Vilayat Khan died yesterday.

Following a discussion with a friend, I want to revise my opinion regarding PASHA’s trip to India. I had said earlier that if people paid for the trip from their own resources, what difference does it make to anyone else? However, PASHA was representing Pakistan’s software industry, rather than a bunch of individuals going there to check out the scene. So, perceptions and views do matter as they reflect on the industry and its goals and directions.

Anyhow, the central issue I was trying to raise about PASHA is that the association is very dodgy, lacks credibility and there is just no common vision. Certainly, there are some well-intentioned people who hold important positions but I seriously doubt whether they will be “allowed” to get very far.

The PASHA forum is host, once again, to a dramatic battle of wits. Round 237 began with a trip to India, paid for by individuals, not the organisation or the government. While everyone has a viewpoint about whether this trip was useful or not, these discussions always degenerate into mud-slinging and a really peculiar brand of politics.

If people paid for the trip from their own resources, what difference does it make to anyone else? They came back and shared their experiences with PASHA members, across Pakistan and people are free to reach their own conclusions. Why politicize things to a point where everyone loses sight of the core issue.

Maybe people went to India for inspiration. ULTRA BORING call-centre and BPO businesses aside, India is vibrant and dynamic. People there have minds, they’re excited about stuff, passionate about their work, not at all lazy, pretty darn down to earth … qualities that most Pakistanis lack. Yes, yes, I know I am generalizing but since this is my space …

From a work perspective, I wouldn’t have gone with the PASHA delegation because whatever inspiration and resources I need from India, I can get by e-mail and other online sources. However, if I had spare cash lying around, I would have gone, on any other pretext. I sometimes feel like an Indian soul trapped in a Pakistani body and wish Partition had never happened. A simplistic view perhaps but I am shamelessly enamoured of the Indians. Tehelka is a case in point. More on this later …

Mobilink recently flushed several million down the toilet with its new “Reshaping Communication” campaign. The brushed steel look has been shamelessly stolen from Apple Computer, dunno where the purple beveled thing has been appropriated from.

Cannot comprehend how a company that has caused endless financial, emotional, and mental trauma to its “loyal” customers can have the audacity to roll out such a massively meaningless campaign. Every day for the last several days, we’ve been waiting for a service/package/pricing/whatever announcement to back up the tall claims, but after 3 weeks, ZILCH.

What kind of bozos head up “marketing” in these companies? What, in their opinion, constitutes brand loyalty? WHEN WILL WE GET GPRS, YOU SCHMUCKS? At 17 bucks per minute + airtime, your so called data services are a NOT FUNNY joke.

Mobilink: your old logo was hideous but you know what, we weren’t thinking about it. Your new logo is “different” from your old logo but then you already know that. Perhaps another thing you need to know is that we don’t give a rat’s ass about the new logo either. It seems that the obvious needs to be spelled out, so here’s a quick list of what we expect from our “favorite” cellular operator:

1. The ability to speak to people using our Mobilink-enabled cell phones

2. We’d like our text messages to be delivered to intended recipients

3. GPRS – the Ufone way – or better

Wish you had spent the millions on us instead of reinventing your logo. Can’t even refer to it as your brand because a brand is so much more than superficial packaging. But then, that’s b-school 101 and you know all about that kind of stuff.