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Me, I, ... er ...

Starting out on the journey of self-discovery, (when I was young, and, well, cornier--cornier than this, you might ask ;)), I came up with the following characterization for myself:

I am a 2nd generation Pakistani of Arab extraction, Indian origin, and Nigerian birth.

or maybe I should say

I am a 2nd generation Pakistani of Arab extraction, Indian origin, and Nigerian birth.

That might give you an idea of how it is that I butt in on the #WikiWikiMe that I do.

A writer whose day job is as a technical writer in the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay Area, I blog at [iFaqeer] and [WadiWallah]. I have recently also started paying attention to a blog I started a while back: Rickshaw!, which captures the inscriptions on the back of Rickshaws (jinrickshaws, cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws). It's part of what drew me into the Wikipedia; looking for places with information on rickshaws.

I recently had reason to say the following in a discussion on an article:

...the main reason I associate myself with the Wikipedia is that I consider it a chance to receive and present a more complete picture of the world than I grew up having to read. (Source; for the curious.)

...and in another discussion:

Let me say the following up front by way of disclaimer: I am a Muslim and sympathise with Islam. And I also am not sympathetic to inflexible and/or extreme rationalist "devotees" of any ideology—be it Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Communism, Capitalism, Progressive philosophies or any other.

And I am also a strong believer in the importance of strict NPOV policies for an encyclopedia to really live up to its name. See, for example, what I am trying to do at Template talk:Timeline of Islamist militancy.

Which is why I spend time on Wikipedia.

Updates

Just posted the following at

My personal bias (excuse the pun) is that bias is something that exists in every person—it's basically a function of our being human and being shaped by our own experiences and background. The High Road, IMHO, is to understand what one's own bias is and work from there—identify opinion as opinion and try to work with others to achieve objectivity and completeness is a priority, as it is for projects like Wikipedia. (And yes, I have worked as a journalist and do have a blog.) The way I do this on Wikipedia is to place an honest statement of my background and an attempt at describing my own bias on my user page. I know this will make me an easy target for people that want to discredit me or my contributions based on their perception of "people like me". So be it; it is the price of honesty.

—iFaqeer (Talk to me!) 20:53, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

Starting to take interest in Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias.—iFaqeer (Talk to me!) 20:55, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

Just discovered something while reading User:DigiBullet). As that user puts it, "Im among the Top 1000 users of Wikipedia by edits or something, despite me reducing my usage of the site. I dont know if this is an honor or an indicator of something else. The List".—iFaqeer (Talk to me!) 02:21, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

Just started engaging with the Wiktionary Project, too--iFaqeer 08:47, Sep 15, 2004 (UTC)

Articles I created on September 20, 2004:

• NED University (my alma mater)
• Razia Sultan
• Sahabzada Yaqub Khan

WikiWikiMe

The very nature of the medium makes it difficult to list things like pages I have made a significant contribution to. And of course, on Wikipedia and in the wider Wikiworld, there is no such thing as owning a page, or even a whole Wiki. Even pages one starts are communal property and contributed to by others, often extensively. And often that's the desired result. And things happen fast. The lists below are provided only to give you a small sampling and an idea of what I am interested and engaged in.

Wiki

The Wikipedia re-ignited the hope in my heart and mind to try and work on a dream project of mine; collect genealogies, sufi initiation chains and other information and thus start out in South Asia and work outwards to document people and other topics around the world. After discussions on Wikipedia:Help, I was able to make a case for its being hosted at WikiCities . Of course, like all WikiCities projects and all true Wikis, it is a community resource that I just have the honour being the founder of:

http://genealogy.wikicities.com

WikiProjects and Boards

Those I started

• Africa-related regional notice board

Those I am subscribed to

Categories

• Category:Chiefs of Army Staff, Pakistan (and pages on Jehangir Karamat and Mirza Aslam Beg)

Pages I Started

Entries

• Ashraaf
• Asma Jahangir
• NED University (my alma mater--on September 20, 2004, see top of this page)
• Razia Sultan (on September 20, 2004, see top of this page)
• Sahabzada Yaqub Khan (on September 20, 2004, see top of this page)
• Turuq

Redirects

The (usually pre-existing) articles are in brackets. I have just added another way of people might be looking for the same information.

• Aurangzeb Alamgir (Aurangzeb)
• Chagatai Turks (Chagatai Khan#Chagatai Turks)
• Chagatai Turk (Chagatai Khan#Chagatai Turks)
• Chughtai (Chagatai_Khan#Chughtai -- including the content for that section)
• House of Taimur (List of Mughal emperors)
• Lord Lugard (Frederick Lugard)

Pages I have Butted In To

Entries

• Afghan Wars
• Ashraf Jehangir Qazi
• Aurangzeb
• Baisakhi
• Babur
• Bahadur Shah II (moved/changed title from Bahadur Shah Zafar II and pointed Bahadur Shah Zafar to it)
• Barbary pirates
• Bey
• Chagatai Khan (including adding Chagatai_Khan#Chughtai and Chagatai_Khan#Chagatai Turks)
• Hina Jilani
• List of Mughal emperors (I am trying to add full names, not just short, common monikers)
• Mughal Empire
• Partition of India
• Tariqa
• Women as imams (including obtaining consensus and renaming the page)

Pages I have Edited A Wee

Entries

• Frederick Lugard
• Rajpath
• Sokoto
• Usman Dan Fodio

WikiPedia Content I Recommend Highly

The usual reason a page is listed here is that reading it will provides an insight that, in my humble opinion, is important in helping us all better understand (and be more understanding of) the universe around us.

Entries

• Urdu poetry
• Note on the Urdu-Hindi-Hindustani issue -- One of the best expositions I have seen of the issue.
• 

WikiHumor?

• See Talk:Jean-Bédel Bokassa#Humor?

WikiContent I like to browse

• Category:New_religious_movements

To Do list

Please free to help—and let me know if you want to/are working on one.

• Compile List of Caliphs either as part of Caliph or separately. Also . Update: Under Construction at Caliph
• Compile List of Shia Imams either as part of Shia Imam or separately. Also . Current template stashed at Talk:Shia Imam. See also work being done at Caliph
• Compile List of Sufi Masters/Murshids/Peers either as part of Tarika or separately. Also . Current template stashed at Talk:Tarika. See also work being done at Caliph
• Add Hejaz to list of places whose names starts with "The".
• Merge Urdu#Urdu_-_Hindi_-_Hindustani and Hindustani--the former has more/better info.
• Merge Note on Pen Names under List of Urdu poets with entry on Thakhallus

External links

Net sites I own/contribute to

• iFaqeer; I blog, therefore I am
• WadiWallah, another blog I am experimenting with; might get merged with the previous
• Rickshaw! a blog that captures the inscriptions on the back of Rickshaws (jinrickshaws, cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws)

Other places you can catch up with me

Links of interest