CDA Toll Plaza

I am a final year student of National University of Sciences and Technology – NUST  Islamabad. NUST is located in the sector H-12. The university is accessible by two highways i.e. Kashmir Highway and IJP link road – also known as Faqir Aipee Road. I normally use Kashmir highway to reach university as it is less crowded. Now at Golra Intersection there is a CDA Toll plaza. There are number of observations that I made during my long stay at university.

First of all the Toll Plaza is being operated manually, while it is mentioned on the CDA website that a project was initiated two years back which then was over taken by CDA on 30th June 2009. I haven’t seen any change in the toll collection system.

I like all of other poor citizens of Pakistan have to pay the 5 rs rent daily. I have tried a couple of things to avert the toll among them are; shown my university card, shown proof of being Islamabad resident and came on an car bearing Islamabad number plate. Some of the times my tactics worked while sometimes they didn’t depending on the mood of the toll collector. Until recently when I was told at the toll plaza “No exemption for students”! I had failed to understand this system but thanks to CDA they clarified this by putting up a poster according to which the following cars have exemption form toll:

• Flag Cars
• M.N.A / Senators
• Diplomatic Foreign mission
• Official Number Plates
• Defence Forces
• Defence Requisitioned
• Ambulances/Charity

In other words except for the normal public and poor public transport , everybody has to pay the toll. I have failed to understand the logic behind the exemption of tolls from dignitaries and high ranking officials, instead they should be the ones paying the toll while students and people under insurmountable pressure of making both ends meet should be relieved of these kind on money hoarding tactics.

To add more to it, most of the time the toll collector doesn’t give me a receipt, so that means there is no record of the toll.

The CDA Toll plaza is located roughly after 1/3 of the Kashmir highway. I don’t what makes sense to the authorities to put the toll plaza there, when the road starts way before that point. Also its not even the entrance to Islamabad, its located inside the borders of it, and that too by order of tens of kilometers.

I don’t use even a kilometer of the highway and still I pay the toll. To students studying in the universities like me, it might not be a problem to give away 5RS but what about the other people passing through the road. I have not seen significant amount of repairs done to the highway in my stay at university I wonder where all the money goes.

Trend Analysis

I happened to visit the market today, I had to shop for winters. I really have to take a huge leap of faith before stepping out as I am a lazy bum to be very direct, but shopping is fun. Normally when I buy things I am not really looking for them, that exactly means that I was not hopeful of finding something today as well. I was specifically for a full sleeved T Shirt as it is hard to go out in a Half sleeved shirt in winter mornings especially when the weather has just started to get cold the lasts of October.

So I reached the market at evening, I went to Saddar Rawalpindi to the block where there are shops for different brand outlets, also above them are shops which sell copies of the same brands. In an hour and a half I went through the whole market and could not find a substantial candidate for my purchase. instead I was enlightened on fashion by shopkeepers. before I tell you more details here is a list of brand outlets I visited:

• Crossroads
• Access
• Wrangler/Levis
• Lacoste – copies
• Outfitters
• Nike – both original and copies
• Polo – copies
• H2

I visited 10 other shops as well which had collection of different brands and unbranded clothes.BTW I am not a brand conscious person.

I couldn’t find a full sleeved shirt as all I could get was a lousy and shabby shirts with bright colors and thin material. They were also made using glitter and stuff. The whole market I roamed about, I couldn’t find one decent shirt. Instead I noticed the new trends and made notes in my head.

Instead of full sleeved shirts there are thin sweaters. They are made up of mixed material, the costly ones are even made of wool, can be worn both as a sweater and a shirt. Full sleeved shirts are out of fashion.

Stripes, form millimeter thickness to broad width of 3-4 inches are still in fashion. Multicolored with four of five stripes of different colors just to distinguish the from from the back.

Casual shirts with collars and Checks are stacked in the market but I see them on the decline as the top brands are now replacing them with their warmers or thin sweaters.

Hoodies are slowly dying slowly but I didn’t find any substantial change in the stock. Instead jackets are in, thanks to the  “brands” there are jackets make out of raw textured hard cotton material which has a whole lot of pockets on it and a design with lots of straps and buttons, many of them useless. Also leather is coming back into scene.

Jeans [Pants esp] is an ever green industry the wont die till 2012.

Corduroy is also coming back with very fine textures and colors beige teal blue both in jackets and pants. The un-textured version of corduroy is also visible patched on jackets .

Generally heavy clothes are coming back to the market. Last year we say people wearing thick hoodies and woolen shirts but this time around the fashion conscious might turn their ways to retro which is a good things as it follows the general trend to getting to the originals in everything. I was told to visit markets in a week but I don’t see a change in the trends as the big fish have already declared the menu for this winters and the others are just waiting for the copies of latest designs.

P.S: I am not related to the fashion industry just a keen observer, don’t blame me if the trends change.

Symbian gets WordPress

The WordPress Application for Symbian phones has been launched. According to technology experts it has better than the application for apple devices.
The application is buggish as it fails to open on first attempt and upon a second attempt you get login screen. The login is fast and you can move around easily. The settings for using internet access are absent. It tries to use data connection first but after rejection it switches to WLAN.
Upon entring a new post requires a bluetooth connection. I have failed to understand why. The application gets stuck in a loop if you dont select a device. However it proceeds if you select any of the devices from your list of earlier used devices.
All in all the application is stili in infancy. Good thing is that it has basic html WYSIWYG editor controls.
P.S This post was created using WordPress for Nokia. From my Nokia 5530XM