Yeah Right! Thats Me -- Shabbir

My name is Shabbir Malik. I am originally from Karachi, Pakistan. I was born on March 23, 19?? (that is correct guys, they knew that I would born on such a day so the government decided to have March 23 as a National Holiday. Ha ha ha....) in Karachi and stayed there till 1987 when I moved to the United States. My parents are originally from Qadian, India but migrated to Pakistan in 1947. I have two brothers, one older and one younger.

When I was four years old my parents decided that it was time for me to go to school so they admitted me to "AURANGZEB GRAMMAR SCHOOL" from where I passed my Kinder Garden. A year later I moved on to "PAK CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL." I stayed there for two years and passed second grade before moving on to yet another school, "GREEN LAND GRAMMAR SCHOOL." In 1974 I passed my third grade with flying colors. Our principal thought that I was extra smart and an above average student so she let me skipped fourth grade and promoted me to the fifth grade. I continued my educational achievements for the next four years and always stayed among the top 2% of the class but to my luck I could not skip any more grades {damn I missed skipping grades, smile}. In 1978, after passing my eighth grade, I was transferred to a private school, "GULISTAN SHAH ABDUL LATIF BHITTAI SCHOOL." I passed tenth grade from this school and got my Secondary School Certificate (SSC) in 1980.

In September 1980, I started SHIPOWNERS GOVERNMENT COLLEGE" as a pre-engineering student. The first year in college was not very exciting in terms of my studies as I spent most of the time following the college cricket team rather than on my studies, although I never made to the team. Because of spending way too much time with cricket my grades in the first year were not very good. Suddenly, in the second year I realized that in order to do something in life I need to get good grades in the second year. Although my grades in the first year (or 11th grade) were not that bad, I still needed to boost my average in the 12th grade to get into NED (the only Engineering University in Karachi). In those days people thought that there were only two respectable professions, an Engineer or a Doctor. That is why every parent wanted their children to be either one of them. I was never interested to be either one. Although my parents never forced me to be either one, there were expectations that I would do something good. I graduated from the Shipowners College in 1982 with first division. I did get excellent grade in the 12th grade but not enough to get me into the Engineering University. I missed the admission in NED by just 4 points. I think that was great in a sense that I did not want to go their. I wanted to be something else. What? I did not even know myself. Anyway, in 1983 I was admitted in the University of Karachi and majored in Economics with Mathematics & Statistics as my minors. This was the best thing ever happened to me. I always liked Mathematics. Statistics and Economics were new subjects for me but they were interesting. I started to enjoy them and became a pro in Probability. I got my BS (honors) with a Gold Medal in 1987 by achieving first position in the Faculty of Arts. You know the secret? I will tell you but please don't tell anyone, I did not play or follow cricket there (ha ha ha ha.......)

I moved to the United States of America in November 1987 and in New York since January 1988. Since then I have been living in NYC . I took a two year break from school and then re-started my education in 1989. I went to Stern School of Business of New York University for my undergraduate (again) and received a BS in Economics with Omicron Delta Epsilon Award in 1993 and then moved on to the graduate school right away and got my MS in Statistics with Beta Gamma Sigma award in May 1997. I did all my schooling in this country as a part time evening student while working full time. [No big deal, a lot of people do it that way but I thought I mention it anyway.]

In Pakistan, I was a big fan of Cricket. I kept record of all Pakistani test matches as well as One day internationals including statistics of players. I followed this game for the first seven years in the United States but then my interest slowly drifted away. Most of the cricketers from my time were either retired or thrown away from the team. The biggest blow to my cricket fan-ship was when BCCP kicked out Javed Miandad from the team. He was my hero and I am a big fan of him. I wanted him to retire with grace but alas! These kind of things can never happen in Pakistan. In protest, I stopped keeping all records of Pakistan cricket team. I check out the current scores but there is too much politics in this game now. Everyone wants to be the captain of the team. There is no sportsman spirit left. This is one reason I always liked Javed Miandad as he never played for himself or wanted anything. He always wanted to play for the team and country and that is why he was such a successful and great player. I am happy when Pakistan wins but I don't loose my sleep if they don't win.

In the United States I follow Football and support NY Giants. Although I am with all the NY teams, I don't particularly watch their games. Basket Ball, Baseball, and Hockey are not among my favorite sports. All season long I just look at the standings and thats it. Most of my spare time goes to my love of Matchbox Toys. I have been collecting them since I was 9 years old. Now I have Over 6,700 pieces in my collection and have a membership of 3 world wide clubs. My dedicated Matchbox site is rated as the best site (no exaggeration) among the Collectors through out the world. My other hobbies include photography. I like to take pictures of buildings. A lot of people don't like my Pictures as they don't include human beings but that is what I like. I do take pictures of human beings but my main interest is building and bridges. Over two hundred samples of my photography are available on this site. You just need to find them.

I belong to Ahmadiayya Movement in Islam, NY Chapter. This is a world wide Islamic Organization most commonly known as "Qadiani" or "Ahmadi." The world Headquarter of this jamat is in Rabwah, Pakistan but lately most of the decisions are made in London, England.

I will be very happy to hear from any of my fellow class mates. Please contact me via email or snail mail or Call me if any of you are reading this. I will be more than happy to hear from some of my old friends as I have lost contact with a lot of my school buddies.