The Pakistani Spectator

My name is Khushal Khan and I am 20, I was born in Tarbela Dam and spent most of my life there till I moved for Educational purposes to Peshawar. I belong to Swabi (Baja), a semi rural area of the NWFP whereas my family is settled in Abbottabad. I am currently a student of Business in the Institute of Management Sciences Peshawar and I have a plan to continue my future in the field of Marketing. I am a blogger since 2004, and blog on Internet Marketing as well as blog about me and my life at my personal blog. I am a very chill person and love to discover new places for food and hanging out, I live in a hostel around a very good circle of friends with whom I enjoy my life a lot.:) 

Could you tell us what made you decide to blog?

I have been an all day-night chatting and web surfing fan(as if am not now) ever since I started using internet years back, than one day my elder brother asked me to make an account with blogger.com, at first I had no idea what was it all about, but later on discovering other blogs of Dinky Mind and Asma Mirza I got introduced into this world, till than I only shared internet and website articles on my blog but the inspiration from Dr.Awab Alvi a.k.a Teeth Maestro made me formally start blogging on a personal owned domain name. Now my blog has my all random stuff and views about just anything that comes to mind and worth a post.

What do you think sets your blog apart from other blogs?

Other than the design that is unique(probably only on 1 more blog) I don’t find any other thing unique in my blog since the Blogosphere in Pakistan as I see it has all started to adapt the same style, I am just one more among them.

If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success, what would it be?
I think I talk about anything regardless of the fact if its late or not, I don’t think a blogger has to be as updated and posting on time like the newspapers do, its just when you get the time and the proper moment, speak for what ever you think about anything.

What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?
There haven’t been much though

Urdu Blogs have got huge potential, when do you think they will really take on the online horizon in Pakistan?
I think it really will take time since the language and than the understanding as well as proper practice of Urdu typing is a very rare skill among bloggers in the Pakistani Blogosphere. But I think with the presence of Mypakistan and blogs from the Ajmal Family and the Bayaaz things look very bright for the future of Urdu blogging. We need some more inspirational and quality Urdu blogs like the one I mentioned above and than we can expect to take the online horizon within the Pakistani blogosphere.

If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?
I’d blindly opt for Austria (I’ve heard it’s far beautiful than Switzerland), than I’d love to go to Rome at Italy and finally settle for Amsterdam in Holland. All the places have a reason for the likeness.

What is your favorite book and why?
I am not into books at all, but I’ve read “Zero Point 1 & 2” by “Javed Chaudhry” and that happens to be my favorite book of all time. I’ve blogged about Javed Chaudhry some 5 times and I get tremendous response from the readers, some of them even fooled into thinking as if I am He.

What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)?
I think first impression always comes from the way person is dressed. Its true that inner beauty is what counts in the end but for someone meeting you first will judge you by your attire from which he can draw your personality’s portrait.

Do you think Pakistani politicians could benefit from the social networks and things like twitter?
Yes, why not but well who will educate them to use them? Will they spare out time for such things? I don’t think so. I think every social network is there for a reason, unlike Facebook , Orkut and MySpace that are used by many big parties and there leaders in the European countries even to conduct there campaigns online, I don’t see any of them in Pakistan, just that they have a web presence with news from there leaders and no direct leader-common man communication. I am really amazed at the way Ron Paul and Barrack Obama are conducting there online campaigns using Facebook, so I think they are useful really. Twitter I haven’t used it myself though am a member so no idea about it.

Whose Future is more bright in Pakistan; English blogs or Urdu Blogs?
I think the English blogs will have an edge over the Urdu ones mainly because out of a thousand blogs in Pakistan, only one turns out to be an urdu blog, and than quality also becomes a question. Though there are a few high quality urdu blogs but than there are many many quality English blogs from Pakistani bloggers and the trend is growing rapidly, so English blogs will have a good future mainly because of the language and the lack of urdu typing and language know-how.

How Pakistani bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?
Blogs can be a great source of generating a healthy income, unlike people who mostly have personal blogs, there are plenty of blogs from technology, article writing, internet marketing  and so on from Pakistani bloggers who earn from it, and provide advertisements and review writing for a fee, as well as using Pay per click and pay per impression programs like AdSense, Adbrite etc to monetize their blog.

Do you think Pakistani bloggers tend to remain somewhat self-centered and really don’t go out of their shells? Is it the oriental style of blogging, or they are still unsure about it?
Well no, many blogs that are popular are not much self centered(I am though), for instance Adil Najam’s Pakistaniat and Dr.Alvi’s Teeth Blog are mostly about the country,politics and the situation all over the world. Similarly I find mostly female bloggers self centered but well some of the blogs are really interesting.

Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?
Success comes from quality and for quality yes you have to sacrifice a bit of time but not like some crazy addicts. It’s not necessary to blog daily, but its good to post quality stuff whenever you blog. So I don’t think any one who is creative needs to spare plenty of time to dedicate for a blog, an hour a day is more than enough.

What are your thoughts on corporate blogs and what do you think the biggest advantages and disadvantages are?

I have never been an avid reader of corporate blogs but I guess they can have a great advantage specially when announcing update and posting feedback and latest news and incidents happening in the organization, dis-advantage I don’t see any.

Does it pain you or proud you that we have made a history by electing a uniform general as our president?
Actually it was not as painful as it sounds, I have a very weird political thinking. I just don’t like anybody that would come up and take over since the politics in our beloved country is so polluted ever since the Quaid died that we were never able to produce a great leader. The General is nothing but yet another product of corrupt politics and place where the Army rules.

Do you think this whole emphasis on blogs and whatever online is a significant indicator to show that the web, the social web, is becoming a very important social force?
For a person like me, I think I know more people online than in real. For instance I know many bloggers by there names, locality, there passion and political view etc that I never got the feeling I haven’t met him/her, since he is there on the web right in front of me so definitely the social web which includes Blogging is a very important social force.

What do you think where the Pakistani blogosphere is right now?

I think with the amount of Bloggers increasing daily and the number of quality blogs increasing as well the Pakistani blogosphere is on a hype, and is continuously growing thus in a good position.

Who are your top five favourite bloggers in Pakisan?
I like many bloggers but a few of them that I do happen to read at times are

Pakistaniat

Teeth Blog

Procrastination

Qurratulain Akhtar

TechnoDigits

Have you ever become stunned by the uniqueness of any blogger in Pakistani blogosphere?
Yes, especially the concept of headers for every event and occasion in Pakistaniat is really a unique thing, plus the owners are constantly busy providing great review type posts and changing the looks of the blog occasionally which sells a lot in our type of blogosphere, and I really can say it is impressive.

In political respect, can we say blogging a ‘democracy of message’?
Yes, it is a democracy but I myself fear when it comes to freedom of expression (specially when you can even face a ban of your site by the government) . There are some reasons I don’t want to get noticed for speaking the truth and turning my own friends into my enemies but well that is just me. All in all Blogs are a Democracy of Message.

Can Pakistani blogosphere play any notable role in the forthcoming elections, if they happen at all?
Yes, they can play an important role as long as they are speaking the truth and don’t post biased reviews just because they had personal ties with a certain political party. And well I hate politics , the word “politics” even.

You have also got a blogging life, how has it directly affected both your personal and professional life?
If only blogging than its not affected my life much either, I spend most of my time online but I have many other activities other than blogging, I blog at maximum once a week and I think spearing 20-30 minutes a week for your blog isn’t a big deal. On the other hand if its internet than yes because am a big time spender on internet due to which am mostly cut off from the friends, have a hard time waking up for lectures in the morning and if I do people find me napping in the middle of lectures, well that is how I am.

What are your future plans?
I plan to complete my Bachelors in IT and than enroll into MBA in Marketing. Though the field is challenging but I like it and enjoy facing challenges.

Any Message you want to give to the readers of The Pakistani Spectator?

Keep blogging and keep reading The Pakistani Spectator since its one of those Pakistan Representing portals which makes us all feel proud.

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