Africa Calling

The fight against piracy takes a religious turn. This is what I saw when I tried to install a Quran Reader on my Nokia N95.

I don't know how effective it would be, but it did stop me from installing the software. Probably, because I did not know how legit the software was or probably because I was fasting and did not want to swear without full knowledge.

Either way it certainly beats the I AGREE buttons we all have been clicking without reading.

As you probably has guessed that I do not get much time to put things on this blog. Well I have decided to post 1,000+ words regularly from today.

As they say - a picture is worth thousand words - I will be using ShoZu on my Nokia N95 to load pictures and adding a some description. Where possible these images will be geo-tagged so they can be located on Google Earth.

So I hope the blog can come back to life and let me share some of the things I am seeing with you all.

Labels: shozu

Its 5:45am, the dawn is breaking outside and we are in the office doing our last minute checks. In 2 hours Warid Congo will open its doors in a new country and become part of the commercial operations running in Pakistan, Bangladesh & Uganda.

There are many times when I thought that we will never get here just like many other times when I thought we were so close that I could reach out and touch it. I guess even with one's best efforts one has to count on a lot of faith and hope to get through life.

This also marks a change for me as what started as "my project" is now "my operation". And I am looking forward to working with the other members of the management team to make a difference.

UPDATE: 4pm

WOW! What a response! We are overwhelmed - both in Brazzaville & Pointe Noire. The business centres opened at 8am and within 30 minutes we had a queue of people wanting to come in to buy the SIMs. And even now the queue is there. Moreover, its like the whole company has come together for one purpose - to delight the customer. We have people from IT, Engineering, HR working on crowed control and helping people to fill forms. Inside the business centres the sales, customer services and finance teams are running around to serve the customer. Sweets baskets are being filled, fizzy drinks are bring served to the people who have been queuing in the heat and you see lots of smiles all around. And to make my day... the numbers are looking great! Alhumdullah!

See for yourself:







Let's pray that this is the beginning of something great.. Ameen!

Labels: bangladesh, congo, launch, pakistan, uganda, warid

Warid Congo celebrated its Soft Launch on 10th January 2008. Our Chairman High Highness Sheikh Nahayan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan was here in Brazzaville to inaugurate the Business Centre and attend the mega soft-launch event.

^{Arrival of Sheikh Nahayan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan
Departure for Lunch with the President of Republic of Congo
Crowd waiting for the High Highness at the Business Centre
Inauguration of Warid Business Centre by High Highness & The Honorable Minister of Telecommunication}

The picture below have been taken from Gulf Arena's Burak Altunay's website who were managing the soft launch event.






















More will be uploaded on my Picasa Album soon!

Labels: chariman, congo, event, softlaunch, warid

A new year, a new beginning but the same old Congo. To be honest, its not that bad - it kinda grows on you. Have a look at this picture and see for yourself.



This picture has been taken by my colleague, Mojahid Rahman who is an IT guru as well as a very good photographer. You can see more from his album Beauty of Brazzaville on Flickr.

Coming back to the new year; so what is your new year resolution? The best one I have come across is from another colleague... "leave congo by the end of the year". I guess it is not growing on everyone equally.

Wishing you a very happy new year.

Labels: brazzaville, congo, newyear, photographer

When we stepped on the continent of Africa, we had plans. We wanted to take up new challenges; we wanted to be the ones recreating the success of Warid in Africa; we wanted to explore Africa and share it with our loved ones. We never thought we will be losing a Warid family member on the way – and that too with so much tragedy!

I first met AbuBakar when I was trying to arrange a sales trainings for my channel partners almost three years ago. It was impossible to meet him and not end up liking him within 10 minutes. And this started as a friendship which was not very close, but very strong. Every time we met – work or otherwise – we had fun. We used to talk about his time in the UK and he would often mention the shopping he did on his last trip for his the unborn baby. When I moved to Lahore with my family, he was one of the first people to invite us for dinner at their home.

He was the first friendly face I saw when I landed in Uganda. I joined him for a few smoke breaks when he wanted to break away from work and chat. We used to talk about how easy or hard it would be for the family to adjust in Africa. I even went around with him house hunting; we saw many houses including the one he choose to live in. He even tried to get a swimming pool put in the house for his kids but it did not work out. He had positive attitude written all over him; he really enjoyed his work and was always willing to share his experience and learn from others.

The accident which happened on Thursday, 4^th October took away a good friend. Abubakar was so good at staying in touch that he responded to every SMS instantly. Whenever I wanted to know/ask anything about Uganda, I would SMS him and he would respond within minutes. So its not surprising that when I heard about the accident, the first person I sent an SMS to was AbuBakar and this time there was no reply.

I did not find out the severity of the accident till the morning when I called others in Kampala. At first I thought he would be ok if they could took him to Pakistan as they may not have the medical facilities in Kampala. And when I heard that he was being transported in the air ambulance to Lahore, I was hopeful that he will get good medical attention.

AbuBakar fought for his life for 3 days... but lost the battle. Would he have been ok if he had received medical attention right away? Would it have helped if the car was new? Would he have survived if he was wearing back seat belts? Should we have prayed harder?

We in Warid lost a great friend – someone who brought smiles to our faces in the worst of circumstances. I don’t know how we are going to get though this without him!

May Allah rest his soul... and give his family strength to get through this difficult time. Ameen

I borrow these words from WH Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Today (13th September 2007) is the first of Ramadan in Congo. According to the Moon Sighting website, it is Ramadan in most of the world expect Pakistan, India and Australia.This is not the first time I am spending a Ramadan in a non-Muslim country. Some of the things you miss are:

• Reduced office timings - yes we only have 0ff 30 minutes earlier than regular time and have to work through the whole lunch hour
  
• Roadside food stalls - temptations of all the Pakoras & Samosas
  
• Ramadan Rush hour traffic - note to westerns: you have never seen a rush hours like the ones in Ramadan
• All-you-can-eat Iftar Buffets - The KFCs, BBQ Tonight and others all you can eat deals which take up at least an hour of discussion time during the work day - everyday
  
• Tarawih - For some reason Ramadan does not feel right without proper tarawih

We do have two mosques here in Brazzaville and I will be able to tell you more about the festivities of Ramadan when I visit them for Jummah prayers tomorrow. Till then; wishing you a very happy and blessed Ramadan!

Firstly, my apologies for not being able to update my blog for the past 2 weeks. When I took up the PMO (Project Management Office) position, I never thought it was going to be so hectic. But as they say... no pain no gain!

I know most serious bloggers think its sinful to ignore your blog for this long and would not think twice about casting stones at me. But in my defence I just want to say that I am going to take time out of my non-work activities (eating, sleeping etc) and make sure I blog at least once a week. If I have an easy day (leave office by 9pm) I will try to take this frequency up to two.

As for the ordinary mortals who do not blog and hardly find time to visit something truly useful like Africa Calling; PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use the subscribe box on the right and give me access to your mail boxes. The pearls of wisdom and the jewels of experience I share with you here are better than the whole survivor series put together.

In the mean time, I am changing the blog header to a picture of the Congo River; hope you like it. Congo river is the natural border between Republic of Congo (that's our Congo) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (formally known as Zaire). As you can see from the facts listed below, No. 2 seems to be lucky number of Congo river.

• Congo River is the 2nd largest river in Africa (4,700 Km; Nile is the largest)
  
• Congo River flows through the 2nd largest rain forest in the world (Amazon Rainforest is the largest)
  
• Congo River has the 2nd largest flow in the world (Amazon river is the first)
• Congo River has the 2nd largest watershed (Amazon river is the first)
• Congo River is the only river in the world to cross the Equator twice
  
• Congo River runs between two countries

Interesting Fact: Indus which is the longest river in Pakistan (3,180 Km) is 21st in the largest rivers of the world list.

Although the centerville (that's down town in French) of Brazzaville is a very quite place, but the corniche road which runs by the river is totally tranquil. It is an ideal spot to stroll/walk/jog and the view of the river and its silence is very relaxing. For a city which offers very limited (and I am being generous when I say very limited) a walk by the river with its light breeze is a truly natural experience.

Labels: brazzaville, congo, congo river

As mentioned in my previous post, an Independence Day(s) party was held in Brazzaville. It was a blast (by Brazzaville standards) and both Pakistanis and Congolese had a lot of fun. The cake cutting ceremonies were patriotic and displayed a unique intersection of two nations which probably had never crossed paths before we came to Congo.

You can see more pictures of the Independence Day Party.

Labels: brazzaville, congo, independence day, pakistan