اقبال‎ – Yōm-e Welādat-e Muḥammad Iqbāl) merupakan hari libur di Pakistan.

The festival of Basant. Sialkot the sports capital of Pakistan and the similarities between an eye and a camera.

by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The Promised Messiah and Mahdi (as).

Ruhani Khazain Volume 20

Did you know the FIFA World Cup Soccer Ball is manufactured in a Pakistani city called Sialkot? Natasha talks about growing up in the enterprising city, her passion for Educational Psychology, the Fulbright Scholar Program and why she loves Coke Studio Pakistan. She also lectures Nosa on what Ghazal is and the difference between Punjab and Punjabi. Watch Coke Studio Pakistan's rendition of 'Afreen Afreen' here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb4X1BWNO5k

The Legend of Raja Rasalu is a tale from Northern India, set in what is now known as Sialkot in Pakistan. This is a tale of bravery and adventure. Originally an eight part story, we have combined the different stories to form a single narrative for your listening pleasure. Learn how Raja Rasalu was born and how he spent the first twelve years of his life in an underground palaceThe adventures of Raja Rasalu do not end there, and we are confident that you will like to know what happens next.  You can subscribe to Myths, Legends and Fairytales of India Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Saavn, Spotify, Radio Public,Google Podcasts, Hubhopper, Storiyoh, and many other fine websites and apps where you listen to podcast. This story was revised and rewritten by Amar Vyas and narrated by Sheerali Biju for gaatha story. Audio editing by Krishnadas. Theme music is titled Frost Waltz by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com). Other sound effects from Soundbible, used under creative commons license.

ایصالِ ثواب - سیالکوٹ 11-12-2013 Sialkot

تقریب نکاح سے خطاب - ماہم ملک سیالکوٹ 29-07-2016 Sialkot

This is a message we gave at a local church in Sialkot when we were there teaching at a Gospel Conference.

تم کب توبہ کرو گے؟ 19-08-2017 Sialkot

In Infrastructure Redux:Crisis, Progress in Industrial Pakistan and Beyond (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), Nausheen H. Anwar explores double-edged narratives of development. Through detailed case studies of Sialkot and Faisalabad, as well as analyses of development in Pakistan since independence and the impact of liberalized trade policies on industrial labour, the book explores how ideas of both crisis and progress frame the country’s infrastructure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's playlist: • The Daddy by Big George Jackson, from Big Shot (2001), available from Black & Tan Records. Visit BigGeorgeJackson.com for more information. • Honey The Night Is Young by The Mescal Sheiks, from their album The World Is Not My Home (2006), available from CD Baby and the iTunes Music Store. For more information, visit their site or their MySpace page. • We're Gonna Have A Party Tonight by The Hollywood Combo, from The Hollywood Combo (2005), available from CD Baby. Visit SwinginRecords.com and their MySpace page for more information. • Highwayman by Tinsley Ellis from Live - Highwayman (2005) available from Alligator Records and the iTMS. Visit TinsleyEllis.com for more information. • Ain't Gonna Do It by Kane Welch Kaplin from Kane Welch Kaplin (2007); CDs are available through the store at their site and the iTMS. Full albums and individual tracks can be downloaded here. Visit DeadReckoners.com for more information. • That's What I've Got by Kane Welch Kaplin from Kane Welch Kaplin (2007). • 12 Chimes by Kane Welch Kaplin from Kane Welch Kaplin (2007). • Mr. Bad Luck by Oscar Jordan & The Mighty Sons Of Hercules from album Mr. Bad Luck (2001), available from CD Baby and Amazon.com. Visit OscarJordan.com and/or his MySpace page for more information. • Little Black Dress by Mean Gene Kelton and The Die Hards, from Most Requested (1999), available from Gene's online store, the iTMS. Visit JamboneRecords.com and GeneKelton.com for more information. • Don't Touch My Guitar by Pat Coast, from Don't Touch My Guitar (2003), available from CD Baby. Visit PatCoastBand.com for more information. Mentioned during this show: the Wikipedia entries for Sialkot, Pakistan; and Oulu, Finland, host of the annual Air Guitar World Championships. Excellent online resources for more information about the blues: The Blues Foundation and the Delta Blues Museum; and be sure to download and listen to the DBM's top-notch (and free) podcast, the Uncensored History of the Blues. Be sure to read Today's Chicago Blues by Karen Hanson, an excellent guide to all things blues in present-day Chicago. (Music on Murphy's Saloon # courtesy of the artists and the Podsafe Music Network, the PROMONET program of the Independent Online Distribution Alliance, Download.com or Garageband.com)