my stay in czech republic 2009-2012 (part two)

7/31/2019 My Stay in Czech Republic 2009-2012 (Part Two)

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My Stay in Czech Republic

2009-2012

(Part Two)

Dr. Muhammad Mushtaq Mangat

July 2012

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Brief Introduction of Technical University Liberec

[http://www.tul.cz/en/dokument-0010.html]

In 1953, College of Mechanical was established during the communist era. At that time,

there were two faculties; textile and mechanical. After 1989, it was upgraded and few

more faculties were added. Currently there are six faculties and one institute. University

is known for its many inventions in textile field. During last fifteen years, five faculties

have been added; it shows that government is focusing to improve the level of the

university. Latest development is addition of health institute.

In district Liberec, Technical University of Liberec (TUL) is the only public university

and there are 8000 students studying here. Education in Czech language is free,

however, students have to pay if they want to study in English. I met a student, named

Mr. Sohail, from Morocco, who spent one year to learn Czech then started his education

in Czech language and paying nothing. In addition he is working for 20 hrs a week and

making enough money to meet his living expenses. There are very few information

about university in English on university web. I will try to collect information from

people and then will share with you. Here are some pictures of university and the office

where I sit.

My First day in University

Prof. Ibraheem left me in my room on Nov 10, 2009, evening. I was tired and need food

too. Adnan Mazari took me to his room, 326 B Block, where he is staying with two

other students, now my best friends, Mr. Rehan Abbasi and Mr. Zameer Shah. All of us

are graduates from National Textile University (formally National College of Textile

Egg). Other than me, all are doing MS in textile. Adnan Mazari is the first Pakistani

student who came in this university. He came on invitation for three months in 2008.

This year he came in Oct, 2009. Mr. Rehan and Mr. Zameer, who are faculty members

in textile dept IT University Quetta and are here on scholarship. (Rehan, Zameer and

Adnan Mazari have started PhD after completing MS.)

All three gentlemen were staying in same section. Mr. Zameer and Mr. Rehan areroommates, however, Adnan Mazari is staying with a Czech by named Yakoob. He was

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not in the room so I spent my night in Adnan Mazaris room. I had a very deep sleep

because I was in travel since last 24 hours. Next day morning, Prof. Ibraheem came and

took me to office of hostel management. He talked to give me a single room, which was

not possible. There were three ladies working in office. Only one can speak English

other were not able to speak even few words. They told that there was no room

available. I was told to stay with Czech boy, now my friend Mr. Jiri, Vinklar.

Prof Sayed Ibrahim took me to textile dept, which is 15-20 minutes walk from the

hostels. We went by car and that was my first day in Technical University Liberec.

Mr. Pavel, who is looking after international students of textile department. He offered

coffee and greeted. After a while, he managed my meeting with my PhD supervisor Dr.

Lubos Hes and Dr. Jiri, Militky at 2.00 PM. During this time, he showed me different

offices and a small library, where they have collection of photocopies of different

English books related to textile.

At 2:00 p.m., both gentlemen arrived and discussed my PhD schedule. They explained

the plan in detail and we agreed on many issues. According to the plan, I have to pass

four courses and complete a research project. I was allowed to start my research project,

however, it was decided that first I finish my courses then I should start my research.

Innovative Denim was declared my area of research. Detail of the project is not of

interest for readers of this diary.

Before I tell you about visit of police office, meeting with a dentist, getting login for

email and issuance of university ID. I will tell you something about the city Liberec,

where I have to stay for next many years.

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Liberec: An Old City of Textile With Many Names and Claims

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberec)

Liberec is pronounced differently in Czech language is located on the Lusatian Neisse

and surrounded by the Jizera Mountains and Jetd-Kozkov Ridge. It is the sixth-

largest city in the Czech Republic. Many Germans and Flemish were invited by the

Czech Republic King to live here for the development of area in 14th century. And still

German claims the city. But now it is a settled matter. Reichenberg is German name of

this city.

Once Liberec was called Manchester of Bohema. History of Liberec goes back to 1348

AD, when Albrecht von Wallenstein ruled it. In late 16th century, textile industry was

major industry of the city and city was known for textiles. However, war, which is

called Thirty Years War and later on plague in 1680, affected the city activities.

By the end of 19th century Liberec became once again a popular city. We can find

many buildings of 19th and 20th century. Town hall, opera house and the museum aresome known buildings of that era. City center in the center and around we see different

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Figure 1Working in lab


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residential areas on the hills. Centre city is in like a bowl. When we want to go city, we

prefer to walk but in way back we try to have bus, since most of the living areas are on

the top or in the middle of mountains.

It is interesting to note that after WW I, Czechoslovakia refused to incorporate the

ethnic German majority and German people established an independent state, which

was invaded by Czechoslovakia army. Nevertheless, after WWI, city was used for Pan-

German movement but finally German population was expelled after WW II and

onward, only Czech people are living here. I asked from Prof Lubos Hes about the

expulsion of German people. He told that we believed that German people living in

Liberec invited German military to raid Liberec and they were responsible for all

unfortunates of Liberec people.

Liberec's prominent buildings are the town hall (1893), the castle of Count Clam Gallas,

built in the17th century. The Jetd Tower (1968) upon the Jetd Mountain, which

became a symbol of the city. There are many new building.

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Initial arrangements

In previous reports I wrote about the university in general. In this report I will share

some experiences, which I had during my first week. It is mandatory for every

international student to report to border police, which is a branch of police dealing with

foreigners. For this purpose, one should keep passport and medical insurance. Here I

would like to inform you that it is a law in Schengen countries that every visitor should

have a medical insurance. I got my insurance from Pakistan but unfortunately I forgot it

in Pakistan. However I did have the photocopy. Marketing office of textile faculty helps

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Figure 2 Jested in Liberec


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students for police reports. Miss Luci who is working in marketing office can speak

English, since she had spent three years in USA, guides students and takes them to

police office.

On Nov12, 2009, Luci took me to police office. It was 15 minutes walk from textile

department. Note that 15 minutes walk not on a straight road, rather on a hilly road.

Furthermore, the office was situated on fourth floor and had no lift. In addition, being

an old building, roofs were quite high. Finally we reached there and saw more than 30

people standing in the middle of the rooms. There was no waiting room, only few

rooms were around and in the center there was a place where people were standing and

some people were standing along the walls. Most of the people were from other Eastern

Europe countries like, Poland, Ukraine. It was quite astonishing for me that there were

many people from Vietnam. Luci told me there are many people from Vietnam living

here since long time. They are settled here.

After a wait of about 15 minutes, a police officer asked us to come in. There were few

more people in room but none of them was in police uniform. One person, who was not

able to speak even a single word of English, took my passport and talked with Luci and

finally stamped my passport and allowed us to go. He also instructed to get insurance

from any insurance company of Czech with in couple of days. Overall attitude of police

was quite cooperative and humble. The way he behaved, it was not arrogant at all.

However, it looks that police had very strong authority here. In coming weeks I did not

see many police officers patrolling. Notwithstanding that, I saw police car always

following ambulances, otherwise I seldom saw any police vehicle or police officer.

In Czech Republic Police system looks very strong. It may be due to the due to

influence of USSR in past. I took lot of information from the official website of

Ministry of Interior.

The head of the department is the police president; the most important departments

include the Border Police, the department for corruption and financial crime

investigations and the national anti- drugs office. There are following ten different

departments of police:

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1. The border police service

2. The criminal police service

3. The traffic police service

4. The administration activity service

5. The Safety service

6. The service for investigating corruption and serious commercial crimes

7. The foreign and border police service

8. The rapid response team

9. The railway police service

10. The air service.

They have to perform different duties. It is quite apparent from their names. Other than

these departments, there are few more departments. Like; National anti-drug office,

Department for investigating corruption and commercial criminality Department

specializing in identifying and investigating serious tax crimes Department for

identifying organized crime.

The most important department is border police, which deals with 50% of total crimes.

Other than all above-mentioned departments, there is a special department, which deals

with the unresolved cases during communism era (1948-1989). This department

investigates crimes during this period and brings them to justice.

Before we leave border police office, police officer asked me during my movement

anywhere in city to keep always passport and insurance along with university card.

However, it is not necessary to keep passport while in university. I argued that

university card should be sufficient, which he did not accept.

Before I take you bank and share account opening process, I would like to tell you story

of people of South Africa, who went to police office for registration. One of the

students, who took lot of alcohol night before going to police office, started vomiting in

police office. In response, police officer called Mr. Pavel and explained him the whole

situation. Miss Luci was also there. It took a great effort to resolve the issue.

Now I have to keep my passport, whenever going any other place other than university

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campus. Nevertheless, in university I have to keep my pink card and university card to

open hostel gates.

Bank Account

Every person should have bank account. It is mandatory since one has to do

transactions, which are only possible through bank. It is not advised to keep money in

room or in pocket, rather they advise to use debit card.

Miss Luci took me to Ceska Sporitelna bank to open account. We went to its branch

situated in the city center. This branch is in a very old and highly impressive building. It

looks like old buildings, with high roofs and wide corridors. On bank gate there was no

locked door, no gunman. However, there was only one person standing at the entrance

busy in chat with some people. There was a big hall. People were sitting in different

cabins and on every cabin a number was seen. We took a token and after a while, on

our turn, we went to a bank officer, he was a young man of less than age of 30. He did

not know even a few words of English, here all talks was through Luci. In a time of 15

minutes he completed all documentations and gave me a card, showing my bank

account number and asked me to wait for PIN, which will be sent to me directly on my

hostel address and after getting the pin, I should contact bank and take my ATM/Debit

Visa card.

Bank building, space, furniture, staff was much impressive. There were two ATM

machines installed on the bank entrance. On both machines you can take money.

However, you can deposit money through a machine--- means you can put money in

machine; machine will count it and will deposit in your account.

Bank officer told me that they did not give cheque book to account holder, unless

companies require it. They discourage to use cheques, rather they advise people to

transfer money through Internet banking. This bank has been awarded with best and

most trusted bank in 2009.

You can estimate the strength of the bank from following figures of 2009:

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1. Total Assets: 856.7 billion Kc (more than 50.00 Billion, US $)

2. More than five million Number of active clients

3. Number of branches: 655

While we were going bank I asked Luci to go any money exchanger to get Czech

money. She took me into a small office. On the gate of office there was no security

guard and no door was locked. However, the woman dealing customers was behind a

glass sheet. She took Euro and gave Czech money and refused to accept one Euro note,

which was damaged from a corner and fixed with tape. The bank did not accept this

note and it is with me. It means that we should not take mended currency notes. On way

back, we took bus. Since university is at height and Mr. Luci and me were tired. This

was first experience of bus.

Liberec Transport System

There is no underground rail system in Liberec; it is mainly due to its size. However,

there are buses and trams. Majority of the buses and trams are new and much

comfortable. There are three types of ticket; for 20 minutes (10 Kr), 40 minutes (16 Kr)

and 24 hours (100 Kr). You can use ticket on any bus or on any tram anywhere in the

city. Compulsion is that you have to leave bus with in stipulated time. On entering in a

bus or tram, passenger has to punch ticket on a machine fixed in the bus or tram.

Machine will stamp the time of journey and on checking; the inspector will check the

time. You can have monthly pass, 500 Kr. Regular passenger buys monthly pass. Bus

takes 10-12 minutes from hostel to city and it charges us 16 Kr. (Pk. Rs. 80.00),

sometime, it looks expensive. Hostel to city is 40 minutes walk (now it is Kr 18).

Office Timing and Working Hours

Sunrise time here is nearly 8.00 in Nov 2009, and there are many offices which start at

7.00 AM. In our university first class starts at 7.00 AM. Mr. Pavel told me that he used

to come in his office at 6.00 AM. It looks quite amazing that there is still dark and the

whole city has started its function. So much so doctors starts clinic at 7.00. The lady

looking after hostel-maintenance comes to her office at 6:00 AM. It is quite common

that office starts at 6.00 AM.

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In my first week, I felt a teeth pain, initially, it was not so severe but in a couple of days

it made my life uneasy. I asked Luci to arrange any appointment with dentist.

Meanwhile, I got my insurance here, which is quite important. I got insurance from

Pakistan but it was not of good use here. Luci tried many doctors and no doctors were

ready to give appointment. Finally Luci took help of her mother, who is working in an

insurance company and we got an appointment of dentist.

7:00 AM in Center City (Note Sun rises at 7:45 AM).

It was quite amazing for me that so early, doctor will be in clinic. Luci asked me to

come in university at 6:45 a.m. so that we will walk to clinic. Luci lives at a 30 minutes

walk from university. I asked her how she would manage? She told me that she had a

dog, which did not like to stay home alone and everyday her grandparents used to come

to pick the dog, and they would drop her in university. Here is an example of love

between grandparents and grandsons and daughters. We met in university at 6:45 and

went to clinic. We were there at 7:00 AM. It was surprising for me that every thing was

on. There were many patients. Roads were quite busy, people were moving fast to their

work. If doctor is present and ready to work, it means that he and his staff is there

before 7:00 AM. Here I will also mention that in university first class starts at 7:00 AM

and last class ends at 7:35 PM. Early start and early ends.

On our turn we went inside the clinic (operation room of dentist). It was quite clean and

neat and furthermore every thing was white, including, dress of doctor and his nurse,

table, draws etc. It looks that you are in room filled with snow.

Just imagine, a conversation about the problem between two; one knows only Czech

and not even a single word of English, and patient knows not even a single word of

Czech. Luci was there to work as a translator. Luici helped a lot in getting treatment ofmy teethes.

It is quite surprising that in a small country of 10 million people, they have all

education in Czech starting from primary to highest level. Language is rich, people are

proud of their language. They even do not use some common terms of science. For

temperature they use word: Teplota. In daily life they do not like to use the word sorry,

they use their own word: omlouvat se. It was a nice experience. The behavior of doctor

was quite friendly and free from greed. He told to have some special brush and remove

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some food elements stick in small hole under the teeth and at the joining of two teeth.

Just imagine, if you feel a pain and you need a translator to tell doctor... what will be

the situation of patient during translating time.

Jumma Prayer: Nov 13, Room 101 Block B

There are very few Muslims students here and I know only one Muslim teacher, Prof.

Ibrahim. University has provided a room 101, in Block E for prayer. Muslim students,

mainly from Arabian countries manage this room. There is no regular prayer. However,

Jumma prayer is a regular feature. Adnan Mazari explained me and we finally reached

in room 101. Time was 12.30 PM. A young man, br. Zameer from Morocco read a

sermon, downloaded from net in Arabic and finally we said our prayer. We were 9

followers and one Imam. Imam told that Asar prayer will be at 2.00 PM. This room is

situated on the roof of in Dandy Bar, which is a bar and much busy. It is the QISMAT

of place, selected for prayer or for club.

Prayer room in Hostel

There is no mosque in Liberec. It is estimated that around 50 Muslims are living in

Liberec. Majority is from Arab countries. We were four from Pakistan. Few people

were from Chechnya, Central Asian states and Bosnia. Many years back, university

allotted a room in E Block for prayer. There is no regular prayer in this room, however,

Juma and Eid prayerd is quite regular. Average attendance is around 10-12. Br Aziz

from Marrakesh was our Imam and quite active to keep prayer activities intact.

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Figure 3In Prayer room after Juma Prayer with people mostly from Arab countries

Textile Innovation and Czech Republic

In this part of the article, I will discuss contribution of Czech Republic in textile

innovations, general education system in Czech Republic, Eid and Prague, religious

beliefs of people and life under communist regime.

I am in textile filed since 1976, when I took admission in textile college Faisal Abad. It

is a fact that economy of Pakistan is highly dependent on textile industry. If we analyze

our production system, products, which we are making and the way of manufacturing

(type of machine), I can say that concepts, ideas, products, technology, engineering,

which we are using today were under used in this country before 1960.

Today they are doing which we are not aware of even. I have a book on Clothing

Comfort written in 1960. Book shows that in 1950s, clothing comfort concept was very

much common here and people were producing fabrics keeping in view the clothing

comfort. There are certain machines to check the clothing comfort.

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It would be strange for all of us that even in 2010, there was no subject of clothing

comfort being taught in any university of Pakistan, which is offering textile graduation

courses. There is no machine throughout the Pakistan to check clothing comfort. This is

an example to compare us with the developed world.

One day Prof Lubos Hes took me to show the latest testing machine from Japan. These

machines are the most expensive machines in the world, developed by Mr. Kawabata.

Dr. Lubos took many of his students to show the machines. We entered in the room,

where Kawabata Evaluation machines had been put into function. These machines test,

friction, stress/strain curve, draping and bending, compressibility. I saw picture of Mr.

Kawabata hanging on the wall. It looks that he feels proud on his invention, as we were

admiring the working of machines. No student is allowed to work on these machines.

Only trained staff is allowed to work on it.

At this moment I would also like to share my visits of the office of Prof. Dr. Jiri

Militky. Dr. Militky, who is my co-supervisor and ex dean of textile faculty, advised

me to submit my first report on Nov 26, 2009. I went to his office and first met his

secretary. The women told me that he was working on computer in the adjacent room.

It was not surprising for me; rather it gave me a great wonder after seeing collection of

books, journals, reports and many things more in his room. He greeted me and took

time out to see my report. He gave few valuable comments and discussed few points,

which were very in depth nature keeping textile engineering in view. I learned a lot

during his few minutes company. Dr. Militky is known all over the world for his

research.

On Dec 21, I again got a chance to enter in his office and saw his lab. There is a dress

code for labs, means you have to change the shoes and put on gown. It gave me a

wonder that how many testing machines were there. Here I would also like to tell you

that every department has its own lab and every lab is of millions of US $. I could not

see labs of spinning, weaving, stitching, composite material. I am hopeful that I will get

a chance to see these machines.

From all above discussion you may assess the level of facilities and research work of

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the university in textile filed. There are many renowned patents, which university owns.

There is a big contribution of Czech Republic in the filed of textile. The most important

are shuttle less loom and open end spinning. Dr. Lubos told that in 1950, there was an

institute in Prague to work on drying machines. Nearly 20 PhD students were working

to produce effective and efficient drying machines. In those days, Czech Republic

stenter was one the most efficient drying machines. Technical University Liberec has a

very strong department of spinning weaving, wet processing, clothing and composite

materials. Here I would also share that composite materials are one of most emerging

area in textile and in Pakistan we do not have any courses on it and definitely there is a

no separate discipline. This discipline needs lot of testing machines and latest

knowledge----. We are lacking in both.

In the filed of textile, invention of shuttle less loom and open-end spinning is the

greatest contribution of Czech Republic.

There was a considerable increase in machine manufacturer and newer and improved

version of machines were launched with increased speed at 100000 rpm. The year 1975

witnessed first automated machine from Sussen equipped with Spincat and Cleancat

which opened up the industrial rotor spinning breakthrough and in 1977 Schlafhorst

with Autocoro machines which made a mark in open-end market.

It tells us that in 1937, their focus was to develop a new spinning process and it took 40

years to market product. In 2009, there was not even a single spinning machine

manufacturing company in Pakistan and there is no course on this topic.

I tried my level best to have more information about the contribution of Czech Republic

in textile machines but could not. Prof. Ibrahim promised me to take one day to an

institute, which is still working to develop new textile machines. I will share my

observation after the visit.

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My Supervisor Prof Lubos Hes

Dr. Lubos is a very active person in the field of clothing comfort and well known in the

world of clothing comfort. He has invented his own thermal and water vapor testing

machines. Dr. Lubos looks of more than 65 years. He is very active and always walksvery fast. I tried to pace him but could not. In a walk of 200 meters he was 50 more

ahead to me. I think that is the reason he is so fit. (for more information about Dr.

Lubos:www.sensora.eu/CVLHes.pdf).

Prof Lubos Hes has invented many machines. The most common is Alambeta and

Permetest, used for the testing of thermal and vapor transmission. Lot of people are

using these machines for research. Moreover, he has developed many models. One

important parameter is thermal absorbtivity, which he introduced.

He is quite generous in teaching. He always welcomed me in his office. Took me many

times for lunch and also invited me at home for lunch. His wife cooked fish for me. I

must appreciate this couple. Prof Lubos Hes has very kind nature and always try to

keep himself busy. I completed my PhD in 2.5 years, it all happened due to kind and

consistent support of Prof Lubos Hes. I must be thankful to him.

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http://www.sensora.eu/CVLHes.pdfhttp://www.sensora.eu/CVLHes.pdfhttp://www.sensora.eu/CVLHes.pdf


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Figure 4 Prof Lubos Hes with his wife during Pakistan visit April 2010

Dec 21, 2009: My First Eid-ul-Azha in Czech Republic

There are approximately 10-15 Muslim students in university. Majority of them belongs

to Arabian countries, two from central Asia and four from Pakistan. It was decided that

Eid prayer would be arranged in 101 E Bloc. Zameer, Rehan, Adnan Mazari and me

decided to go Prague for Eid. The purpose was to have a bigger gathering and visit of

Prague.

We got bus tickets; our bus departure time was 6:30 AM. For this purpose we had to

take a bus from hostel to center city and then another bus. We all left our hostel at 5:30

AM. It is too early, but surprising that bus was full and I saw in the center city that at

6:00 AM there were a lot of people. I was told that almost all company timing is 6 AM

2.30 PM, 7:00-3:30 is also very common. Fist bus starts at 4:30 AM.

Bus came at exact time; we showed our ticket to bus driver, who had a list of passenger

on his mobile phone. On our way to Prague, I saw first time petrol stations. It seemsthat no petrol pump is in the city and near to residential or commercial area. All pumps

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are outside and in open areas. Bus took almost one hour to Prague. During this journey

I saw there is a big change in landscape. In Liberec there are lot of mountains, but

outside Liberec, there is a plane land and near to Prague it is almost a plane land.

Mr. Rehan and Mr. Zameer were having a good knowledge about the whereabouts of

the city. They had also downloaded the map and got information about the time and

place of prayer. Bus dropped us near to a tram station; Cherny Most. We took ticket for

24 hours, which cost us 100 Kr each. We reached at our destination by using trams.

Time of prayer was given 8:15 AM, we reached at 7:50.

Muslim Organization had arranged prayer in a big sports hall. Signs on the floor show

that this is basketball hall. It was well established. There were 1500 chairs on sides,

canteen WC, high roof and looks not old. On our entrance, we saw that 200-300 people

were sitting on ground, there were some white fabric and some people were on prayer

mats. On speaker, there was recitation of takbeer. We sat at different places as per our

convenience. Recitation of takbeer kept on and there was no speech or khtuba. People

were busy in talks, making pictures and movie. However, majority was reciting takbeer

loudly, following the takbeer on speaker. Till 8:40 AM there was no sign of prayer.

Finally a man who looks from African countries pointed out the imam sitting in

frontline, and showed him his watch. We started prayer at 8:45 AM.

After prayer we took underground rail and went to the city center. This was a huge area

with a very wide street. It was not beautiful rather it looks great. At the end of the street

there is a museum. Our problem was breakfast. Adnan Mazari intimated that there is a

Turkish restaurant, which we could not find; rather we find a store of man from

Pakistan. His name was Imran and he owned more than 14 different stores and

restaurants here in Prague. There were Czech women at counter and a man from

Pakistan working inside. We greeted eid and asked him something to eat. He guided us

and we took some sandwiches and he made coffee for us in his office.

After having a breakfast, we started walking in the streets. I have seen very rare such

well decorated and with lot of work buildings. On our way, we saw Wenceslas Square

and National Museum. The most impressive place where Astronomical Clock has been

fixed. It is a big building and every time, you can see lot of visitors looking at this

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clock.

Millions of tourists visit Prague every year and it is next to impossible that one miss to

see clock, Charles bridge, Castle and main city center. We could not visit castle due to

shortage of time. However, we could find enough time to see clock, city center and

bridge. On bridge we saw a group of musicians playing with instruments, cartoonist

making cartoons.

There was one plate fixed on one part of the bridge. It is generally believed that you can

have any wish by touching this plate. There were many people who were touching this

plate. Due to rubbing so frequently, this plate was shining. This act reminded me

different trees, places in other parts of the world, particularly in Pakistan where people

go and do different acts to get their wishes done. After spending many hours during the

visits, our final destination was a Lahorei restaurant. Mr. Imran Hussain, who belongs

to Pakistan and owns many shops and restaurants, owns this restaurant. We took pure

food of Lahore and enjoyed their hospitality. Two young men were serving there and

both belonged to Lahore. It gave me a sense of home after talking them in punjabi with

Lahori accent. We took bus and reached Liberec late in evening.

A tour of Prague City

We decided to have tour of Prague. Prague is an historic city and there are lots of things

to see there. We had only six hours so accordingly we selected few places and one

Lahori restaurant.

Before I talk about the places, which we visited, I will let you know something aboutPrague. For this purpose I have taken information from the following website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_History

You can visit this link and can have more information.

City has very interesting history. It is situated at the route, which connects southern part

of Europe to northern part. It is believed that this city was built in late sixth century. Its

name in Czech Republic is Prah. The land where the city is built was first occupied by

Celtic tribe, which was known as Boii. There is a region in Czech Republic named

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Bohemia. It is narrated that in last part of sixth century Princess Libue, the sovereign

of the Czech tribe, dreamed about the city and city was built and it was named Prah and

castle was built there at the bank of Vltava River.

Prague metro is 30 years old but they have replaced most of their cars and now it looks

quite modern and attractive. More than 400 million people used this system annually or

you can say 1.5 million people use daily. It has 57 stations and three different lines.

Total track length is about 50 KM. It starts at 5 a.m. till midnight after every 2-3 min.

However, in off-peak hours this duration becomes 10-15 minutes. All three lines meet

in the city center and every station is well equipped by lot of facilities and of course,

neat and clean. The deepest station is 52 meter down. Using tunnel shield technique and

some by cut-and-cover method makes many parts of the rail.

On Feb 22, 1990 after the velvet evolution, government changed names of 14 different

stations, which were reflecting the communism ideology. Government also decided to

replace old Russian trains with Siemens. There was big damage to the rail system in

2002, due to flood. Nearly 19 stations were affected and rail had to bear a loss of 200

Million US $.

A Trip to Skiing Spot

I have no experience of skiing or even visiting of any place where people are skiing.

Mr. Tomas, my next-door neighbor told that they had a plan to go for skiing. I asked to

go with them, he agreed and we went to a skiing spot at a distance of 15 KM. Tomas

had a car, which was 17 years old and equipped with diesel engine. I sat with him on

front seat and his girl friend took the back seat. We crossed two different mountainpeaks and reached at Serpark, which was a skiing spot. I saw many hundred people

skiing and playing on ski boards on snow. It gave me a surprise that 3-4 years old kids

were also skiing. There were two lifts to take people on top and then people start skiing.

There was a woman of more than 60 years old, which was also skiing and enjoying. For

toddlers, they was a small place, where they were sitting in small tubs and machine was

puling them in a circle.

At skiing spot, there were many restaurants. Tomas and his friend went for skiing and I

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was seeing people and having a different experience. There was no security man; no

security camera and people were doing their best. After sometime, when I started

feeling cold, I went to a restaurant. Restaurant was totally decorated by skiing

equipment and boards.

Here issue was selection of food. All names were in Czech language. I asked a man

standing before me and he helped me in selection of a vegetable soup. Soup was hot

and delicious. It gave me much energy to bear the cold outside.

After finishing the skiing, we came to know that one tire of the car had been flattened.

It was evening, temperature was freezing, car was old, we were in a jungle and unable

to replace the tire since one bolt became fixed and refused to move. It gave us a great

anxiety and Tomas went to different restaurants for help. Finally one person told that he

had a compressor. We took our car to his garage and air was pumped and we reached

hostel after sunset. No need to mention that we were happy.

Figure 5 Ski Spot near Liberec

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My Friends in Liberec from Pakistan

After finalizing the trip to Czech Republic, I was worried about food and company of

unknown people. I talked to Adnan Mazari and he told me that I should not worry sincethere were two students from Pakistan in Liberec. It gave me a relief. I reached hostel

and Adnan Mazari introduced me to Mr. Rehan Abbasi and Mr. Zameer Sayed. Adnan,

Rehan and Zameer are living in B Hostel in same section, whereas, I live in F hostel.

There was a distance of 500 meters. They had a mess and I joined. Mr. Zameer is much

expert in cooking. Mr. Rehan was also making good food. Adnan Mazari and me were

not much expert in cooking. In short, I enjoyed their company and had delicious dinner

every day. At lunch, I take some sandwiches or fruit and for breakfast I prefer some

fruits and nut flakes, milk, juice etc.

My Czech Friends

I do not have many friends. There are few people, who remained very closed to me

during this time. My first room was Jiri. He was a nice boy. My next-door friend was

Tumas, now in Canada. Honza, my best friend was living in the same section. My last

roommate was Lukas, a young and nice person. We used to spend some time in

restaurants. Other than these I had few friends from Egypt, Turkey, Tajikistan etc.

Here are some snaps of my different friends.

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Figure 6Beautiful Autumn in Liberec

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Figure 7Honza and Leva, my freinds who came on my Dgree awarding ceremeny

Figure 8 Honza with his friend Eva, a gentle girl, my daughter like. She spent time with me in

hospital, when I needed someone. She worked as translator between me and doctor and gave me

emotional support to face the illness, I am thankful to her.

Love of Family

Honzicek Huk was 19 years old and was student of university. In an incident he fell

down and died. His family has marked the place of his death and put there many

candles, a car tire, lot of flowers, toys etc. During my stay I saw once a lady putting

some flowers and candles. I asked her and she told that boy was her son. I always saw

burning candles and fresh flowers. During my stay they made a stone plate and put all

his details. He died in Aug 2008 but still people might be from his family or his friends

are keeping candle burning.

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Dinner as NISA

I planned to come back to Pakistan for few weeks. I offered dinner to my friends in a

restaurant situated in NISA, the biggest shopping mall in Liberec. NISA is located

outside the city and they have a free shuttle bus from city center to mall after every 30minutes.

On Dec 22, 2009, we decided to go NISA. For this purpose we took bus from hostel to

city center and then to NISA. There were lots of people going to NISA since Christmas

date was close. There are more than 200 different shops in NISA mall. You can have

dry cleaner facility and can have complete furniture of the house. There were more than

10 different restaurants. We selected one and got food. On this restaurant there was

only one lady who could speak English, but little. It becomes very interesting

communication, when you have to select a food free from all sorts of meet.

We enjoyed our food and came back to hostel. During this trip I realized that people do

not prefer single shops in city center, rather, they prefer to go to big shopping malls.

There are many understood reasons of this selection. I foresee that if this trend

continues in future, there are more chances that small shops would be closed down and

small traders will suffer a lot.

Return to Pakistan

I planned to spend Christmas holidays in Pakistan. For this purpose I asked my travel

agent to book my seat on Dec 24, 2009 from Prague to Pakistan. I got confirmation and

three days before my departure, I checked on website and found that I had been booked

on Feb 24, 2010. I contacted my travel agent and he assured me that you would get

reservation before time and DO NOT WORRY AT ALL.

Flight time from Prague was 13:45 and from Istanbul it was 18:00 and flight arrival

time at Karachi was 2:45. I woke up at 4:30 AM and asked Adnan Mazari to be ready.

He promised to company me to the student bus company office. We took bus at 7:07AM and after taking tram reached at bus station. It was quite early and of course cold.

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There was a lot of snow and temperature was low freezing point. However, coffee

machine was working. Adnan Mazari offered me coffee and after coffee we tried to

locate any toilet, which we could not. Mostly busses are equipped with toilet. It gave

me a surprise that bus toilet is out of order. It happens sometime.

Adnan Mazari went back to hostel and bus left at 8:00 AM for Prague. It is one-hour

journey. In bus there is a coffee and tea machine, which is free and one can have but I

could not due to reason that toilet was out of order. I reached at Churney Most station,

which is the first station of underground rail. Here ticket is 26 Kr, which is valid for 70

minutes. Rail took 40 minutes and after having 25 stops on different stations, reached

its termination point. From this station, I took bus and reached at Prague airport.

I contacted Turkish airline, and they told me that your seat from Prague to Istanbul was

confirm but it was not confirmed from Istanbul to Karachi. For next two hours I tried to

contact my travel agent but no answer. I asked Asif Mangat to contact. Finally I got the

message DO NOT WORRY AT ALL. At 13:15, just 30 minutes before departure time,

Turkish air line officer offered me economy plus class against an additional 5200 CR,

which was equal to 26,000.00 Pk Rs. I paid and got the boarding card. It gave me a

lesson that it is better to communicate directly with the airline and do not try to come at

airport without confirmation.

I saw a number of passengers at Istanbul airport without confirmation. It was news for

me that flight from Istanbul to Karachi is a merger flight of PIA and Turkish airline.

People from across the Europe adopt this route and due to holiday season, there was a

long queue. I witnessed a big mess there. Flight was delayed for nearly two hours. I feel

that things are normally under control but our minor mistakes make them out of control

and finally we have unwanted results.

Flight landed at 5:30 AM at Karachi airport and we boarded on a bus, whose gate was

out of order and it remained opened during traveling. All passengers were Pakistani and

they were coming from a developed world. They laughed and I became ashamed.

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my stay in czech republic 2009-2012 (part two)

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