TiE Walks, a great opportunity for new entrepreneurs

Mentors lineup during the introduction

This Saturday, I got the golden chance to visit TiE walks; a mentoring event held at Royal Palm golf club, organized by The Indus Entrepreneur(TiE) Lahore chapter.

The event was scheduled to start at 3:00 PM but the learners and most of mentors were already there ahead of time, some getting introduced to each other and some already involved in heated discussions.

The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE)

Its a global not for profit organization that focuses on promoting entrepreneurship. TiE has got 60 plus chapters across 18 countries. I've been to events held by Lahore and Islamabad chapters earlier, these chapters are considered very active among the mix.

The evil mouse bite

Drops of blood were falling down on floor as I watched in horror. A rat had bitten me while I was trying to sleep on the floor.

Just five minutes ago

I was half asleep with the room lights off. The evil rodent struck when I stretched my hands backwards. I felt its teeth on my finger and I shouted “Bloody mother f*****!” (Of course in Punjabi) and then jumped and ran to turn the lights on. “A rat has bitten me” I told Adeel and Awais (my brother and his friend/roommate) as they rushed towards me.  I went over and washed my hands, but bleeding did not stop. It was then that someone said the offender is still inside the same room and we must take revenge. The great mouse hunt ensued.

Hunting the attacker

Donating blood for the first time, fairly easy I must say

Its a terrifying thick needle, and it is put through your vein to draw blood. Pretty easy to get nervous if you focus on the red line attached to a plastic bag on the other end. But, no pain is associated with the process other than couple of needle pricks when the nurses are setting things up.

A bag full of life juice

Facing an overconfident brute

"Yes, but you still have a p***s", this sentence was almost the tipping point.
The water cooler conversation leading to the aforementioned statement was pretty interesting, I must say. Its a story which I thought should not be told at first. Later on, I had a discussion with a friend and she suggested it was a funny situation. I then decided to make it public, without mentioning names.

The rude kid

The Story

Class ended at 12:00 PM, I stopped at the water cooler before leaving the institute(BETS). It was there that a young man approached me with an evil smile.
"How is the love story between you and that girl going?" His question hit me like a brick. "Which love story mate?" I responded. "Oh come on! I saw you exchanging phone numbers." Know I knew where he was coming from. "Yes but I have exchanged phone numbers with so many people in the class, without having a love story. And I am a married person."
The next sentence was a classic. "Yes, but you still have a p***s." It was an awkward moment, I had to finish the water in my cup before saying anything. "You're right, I have the p thing and it works. But, I am the master here not the p." I tried to show some teeth and continued. "It was just a class room exchange of information. I have a good wife, so I don't need to goof around. Moreover, I paid cold hard cash to prepare for IELTS. Flirting with young ladies is certainly not on my list of priorities."

Protospeak: Mission statement, standards, and background

Mission Statement

Share the life story and experiences of an ordinary man who is an urban creature but hails from rural Punjab. The writings shared herein will be original. I want some part of my mortal self to echo in the universe for a while after I am gone. Protospeak will serve as an instrument to fulfill the wish.
Steve Job's quote is going to be my guide here: "Keep looking, and don't settle down."

Standards

Continuous improvement in writing standard and clear thinking will be the most important ingredients of this blog. Impurities like SEO keywords shall be kept at bay.

Background

My first introduction to blogging was some time circa 2005. I guess I had seen Badar Khushnood, the Google guy in Pakistan speaking about the wonders of blogging and how people were making tonnes of cash using it. I created a blog named Exhaust, wrote a few things sitting in an internet cafe, and totally forgot about it shortly afterwards.

Notable Blogging Credentials

2008 was the year when I started writing on A Programmer's Day, my tech blog. It is in good shape, attracts a couple hundred people every day. But, it is a blog focused on technology. It is unsuitable for general public, in my opinion.

In 2009 "Khuli Kitab" کھلی کتاب (open book) my Urdu blog was born, I still put out a piece every other week on that blog. We have a small Urdu blogger community in Pakistan. Feed aggregators like اردو سیارہ
and a few Facebook outlets are used to publicize content. This blog pulls less than 100 hits every day.

The Freelance Times was my latest blog which was also focused on a niche. I have stopped freelancing ever since I joined a job in March 2015, which means I don't have much to say on that front at least for now. Read no more posts for a while.