Likable People

People I absolutely adore, admire, or quite like.

A list of people whom I deem either truly remarkable or at least very good based on my personal interactions in life. Although most of my family members have proven themselves to be rather horrendous folks, nevertheless, I have had the good fortune of meeting some spectacular individuals during my years in the educational system and even at a couple of software houses here in Punjab.

Owing to certain undocumented issues, I am having some problems right now, however, I plan to complete the list later. However, to get the ball rolling, meet my favorice senior in town and two of my the most favorite class fellows, one a school fellow and the other one a batch fellow from FAST—NUCES, Lahore. Once I have the energy, I will add the names of the other individuals, from truly remarkably likable to quite likable, later on.

• Syed Zeshan Haider, from Kala Gujran near Jhelum

  In my lifetime so far, I have had the opportunity to get to know a lot of people who managed to get 730–735 marks, approximately 86 percentage aggregate points, in matriculation exams and approximately 880–900 marks in FSc by showing unrivalled industriousness and maintaining infernos with the coursework. These people used to get up at around 5 AM, some even at 4:30 AM, and then spend the whole day with books to get those 730-735 and 880–900 marks in matriculation and FSc respectively. Then these people with 730-735 marks to their names start boasting in this world, despite the sheer number of hours they had spent with the books, that they are very competent people.

  In contrast, I had the absolute EUPHORIC experience of sharing a classroom from 8th grade till 10 grade with an individual with whom I locked horns in 4 different activities, yes, FOUR (4). Both of us were PROFOUNDLY interested in 2 of them, namely calligraphy and cricket; both of us represented our school as cricketers in 9th and 10th grade at regional level. Although he was also interested in education-related matters, however, I had very little interest in spending time with the coursework outside of school and absolutely zero interest in Urdu and Islamayat. He, on the other hand, was profoundly interested in those two subjects, too. Then comes the 4th activity, drawing, which was assigned to us by our teachers. He had a somewhat pronounced interest in drawing and he was quite good at it, while I, in contrast, had absolutely zero interest in drawing. Nevertheless, we had to do drawing projects because we had been assigned these tasks. Although he lost out in all four activities as teachers held my work aloft to show to the rest of the class in all 3 different categories and my name is written on the merit board as the school topper in 8th grade despite my lack of interest in educational matters outside of school, regardless, I still consider him THE MOST TALENTED individual that I have ever had the ABSOLUTE and wholly UNADULTERATED pleasure of sharing a classroom with. You can view his photographs on my Instagram account at Syed Zeshan Haider. You can view more of his photographs on my Instagram page at Irfan Surdar on Instagram.

• Esteemed Dr. Khaver Zia

  Former dean of FAST, subsequently dean at Beaconhouse National University, and a complete course work in modesty and remarkably good behavior. I adore Dr. Khaver Zia as a person who was an authority figure when I was started to observe him and then had at least half a dozen conversations with him, oh the polite and humble manner of the dean of an engineering institution with a PhD from UMST in electrical and electronics engineering.

• Asad Gill

  Although we have lost contact, however, during my 3 years at FAST, I found this individual to be a phenomenal human, a truly remarkable person. I would forever remain in debt for the numerous times he lent his help without ever making me plead or beg for assistance; I just had to ask for help, and he was always there to rescue a drowning soul. Sensational Mr. Asad Akram Gill: a truly remarkable programmer, software engineer, and a tremendous friend as long as we were in touch during our 3 years’ long stay at FAST. It would forever remain an unforgettable experience experiencing his truly remarkable conduct during those 3 years.

• Rehan Ahmad

  The Big G of Teaching, G stands for Great. You can read more about him on my Acknowledgements page. His professional conduct since leaving Pakistan and moving to America has left me outstandingly confused. I have not been able to make any sense of what has happened to him since leaving Pakistan or what sort of an impart the Americans have had on him. Nevertheless, he remains the MVP of teaching at FAST, Lahore for as long as he was visiting FAST.

• Sheeraz Fazal

  A stellar teaching assistant (TA) and team lead; I had the absolute pleasure of working in the team that he was leading at Vroom Technologies (formerly WorldWerx), Lahore. You can read more about him on my Acknowledgements page.

• Aunty Kauser Saleem

  Despite not having any ties with me barring the fact that I was a friend of his son, this woman took excellent care of me while I was enrolled at FAST. A truly remarkable, sensational woman, my darling aunty Kauser.

• Faisal Raja

  A stellar former neighbor and now an accomplished nuclear engineer working for GE Nuclear energy department. We used to play cricket together and tried, in vain, to build toy planes together while growing up in Jhelum.

• Azhar Ali Chaudary

  A competent and phenomenally well-behaved guy. Losing contact with this person has been and will forever remain a great personal disappointment; alas, c’est la vie.

• Dr. Syed Gibran Khurshid

  A very competent person, circumstances considered, with whom I had the unadulterated pleasure of conversing on at least a few different occasions. The few conversations and his mannerism will forever remain etched in my brain, an individual who at least used to be a spectacular person.

• Fahd Pirzada

  He was my class fellow at F. G. College Kharian, Cantonement, and his profile and listed achievements have left me truly impressed; that rarely happens. I don’t know about now, however, when we were enrolled at F. G. College, Kharian, he used to be a spectacularly well-behaved young person. I wish him even better results in the coming years.

• Qazafi Qayyum

  Spectacularly well behaved class fellow at FAST who taught me an invaluable and priceless lesson to try to persevere, may be more than a little, when life throws a curve ball, plans start to fail, or topics at hand or subject matter fails to hold your attention initially.

  Although he got obliterated in the compulsory English language course’s graded work by me, nevertheless, he also taught me the correct pronunciation of the word “fatal”. I hold the lessons taught by the guy extremely dear and remeber him spectacularly fondly.

• Fahd Reaz

  Stellar class fellow and batch fellow at FAST, Lahore, who was always willing to lend a hand in the time of need when we were together at FAST. I remember this fellow extremely fondly.

• Ahmed Ayub

  A remarkably, rather sensationally, well-behaved room mate when I was staying in a small flat here in Lahore during my days at FAST. Sharing the room with him and spending that year and a half as his room mate would forever remain a cherished memory. I sincerely hope that he is enjoying life and doing well. Fables, movies, articles, short stories, and the rest keep always revolve around a certain trite concept, the sheer unlikelihood and improbability of finding a perfect flatmate or room mate. In my case, I was not only able to find a perfect room mate, even my flatmates, two brothers Farid and Naeem, were extremely likeable fellows with just one minor flaw. I cannot say with any degree of certainty what sort of opinion they have of me as I was utterly uninterested in computing affairs at that time, however, I spent the best year and a half away from home in my life. Ahmed Ayub at the time was not only a good student but an excellent guy, as well, who was probably deeply liked by most of his batch fellows at FAST. It is to Ahmed’s credit that he introduced my to one Raja Bhai who would eventually teach me the basics of assembly programming that helped me pass that course. When it comes to my life in Lahore since the start of December, 1996, I probably remember that year and a half in the fondest possible manner.

• Manzil-e-Maqsood

  Spectacularly well behaved woman. The truly remarkable and phenomenal experience of conversing with her on what is deemed by the larger society an exceptionally sensitive matter, body weight, would forever remain etched in my brain. This sensationally well-behaved woman with 923 marks in FSc tackled my question from a purely scientific point of view, and we had a short conversation on metabolism, body’s various mechanisms involved in converting food into energy, and how, on occasions, it fails to fully convert the consumed food into energy and starts to store it as access fat. It was an absolute joy conversing with this person as a young girl at FAST, Lahore, and even when she was working at Cressoft.

• Farhan Zaheer Chaudary

  An extremely caring young adult whom I met at FAST. I still remember the young guy’s love affair with Zippo lighters.

• Imran Majid

  A phenomenally decent person with whom I had the chance to converse on at least a few different occasions while we were enrolled in FAST, Lahore. The fellow now works for Microsoft, and I am elated that he has been able to find success as a stellar software engineer. At least he used to be a spectacularly well-behaved individual; I can only hope that his colleagues share the same sentiment. Experiencing his mannerism would always remain a source of joy for me.

• Fatima Fikri — A spectacularly well-behaved girl conducting herself in a spectacularly likable manner.
• Irum Qazafi Qayyum

  An extremely well-behaved and polite girl whom I met at FAST, Lahore. As a close acquaintance and member of one small group at FAST, she was always willing to give chocolates to everybody in her circle of friends barring me; I will forever remember her refusal to share chocolates with me without making me first ask for them. Naughty girl.

• Usman Khan

  This guy has been my savior at least once. Without his help, I would not have been able to sit the final exam of Numerical Methods course as the teacher was just not willing to change the attendance sheet where I had not attended the requisite number of classes. He pitched in and somehow convinced the teacher to let me sit the exam. Forever grateful for that help.

• Stellar neighbours in Jhelum

  Waleed Mehdi Khan (now a doctor and eye surgeon), uncle Talib Chaudahry and his children, major Zahoor and his eldest child Faisal Raja.

• Spectacularly well-behaved, extremely likable former class fellows

  At F. G. Public Boys School Jhelum, Cantonment, I had the pleasure of meeting Atiq Rehman (remember the times spent with this person spectacularly fondly), Khalid Bhatti, Bilal Ayub, and Ali Ayub.

• Sami Chaudary

  The only son of our chemistry professor in Jhelum Sadiq Sahab. A sensationally well-behaved young adult and it was a pleasure conversing with him, always. He will forever enjoy a special place in my brain.