Pakistan-India Social Media Mela 2012 pictures and memorable quotes

Following are some of the pictures from Social Media Mela 2012, organized in Karachi by PeaceNiche and U.S Counsellates in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, taken by me. Followed by some memorable quotes that I picked up while at SOCMM12.

Beena Sarwar, Mehreen Kasana, Faisal Kapadia and Marvi Sirmed

Representatives of US Consulates in Lahore and Karachi

Mohammed Hanif and NFP

Amir Mughal, NFP and Ali Aftab

The man who live-tweeted the OBL Raid

Hassan belal a.k.a Mighty, the show runner

Ali Aftab Saeed and NFP, generals of the beghairat Brigade

A slide showing the themes to be discussed at the event

The Official logo for the event

The beautiful bag that all participants got courtesy PeaceNiche

U.S Consul General, Karachi.

Some of these quotes were directed at me, some were overheard at various points. I hope I don’t offend anyone by mentioning what they said ‘Off the Record’

Ali Aftab: Agar pakistan kay singers strike pay chalay jayen to Shehbaz Sharif Army k singers bula ley ga‪

Ali Chishti to me: yar tum ajeeb darhi wale ho Me: Sir ye 60s wali darhi hai, 80s wali nai
‪

Someone: I went to bangkok and Waderay ka baita is being played there in nightclubs

YLH to everyone: Here is my card.

Sher Ali Khan introducing me to people: In say milain, ye hamare revolutionary doctor hain

Sanjay Rajoura to ISI wala(on being asked about drinking): Sir aap pilayen gay tau ham inkaar thora karen gay

@mightyobvious to me: yar aap bohat acha likhte hain, Me: Sir ap hamare murshad hain

Mohsin Sayeed to me: Choro Yar ye blog shlog, koi kam ki cheez likho

M.Hanif to me: Yar koi larkio wagera ki picture lo, hamari le kay kya karni hai

Raza Rumi: I’ll be back soon, I have to write an article.

Sher Ali to Faizan Lakhani: Yar main aik failed reporter hun.

Musharraf Ali Farooqi: Meow

Someone to me: Mohammad Haneef is Gay?
Me: Are you nuts?

Tuba Mehmood (at a hang-out):-  Yar Chahwa pee lo(mixing Chaye and Qahwa)

Onir, on listening to ‘Dasht e Tanhai main’: Urdu is such a sweet language, that is why I have named my next film in Urdu.
It followed a discussion if its “Dast” or “Dasht”

Marvi Sirmed to me: Oh you are so young, from your blogs I though you’d be in your 40s.

Marvi Sirmed on stage(mentioning Ali Raza Abidi): I respect and support Abidi Sb’s work on social media, although I do not support a lot of what his party does.

Marvi Sirmed: Everything is political these days. The guy from MQM is sitting on my left, the guy from PTI is sitting to my right and I’m wearing a green dress.
We were in conversation when YLH joined us and after about 10 minutes, someone mentioned Jinnah Sb and I said, Yasir is not gonna like it. Everyone suddenly recognize Yassir.

On the second day, every one was in line to have lunch, Mohsin Sayeed appeared & said ‘abhi lunch nahee session attend karo’.

Ali Dayan Hasan: Imran Khan is not even handsome anymore,. He was, 20 year ago. He looks like a phatti hui Peshawari Chappal now.

Mighty to Mohammad Hanif: In today’s session, I have decided to let specific people in the audience to question the panelists.
Mohammed Hanif: So, you have outsourced your own job.

Ali Gul Peer: You never get to hear terorist names like Allah Dino or Osama bin chandio.

Ali Aftab(on army): ‘agar ye log aik gaana nai bardasht kar saktay, tau jang kesay larr sakte hen’

Marvi Sirmed: I have been called an  ISI/RAW/Mossad agent since 1982. I first faced police batons in 1982.

Beena Sarwar: Media Ratings in Pakistan are based on only 630 homes, 300 of them in Karachi.

Marvi Sirmed :-A colonel at ISPR showd me how they are tracking Beena Sarwar’s tweets,

Anthony Permal: The majority in Pakistan has not owned our problem and our persecution.

Sanjay Rajoura: kashmir le lo, coke studio day do

Sanjay Rajoura: Pakistan/india main daaka par jae to police nai ati, larki ka hath pakar lo to foran aa jati hai.

Sanjay Rajoura:- Our countries have a national obsession: To ask people If they are settled.

‘I represent an organization bt im also a human being.’

Ali Dayan Hasan on

‘Negotiating Complexity, Human Rights and Social Media’

Corrections/Additions are welcome.