Two Shots of Happy One Shot of Sad

Short of time

2009-05-14T15:32:00.002+04:00

Okay folks going tonite for Umrah for a week.

PS: wanted to write more but will do when I get back, inshAllah

Moment

2009-04-06T23:46:00.002+04:00

Driving fast in heavy rain, a moment came under the interchange when everything seemed to stop, like a pause button was clicked, a silence too short but too sweet, too bad it was a very small pause but it was worth yearning for more.

The Story

2009-03-31T00:04:00.001+04:00

We move in circles
Balanced all the while
On a gleaming razor's edge

A perfect sphere
Colliding with our fate
This story ends where it began

Found and Lost

2009-03-30T00:54:00.003+04:00

Wondering why the title is the other way round, rather than the usual “Lost and Found”? It’s because that’s how this story goes :P. Well it was quite a while that I was looking for a cat to adopt as a pet (Weird? Well I just wanted one) and was set on adopting one from http://adoptafelinefriend.wordpress.com/ but the kind of lazy being I am, this never happened. Anyhoo, one evening after parking my car in one of the malls (Carrefour), I saw this cute white little cat coming out from under one of the parked cars and immediately curled up around my leg and started purring. It seemed lost, out of place, and hungry. I noticed a nasty wound on the right side of its body, so decided to take it to a vet. But in order to lure it into my car I had to go to Carrefour, buy some cat food and a bowl so it could start trusting me. It finally entered into my car after the aforementioned ritual (that whole process took around 40+ minutes and 4 – 5 calls to my friends in Karachi who have cats :P). The vet gave it some injections and I was finally allowed to take it back to my home (does that come under theft :S? Frankly, there was no way to report it and plus it looked lost for many days anyways!)

So I had the cat and it was fun to have it. It was definitely someone’s beloved and well cared for pet because it was properly trained and very close to humans. Had its moods, would ask for food, would try talking to me, would play with soft rubber balls and would try to eat my food :|. The only problem it had was big sharp nails and would not allow me to dare touch its toes, so I was kinda scared in venturing in that area anyways :P. Nevertheless, when I would touch its ear, it would sprawl around on floor very comfortably and would watch me do my errands with curious eyes.

Anyways, 10 days later that is on 21st, I was to take her to the vet again for her 2nd round of shots. That day since morning it was in some of pain and was complaining to me about something. I somehow got it into the pet carrier box, which she didn’t like at all and was meowing and trying to force her way out. On reaching to vet’s clinic and after we finally took it out, it created a whole lot of a scene there, running from one end to the another; the poor thing thought that the glass window was open and it twice rammed its head with full speed in it :S. We finally caught it and the vet was able to give it an injection. That’s it, after that it was all calmed down and ready to go home, right? No, wrong! One last act to the drama was left. As soon as I stepped out of the clinic, one bang and the cat broke through the carrier box and off it ran for its dear life; and within moments gone, out of sight and I was just dumbfounded. I searched for an hour, looking for her, under the cars, in the alleys, shop corners, but it was gone like an apparition, vanished like a ghost in thin air.

It’s been 8 days now and I have given up any hope of its return :(. Those were 10 days full of fun, and I have realized keeping a pet is a huge responsibility, which I failed :|. So few lessons learnt

1) Check and double check if you have locked the pet carrier box properly.

2) Never ever fry anything with your sleeves up.

3) Check the weather forecast before going to the concert :|.

4) my writing style is like a 5 yr old kids essay :S, okay I dont want to even read it for editing, sucks so bad...

Obituary

2009-03-05T14:49:00.003+04:00

Please take a moment and pray for Umema aka Dinky Minds Father who left his loved ones last week for his final journey back to his creater.

Pissed at Work and of Fake French Accent

2009-02-18T15:59:00.001+04:00

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrr okay I am pissed, yesterday too I was pissed actually disgusted more but that I will write later. Grrrr but today I am pissed because of this certain colleague of mine (since this is not an anonymous blog I shall stop myself from using any adjectives). So this guy said when I asked him about some project he wanted me to do for him, that because of economic crises and lay offs I am feeling insecure and looking to get more and more projects so that I am still needed. In other words what he meant was or atleast what I interpreted it is this that I am trying to justify my place at work, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Helloo I am filling up a role and a position here which is necessary for the function of department its not like I was hired because of some favor infact I was doing you a favor because even if its not my job responsibility to do it but since it will help you in performing your tasks better hence I decided to go ahead, but now you have pissed me majorly.
Okay now this is from yesterday. Why would a desi will have a fake French accent :O? I have heard fake British and American accents but hellooo French that was my first time. Errrr for once he really got me(Even he was pronouncing “r” as “gh” and an elongated end to the sentence) and I believed that this guy must have spent some time in France but when we started talking in Urdu then I realized no there is something wrong and yea he has been to France only for 4 days max, sigh

Oh and lol do watch Role Models , its not like other headless comedies which are so frequent these days especially from across the border, it has its moments and there many :D but yea at times it gets bit pointless too.

Gaeta's Lament

2009-02-09T12:33:00.003+04:00

A wonderful Ballad from one of my favorite TV Show BattleStar Galactica, the character Felix Gaeta played by Alessandro Juliani actually sang it himself, luvly voice (but then ofcourse when you have Degree in Bachelor of Music in Vocal/Opera Performance you should have a good voice :P)

Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man
With my three wishes clutched in her hand
The first that she be spared the pain
That comes from a dark and laughing rain
When she finds love may it always stay true
This I beg for the second wish I made too
But wish no more
My life you can take
To have her please just one day wake
To have her please just one day wake

Audio Link

Another Tag by one and only :P

2009-02-09T12:00:00.004+04:00

4 Places I Go to Over and Over Again
1. My PC Room (literally live there)
2. Carrefour
3. Work ( :( )
4. My bedroom :P (as you can see I am not really an outgoing person)
5. fifth should have been my running track but I havnt run since months :S, bad me

4 People Who Mail Me Regularly
1. Facebook :P
2. Hira with her luvly music n movie recommendations
3. Ather and other roundabout friends
4. My nephew (who keeps bugging me with his queries :P)
5. Oh and another person but she has recently stopped her forwards

4 of My Favourite Places to Eat (Apart from Home)
1. My Colleagues place, he cooks luvly Nihari
2. Hiras home, luvly food always :D
3. BBQ Tonite, anytime
4. Chinese at Tariq road
5. And Emos home, I wish :( :P
6. And yea Pizza hut :D

4 Places I’d Rather be Now
1. Home, Karachi
2. Playing cricket with my buddies
3. Beach
4. And so many other places I want to visit one day

4 Favorite TV Shows (ah too many)
1. Battlestar Galactica
2. According to Jim
3. Scrubs
4. Lost
5. And many many more

4 Favorite Movies
1. Gladiator
2. Scent of a Woman
3. Legends of the Fall
4. Transformers
5. And yea Pulp Fiction

4 People I would like to tag
1. Hira on Public Demand :D
2. Raheel
3. Saady
4. Neha
5. Tanzilla

One of the bestest Sporting Moment

2009-02-02T08:38:00.003+04:00

Australian Open 2009, Final Moments

By Caroline Cheese (BBC Sports Website)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/7863434.stm

(Just wanted to preserve the very best sporting moment and a very best commentary, I hope not so many copyright issues here)

Read from bottom to top.

1338: That's it then. Thanks for your company during another mind-blowing encounter between Roger 'n Rafa. They really don't do bad matches do they? Federer's already one of the greatest in history, Rafa's got to be there or thereabouts now after winning his first hard-court major. And, dare I say it, the Grand Slam is on...

1336: Rafa's turn to speak: "Roger, I'm sorry for today. I know exactly how you feel. Just remember you're a great champion and you're one of the best in history and for sure you're going to match Sampras. To receive this trophy from Rod Laver is a dream for me. Thank you very much."

1333: That won't help Federer. Rafa Nadal takes the trophy from Rod Laver and lifts it high into the air. He immediately goes to Federer and gives him a hug and the world number two comes to the mike again. "I don't want to have the last word - this guy deserves it," saiy Fed, pointing to Rafa. "Rafa, congrats - you deserve it. All the best for the season."

1330: Roger Federer gets a massive roar from the crowd as he steps up to receive the runners-up plate. "I've felt better," says Fed. "Thanks for the support. You guys were unbelievable." But here come the tears. "Maybe I'll try later. God, it's killing me." The crowd give him another huge cheer, but the poor fella can't continue. He's sobbing as he steps away from the mike. Nadal joins in the applause for the beaten finalist.

1327: "We all want him to go on and win that 14th later in the year..." says Geoff. Not half as much as Fed I would imagine. The Swiss manages half a smile. Or was it a twitch?

1324: The man from the tournament sponsors rather kills the electric atmosphere with a fantastically dry speech... Here's Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard to jolly things along.

1321: Plenty of congratulations for Rafa Nadal, but no one dares go near Federer as he digests what has just happened. Eventually, Rod Laver approaches - and Fed manages a weak smile.

1318: If you thought the Wimbledon final might have hurt, that has got to be an absolute killer for Federer. Nadal seemed to be running on empty in that third set, but put in a superhuman effort to get back into it. Federer is sitting in his chair, exhausted, disbelieving. The 14th Grand Slam title will have to wait - but 'til when?

1315: Nadal falls to the ground in a star shape - just like that Wimbledon final - before jogging to the net to shake hands with a crestfallen Federer. Four hours and 23 minutes, a classic encounter.

Federer 5-7 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 2-6 Nadal
Another double-fault from a crumbling Federer makes it 0-30 and Nadal is gifted two points for the title when Fed errs on a forehand. Nadal swings a routine return long and then a tense, tense rally ends with the Spaniard putting a tentative slice into the trams. A sensational backhand winner sets up another title point before Federer belts one final forehand over the line.

Tagged :O oh my whyyy :D

2009-01-26T13:39:00.002+04:00

Ok so I was tagged by Dinko mind and since you cant say no to Dinkos (its against the law ;) ) hence here I am enlightening world once again with my rants . Heres the deal I am supposed to write about “6 weird habits/things about yourself” (I mean those habits which you can make public or let your mother know, unless you have an anon blog then you can write your heart out ;) )
Hokay,
1. I have this habit of buying books and not reading them, at home I have like stacks of unread or half read books lying around :( which is very pathetic in my opinion but sigh I can only read when I am in Karachi and guess why, because of KESC and its load shedding ;), otherwise here either I am on PC playing game, or working or watching some series :P. Likewise I will download/purchase movies and not watch them, I think I have like 15+ downloaded movies and around 10 DVDs bought over period of a year or 2 which I have yet to watch and haven’t till now, and this brings me to my next habit.

2. I delay things which I am sure is very much like being a true Pakistani (Procrastination is a national trait). Sometimes I delay paying my CC bills, applying for apps until due date passes by, wont buy tickets for concerts or sport events until they finish up and then go to black market and get them on double the amount :(.

3. Like Dinkos parathas addiction, I have tamater kee chatni ka addiction. I love to have it with every meal and with every salan and whenever I am coming back from vacations, mom would make loads of chatni, pack it into small packets enough for one meal and I would freeze them here and few hours before dinner time will take one packet out, thaw it and have it with dinner :D.

4. One habit which is not weird but I hate it most is, I am always late for work no matter how many alarms I put up I will not and again not get up on time, getting up early in morning is just not into me which basically is consequences of me sleeping too late :$.

5. Recently I have developed this habit of using tissue paper s while I am having food even when I am dining out with people. There will be like 2 – 3 tissue papers lying around my plate : P and I will be wiping my hands and lips after every bite, probably because I hate sticky fingers and I hate to look at people with traces of food on their faces hence the reaction :P.

6. Errrr last okay this is hard to dig, (remember we are not talking about bad habits, but the weird ones) Oh yea, I talk to myself while thinking, ofcourse only when I am alone otherwise people will think I am crazy, and trust me I function better then and if I am around people I talk to myself in thoughts :P and think that way. Ok too much of thoughts and thinks, soo here goes my 6 weird habits and I shall tag

Raheel, Lady Tanzilla , Tee Hee(okay its YouTee), Hira(if u r reading this and I know you hate tags :P), Sidrah, Saady and Hinz
So if anyone of you ever read this , you are free to pour out your secrets , goodluck ;)

Addiction

2008-10-27T23:44:00.005+04:00

Addiction is bad, infect it is your worst enemy it makes your life miserable. There are many types of addictions, some are addicted to booze, some to smoking and drugs, some to chaalia and some even to sex (yea ask David Duchovny). Whatever your addiction is, it surely ruins your daily routine and not let you follow whatever you wanted to do or had to do. Probably some of you might argue, being addicted to ones own goals is a good thing , it’s the way to success whether its an exam, some project or some hobby. But I am here talking about the negative addictions which will not take you anywhere.

And here comes a confession I think I am addicted to this Football Manager Live MMORPG, as its clear from its genre its an online game where you manage a football club from finances to team management and ofcourse you must win. Decide your team formation, define strategies, outsmart other human players. Sounds fun? Yup but not when you get home at 5 and u straightaway log in to the game and you are playing it till 8 Then you take some break for dinner or tv and then again start it at 10 and end at 1. All the reading? All the Tv series? Daily exercises? All the extra work you were supposed to do gets delayed and delayed and delayed and this is NOT GOOD sigh and the worst part is I have already paid for first 3 months :( ( Starting from mid November).

So I need to find my way out :S somehow.

PS: Googled and found this How to Overcome an MMORPG Addiction

Unfortunately Symptoms are all there, not much excessive but they are there :S

Happy Birthday Sparkle Chotu

2008-08-24T01:52:00.002+04:00

Everyone do wish Dinky Mind on her birthday

She has turned 10 today :P

PS: I am in Karachi on annual vacations

MS Plan

2007-12-04T15:19:00.000+04:00

Ok so I am back after ages, I guess I am yearning to write today. Anyhow updates are I am planning to apply for MS for fall 2008 or 2009 semester. So from last month and a half I have been busy first with GRE and Toefl preparations and now with admissions process. And the result of it is I have been totally out of touch with blogging world infact from my regular friends too.

GRE score wasn’t great, I underestimated level of difficulty and amount of time required for practice hence scored less than what I could have and wanted to. But it was fun learning new words and trying to add more to vocabulary (though most of them seem to be fading from memory now). Well for Toelf I just had three days to prepare so it all rush but fun. Still waiting for its score.

But whats freaking me out is that I just have 7 days to write a SOP(statement of purpose) and get Letters of recommendation from people. And I am supposed to write one letter of recommendation myself sigh. So lets keep the fingers crossed, do pray and I will try keep updating.

Admission process isn’t easy, it requires constant effort and its not just about GRE or Teofl. All the pieces of your application package must be given due time and prepared well enough. Although I started quite late I would suggest anyone looking to apply to start atleast 6 months before. That will give you enough time to prepare each and everything and it is always better to apply a lot before the deadline.

October the 8th

2007-10-08T02:45:00.000+04:00

Exactly two years back, our country was rocked by the biggest catastrophe of its juvenile history. The event and the destruction it caused united our nation for a single cause. It effected many of us and changed millions of lives forever. Never ever we witnessed Pakistanis from all walks of life, of all ages coming together with whatever they could to take part in this revolution. I somehow feel the current political solution in our country isn’t much different than what we faced two years back, perhaps we cannot visualize the scale of damage. But its consequences can last for decades. We have a responsibility to this country, to our future generations. If we let this go, if we accept what is going on in the name of “national reconciliation” then I guess we are equally as criminals as them and I am sure the generations to come will have many questions to be asked of us.

May Allah help us all and provide place in Heaven to those who lost their lives, Ameen

My hands are tied

My body bruised, she's got me with

Nothing to win and

Nothing left to lose

Back in town

2007-08-15T00:50:00.000+04:00

Alrite people I am back in Karachi for a month's vacation(already 13 days are over) :(, good times are back :D. Luv the city not to forget moms food :D.

Hello again

2007-07-28T14:31:00.000+04:00

Alright another entry, Murtaza was in Dubai last week partially to have a break from work and partially for something I don’t know about(I guess). Anyhow met him on the weekend and we took him to Desert safari and it was total fun. It was my second going but last time it was ruined by motion sickness but this time I went prepared so enjoyed a hell lot, couple of pictures I am uploading here rest will upload on flickr.

And Yesterday Danish and Kamran were here with their wives and I took them around the city I think I was a good host :P.

A BORING POST, argh

Moi is back

2007-07-17T01:53:00.001+04:00

Hello all, I guess I am back and hopefully hopefully will be regular now. A lots has happened in past two months but lets not even get there, one thing which I must do is introduce my civic to you people well yes its not a bimmer, but its cost effective and so far serving well :). And yes one more thing yesterday finally I was able to run 4 Kms :P I don’t know if any of you remember but it was one milestone I wanted to achieve, ok ok its nothing for seasonal runners but an achievement for me :P though I wont stop here will first make it a regular habit then will built on it :), so hows everyone? Expect comments on your blogs soon.

On a Break

2007-05-10T15:56:00.000+04:00

See you guys pretty soon.....

Arrival

2007-03-28T15:21:00.000+04:00

So finally after a long, painful wait :P, wifey dearest is about to land. And so will begin a new phase.

And oh yea here is my Visual DNA ;)

Read my VisualDNA
™

Get your own VisualDNA™

PS: There is some problem with the html code here, comments link and "Get your own VisualDNA" link which you cant see are overlapping each other so for people using IE click on comments counter to post a comment that is if you want to :P.

Update 2: apparantely after writing some text has put up some space between the two links so all kinda fixed :P

Bob Woolmer

2007-03-21T02:30:00.000+04:00

Tough, you think you've got the stuff
You're telling me and anyone
You're hard enough

You don't have to put up a fight
You don't have to always be right
Let me take some of the punches
For you tonight

Listen to me now
I need to let you know
You don't have to go it alone

Last couple of days have been a shocker, after our humiliation at the hands of Ireland I thought nothing can get worst but just after few hours I was proved wrong. Bob Woolmer our team coach left us. The circumstances in which this event took place, it hit all of us deep down inside, it was shocking I still cannot believe it. Sports taking life of someone, it is totally unimaginable. As soon as I heard the news on TV I called up my friend but I couldn’t gather the strength to tell him, I just asked him to switch to Geo it is about Bob Woolmer I told him. Emotions got better of me and I was struggling to hold on to my tears. Soon smses started to flow in, people called and everyone I talked to was in complete state of shock and grief. It felt someone very close to us has left, someone very dear. It is very rare that death of a person who is not even a fellow countryman can hit a Nation so hard. Such our love to game of cricket is and such a love we had for one who was serving our cricket team with all his commitment and determination. I don’t think I have shed these many tears since years. But it wasn’t just us, everyone who is associated with cricket was equally upset. Tributes keep pouring in from ex players, current coaches, current stars, respective boards which goes to show how much he was respected and loved by everyone.

In 2004 when he joined the Pakistani team as coach, there was a feeling among us the cricket fans that the good days are not far away. Though they arrived slowly but eventually once again we were beginning to challenge the very best in the game. Our Test and ODI rankings got higher and perhaps that is when we(fans) got rapacious and started demanding more, a pressure which could very well be the cause of his sad demise.

Woolmer was a true professional a wonderful innovative, his services to Pakistani team are tremendous, he had his short comings too but then who doesn’t. But he completely changed the outlook of our side. He gave them the direction, mental strength and self belief. And as a result we witnessed some miracle performances from our team. Along with Inzamam he transformed this team from a bunch of talented but erratic individuals to a formidable unit. The unity which was visible within the team was an effort of both of these two. That is why even after losing three key players for the world cup we still believed that we can if not win it can achieve a lot in this World Cup. Maybe he believed in that too and our shameful exit took its toll on him. Whatever the reasons maybe but its hard not to believe that if he had been coaching some other team then it may not have happened, but as Muslims we believe that death has its time and circumstances are just a way of it.

Woolmer was famous among journalist and fans for his kindness and importance he gave to them and their opinions, that is why I remember before the world cup me and Abid chatted about to suggest him our playing eleven and our preferred batting order. Though we never managed to do that (call it laziness) but we were hopeful that if we do email him he would respond, such an access to national team coach was unimaginable before him. And when yesterday I met Abid on chat we could hardly talk to each other.

Tomorrow Pakistani team will play its last match of the world cup, it will be very hard for them to concentrate on cricket he was like a father to them. But they are dedicating this match to him. I just hope they give such a sort of performance which would have pleased Woolmer. Plus it will be Inzi’s last game I am just praying that he leaves the ODI stage with a thumping performance.

In the end I will end this post with the great man’s own words

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is the present - a gift to make the most of.”

He lived for cricket, he died for cricket.

PS: picture courtesy of sportinglife.com

Pakistani Tujeh Salam

2007-03-13T16:52:00.000+04:00

And so it all begins today 13th of March 2007, wait of four years is over. In just about 2 hours time it begins the mega event of cricket. The event for which, us cricket lovers start the waiting as soon as the last one ends :). So are you feeling the pressure? Oh yea I am, its pressure , excitement , anxiety and all those emotions combined. So let it begin!!!! I am sure all of you have read , analyzed and re-read and re-analyzed chances of Pakistan in this world cup so I wont bore you people with that.

Though severely depleted, written off by almost all the pundits and low on moral this team still has what it takes for a very successful campaign and that doesn’t necessarily mean winning it. But like the two world cups in which Pakistan did great that is 1992 and 1999 this time around too some of the individuals must have a big tournament.

In 1992 we had Javed Miandad, Aamir Sohail, Rameez Raja , Inzaman-ul-Haq featuring in leading scorers and Imran Khan and Wasim Akram chipping in with useful all round performances. It had a perfect blend of experience and youth. Javed Mianded and Rameez Raja the experienced ones and Aamir Shoail and Inzamam-ul-Haq the youth. Likewise it was the pair of Imran and Wasim.

In 1999 another successful campaign and it was the turn of Inzamam and Saeed Anwar to play the role of senior campaigners and Mohammad Yousaf , Wajahatullah Wasti and Abdul Razzaq to provide the youth flare. But more often than not it was our lower middle order in the form of Wasim Akram, Moin Khan and Azhar Mahmood which rescued our batting from the embarrassments.

Similarly in both these tourneys our 3-4 bowlers did tremendous jobs and featured in highest wicket takers. In 1992 those were Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed and Aaqid Javed and in 1999 we had Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram, Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood all bagging 13 or more wickets at breath taking averages.

So who will be Miandad, Aamir Sohail, Imran Khan and Inzamam this time around? And who will feature in leading bowlers like Wasim, Shoaib, Saqlain and Aaqib did. Tough questions and we will have to wait and see that which one of the individuals grab the opportunity and follow the foot steps of several greats before them, only time will tell. As for likely contenders I would name Mohammad Yousaf, Younis Khan, Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal in batting and Umar Gul, Danesh Kaneria Mohamamd Sami and Rao Iftikhar in bowling with likes of Shoaib Malik, Afridi and Inzamam making useful contributions.

In the end I would say no idea about you guys but I would surelly miss Shoaib and Asif not because of what those two promised but because of the moments they gave us, the moments we cherish all our lives.

Stomach infection and Data loss but for the real thing keep on reading...

2007-03-07T02:29:00.001+04:00

"The relative importance of files depends on their cost in terms of the human effort needed to regenerate them." -- T.A. Dolotta

Couple of posts back I shared this quote and now I know exactly what it means. Yesterday when I started writing a new post, my laptop’s hard disk crashed and with it data worth of two years. Some of you might not feel the intensity but those who have gone through it will exactly know how I feel. The loss included all my work related files, my documents, pictures I took with my cam, music I collected, softwares I downloaded, ebooks I collected, not to forget recipes. Everything digital I had gathered or gerenarated from past two years was on that laptop and stupidly of stupidies I had no backup. An IT techie and such carelessness, unbelievable. It is simply heart breaking. Although I am trying to move on and accept the reality but as soon as any specific file comes to mind emotions start running high. It is actually quite weird that how we become attached to something which is digital. I guess we have become used to our digital selves. Loss of pictures have hurt me most, those were the memories, memories which were reflection of past two years of my life. I haven’t given up yet I will most probably hand it over to some company which specializes in data recovery though it will cost me fortune but I might take the chance. And all this followed my return from illness which saw me hospitalized for two days. A minor stomach pain which lasted for couple of days forced me to see a doctor and after 2 hours I found myself in patient’s gown and admitted. After series of painstaking tests and procedure whose details I would prefer not to share :P(the docs among you can very well guess). Thank God everything seems fine now, my stomach is functioning perfectly and fears of block in my colon have been evaporated, but again not before some serious pain. I choose to inform my parents straight away, though some of my friends believed it was an act of stupidity. But I have different opinions, for me parents are everything and in every step you need their prayers. Though I must admit I provided them huge amount of tension but just knowing they are with helped me a lot. And one thing I know that the only true love in this world is Parental love nothing beats to it, that’s it fullstop, there is no other love sorry folks the verdict is here.

As a result of that I am on diet for two weeks, I am supposed to avoid spices and food items which can make my stomach go balloon. Hence I am surviving on soup, yogurt and bread. I would like to thank my friends who were constantly messaging or calling me and getting updates and praying. Thank you guys it means a lot.

Oh well now coming to the actual thingy for which this post was supposed to be written but events mentioned above and my laziness keep dragging it back. On February the 21st 2007 Roger Waters performed in Dubai Media City in front of a huge crowd and I was one lucky soul to be there. It was a breathtaking performance from the ex Pink Floyd guy. Just imagine you have been listening to these songs from past 10 years, they are tour absolute favorites and you get a chance to attend the concert, totally awesome experience. Atmosphere was electric, Sound quality and visual effects mind blowing. It was pure magic especially when he sang The Wall, I definitely wasn’t in this world then. Pictures are uploaded on flickr here and video clips on youtube, enjoy :).

World Cup is about to start , already warm up matches are underway, hopefully by Thursday I would have written an exclusive World Cup post.

Red is the color

2007-02-26T11:44:00.000+04:00

Random Babbling

2007-02-13T17:10:00.000+04:00

I think I will be watching the WTA Quarterfinal on my own. Wifey’s passport will still take few more days to get ready and hence delay in arrival, *disappointment. Anyhow February has two major events lined up, one is the Dubai Open Tennis and second is the much awaited (atleast for me) concert of ex Pink Floyd Star Roger Waters. He will be here in Dubai on 21st though I would prefer David Gilmour anytime on Roger Waters but still I am sure this concert will rock, grrrr not to mention the heavy ticket price.

Ok so what is wrong with blogger why is everyone switching to wordpress? Is it the new version or the imposed ban by PTA. Now I need to update three four links more in my blogroll. Come ‘n, Come ‘n people explain?

And yes Pakistani Squad for the World Cup was announced today after some delay, not too many surprises though but I didn’t like the inclusion of Roa iftikhar Anjum and will comment on the selection in my next post.

Oh well time to go home now, will probably cook something or probably will watch some movie and leave the cooking for the weekend, anyhow liked the quote below. If anyone has lost data because of some stupidity or hardware failure he/she would know what it means by cost ;)

The relative importance of files depends on their cost in terms of the human effort needed to regenerate them. -- T.A. Dolotta

Back

2007-02-01T10:54:00.000+04:00

All right so finally I am back to the blogging world, it has been a long time and I missed it. I am trying to update myself with what is going on with the rest of the bloggers and it feels that I have missed a great deal.

Though I was back in Al-Ain on 21st but have been pretty busy with work so could not really update. Wifey is still in Karachi the usual nic, passport and then visa process is under way, hoping that she would be here in mid of February which is btw very exciting time of the year in this part of the world because first its Roger Waters’ concert then Dubai Open tennis championships starts buttttt the sad part is tickets for both WTA and ATP have been sold out, I have just managed to get hold on WTA Quarter finals and that is too on Thursday which means I will miss half of it. The whole idea was to watch it with Hafsa since we both love tennis and it would have been great, grrrrrr now I need the tickets, my laziness has again proved to be fatal.

Wanting to know how does being married feels? Well I just had two weeks so can’t say much. But I know one thing for sure it changes a lot and requires one to change oneself too. You suddenly feel old? responsible, need to take care of lots of small stuff which you never ever cared for. I guess transition from me to us takes its time.

Thank you all for the wishes :).

PS: I need to work on my grammar, maybe time to go back to grade 8....

Few hours to go.....

2007-01-04T01:28:00.000+04:00

Just few hours to go before a new life shall start.

Sold!!!!

2006-12-28T16:13:00.000+04:00

Bye bye, there was hardly any other option. It was good offer and I had to let go. Though I will definitely miss it. It was one hell of a car, gave problems but just driving it made me feel on top of this world. The feel, the sound, handling was just awesome. Anyone who traveled or drove it simply loved it. I think it is not a good idea to have bimmer as a first car, one can have serious biased opinions about the rest. I hope it makes his next owner feel the same way.

So tonight I am flying back to Karachi and soon a whole new chapter shall start in my life, it will be one hell of a change but as everyone goes through it. I must too. Though It’s a pretty freaky and nervous feeling. God bless us.

Oh btw I forgot to mention in previous post and I should had. A truly wonderful friend of mine Reej was here last month for her training. Although we could only meet up twice but it was just wonderful, its amazing that with some people you can just click as if you have been really old friends. Areej is a great company to have, though I really troubled her with my stupid navigation skills and I think we got lost twice in Dubai while driving but it was fun and I should thank her for that :D. she totally rocked.

CC fiasco and Return of the Gum Infection

2006-12-20T15:58:00.000+04:00

Hokay how much fcking stupid one can be, no really how much? I bet you guys cant beat this and if you do, please visit some specialist :P. so its like I have two CCs from one bank, visa and master both. Now it was the first time that I went to their Cash Deposit Machine aka CDM to deposit my bill and thereeeeeeee I made this stupidest of mistake. I swapped the payments :O, yesss I deposited 700 for the bill which was of 2100 and I deposited 2100 for the bill which was of 700, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr so now I have been charged with interest for the one I paid less :(, sniffs. Now how stupid and equally funny is this , right? Well ok stop laughing :P, I have already made a request to the concerned bank but I doubt they would reverse it, still fingers crossed.

Oh well England have lost the Ashes, which was frankly written on the wall but losing first three tests has killed the series. I was just hoping for a tighter series. Anyhow, lets see what happens in the other two. Weather is simply great, its windy and chilly and I love it :D. oh yea that maniac gum infection is back :S, apparently I didn’t use floss and the germs are back that means pain is back :(, but I am not going to a doc I shall use the antibiotics and will hope that it goes away.

PS: btw is anyone of you planning to switch to new blogger? If you already have how is it?

Happy Birthday Heewaaa :D

2006-12-14T01:16:00.000+04:00

Ok everyone today is a special day, no infact today is a very very Special day!!!! And if you wondering why? then allow me. Coz todayyyy iz the Birthday of a very very special friend of mine, Yes Ladies and Gentlemen todays Heewas Birthday :D. So girl you better rock, roll and have loads of fun, cook amazing food(and ofcourse send me recipies) and yup stay happy, you deserve to be :D. So Happy Birthday again and yesh I shall take my treat whenever I land here ;).

Ok so Mom, Amera(my sister), Anuam and Adil have left and home looks so empty, even though they were here just for five days but it sure seemed like a long time and I seriously had great fun :D. Anuam talks a lot more(which is pretty cute) since the last time they were here and Adil has become cuter, plus his wicked smile hahaha just thinking about it makes me smile. But sigh I really had to drive :P, yea yea I know many people drive a lot more than this but it was enough for me. For four consecutive days I would drive them to Dubai, which is just one part, then head to some destination in Dubai, which is another headache. After walking for hours in Mall, would drive back to Al-Ain in between having loads of caffeine to make me stay awake. But cmon as I wrote in previous this was the first time I was driving for them so no complaints ;). Mom took care of food and sister took care of expenses. Though in four days one can’t visit much of Dubai, but still we managed to visit Mall of the Emirates, Ibn-e-Batuta Mall, Madinat jumeirah, City Center, Burjuman Center and two visits to Meena Bazar. But sad part I couldn’t take them around much in Al-Ain not even Jabel-e-hafeet (really wished to). Oh well maybe some other time, some other day. Have taken loads of pics which I shall upload soon. Oh well its 1 AM right now and tomorrow(today) is work. Grrrrrrrrr 57 minutes and Chelsea still haven’t scored against Newcastle , sad very sad. And yea please lets not even talk about Pakistan’s humiliation today, very sad indeed.

Some Anuam moments:

Anuam drew a snail and named it me :O, when I asked her why? she goes”I saw a dream last night and you were snail in it so I am pretending that you are actually a snail” and I was like WHAATTTTT, sigh kids. Then she goes tells her mom “mama mein itna soyee kay mairay head mein dreams bhur gaye hain, kaisay nikaloon(crying)” lol :D. Trust me there were more such instances where her dialogues made me burst into laughter.

Random Stuff

2006-11-27T15:39:00.000+04:00

And another considerable break from blogging world. Didn’t just feel like writing as so much was happening around but I wanted to avoid myself from putting anything here and since now things are getting on track. I thought I should pay a visit. Weather is amazing right now, it might rain. Its cloudy and windy and that means winter has arrived :D. Ok for us even a degree below 25 means cold :P.

Mom and sister with her two yummiest kids are landing here on 4th so that means one week of fun :D, though that also means loads of driving. Khair I never ever provided them this service so this will be for the first time :). Sister is landing from Houston and mom from Karachi and there is a gap of like four hours in between their arrivals. Their main objective is shopping and that will remain as the only objective as far as I believe :P. anyhow but preparations have began.

Couple of weeks back had an awesome Chinese dinner in Sharjah, seems like that place is quite famous. It is usually full and there is always waiting so maybe try reserving a table before leaving. Place is called Peking and its located near old spinney’s roundabout near Megamall. So if anyone from dubai/ Sharjah is reading this it’s a must go place for Chinese food lovers and must try hot and sour prawn soup, it was just out of this world. Oh man it can rain any moment now :D.

On sports front, its just cricket these days. Pakistan will take on Windies tomorrow in Karachi and I am hoping we can nail the series 2-0, India got their butts kicked by South Africa today in 3rd ODI but still Indian innings to go. And England well no comments, totally humiliated in first three days though they have showed some character today it will be good if they continue to do that for rest of the series, otherwise this ashes will be a joke. And yea

Don’t forget to watch Manure vs. Chelsea today, it will be a cracker ;).

Late Update: came back late at night from Dubai and I was damn tired, legs dead. And as soon as I was on my bed I felt something jumping on my bed like toing toing toing and to my horror it was a full grown lizzi :O, A LIZARD ON MY BED. Ok I am not scared of them really, had so many close encounters in past that the “thing” had gone. Buttttt this is no good what was a lizard doing on my bed, was it some supernatural creature disguised as lizard :O?? waiting for me to goto sleep and then take over me (nice). Khair whatever it was, its now lying dead in my garage, mission was successful.

Miseries of Toothache

2006-11-08T12:11:00.000+04:00

Toothache sucks but Dentist’s fee sucks more :(. Brufen is a blessing I tell you :D

What will happen now?

2006-11-04T03:55:00.000+04:00

So is this the end? Will we never ever see Shoaib Akhtar’s bustling run-up up to the wicket and then taking off in celebration after striking. Will the fans in Cricket grounds deprived of the thrill and excitement of banging bottles against their seats and cemented benches while he used to make his run. It was one experience and I am glad that I have been part of it. Though we all agree how controversial he was and how many times he has disappointed us but all of us will also agree that his name in playing eleven always used to give us this extra hope and now its hard to believe that we will be playing the World Cup without him. Asif was an emerging talent, with him rising high we were slowly shifting our bowling dependency from Shoaib to him or should I say dividing our expectations. He was our future star not as fast as Shoaib but deadly accurate, a perfect compliment. It would have been still easier for us to just miss Shoaib during the World Cup and do with Asif but now without him gone too(most likely) it looks like Searching for The Holy Grail.

For me the ban on both of them was inevitable but bit harsh, considering Shane Warne was just handed ban of one year, then why we acted with such an over efficiency? Is it because we want to clear our tainted image in the outside world? Maybe we wanted to show the world that we don’t bow down to sentiments and got bit more stiffer then it was required or after reading Intikhab Alam’s statement yesterday “He [Shoaib] drinks alcohol, has an active sex life and he's been part of anti-doping awareness programmes.” I have a feeling that board has hit two birds with one stone that is, one handing ban to Shoaib and secondly also making sure he doesn’t come back in the squad. There have been reports that Skipper and Coach are not so happy with his attitude, but when was the last time anyone was with Shoaib :). Anyhow if take our conspiracy hats off for a moment then there might be another case, what if they were handed a stiff ban so that after an appeal it can be reduced to half or even lesser thus allowing atleast Asif or both to feature in World cup, oh well only time will tell. But this is a huge blow, a one which will take considerable effort and determination from other players to over come. Lets Pray our cricket survives.

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
Ill never look into your eyes...again

Karachi Trip

2006-11-02T16:29:00.000+04:00

Oh well I will try to keep it short but I doubt it will be :P or maybe will divide it into two posts, yup better idea. Anyhow Eid break(read Eid break, not just Eid to avoid any confusions :P ) was good, had good fun, met many people, had home Iftari, a sehri at hot n spicy, attended a wonderful gig, watched Pakistan getting bystofied at the hands of New Zealand and South Africa, bought movies, tried my hand at cheese cake and it was almost success (will post pics) and slept, yes loads of sleep did I ever tell you guys I love sleeping? Oh well I love sleeping :P.

The Munchkins gig was one of the best I have ever attended, its pity I got to the venue late otherwise it would have been more fun. Everybody knows how talented Gumby and Jafri are but it was the first time I was watching Aamir Alavi(who happens to be first cousin of a very good friend of mine, will talk about it bit later ;) ) and Murtaza Jafar aka KV perform. Aamir’s vocals were extraordinary specially when singing U2, it is not easy to impersonate(thanks abid ;) ) Bonoh but he did it amazingly well. And Murtaza was awesome on guitars playing Edge’s riffs. After the gig it was pleasure to meet Abid, Hira and Insiya, thanks people :). Ok coming back to Aamir it so happens that OM is first cousin of his and I came to know of this through Abid, sigh. The reason I was late to the concert was I was with OM busy buying movies two blocks away :O and then we had dinner at Jan’s broast during that I mentioned to him that I have to goto Dunkin(probably didn’t mention about concert). He even dropped me at Dunkin haha but he never knew that his cousin is performing there and I didn’t know that I will be watching his cousin perform haha, oh well it is a small world.

Next day met F and A at their place after agessss but it never felt that way. Though it would have been great if I had met them on regular basis, such nice people. Too bad their son wasn’t home, his Dadi had him so that means I still haven’t seen him and his first birthday is fast approaching. F plays amazing guitar, doesn’t want to go commercial that is why nobody has heard of him but he is mighty talented. His music room (a small studio like) is simply breathtaking, 9-10 guitars of all sorts hanging on wall, mixing and recording equipment and records and records of music. Was going through his music collection and there was hardly any band I had heard of before but the music was amazing, rock that too Tun walee Rock. He burnt Jeff Buckley’s live at Sin-e, it’s a 2 Cds set and I am in love with it. It was real pleasure to meet them again and yea before coming to their place met M for a short time, oh well somethings better remain unsaid :).

Another long post, haha I cant stop once I start

2006-10-19T16:05:00.000+04:00

A win in an opening match of a tournament is never a special one but if that win comes at the back of mountain of controversies and that too when just a day before the match a huge scandal was hit, it really is a special one. This just shows how much character this team has developed. Written off by the almost all the pundits and fans (including me) and then having a worst possible start they just stormed back their way into the match and snatched it from the jaws of Sri Lankan team, Hats off to the boys. Credit really goes to Younis Khan and Bob Woolmer for keeping the team motivated and fired up for the match and special applause for Shoaib Malik and Abdul Razzak who first with their bowling and then excellent batting sailed us home. It was on Monday when Pakistani cricket was rocked by positive results of dope tests on two of its leading fast bowlers. The news had shattered every single fan of the team. As the possible consequences of this result sank in more fears took their place, possibility of playing world cup without Shoaib and Asif is unimaginable. My dad who doesn’t show much of his emotions called me and expressed his sorrow. It felt that every single person is feeling the effect. I have no idea have they taken it intentionally or unintentionally but this has put a serious dent on the reputation of our team and a jolt to any serious campaign to be the world champions. But the results of inquiries are yet to come and we will soon find out, it will not be easy for PCB to give them a light punishment with so much pressure of ICC and WADA on their back. Anyhow we must wait and be hopeful.

Coming to my side, two weeks back it was announced here at our place that the Eid break would be for a week so I though that instead of doing awaragardi in UAE why don’t I fly home and spend a week there and have home Iftari which is truly a blessing. But my plan as usual came in late and after a hard time trying to get a seat, finally managed one with Emirates :D, so inshAllah Friday morning I would be flying to Karachi and inshAllah will be there for a week and hoping to have a rocking time and meet as many people as possible. Karachiiii c ya.

Oh btw I have started regular running since past two month. Reasons? Well who likes a bulging tummy :P, so I go to uni’s football stadium to run. Initially it was just 3-4 rounds (with a drag in last round) around the field but now its 6 hehe ok ok don’t laugh it is not easy ok to run for 16-17 minutes on a good pace for us office workers who sit on our assess for 6 days a week 12 hours a day and only play football twice a week. Track must be of 400-500 meters so that makes it almost 2.5 to 3 km run good good no? :D. ok that day while jogging I saw this guy hitting long balls(in football when you kick a ball for a long distance its called long ball) with barefoot :O and that too for real long distances and damn accurate too I was like stunned , it was such an embarrassment :P I thought even with shoes on I wont be able to hit that long :(. Oh well then I haven’t played football all my life nor I am that strong physically.

Remembering….

2006-10-08T02:23:00.000+04:00

Year back a catastrophe hit our country which devastated lives of many and effected all of us in its own way. It transformed our nation,even if for a short while, the usual apathetic nature was converted into a mass movement. New heroes born, volunteers working non-stop, financial help pouring in, essential goods being donated and not only just from us but from all over the world help came in. It was one massive humanity move. A year has passed and quite naturally we the ones who were not directly effected have moved on and entered back into our respective spheres of lives. But for those who lost their loved ones, their homes, the pain returns. It will be one difficult day for them, the day when the horrors of yesteryear shall return to haunt. Children looking out for shelter of their parents, Parents remembering joyful faces of their young ones, Friends missing friends and Memories shall return. We can’t give them back what they lost but atleast we can pray for them, atleast for one day we can try feel their pain and maybe maybe we can reawaken our spirit back.

Our Cricket

2006-10-08T02:21:00.000+04:00

Ok I started writing this post last night but left it half way in middle and went to sleep and in morning when I woke up we already have more twist in the tale. Yes it is about the ongoing saga of our cricket. It was too imperative that some sort drama is bound to happen, Pakistani cricket and this quietness? naaaaaaa doesn’t go. Though I must confess I was quite satisfied with this stability, but things exploded and rest is history. Atleast one good thing came out if it was termination of Mushtaq Ahmed as an assistant coach, I have nothing against him its just this one was the most useless of appointments. Imagine a player having to listen to a coach, then there is a bowling coach, his captain and now add an assistant coach sheesh what were they thinking? I just hope the rumors of rift among team members just remains a rumor, we really can’t afford to go back to days of 90s which were total chaos. Although I have little hope from Champions trophy but atleast we can test out some combinations and maybe if Younis Khan manages to unite the team then there is nothing like it. But one thing I would like to add is, the way he went on public announcing his resignation was display of most unprofessional attitude. What made him to that??? Even when we plan to resign from work we first go speak to the manager, get his approval and then go public even that only remains with close colleagues and subordinates. But sigh again its us, one drama nation. On other hand Shahrayar Khan had to go, he should have gone after Oval fiasco. If you cannot convince your captain to go and play instead end up fortifying a match, I doubt you can handle this team.

OK now coming to domestic stuff :P hehe, well ramzan has settled into a nice routine actually it is kinda tough but it is good. I am regularly finding time to go out running which is great, weather at night gets quite pleasant with nice breeze blowing. It is fun to run in a flood light lid stadium (ok ok I am not showing off, but its fun :P). Last week was invited for iftar it was kind of a religious gathering. There met this British convert, who got converted ten years back. I asked him about what made him come to Islam and it was refreshing to hear his story, difficult to explain but felt good. One thing he said which is still fresh in mind, he said “you guys don’t know how much in peace you people are, I have been on the other side and I have felt the uneasiness, the kind of peace Salaat (prayer) gives us is nothing like”. The thing which impresses me about these converts is in our case we were born Muslims it was religion of our grand grand parents, these fellows they accept it , embrace it against all resistance even when we are setting one of the worst examples. Maybe we should all need to reconvert ourselves.

Okie change of topic I bought this Tangerine flavored with touch of mint close-up toothpaste :P well you might go ewwww but seriously its kewl to use haha do try if you guys can get a hand on it :D.

Tagged

2006-10-03T11:04:00.000+04:00

Two wonderful ladies Hira and Sidz tagged me and I had no option but to oblige them so here it is :P.

I am thinking about...
How will I finish this thing :P and yea what to do with thousands of research publications that have been placed in my office conference room? How will I ever manage to make that room look clean again? sigh.

I said...
Why, why and why and yea it ended with wt-.

I want to...
come to a decision, work on my self-esteem, want to meet Divino Codino once and yea attend U2’s and Pink Floyd’s concerts once (paleeeeez).

I wish...
I was stronger when it really mattered.

I miss...
My home, my family and friends.

I hear...
Any music which feels good.

I wonder...
will I ever be able to say, yes this is it!!

I regret...
about missed opportunities and wrong decisions.

I am...
a dreamer

I dance...
Haha in most sucky way, hahaha.

I sing...
ummmm U2 that too when no human is nearby in radius of 30 meters.

I cry...
Haha it was really a long time back.

I am not always...
Wise.

I write...
Crap hahaha.

I confuse...
Myself

I need...
Peace

I should try...
Be more practical :P and work harder.

I finish...
I don’t finish books :’(.

OK now I am tagging Saady, Khawab, Dinky, Reej(if you are reading this) and anyone who hasn’t been tagged till now :P.

One year and Dubai Rain 2006 (warning one long post)

2006-09-19T16:56:00.000+04:00

Woah feels like it was just a while back when I took off from Karachi to start my work here in Al-Ain but no a whole YEAR has passed. Time surely flies. Looking back at it, it was one hell of a year it has all the ingredients to be a memorable one. This was the year when I..

1) Started cooking like proper wala.
2) Started driving sahee kee.
3) Got my License (I mean after passing an actual test :P ).
4) Got my first car.
5) Started living on my own like really on my own.
6) Attended my first ever Tennis tourney, Sidz and Abid they both know how precious it is.
7) Bryan Adams ka concert, bhai how can I forget that, grrrrr.
8) Got Engaged yup that too.
9) Made some wonderful new friends, strengthened bonds with others (that includes each one of you).
10) Not really lost anyone but yea few got distanced (ok why I am writing crap now).
11) Great trips from family members, first Dad in last ramzan and then in summers brother and cousin visited, it was great fun with them.
12) Oh yea Azzurri were crowned the World Champions :P and in Cricket we had two great series wins and one very baistee walee defeat.
13) Most importantly got to know you fellas a lot better who I don’t know for what reason do come here on regular basis and bless this blog, you people are simply amazing.
14) Have couple of regrets but lets just keep them under the carpet, shall we.

There must be more but right now I cant think of any thing else maybe if something else comes in mind I might add it. Oh well this is it and though I had quite a good idea that 17/09/2005 was the date when I landed here but it was later confirmed by my mobile service provider who quite efficiently blocked my Sim for non-renewal grrrrrrrrrrr and that too without any prior notice more grrrrrrrrr. And it took them four hours after I paid the fee which is by the way freaking 100 dhs (multiply it by 16.5 :P) to reactivate it , sigh.

Ok that was a kind of recap now coming to the fun part :P, yup Dubai rain. Well Dubai rain is a hip hop kind of event here in Dubai all bhangra and dj stuff (the kind of music I hardly care about) and last year it was a huge hit. What’s with rain? Ok there is this setup at the back of arena where they arrange artificial rain through showers hence Dubai rain. So its like dancing in rain kinda thing :P and it is supposed to be hot butttttttttttttttt big BUT this time it was stinky errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Ok let us start from the beginning. As you mite all know how good your highness is when it comes to navigating through maze of roads, interchanges and exits and it was proved once again, hehe. Well it started quite well, my friend who was sitting next to me was my navigator and we were getting it all right but just before reaching our destination we took one wrong exit and had to drive for another 15 kms before we could hit the actual track. But that was not the end , next came the correct interchange where for God knows for what reason I tried to be extra smart and didn’t take it (thinking it would lead us to another dead end) and hahaha poor souls had to suffer another extra 20 kms. And when finally once we entered the correct junction for Country Club, we lost our way again hehe. Apparently the organizers thought that everyone who is gonna be there would know venue’s location at his/her finger tips so they didn’t bother to put up any directions . Khair after asking for directions finally we were there. Only to be confronted with huge chaos for parking. So after roaming around for another 10 minutes looking for space finally found a car workshop whose guard quite kindly allowed us to park the car inside. Happily we walked towards the place totally unaware of chaos we were about to face. It was like Pakistan revisited, same pushing , shouting, people without tickets trying to sneak in, some still trying to get hold on tickets, security guards screaming and asking people to stay in lines. And that was just not from my fellow countrymen our neighbors were equally involved too. After being pushed for 15-20 minutes in queue we heard a shout and everyone started running towards the gates by the time I arrived at the gate guards had already secured it so kapoot again I had to wait for another 15 minutes before they allowed us to cross the preliminary check post yup actual ticket checking was further inside. Oh and during all that fiasco the concert was on hold too, apparently some lady had passed out. Plus people were too close to the stage when Himesh, the “bara adakar” (big star) that is what he himself claimed, came onto stage so he decided not to go ahead with it. It took quite a few persuasions and multiple announcements from FM VJs for crowd to finally back off. All this time we were standing in queue in front of the main entry but as soon as the “bara adakar” resumed another chaos broke out and mob started pushing and running in. I had to literally push and run for my own good my friend had a bad fall but was lucky that he was able to pick himself up. Stupid me had my ticket in my hand and suddenly I felt someone got hold off my hand and trying to snatch the ticket :O I was like what the hell (ok not hell a little more), I had to tear the small piece which that guy was holding onto and ran hehe. Anyhow after such trouble finally we were in but place was jam packed there was hardly any place to walk. It was full with Homo sapiens we normally avoid in concerts in Karachi and they were all in “mood” plus since alcohol was easily available so they were extra high. Anyhow we had to bear Himesh, after him it was RDB team and then our very own Ali Zafar with four chicks hanging all around him :P. I would say he was the only worth mentioning performer at that night, plus he performed his new song which had Kishore Kumar inspired written all around it. In between I tried going into that rain area but had to come back after just spending a minute in it, it was too stinky, too crowded for my liking and I had no interest in trying to find my way through half naked men, grrrrrrrr. So basically Dubai rain might have rocked last year, this year definitely it failed. There were too many desperate mailaas looking for their chance and it was just too over crowded.

idiocies one must bear

2006-09-19T01:38:00.000+04:00

was supposed to update tonite but mind is too fu--ed up to write about anything probably will try in morning.

`©

2006-09-14T16:51:00.000+04:00

To reply to No One writer of “Her Confessions” that why City Karachi was depressing for me. Ummmm well if you find every single road dug up either for expansion cause or a new pipe line being installed and there is hardly any sign of progress on construction front and if the road is not dug up then its flooded with rain water or sewerage. So well yea that is why moving around in Karachi wasn’t fun. Plus the way people behaved while on road was too frustrating and no I am not saying this because I have now lived abroad for some time now and now I feel I have the right to criticize sub kuch. Nopes it is just when you come back after spending some time in foreign land then you see the difference and you realize how we are living. I wish it to change. But I love this city and maybe that is why it was more heartbreaking.

Life tests us, it really does and it is upto us how we react. I guess in my case I am not good in that I become too negative, whine about it and then in few days time move on. This week was particularly hard I had a chance to give a really good shot at a dream place I really want to work at but my first interview hee was so disappointing that I didn’t make through. I know I really know maybe I don’t deserve that place but atleast I am capable enough to atleast go through the first hurdle. Anyhow I was disappointed. Maybe because I want to prove it to others around me and more importantly to myself that I am good, I am way good than this. Fine I may not be the type who would work on his own and go on learning new stuff out of hobby I work when there is pressure and maybe that’s what is hurting me. I am just doing my office work and nothing else. Oh well then couple of days back there was another disappointment this time related to current job, something which I really wanted to happen but it didn’t so well not a good week as far as my professional career is concerned.

Anyhow tonight there is this concert in Dubai where all cool DJs will be there and yea our very own Ali Zafar too, its called Dubai rain something. I have heard they spray water on crowd and last time it was pretty hot. I am hoping it would be the same this time around too ;).

Flying Back

2006-09-02T02:16:00.000+04:00

Oh well how quickly time flies, exactly 30 days back I landed at Jinnah Terminal and now I am heading back to it. It seems like time had its turbo jets on. Anyhow it was one memorable trip, had loads of fun at times. At times it was pure frustration. Met loads of people, couldn’t met few which is sad. Met two very special friends for the first time, Thanks Hira and Abid you guys were great. Also met M for the first time after knowing her for six years(weird yes) and I don’t think I will ever forget it. Thanks Tanzilla for taking out your time and thanks Silent Spring that KFC meeting up was fun. Also special thanks to OM who got me loads of DVDs and arranged a dinner :) you are awesome.

Birthday was great, thanks to my wife to be and her family :) and yes Thanks Mom for being there when I wanted you most. And final thanks to Ather spent little time with you but as always one hell of a time.

See ya all from Al-Ain now.

PS: I forgot to mention two more names, Z who waited 15 minutes outside CK (ofcourse in her car) because I got late and the only person out of 5 others who were supposed to come , she actually came. JD who then later came to CK and picked me up and we went on to meet Dard and Sajjad. oh well now me off to Sharjah for a day break.

Confusions

2006-08-26T23:34:00.000+04:00

Oh well when ones routine is broken it is tough to continue different activities which were part of that routine and blogging had become part of my routine but since I in Karachi it has been difficult to write or to read anyone of your posts.

Haha ok ok Tanzilla and Hira raised a question about how come I can have fun with relatives :P, ok ok let me go clear here. The kids are amazing :P me talking about between age of 20-25 :P and where I had fun? Ummm in playing football and then playing handball in pool for hours that was fun bus fullstop uskay baad nahee us say pehlay nahee :p but yea these kids are fun now we are going for a LAN Party of Counter Strike which is though never short of dramas but hopefully it will be fun :P.

Ummm ok I wanted to write about something else, past couple of weeks have been emotional roller coaster ride if nothing less. Why? Because my mind had lost its tracks and I started wondering a lot basically I was having issues with my marriage thingy and all this arranged stuff. It had gotten to the point that I was having second thoughts regarding it and nothing seemed right to me. Though I didn’t want to hurt anyone and never wanted to be a villain by making some decision. Hence was in huge tension and this was disturbing my parents. I did try talking to them, they did to me but nothing worked. I was sure that it is not working out and will fail like anything. I had almost lost my interest in going any forward. Such negative thoughts were tormenting me and I just wanted to be out of it. I guess it was a commitment phobia. Then my mother who was increasingly getting worried arranged my meeting with two of my uncles, we had a loooong discussion they heard all my fears and concerns. Talked to me and in the end it was concluded that I just had unnecessary fears, fears of unknown one might say. They gave me courage, they provided me confidence and now Thank God I feel light and positive.

PS: oh btw one more thing Hira's mom makes a wonderful biryani though I haven’t tasted it yet :( but I know its yummy :D.

To FarmHouse

2006-08-11T20:57:00.000+04:00

Okie in just couple of hours heading for a farmhouse with all the “khandaan” people ok not all one mamoon and one khala dropped out apparently night out isn’t ok for them but still there are mashAllah say loads of people and I am expecting good fun , c ya all, laters.

Back

2006-08-07T03:39:00.000+04:00

:D finally am back , that is on two accounts one on blog world and secondly I am back in Karachi :D. Why was I missing from blog world? firstly I just didn’t feel like updating plus work load was immense and I was just busy with that and had to complete loads of stuff before my vacations.

Then last week that is from 27th till 3rd of this month my bro and cousin were here, they wanted to visit UAE since it was a good opportunity. So it was fun, we roamed around places, went to malls, watched “Super man Returns” on 3D, had barbeque buffet at an altitude of 1200 meters (which I think is the height of most of the cliffs we got in north nazimabad but it is a big thing in UAE :P ) and did shopping for folks back home. Did I tell you that I got all three of us late for the bus which was supposed to take us to Abu-Dhabi airport for our flight to Karachi , but khair we got there in time plus we had enough time to catch next bus and still reach on time for boarding :P but still as usual there was drama. And yes I cooked chicken karahi for them plus daal and it was great :D.

Since the time I am here in Karachi, all I have seen is rain, flooded roads, dug up roads and relatives and yes bad bad traffic ok ok I am sounding like those who lived all their lives abroad and when they come here they find all the faults, no I have lived here and now I know how pathetic it is :S.

Oh well situation in Lebanon is out of imagination and I wonder where is that Pakistani spirit which was seen after October 8, ok we might not need to show all of it but even 15% would do or we are just too nationalistic and do not care about others?

Sadness

2006-07-11T17:11:00.000+04:00

Its one of those days when you feel sick of whatever you have achieved (or lack of it) in life, I guess one such day would be the cause of my end.

Updates

2006-07-06T00:54:00.000+04:00

Oh well world cup is almost about to end, time of year when you suddenly feel you have thirty six hours in a day. Nothing else is happening much on the other end still waiting for my raise. Vacations are about to start just little less than a month left :D.

Car got in real trouble, engine would stall a lot of times when I would brake and it was getting really frustrating especially in signals plus it was quite random so I had to be on watch all the time a go. Well I took to it to three different mechanics and then finally with the help of a reference was able to get a mechanic to have a check on it before that he was just giving me stupid suggestions, sigh. Anyhow he kept it for two days and got it fixed. He was like I haven’t ever seen this problem before, you have got me learnt a new thing. Problem was being a newbie in cars and that too with a six cylinder beast I had no idea that I am not supposed to let fuel tank get empty more than 75%. Almost all the time I would wait for it to get almost empty and then get it refilled. That made dirt and other raw material gather in pump and damage it, not only that even fuel injectors got dirty and he had to clean it. Oh well so after costing me another fortune, car is fine now, no more choking infact I can feel a lot better performance from it. It was slowly and surely getting into trouble lets hope it runs fine now, I cant afford another such hiccup in budget.

`©

2006-06-15T05:32:00.000+04:00

I guess I don’t have to mention this time around why there are lack of posts here, it is very evident my priorities have shifted for a while but that doesn’t mean I am abandoning this blog.

It is definitely not easy writing three posts a day(yea that’s much I am doing) and writing your own opinions and making them presentable but so far so good and I am enjoying it :D even if readership is almost non existent hahaha :D.

The other news which is occupying papers specially here in Gulf is the death of Palestine civilians by Israeli forces. Btw I at times visit a forum where mostly Israelis participate and discuss issues and according to some they none of the Palestinians qualify as civilians since according to them they breed terrorism but there are some who are quite reasonable.

First it was a shelling on beach in Gaza which killed all the members of 8 years old Hadeel Ghalia’s family only left is her 11 year old half-sister, 20 year old half-brother and the step mother. I wonder what is the fault of these kids? Born in wrong country? Wrong place at a wrong time? Apparently there doesn’t seem to be any logical reason behind this shelling that is why Israelis came up with a non conclusive presentation trying to show the world(the way their masters US did) that it wasn’t from their side, totally not convincing. Its amazing how they get away with this, its not for the first time it has happened before so many children have got killed, so many innocent people have been murdered from both sides but only condemnations follow no real action we just seem to neglect this even as a problem, talk about apathy. And words are so easy, writing this is so easy but when u think about start making a difference problem lies. What will happen to those girls? Probably some rich Arab family will adopt them but what about thousand others? So many children in Palestine have watched their dear ones die in front of their eyes, many have attended funeral and many have lost their lives when they hardly started their schools. Will someone ever stop it? In a second incident just days after this atrocity another aerial attack on a car carrying rockets was carried which killed 9 civilians and Hamas guys supposedly going to launch rockets on Israel’s territory. Newspaper carried images of a person tripping while carrying a wounded kid, blood sprouting, it was very painful and I didn’t have nerves to view it again. Israel claims that it is its right to shoot down suspects by any means anywhere which of course carries huge risks of civilian deaths and in reaction can cause more attacks on Israel. This is just a vicious cycle, one party kills people from others and then the other retaliates and both are guilty of breaking the truce at one time or the other. But seriously is Israel this dumb? Naa I believe they know no one would stop them and they have eternal right to commit their actions. They don’t care how many innocent lives are lost and know some handful of nations or organizations will just make voices and that’s it, they just know they are mighty and they can get away with it. And we are allowing them to do it. I have nothing else to say.

Al Ain Times

2006-06-15T05:20:00.000+04:00

Soon to be launched Al Ain times, Al Ain's very own weekly newspaper.

Al Ain Times

Another Blog

2006-06-07T17:44:00.000+04:00

Ok so one more time long absence and this time I was busy with work, no not office work but other stuff. Last weekend was fun, it was the first time my friends were here instead of the routine me traveling to Sharjah and it was real good :D. Cooked food for them, took them around the city and later at night at Top of Jabel hafeet ( Hafeet mountain). Thanks to my miss calculation they all missed out Friday prayers by a margin of two minutes :P. I was kinda glad that this time I didn’t have to drive on those 150 kms route but no later in evening had to leave for Abu Dhabi and come back late night. It was a reunion of Giki friends. Maryam who was in town for 3-4 days break after her LUMS semester coordinated it and rest of the guys who are working in UAE were there. Only five of us but it was good to see them infact three of them I met after graduation that is six years :O sheesh time flies. I was thinking of writing a post on that but now I shall write one when it will be ten years of our first day in GIKI (feel so old).

Al Ain being the desert city so weather has been ferociously hot mostly hitting higher 40s and once or twice has hit 50 too (this is Celsius) but from past couple of days it has been lot cooler with clouds and wind(though with strong wind , dust storms are associated in this part of the world).

Fifa World cup is about to begin in just two days time and I have taken an inspiration from a Tennis blog of two master writers (and no Hira I am not a cheater :P ) and have started a Fifa World Cup blog. I am so much wanting for them to contribute here too and yes Hira app bhee :P plus who else is interested to write, do drop a line. Aur mujhe yaad nahee araha what else to write oh yea pretty pathetic movies tonite so I guess I will go watch Da Vinci Code :P.

Ciao.

and I think I will try Hira's recipe for choolays ajj :P

200 Not Out....

2006-05-25T12:43:00.000+04:00

Oh well after that sports week life has come to back its normality ofcourse only for me not for my fellow bloggers whose exams are either on right now or soon will be and damn the exams because (my) blogging world seems to be in deep sleep apart from one jis ko koi fikar nahee apnay exams kay baray mein yes the one and only Hira :P. apparently she has come up with a new word for us and I tell you its useful :P so have a look…

Watched Tristan and Isolde last week nice medieval times romantic movie and then next day went about researching more on this myth :P (haan farigh hoon mein). Arthurian myths somehow always fasicinate me infact its history which does, ok ok I hate ratifying the dates and facts just reading is good and that too of old old times hmmmm like Before Christ or soon after that. There is so much mystery involved then people with all kind of weird ways and stories.

Oh yes its my mummy’s birthday today :D so a BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG Wish for her :D and a BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG Thanks to her :D

Happy Birthday Ammi :D
Claps Claps.

Ok off to Dubai again :P,

PS: my fuel expenses are rising high , any idea q :P?

And yes its my 200th Post, *raises bat in acknowledgement towards the pavilion and the crowd :D who are giving a standing ovation :P.

Ciao

Race Result

2006-05-16T15:10:00.000+04:00

Lol ok ok against all expectations (of mine that is), I managed to finish the race and not only finish it I was 21st :P. and no there were more than 21 people participating infact 50+ so yea I do have some stamina :D, take that. Ok the sad part, most of my soccer mates ended up quite ahead of me mostly in top 15 and even more sad two 60+ guys ended in top 12 :O now that was shocking. One of them plays soccer with us and he is super duper fit so I guess age doesn’t matter much :P and yes I need to work on my stamina more :D. Good thing one of the guys who beat me so easily in Table tennis ended way behind me :D and it was fun when I went past him, we shook hands , hehe.

Though must say at the end of it I was quite exhausted but sigh had to go home and cook :P.

Humiliation :P, Sharmindagi

2006-05-13T16:26:00.000+04:00

Ok ok it turned out to be quite a disaster :P, lost all 5 matches (major humiliation) could have won atleast one where I was tied at 1-1 and leading third game but lost the plot in middle with two serv faults. But for the rest of the matches they were far better players, with a lot better technique and control and playing after ages didn’t help either :(. Though it was fun to be back on table and at times I regained some of the touch :P

Anyhow tomorrow I run 4-KM race :P. yup yup I have lost it.

Random guppain

2006-05-11T02:25:00.000+04:00

I can say one thing for sure, there will always be one as---le as your colleague who can ruin your whole perfect day , grrrrrr never short of them :P. But this one is kinda unique, at times he so damn helpful and at times such a pain sigh, God help us both :D.

Ok can someone tell me how come a perfectly white colored shirt (that too branded) with vertical blue lines suddenly after laundry turns into a dull light brown colored shirt with brown lines on it :O??? Either it got replaced or somehow a new color got on it. But the lines have died so perfectly that it doesn’t look like kay it was a color from some other textile which got on it, there is no sign of any non-uniform color change :( my shirt it was a gift on engagement :’( sniffs.

Oh yea found out yesterday kay today in evening I have a table tennis match in this on-going tourney in university :O, I have no idea why I registered :p but I did and now have to play tomorrow :P. I think it was 3 years back when I last played , kaafi baistee honay walee hai :P. Got a new racquet though, time to hit some smashes :D., atleast one thing for sure style pur no compromise :P.

MI-III Rox

2006-05-04T14:14:00.000+04:00

Eik style say bahrpoor (full of style) movie, mind blowing special effects and amazing gadgets. Must see for everyone who is into such genre of movies and specially fan of Mission Impossible series, much better than MI-II. Will be more fun if you can manage to watch it in cinema, Hapy Viewing ;).

For me I am off to Sharjah yet again :P.

Dreaming With Tears in My Eyes

2006-05-02T11:50:00.000+04:00

--------- says:
alright goodbye fr good

--------- says:
take care okk

--------- says:
and i wish you the best in always today and always

--------- says:
act and think rationally please.

Last few sentences from you, before I closed the window for good. It isn’t the first time with you though I know this time it will be the last. Because this time around the cause behind is bigger than anything and it demands sacrifices for greater good. But if ones heart is pure and road ahead is clear like yours then such sacrifices mean nothing. I am sure you won’t even feel a difference :).

There are certain people in life who are far bigger than a word friend. These are the people who can make sun shine on the gloomiest of days, whose only mere thought can make you forget your worst nightmares. Just knowing that they are by your side makes you believe you can conquer anything.

For me life is too short but there are moments, moments which make it wonderful. Being the selfish kind I am, I will miss those moments. The sight of your scrap, popup of your coming online alert, your new message in inbox, the moment of relief when I used to remember that there is one person with whom I can share anything be it most stupid with no fear of being ridiculed or labeled and above all the moment of realization that you were there. And yea not to forget our weird psyche connection and discovery of people we both happen to knew.

It was always on the cards, it had happened before it had to happen again, you had to move on to your new life but there was a slight hope no matter how unrealistic it seemed that we may not say goodbyes. And I knew, I knew that this would happen and It is all for good but I am struggling to accept it atleast for now. Maybe because I am selfish, maybe because I am bad in making compromises. Maybe because I know that I will have to once again fight on my own with only your prayers and not words to motivate me, the ways I got used to once I will need to get used to them again. I will have to be my friend again.

Ok enough of bakwaas, you rock babe, just too awesome mashAllah say. You made my life special with just 5% of your effort, only God knows with 100% of it inshAllah what you can make it happen for the guy ;) hahahaha all my prayers are with you :D. keep rocking ;).

Alone, I'll be yearning tomorrow
When sunshine brings memories of you
My sunshine will turn into sorrow
As a dream of the love you once knew

Off to Sharjah

2006-04-26T17:44:00.000+04:00

Off to Sharjah to meet couple of friends who landed into UAE, couple of weeks back during the conference frenzy, see you guys on Friday now.

Btw one of them is Silent Spring too :D.

Updates:

Oh well ok I couldn’t go grrrrr, car isn’t ready yet ab will get it tomorrow at noon that means I will have to drive in most hot conditions to Dubai :( sad, very very sad. Conference was hectic(to say the least) full time, at the end of the I used to get soo tired that coming online felt like a hard task. Providing technical support seems easy but its not. I mean most of the time you are waiting for someone to call you up for some help and waiting is a pain. So when doing nothing I was just walking in corridor or sitting somewhere doing nothing just waiting. Hardly any paper was of interest to me just attended 2-3 to be max. God knows how many different types of USB flash memories I saw in those 3 days really of all kinds and shapes :P and tell me why would people walk away with laser pointers grrrrrr these are professors I am talking about. lol ok in one funny incident this guest speaker from Australia after his presentation was having coffee in another room. That time I was in the main hall uploading some presentations and I could hear someone talking but there was no one else inside the hall and then I realized this guy has this wireless mic in his pocket and its on and all his chatting was making its way into the hall :D, good for him no one else listened to his talking.

Attendance itself was very disappointing I was told. Crowd would go maximum just before lunch as expected :P, yeaaaa foood was free and foood was good and it is nothing like free food and awesome desserts :D, yaaaay.

This colleague of mine who is senior to me, plus the main IT coordinator for the conference had a row with our director and decided to skip the conference. It was a complete misunderstanding and he acted like a kid so hence more load on me. But in a sense it was good because he really bosses around and tries to be over efficient (I hate people who are complete opposite of what they want others to be) so I didn’t have him on my head which was quite relaxing plus that way I got to know many people and it turned out to be a good network builder though not sure how much it will help. But it feels good when you earn people’s respect. Anyhow enough of this time to sleep and now tomorrow in scorching heat I will be off to Dubai.

Absence

2006-04-22T02:31:00.000+04:00

Driving with one hand that too while holding a big ass banner which is half a feet outside your car with another hand and that too in a city which seems like was designed around roundabouts is not easy I tell you. This was yesterday and what was going on in previous nineteen days well not much different, ok I wasn’t holding out banners and driving. But the story is exactly after seven hours, 7th Annual Research Affairs Conference will commence. This is the thing for our department infact I would say the only time of year when everyone from our department is actually working :P. Infect I would say it is one of the major events in University’s Calendar. So from making 170 slides presentation to updating conference’s website(which includes putting up 200+ links). Not to forget the marathon effort to extract individual research papers from huge pdfs, took two working days to do that and in the end I hated the word pdf :P. Thanks to C# atleast I was able to save myself from creating the web based table of contents, other wise in yester years my colleague used to do it manually(sheeesh) and yea along with those quite a many outside work which are so much part of such conferences and exhibitions. Anyhow I have a bad headache right now, its 2:20 at night and I have to be up in 3 hours. So this was the only reason of me being away from blog I wasn’t just finding time to write about anything though not much wasn’t happenin, oh yea did I mention I scratched my car against a cement column while attempting a suicidal parking maneuver . Ok it is not that bad just slight dents on right hand side doors but problem is since I didn’t know the rules here hence I didn’t bother to call the police and now I have discovered that nobody would repair those dents unless I get clearance from police that it was not a hit and run situation jeeeeeeeeez. And when I called up police two days after the incident the police walas tell me to take my car again to that spot and stand there in a similar way as I was then, call 999( which is similar to 911) and tell them that I have hit my car just now and come and give me clearance grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Pathans I tell you. Sometimes I feel living in Pakistan is so easy :P. oh well so I have talked to my driving instructor he knows someone there and will let me know what to do tomorrow so that’s it so now how many think I don’t deserve this car :P???

Presentation woes

2006-04-03T01:04:00.000+04:00

Ok there was this presentation I was given the task to prepare it. It was supposed to highlight the vision, the mission and all the services and the rest of bla bla of what our Department does or the ones which come under it do. In short it had to be a marketing thingy. Plus my manager wanted it to be “lively” which frankly I cudnt understand shroo mein what exactly he meant :P. Saadat made me a nice looking template infect two and I chose one, thanks bud :D. Problem was how and really how will I make it lively? My creativity requires a lot to be desired in this particular domain.

Had to read a 30 pages document to take out material from it good thing it had graphs in it so I was able to use them to make it “lively” plus google images rocks to gather related images. Then also I took out a 50 second piece from an instrumental to make it background loop and then with the help of PowerPoint transitions a nice “lively” looking presentation was made. There is a software Camtasia Studio(it is basically a movie maker) which can capture screen from PowerPoint slideshow and convert it into a movie format(which was another requirement , sigh) good thing it saves the transitions as they were so I just added the music loop with the help of this studio(it could have been done with PowerPoint too but this Studio gave me better flexibility) and voila it was ready. But all of this costed some long hours at work and my weekend and couple of nighters. The Good Thing he liked it (Thank God) and appreciated the “liveliness” :P , Bad Thing he suggested some features which he saw in some other presentation somewhere and wants something like this in this presentation too(grrrrrrrrrrrrr see this is the problem of producing good results, people tend to think you can do anything, everything and it happens everywhere). I will see what I can do about it, khair that’s about it. And this was keeping me from blogging.

Last week this stupid vending machine in one of the college’s building ate my 2 dirhams sigh sad :(. I inserted the coins, pressed the code for m&mz( really felt like having it) and kapooot the packed got stuck onto the coil and even after considerable pushing and kicking it never fell :( (It has happened before but then pushes did the trick). I called up the guy who maintains it and he was supposed to call me up the next day but sigh that never happened. Happens I guess.

Skipper called Freddie

2006-03-23T12:03:00.000+04:00

Two words for Andrew Flintoff...

FUKING BRILLIANT!!!!!!,

The way you marshaled your depleted squad and led them from the front with cool head batting and aggressive bowling, was just breathtaking. Reminded me of great Imran Khan. Hats off…

Flintoff ended with a batting average of above 50 and a bowling average of 30.

Here People its is My Beamer :D

2006-03-23T04:44:00.000+04:00

Alright Ladies and Gentlemen let me introduce to you 189 hp 2.5L 6 cylinder engine beamer. Yup that’s my 325i :D. Finally got it on Sunday , its registration is underway and will inshAllah get it tomorrow. Drove it on Tuesday and loving it :D. Still coming in terms with its braking but its fun :D, after five years of waiting finally a car of mine :D a relief I tell you.

Annoyance of E-Cards

2006-03-23T03:58:00.000+04:00

Ok this is insaneeee, I have like 9 different electronic cards in my wallet and it has become a major pain carrying it :P(poor butt). Here is the list

1. My Overseas Pakistani National Identity card.
2. My Health card.
3. My UAE Identity Card.
4. 2 Credit Cards.
5. My account Debit Card.
6. License.
7. Car registration Card.
8. Medical Insurance Card.

Jeeez seriously need some other type of carrier for these cards, other wise my wallet will just explode :O.

Yup Bryan Adams did rock Dubai

2006-03-15T17:28:00.000+04:00

Oh well these days I am updating my blog on weekly basis so hence it becomes on big post which most of the times infact all the times doesn’t make a good read. Must update atleast twice a week

Ok so let’s begin with the Musical festival which held exactly a week before.
The venue was great, held inside an old fort next to its west wall and with the kind of lightning they had it gave quite a wonderful effect, perfect for a classical music event.
That Austrian orchestra played Mozart really well, started with his first symphony which he wrote when he was just eight years old. Ok that was quite early I mean I don’t know even S of symphony and that guy composed it all when he was just eight. I guess he was born with a music specialized brain. According to the Master, Mozart used to compose the entire composition in his head and when he knew it was done he would write it down on paper completed. Its like you write an entire novel in your head and when it is done you just write on the paper grrrrrrrrr, some brain. After the symphony they played one of his compositions for the clarinet which was followed by another symphony. By the time it was done I decided to leave I had to meet a colleague of mine though that never happened. Weekend was usual trip to Sharjah met a distant cousin my mom had sent some food with him so picked that up :D finally some home food :D. Checked out a car didn’t like it and came back.

Rest of the week was good, had a demo presentation of a certain project with my manager and he seemed to like it but gave loads of additional work :(.

Now coming back to kul, some of you know it was the Bryan Adams Concert in Dubai. The one which was postponed earlier this year. Although it was on a weekday but in no way I was going to miss it. But before leaving Al-Ain, the car dealer gives me a call and goes “there is another BM in a very good condition if you need it come and check it”. And I was like kapoooot because I was so short on time that I knew if I go to Sharjah I won’t make it to the concert anyway before 21:00(that was the start time). But I had to check out that car too so after suffering from the usual stupid Sharjah Traffic jams made it to the showroom around 20:40, grrrrr but that guy had taken car for the wash. Anyhow he came back, car was in an immaculate condition. Nice bumpers, new tyres and alloy rims (pretty hot). Color ok wasn’t of my first choice but have to compensate some where, drove it felt good, no issues with engine and brakes and yes decided to buy it :D, so Ladies and Gentlemen I am or will be soon inshAllah proud owner of BMW 325i , 95 model(old but driven very little). It has gone for some tuning and once it is back I will ask someone to drive it back to Al-Ain(not advisable to drive on highway your first up) inshAllah inshAllah.

Hokay so after making the car deal, rushed for a cab and reached the venue around 21:35. Concert had already started. They didn’t allow cameras so I had to deposit it, sigh sorry people no pictures :( will find some from the net. It was in the same center court(it is like my 4th visit to that court in as many as 3 weeks :O) where I witnessed WTA and ATP actions. Court was jam picked got a place in the west stand, center playing area was jam packed so they closed it otherwise I would have loved to be there but I guess for that I had to reach there quite quite earlier. But my entry was on the perfect song yes our beloved Summer of 69(btw concert had started 21:00, so punctual :D). From there it was one hell of an experience song after song he played hamari jawani kay favourites, lol. I mean the early music the one you start listening to at the beginning of your teen years. Crowd was ecstatic, they were all singing with him. I am sure Karachi concert people must have felt the same. He made us sing, he made us dance. Like he has done before he pulls a girl from the crowd to sing a duet with him When You're Gone. This time it was a Lebanese babe who had come specially to attend this concert and boy didn’t it make her travel a memorable one. I am sure lots of ladies were jealous of her :P, not so sure about her boyfriend though haha I don’t need to give any details :P. but she sang ok, it wasn’t easy for her to control her emotions so she was just jumping and trying to say a word or two lol. But crowd was mast(urdu wala), plus this guy is a very good entertainer he kept the crowd going, joked a lot and the crowd responded. Plus I think the tennis court was a good idea, it gave a kind of closed atmosphere feeling not like usual Bharia museum/Creek club walay concerts feeling. So had loads of fun fully rocked by Bryan Adams :D. Especially gonna run to you was done brilliantly with his lead guitarist playing some good riffs. But like all the good things which come to an end this had to end too though he came back twice(maybe he does that always, no idea). I had to take a private cab to get back home which did cost me few extra bucks but still in a reasonable range. Too sad no cameras were allowed but then I don’t think my camera would have done a good job in those light conditions. Oh well gotta run now, a friend of mine is leaving to Karachi tomorrow so I am going to Sharjah today instead of my usual Thursdays. Take care all.

Falling Car Deal and Al-Ain Musical

2006-03-07T15:45:00.000+04:00

Ggrrrrrrrrrrr I don’t know what was I thinking when I said ok(and paid a very little amount, what they call token money) for a wonderfully modified BM 320, without having required funds in my bank account. Probably I was expecting that the banks would honor me and pay me required car loan. But no they can’t, model is too old to come under their conditions. So I was left with a choice of taking a personal loan from my bank. But since I have got here just 6 months back so they can’t grant me more than 20 k loan which is couple of thousands less than the required amount. Oh well so I called up home and my family wasn’t really comfortable with the interest thing and all. They suggested that they will look for some other sources, maybe in family or something. I know their own financial condition doesn’t allow them to loan me a substantial amount for a longer period, especially when they themselves are looking for a car. Ammi talked to one of my khala and the sweet khala immediately agreed to finance me :D, but the problem is her bank account is in Karachi(she herself is in US) so funds cannot be transferred immediately to me and that’s where the whole masla lies. The car dealer needs atleast 10k by Thursday otherwise the deal will be off. Parents are willing to send me funds until the complete transfer of funds from my aunt can be managed. I had to ask another friend of mine for the rest. Its really embarrassing asking someone for funds and I made my mom do it :(. And my father has been calling atleast twice a day asking for status like has that guy agreed for delayed payment, what are the bank details, did I manage anything from a friend ? etc etc etc I feel so bacha(child) right now :S, just like very old days. So now the situation is the car dealer wants 10k by Thursday and my parents and a friend is willing to send funds but that won’t arrive on time so I guess situation is quite hopeless right now. If you are thinking why I am going for a car while not having enough funds so isn’t it that’s the way it is these days everyone is leasing out cars and cars and cars plus conveyance is must here specially with my frequent Dubai trips and stupid taxi walas f—-ked up attitude (yup I need to write one post on that too).

Oh well(seems like I am using it a lot grrrrrr) due to this idiotic ban on blogspot by PTA has caused a dramatic reduction of readers so I wont be writing much about my ATP experience and shall upload pictures later too I am too lazy :P. and yes it is a difficult process uploading pics on flickr since its tool doesn’t work here.

This weekend there is Al Ain Classical Music Festival celebrating Mozart, it will be held in an old fort which is like 5 minutes walk from my home really. Can’t miss it :D.

For Tickets detail call
Intercontinental Resort Al Ain
Tel: +971-3-7686686

Rain hit WTA

2006-02-28T11:44:00.000+04:00

Alrite now Everyone!!!! Stand in a line!!!!, chalo shabash achay bachay…. Cmon cmon. Ok ab tell kis nay nazar lagayee haan??? Kaun kaun bolo bolo durtay nae won’t eat ya people. I mean hudh hogayee it hardly rains in Dubai and not only it had to rain on the day I bought ticket for but also had to rain so badly kay it washed out the whole day ya whole day zilch no play hardly 13 minutes. Even the organizers weren’t prepared for it and were taken by surprise; they hardly had few wipers and few towels. But the kids (ball boys and girls and cleaning staff) mostly on their own worked endlessly, with patience and tried hard for the games to start, though very unfortunate but those kids had fun. They would wait for rain to stop then enter the court with a loud applause from the spectators. Start using wipers to soak and drain water. After that they would lineup towels on court and start running and jumping on those so that towels soak up any wetness from the surface. In between laughing, playing jokes at each other and whenever shown on big screen they would all go screaming and waving. But the most unfortunate that happened almost all day on Thursday as soon as they would be done with drying, rain would start immediately and they would all go “awwwwwww”. Anyhow so after watching first afternoon session completely washed out, I left for Sharjah to friend’s apartment. We had plans to check out a BM too, though it was a good piece but right now I want to wait for a much better option. Anyways called the club again in evening to find out the progress and they looked all set to start the proceedings and I just decided to go without even giving a second thought to the weather conditions and there you go after waiting for another two hours day was called off with quarters now being planed to be played on semis day. Good management walas though allowed us to come and watch quarters on semis day on our quarter finals day’s tickets.

On Friday weather was lot clearer and there was sun, I called up the courts and the guy informs me that matches will start at 12 noon but sigh that was very close to Friday prayers time. I could have gone there at 12 and left for prayers in middle but I had to drive my friends to mosque so stayed back and finally managed to reach the court around 2. That time the semi between Sharapova and Hingis was going on and I joined it in the start of second set in a packed packed court. Took place on the stairs very close to the court, perfect spot. Since I have attended couple of ODIs in National Stadium in Karachi in similar condition, my bum is used to cemented surfaces :P. Sharapova rocked in that match though we(her supporters) were comprehensively outnumbered by Hingis fans. Though me and couple of kids next to me were quite audible ;) haha am sure I must have been heard on TV. Anyways after that match all quarters were over, except Sania Mirza’s ka doubles. But the court was so packed so packed that they had to open the adjacent court but it was no fun so came out. Now out of ticket and hardly watched any tennis I desperately wanted to watch Semis. So I just stood in line hoping for a miracle ticket. Then a lady approaches and offers to sell semis ticket “Thank you Mam”. I happily accepted the offer and bought the ticket. First up it was Justine Henin vs. Kuznetsova, in which Henin powered her way to 6-2,7-5 win. Man this lady has got some powerful and most accurate returns. Plus her reach is incredible. You would say “nah she is not gonna get it” and boom not only she gets there her return is so impressive that it leaves the opponent in disbelief. But her backhand is the most elegant, single handed and hit with force and accuracy. Delight to watch. Oh forgot to mention it did rain early in first set and it threatened to ruin the entire evening but Thank God play resumed after 3 hours. And I had to watch it in wet shirt, no cover, cold wind and shivering(sun was out when I left home so didn’t bother for any jacket and it was a mistake, lesson learnt). But I had to watch it, ab itna paisa spent kiya that u had to naa plus all for the love of the game :P. Moreover I had allergy and was having sneeze attacks after regular periods so it wasn’t easy at all and this perseverance (some would call stupidity) ended me on bed the next day :P. oh haan since I strategically seated myself where it would have been easier for me to rush for autograph I was able to get one from Henin yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, must have been looked like a Buddha desperado stretching full for an autograph and avoiding fall. But yes I have it :P and now I know where your best chances are :P to get one.

The other semi between Sharapova and Davenport started immediately and though Sharapova started badly(was all over the place) it was Davenport whose game faltered with back to back double faults and it allowed Sharapova to come back and win the second set 6-1 and that was it. It was 22:45 and if I wanted to avoid spending night in open chilly conditions I had to rush to the bus station and grab the last bus to Al-Ain. It is sad though because I missed Sharapova‘s win and left the match in middle but I guess I was fortunate enough to witness that much, remember I didn’t have the semis ticket. Although I have friends in Dubai and Sharjah but I should seriously dig out couple of places which are affordable and in ok condition for a night stand, cant just go and stay at people’s place every time around. Oh well so that my rain affected first ever WTA experience, next week its ATP and I am praying and praying hard that weather remains kick ass for tennis, Thank you All :P.

Picture links below:
Start from page 5 and proceed to page 4,3,2,1 that is the order :(.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/acro

alternate link and this one works here ;)
http://www5.flickr.mud.yahoo.com/photos/acro

The Dubai Tennis Championships

2006-02-22T16:52:00.000+04:00

Hokay, hokay so we have been humiliated badly in one dayers by much efficient Indian team and I don’t want to write about it anymore No no and NO already have written and discussed a lot about why, what and how and what next? So enuff zippp. Buuutttt It was breathtaking to watch our bacha team(Under-19) winning the final against their Indian counterparts exactly on the day when the National Stadium massacre was going on. I did manage to get hold on the highlights and boy oh boy are those three seamers impressive or what. Anwar Ali was bowling inswingers in almost banana shaped trajectory, his deliveries were cutting in, in distance of feets, Imran Khan must have remembered his past. Jamshed Ahmed the lefty bowled a perfect leg cutter which even the Great Wasim Akram would be proud of and Akhtar Ayub was easily bowling above 83-85 mph getting some sharp bounce(now let me remind you hardly any bowler in current Indian side can bowl this fast) that was serious stuff and if groomed properly these guys are the for the future. Time will tell how much further they go but it would require loads of hard work and good fortune, its not easy to break in National 11 specially we already seem to have quite a few new bowlers in the age bracket of 20-22 waiting to break in. All about getting your chances and taking them.

Anyhow Champions league is back with a bang and biggest shock Real beaten by Arsenal in Bernabeu thanks to a majestic solo goal by the skipper Thierry Henry. Rest of the matches weren’t that exciting with a dull 1-1 draw between Bayern Munich and AC Milan and Liverpool losing ( :( ) to Benfica. But the hot one and the real hot one is tonite yes yes it is Chelsea vs. Barcelona and you all know what happened last time these teams faced each other and already Barca players are criticising the state of the pitch (boooo). Grrrrrrrrrr and I don’t have any channel that will air this match, must go for ART subscription must must it is necessary for my love for soccer to survive :P. oh haan aur yea me going to thiiiiiissssss kul, it’s the Quarter Final and already hoping for some kick ass matches :D and next week it will be ATP :D. Just hoping I get a good spot, jabhee will leave early and gonna be there before the gates actually open :P. and if George Clooney and Jose Mourinho were more than tough to tackle alone you better check
this out…. Doesn’t get any better than this. Rest you better check on Hira's blog :P

Finally shortlisted five different car models of which one I shall look for :P and those are
BM 325i
Accord
Nissan Maxima
Mazda 6
And non above then good old civic :P. That’s it inkay ilawa aur kuch nahee.

Oh well still a lot to say some confusions need to be tackled but wont talk now, will spoil the theme of this post(if it has any).

Take care people Adios.

PS: Look Look...

Look Look mera ticket :D

and this is my visit to Taj Mahal :D, c mein Taj Mahal bhee ho aya :P

Things to do when your colleague is away 1

2006-02-16T13:13:00.000+04:00

Things to do when your colleague is away 1

Ok bachoon mein Dubai ja raha hoon again aur haan hamaree team eik "Azeem" Team hai :P

Baharoon phool bursao mera mehboob aya hai....

Dedication to the match.

Pictures courtesy of http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/when-your-collegue-is-away.html

Things to do when your colleague is away 2

2006-02-16T12:43:00.000+04:00

Things to do when your colleague is away 2

Things to do when your colleague is away 3

2006-02-16T12:42:00.001+04:00

Things to do when your colleague is away 3

Why Men Oversleep

2006-02-11T16:00:00.000+04:00

hokay hokay so eventually I will tag 2 people Saeed and Seher :P, here u go both of you have fun :D. Weekend was fun, another friend from karachi arrived in Dubai last week so we had kind of a get together of four ex-xactians :D and you know what happens when ex-xactians get together hahaha. Wanted to goto Global Village but cudn't, heard they have replicated Taj Mahel there almost of 75% of the size of the orignal one and it rocks so maybe next week, inshAllah.

alrite here is a joke which highlights why men yaani kay "us" oversleep and miss all the alarms in the world and end up getting late :P, kionda long but worth it. Have fun :D.

BRAIN SYSTEM: Attention. Alert registered.

CENTRAL: Alert? Number One, report!

NUMBER ONE: Sir! We're picking up loud music.

CENTRAL: Music? We were just asleep!

NUMBER ONE: Yes sir. Ears report it's "The Last Train to Clarksville."

CENTRAL: My god, are we being tortured?

NUMBER ONE: Sir, Eyes are functional and request instruction.

CENTRAL: Tell them to open up and try to find out what is going on.

NUMBER ONE: Scope! Okay, I see darkness... darkness...Wait, there's a woman sleeping there.

CENTRAL: A woman?

NUMBER ONE: Sir, Libido Station wants to know if it is Anna Kournikova.

CENTRAL: Forget about Libido. What can you tell me?

NUMBER ONE: Sir, Memory reports a near perfect match to "wife," sir.

CENTRAL: Well of course. Keep looking.

NUMBER ONE: Sir, urgent report from Stomach on the horn, do you want to take it?

CENTRAL: Stomach, what's going on?

STOMACH: Sir, we've taken a hit, it...it looks bad, sir.

CENTRAL: Get hold of yourself, man!

STOMACH: Yessir. It looks like a burrito, sir. It exploded at about 1900 hours and we've been out of action ever since. I don't...I don't know if she can take much more, Captain.

CENTRAL: Stomach! Now you listen to me, son. We're all counting on you up here. Don't give up now. Remember the chilli of '94? We made it through that, we can make it through anything.

STOMACH: Yessir. You can count on me, sir.

CENTRAL: Good man.

NUMBER ONE: Sir, I've got a visual on the clock!

CENTRAL: Tell me, Number One.

NUMBER ONE: Oh my God, sir. It's horrible.

CENTRAL: Dammit sailor, get a grip on yourself!

NUMBER ONE: It's... It's six thirty, sir. In the morning.

CENTRAL: In the morning? Not again. I thought...I thought that we'd had the worst of it yesterday.

SYSTEM: Sixty seconds to consciousness.

CENTRAL: This is madness. Do you know what's going to happen if we go conscious now, this early?

NUMBER ONE: Work, sir?

CENTRAL: That's right, Number One. It'll be work, all right. I don't...don't know if I can live through that hell again.

SYSTEM: Fifty seconds to consciousness.

NUMBER ONE: Sir? Do you have orders?

CENTRAL: Hmmm?

NUMBER ONE: Orders, sir. Do you have orders for us?

CENTRAL: Orders? Orders, Number One? Damn right there are orders! Let's get ourselves moving.

NUMBER ONE: Aye aye, sir!

SYSTEM: Forty seconds to consciousness.

CENTRAL: Shut that damn thing off, I'm trying to think. Get our remote stations on line. I want a Search and Acquire on anything that feels like a snooze button. Tell them to MOVE. Bladder!

BLADDER: Yes sir?

CENTRAL: How are you holding?

BLADDER: All systems are flush and ready, sir. We can go another three hours, easy.

CENTRAL: Very well, Bladder. Number One, get me Nose on the horn.

NOSE: Sir, Nose reporting, sir!

CENTRAL: Good to hear from you, Nose. How are you doing up there?

NOSE: We registered cat breath about twenty minutes ago, but it was pretty faint and I didn't think...

CENTRAL: Steady on, nose. You were right not to trigger an alert. NOSE: Thank you, sir.

CENTRAL: Nose, I'm afraid I have bad news for you, son. We took a burrito last night.

NOSE: Oh no, sir, not again!

CENTRAL: I said steady! You're going to have to hold on, you hear me? Hold on,and it will pass. I don't want ANYTHING getting through to Consciousness.

NOSE: Yes sir. I'll try, sir.

CENTRAL: That's the spirit. Stomach!

STOMACH: Sir?

CENTRAL: How are you doing down there?

STOMACH: We've been breached, Captain. The whole alimentary is in flames. I'm trying to keep it contained, but I can't promise anything.

CENTRAL: Damn!

NUMBER ONE: Sir, Libido Station reports it is ready for battle!

CENTRAL: Tell Libido to calm down, I'll call him when I need him. Any report from our search party?

NUMBER ONE: Sir, Fingers report they located and toppled a glass of water, a pair of glasses, and a box of Kleenex. No luck on the snooze, sir.

CENTRAL: Number One, I don't mind telling you, if we don't get this under control we're going to lose her.

NUMBER ONE: Yes sir. Sir, Libido requests positive verification that the woman sleeping next to us is not Anna Kournikova.

CENTRAL: For crying out loud.

NUMBER ONE: Sir, Ears reports the song is over. It's going to commercial, sir.

CENTRAL: How much time on the system clock?

NUMBER ONE: Ten seconds to consciousness, sir. We've lost smile control in the lower facial and we're developing a frown.

CENTRAL: Brace yourself, Number One. I'm afraid we've had it.

NUMBER ONE: Sir! Fingers has located target. Repeat, Fingers is on target!

CENTRAL: Fire!

NUMBER ONE: Hit! Sir, direct hit!

CENTRAL: Ears!

NUMBER ONE: It's gone, Captain! Ears reports the music is gone!

CENTRAL: We've done it!

SYSTEM: Consciousness cancelled.

NUMBER ONE: Sir, all systems are ready for sleep mode. Repeat, sleep mode now ready.

CENTRAL: Trigger sleep mode NOW.

NUMBER ONE: Sleep mode triggered, aye aye, sir.

CENTRAL: Shut Eyes.

NUMBER ONE: Eyes off, sir. Frown relaxed, smile restored.

CENTRAL: By golly, that was a close one.

NUMBER ONE: Yessir. Sir, Dream Team requests selection. Libido asking for something naked, sir.

CENTRAL: Request denied. Let's roll the one where we show up for church wearing only our underwear, I like that one.

NUMBER ONE: Roger that, sir. Dream selection completed and tape is rolling, sir.

CENTRAL: Good work, Number One. You take the helm.

NUMBER ONE: Aye aye, sir

Tagged

2006-02-08T11:41:00.000+04:00

Oh well car searching is no easy specially in a country where you have loads of choices but only very few feasible :P. But hey its good to have more choices. Anyhow I am in love with new Civic yup 2006 kee. Exterior though is ok with improved shape but nice rear lights. But hey it’s the interior (which matters more for me) is one hot cake. Some really cool features in there. But sigh its price is just out of hands and going for it would be pushing myself real hard on financial side so I guess I will have to wait for it. Best bet seems to be to get a max 2 yr old car and a less driven one they are cheap and usually in good condition. Rest all chill hai, I guess one Dubai trip is on the cards this weekend it is time to meet some old friends and visit to Global Village. Oh well I guess this is the third time I have been tagged by someone so I should oblige once (not really into these questioners much so please don’t read :P) , ok Dinko here it goes.

UNIQUE
1. Nervous habits... talk to myself and very anxious :P.
2. Are you double jointed... naaa.
3. Can you roll your tongue... shaid pata nae, lemme try grrr na not much :P.
4. Can you raise one eyebrow at a time... haha not a successful attempt.
5. Can you blow spit bubbles... :S.
6. Can you cross your eyes... nopes.
7. Tattoos... naaaaaaa.
8. Piercings... nopes.
9. Do you make your bed daily... once a week?

CLOTHES
10. Which shoe goes on first?... Right.
11. Speaking of shoes, have you ever thrown one at anyone... na not really it was an accident, while kicking the ball my shoe came off :P once.
12. On the average, how much money do you carry... 100-50 dhs?
13. What jewelry do you wear 24/7... does engagement ring count in this one??
14. Favorite piece of clothing... anything which is smooth.

FOOD
15. Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it... twirl it.
16. Have you ever eaten Spam... naah?
17. Do you use extra salt on your food... haha I think I usually get short by a bit, but I don’t mind bit extra salt.
18. How many cereals in your cabinet... None.
19. What's your favorite beverage... many.
20. What's your favorite fast food restaurant/chain... depends on mood koi bhee chulta hai.
21. Do you cook... ajjkul tu twice a week.

GROOMING
22. How often do you brush your teeth... once :O? yup yup with two root canals I should be more careful.
23. Hair drying method... Towel.
24. Have you ever colored/highlighted your hair... hahaha no, can’t :P

MANNERS
25. Do you ever swear... yups, who doesn’t?.
26. Do you ever spit... Neverrr.

FAVORITE
27. Animal... non particular.
28. Food... Chinese.
29. Month... August.
30. Day... Wednesday, weekend time :D.
31. Cartoon... loads hahaha. Though Full Metal Alchemist rocks.
32. Shoe brand... joo bhee acha lagay.
33. Subject in school... In Uni it was AI.
34. Color... I believe every color looks good on something so its kinda relative but the shades of red when u cut a strawberry into rings is amazing.
35. Sport... sports freak I am.
36. TV shows... Many, these days it is Lost mostly.
37. Thing to do in the spring... yahan spring nae hoteee.
38. Thing to do in the summer... stay away from sun.
39. Thing to do in the fall... chill.
40. Thing to do in winter... ok this is driving me nuts!!!!!!!!.
41. In the CD player... lets say in laptop, anime kee dvd.
42. Person you talk most on the phone with... hahaha no need to tell.
43. Reading... The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky(and it is a good read I must say)
44. Do you regularly check yourself out in store windows/mirrors... lol no.
45. What color is your bedroom...White
46. Do you use an alarm clock... yea but koi faida nae hota hahaha.
47. Window seat or isle... Window anytime.

DUMB
48. What's your sleeping position... sideways.
49. In hot weather do you use a blanket... nopes
50. Do you snore... nopes.
51. Do you sleepwalk... hahaha...no
52. Do you talk in your sleep... used to, I guess abhee bhee hoga, Thank God no one to suffer.
53. Do you sleep with stuffed animals....
54. How about with the light on... if sleepy, can sleep with all lights on.
55. Do you fall asleep with the tv or radio on... yeaa, koi masla nahee :P.
56. Last interesting person you met... Daily hee milta hoon kisee na kisee character say.

and no I wont Tag anyone.

PS: oh and yea be aware: http://gulfnews.com/world/India/10017246.html and yea I want to make strawberry cheese cake, is it tough, easy? anyone?

Updates: off to Dubai over a weekend, see yaa people then.

Game,Set and Match

2006-01-28T15:05:00.000+04:00

Yes Yes Ladies and Gentlemen I have done it yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay *screams more, first try and bingo :D. Thanks to all of you and Thanks to Allah. It surely was some burden and to get it in first try is one good achievement :D yaay yaay.

It is a funny process really, a bus full of candidates follows the test car which gets driven around the city and one by one each candidate gets off the bus and takes a try. So it is like rest of the people are watching your progress from inside the bus and making guesses. Now the common joke was if a person passes he comes towards the bus smiling and if he doesn’t then he moves away quietly :D. There were no numbers or anything so anyone who wants to get off first and give a try was getting off. Me the lazy bum was sitting on the very last seat showing no interest, at times dozing of at times trying to spot the car or just trying to read the roads they were mostly asking people to drive. One by one people were taking their tries and either coming out happy or dejected. Saad doesn’t move. Soon only four left in bus, for some odd reason I wanted to be the last I just wanted to be last my reverse was also taken when I was the only one left and here I got the chance too :D(superstitious? No just mental).

Finally my turn arrived, I sat in adjusted seat, checked mirrors fasten the seta belt and from parking took it to the main road. Surprisingly I was quite relaxed and Thank God both the police walas were in good mood. And very soon I was in rhythm, the rhythm which I was very rare during my driving classes, my roundabout guesses were on the spot approach speed was nice . Best part was both of them were in cheerful mood and soon they started joking with me plus they asked about my work and when I got into UAE? Etc etc. Then they started urging me to drive faster :P (they wanted to reach their office soon) “juldee juldee ya Mohammad” yup everyone seems to call me Mohammad here. Even the guy who was sitting next to me helped a bit with when to enter the roundabouts hehe. So Thanks God it all came good and yes now I have the license and it is time to get the vehicle soon inshAllah. In evening I shall go to the traffic department to get my official license, right now just have a receipt. Oh well thank you all :D and still it is bit hard to believe that it actually has happened specially the kind of morning practice session I had.

Big Day

2006-01-27T22:28:00.000+04:00

Well tomorrow is my first try for ze driver license inshAllah yups yups "the real test" on road :P. ok not many odds in favor and its natural, very few get through in first try so I am quite relaxed hehe not really given up but not tensed which just might favor me :D. plus there are so many factors involved like in which area I will get my turn, crowded or a deserted(thanks to Ather) one. Also if it is crowded u don’t want some other driver making a mistake on you. Then there it depends on the mood of testers(yea there will be two) sometimes they let go one or two mistakes and sometimes you are thrown out on the first one :P then residential areas are always tougher because of two many road signs and yea another one I will have to watch out for the trap, like sometimes these testers make you break the law :P and u better not do that hehe so yea here goes :). Anyhow do pray people :P although I know by the time most of you would be reading this I would have already taken it. And yea typing this from a net café because my own laptop(which is exactly not mine, given from office) is in Abu-Dhabhi and MIGHT be used in a presentation might because it is there just for a backup if something goes wrong with other 2 laptops grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr some people just are over cautious and over efficient and I hate to be without a computer that too for whole two days sigh. Ab will myself go there on Sunday inshAllah. Oh well going to be an hour now so I better log off and yea one bad news Bryan Adam's concert has been cancelled because of the mourning for the death of Dubai's President in January so no more Brian Adams for me :( you lucky Karachi looog :P, I hope he rocks there :D.

Ok gotta go take care and have fun :D.

Not a Good Week

2006-01-25T14:17:00.000+04:00

Week has been anything but good, depression, isolation, hibernation and full of lethargy pun. Hardly any confidence with loads of guilt. Hoping that weekend will make thing better but doesn’t look like that, two soccer days but they turn out to be more on depressing side and then fun since I am struggling to get in terms :S. Driving classes grrrrrrrr I hate roundabouts and test is on Saturday morning don’t have high hopes and will be lucky if I get through. Mostly making mistakes on the roads I haven’t driven before and if the instructor takes me to any new one and start giving direction sigh masla. For cooking tried out “chicken chasseur” masala powder and it turned out real good :D. No good movies coming up this week so I guess I will try my home collection plus got “LOST“’s first season :D it is highly addictive sigh.

Hingis’s dream comeback run comes to an end with the hands of Kim Clijsters and Roger Federer bit in a bother against Nikolay Davydenko who is in great momentum. Nothing to talk about 2nd Test match between India and Pakistan feel like spanking those who are responsible for making such stupid wickets who bhee in public, disgrace to cricket.

Updates: Nikolay Davydenko has taken the second set, looks in great form.

Freaky Dream

2006-01-21T16:45:00.000+04:00

First week after the Eid break ended in quite a smooth manner with one stupid Test match ending in a tame draw. Watched two movies this wekend one a Fantasy a fiction and another a Thriller. Those would be “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “Zinda”. First one was very well made movie(though I haven’t read the books so cant judge in comparison) but nice scenery, effects and flow of the story. Acting at times felt a bit wanting but good fun, at least must be watched once.
Second one was a thriller, we have already heard its sound track zillion times and there isn’t much of sound track in this one anyways. I don’t really think it will do well in India its just not for their taste too western. Plot was good maybe because it was a remake, It is about a revenge on a revenge and it will make u wait before you would come to know the real reason of all the fiasco. Sunjay dutt’s acting was rock solid but there were some stupidities which one would expect to be there. Like how can a guy wear same design of shoes for 14 years yes for FOURTEEN YEARS, I wouldn’t, would you? It goes like someone brings food(that too same food daily) to Sunjay Dutt and he only sees his footwear now after his release he goes about tasting prawns from all the Chinese restaurants present and then as soon as he recognizes the taste he sees similar shoes and hence starts a chase. There was another though quite common in Indian movies, Sunjay Dutt goes about beating 20+ guys even after he gets stabbed in the back he doesn’t stop until he beats the crap out of all of them. Eik aur a guy prisoned for 14 years in a dark black room and still comes out sane ok maybe because he had TV in his room? And yea one more after that he is still able to run like an Olympian. Oh well but still movie was quite good nothing great but good, kinda darkkk.

Ok has anyone of you experienced anything like this? Couple of nights back I had a dream and during that dream I was discussing some events with someone as if I am talking about my past, only problem is those events were also part of a very old dream and nothing to do with reality, now that’s freaky. It seems that our dreams stay in our minds though I had forgotten about it this one, but it coming back in another dream as a past event is kinda freaky. Oh well dreams are weird anyways.

PS: btw did someone watch yesterday match between Australia and SouthAfrica, oh my Brett Lee's spell was just breathtaking extreme quick bowling and yea Hingis in top form in Australia Open :D.

Back

2006-01-14T17:18:00.000+04:00

Okie dudes am back, ten days after making my previous post and having a great trip to Pakiland (mashAllah say). For past 10 days I stayed away from this net world not for any apparent reason/effort just wasn’t able to find neither time nor energy. Was just checking emails not reading any blogs not posting on mine not even checking orkut much. Anyhow my flight to Karachi was smooth though 45 minutes late(should not be taken as any recommendation, because there were passengers for Lahore waiting for 24 hours and it was aeroasia). And boy it was some serious cold in Karachi (I can only imagine about Lahore and Islamabad). And just hours after landing I had to visit my inlaws. It was kinda funny almost all of the people who were present there were at my place an hour back, I guess that is what happens with inside-family thingy. Engagement went pretty well (mashAllah say), though both the ceremonies were held separately but later on had the photo session together. Next three days were spent in outing and sleeping late(No Hira it wasn’t just icecream :P), next two for shopping and next three on bed with fever :(. Yups my trip was kind of ruined in the end with that stupid fever which everyone seems to be suffering with in Karachi these days. Oh well so that’s it now it is back to same old routine and same old stuff anyhow will make it interesting too ;). And yea will update myself from your blogs :).

PS: http://orkutando.net/eng/messages/friends/likeu.php do check and oh yea Thanks to Hira I have bought some really nice books must read them now.

City Of Blinding Lights - U2

2006-01-04T03:17:00.000+04:00

(Bonoh wrote it for NYC , I am dedicating it to Karachi)

The more you see the less you know
The less you find out as you grow
I knew much more then than I do now

Neon heart, day-glow eyes
The city lit by fireflies
They're advertising in the skies
And people like us

And I miss you when you're not around
I'm getting ready to leave the ground

Oh you look so beautiful tonight...

Don't look before you laugh
Look ugly in a photograph
Flash bulbs, purple irises the camera can't see

I've seen you walk unafraid
I've seen you in the clothes you've made
Can you see the beauty inside of me?
What happened to the beauty I had inside of me?

And I miss you when you're not around
I'm getting ready to leave the ground

Oh you look so beautiful tonight...tonight
In the city of blinding lights

Time...time....time...won't leave me as I am
But time won't take the boy out of this man
Oh you look so beautiful tonight
Oh you look so beautiful tonight
Oh you look so beautiful tonight

In the city of blinding lights,
The more you know
The less you feel
Some pray for, others steal
Blessings not just for the ones who kneel, luckily

----------------------------------------------------
Ok people am going back to my city for the Eid break, flying inshAllah around 4 PM in about 13 hours time and on 5th of Jan is the formal engagement thingy :). Had to book Aero Asia so do pray people that it takes off on time and I get my luggage(which is already a bit overweight :( ) in one piece and on time :P. Will upload pics from there. Take Care

Happy New year

2005-12-31T13:40:00.000+04:00

Feeling weird, sleepy and dizzy and to put it in short terrible right now. Slept for just 3 or a little more than that, hours last night and being up since 6. Already had two cups of coffee but it seems like it backfired and now in a pretty irritated mood, even listening to music doesn’t seem to help, grrrrrrrr. Weekend was fun, went to Dubai to meet this old friend of mine who moved to UAE just around the same time I did. His company owner owns a club too so at night we decided to check it out. It was a nice place, small, not crowded, though DJ wasn’t great but guzara tha. Hanged out there for couple of hours and came back. Next day after prayers, weather suddenly turned pleasant so we decided to head off to Jumeira beech. Nice beech, clean sand and water and crowd of all sorts. Came back from Dubai late at night.

Oh yea I did pass the reverse/parking test(Thanks to everyone who prayed and wished) had to wait for an eternity for my turn, infact I was the last one to take it so you guys can imagine how much frustrated I must have gotten plus it got quite dark too so had few problems in sighting the marks during reverse and had my tire scratched a bit against the boundary but got out of it :P. Then late at night went to watch HP and Goblet of fire on its first day. Missed first fifteen minutes though because of some confusion with the venue because initially I had reached the wrong cinema which had an early show, khair it was a fun movie. I guess so far the best in Harry Potter’s series, cool effects but it felt like I was watching the highlights of the book , quite fast paced movie maybe a three hour duration next time would do slight more justice to the book. Though the death scene of Cedric could have been performed a lot better, it was weird felt as if they just wanted to end the movie.

For cooking Yesterday was white karahi day from shaan masala, it tasted good. Today I am heading back to Dubai for new year’s eve (sound idiot, rite?).

Btw I have a strong feeling that my stupid writing style and bad bad English has turned many readers away :P, though I claim to not think about readers much but it is always good to few people as readers :P so it is a sad discovery.

Just went out for couple of minutes back and weather is nice (that has cheered me up), windy, for a while no sun and it was quite chill so I guess it will be one cold night here in UAE.

Happy New Year to all of you, may you guys have an even better year this time inshAllah and loads of happiness and success in your way. Same goes for our country.

For me 2005 was one roller coaster ride, started off with me winning a bronze medal for performance at work, then a promotion, then series of idiotic mistakes at work making me fall. 10 days of “official” trip to Dubai for work, later on getting an offer from my current place. Moved to UAE in September, got committed in November so yea some year and now looking forward to 2006 ;).

Money is an Evil Thing and all Good Materials in life cost hell lot of it.

2005-12-28T01:07:00.000+04:00

Life is back on its routine track with occasional one or two hiccups. Cooking is kewl, gaming on PSP tough, laptop doesn’t have enough space left to install any new games. Driving lessons are going quite satisfactory and for that matter tomorrow is my parking and reverse test. Considered to be one of the halwa ones and it is first step towards getting the UAE license. It is simple in a sense that one is required to maintain control, proper distance from blocks and control pace and that should do. Buttttt the freaky kind I am, it is getting (kind of) on my nerves errrrrrrrrrrrr *drinks water. I mean it is like playing against Bangladesh, you know should win but the fear of losing and getting humiliated gets a bit on you, hehe. But khair I know once I will have the wheel in my hands everything will be normal :P. aaaaaa just pray I don’t make any silly mistakes :P (no room for errors, not even a single one). Sports front is kinda quiet except for English Premier league with its usual busy Christmas week. Things are getting hotter on up coming Pak vs India up coming test series, with Imran Khan joining in war of words and declaring Pakistan as favorites. South Africa fighting well Down Under and it might just turn out to be one hell of a series. Baqee sub kewl aur haan Tennis mein Australian open is coming up so watch out people, Tennis season starts again.

On blog front, Hira’s gone missing no wonder what happened there, hoping that she comes back soon and alls well. Hmmm yea money, it’s a stupid thing really, flows out of your hands right, left and center and it is amazing how rapidly your savings shrunk up and before you know it, you have already hit the danger level. It is like a river, collect as much as you can with your both hands because you gonna loose it anyways. Oh started this post at 4 in afternoon and now after a long break at 1 AM finishing it so there are some updates.

Hira is back, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay :D, wb u were missed. Reports are she was on “sugherapay ki nishani” kee training :P.

Marat Safin withdrew from the Australian Open , this is a sad news sidz :(.

Do check out new Entries in my blog site, couple of really nice blogs I should have added lone time back.

Oh well time to sleep now, do pray guys ;).

Cooking Tries

2005-12-20T20:10:00.000+04:00

There are times when you want to write but just cant make urself to do that. Simply cant bring out words inside you, infact cant even make yourself open a word processor to type. Exactly that happened to me after my last post. I was planning to write about my initial cooking experiences but couldn’t do so, perhaps lack of motivation or effort anyhow I am gonna give it another try. Even for that matter I haven’t been visiting any of your blogs either :S bad bad. Hokay so, so far I have cooked umm Qeema, Chicken Karahi, one desi salan (mutton ka), Chicken jalfrezi (courtesy of National Foods Masala), Chicken Qourma (this time Shaan Masala) and not to mention tries at omelet and yea macaronis for quick food. Ummm Qeema was almost tasteless I have no idea what and where went wrong but there was hardly any taste in it and I had to eat it just for the sake of eating it and haven’t tried cooking it since then but will do. I guess I messed up onion and salt and I guess didn’t really cooked it well enough errr don’t really know what you call it in English.

Anyhow next thing was a try at omelet and obviously I don’t need to tell what happened to it, burnt from one side :P and felt like a folded soft leather hehehe, ok but my next try was way better and it turned out to be kaafi tameez ka :P. For Karahi mom got this real easy recipe (from some channel) I would call it one jugaroo recipe :P and it was quite easy so I gave it a go and it turned out to be quite well. Proportions were balanced and was cooked well. Felt good about it :D. Next one was Jalfrezi from National foods I did mess up some yogurt and veggies proportions and it took some time to prepare it but worth the effort. Taste was great but hell spicy aaaaaaaaaaa, waisay hee I am not used to having much spices and am sure I added green chilies bit too much *water please.

Next thing I tried was macaroni with corned beef( I had no idea that it would smell that bad). Also I fried that beef just with some salt and some stuff here and there but the smell aaaaaaaaaaaa *puts on a mask. Had some tuff time eating that though taste wasn’t bad. It might have been lot better if I had used that karahi technique, oh well maybe next time still got some in the fridge anyone for the takers? And yea yesterday tried Chicken quorma lol it was funny. One of its requirement was to fry onions till they get golden and after cooling crush them into pieces. Looks simple? Ok its not when you have nothing absolutely nothing to crush :P and it was kinda funny when I was trying all different utensils to actually crush fried onions. But even before that I had no idea how much to fry them hehe I mean I had never ever watched mom doing it so I had no idea how much brown should they get and how much crispy shud they look so it was one plain guess work and I guess it didn’t turn out that well , ok Hira stop laughing :P. but anyhow overall the dish turned out to be good or was it because I was starving then :P, pata lug jaye ga in next eating. Yes I do freeze my food for later use :P. and yea yea one more thing didn’t I tell you guys I cooked rice :P yaaay ok they look simple but it aint, such a delicate balance act is required :P. Actually I was planning to go for rice cooker but my cooking mentor forbade me to go for it so I was left with no other choice but to try on my own, thank you mam :P. and yea with the help of Saeed and one frantic call to dad back home (since mom was in the stadium watching Karachi fixture of England and Pak) got them fine the very first time :D. now I am looking for ways to spend those 100 dhs which I was gonna do on that rice cooker :P somewhere else. So here there were my cooking experiences so far and oh btw how does one keep omelet from being getting so spongy :P? keep temperature cool maybe??

Ok ok one thing tu I left out completely, yup and that was my try on chocolate cookies :D, hahaha it was funny experience. Got all the required stuff, discovered there were no cookie pans :P. Khair got them too. Start could not have been any more worst, when I had already started with couple of ingredients it was discovered that my weighing machine wasn’t working errrrr, stupid thing its spring got off the hook or something similar. Good thing most of the stuff had measurements with respect to cups and only chocolate chips and coconut were in gms and since those were kinda harmless ingredients(means even if I screwed their ratio a bit wont hurt) so phew bachat. Flour stiffing wasn’t easy because the sieve I was using was of small size so it took loads of time, sigh. Oh well now came the most intresting and funny part yup beating :D. hahaha bowl was kinda small then the comfortable size and because of weird geometry of my kitchen I didn’t have enough space to keep stuff around. So after a while of beating I noticed mixture flying all over the place hahaha, it was one messy scene ok I got it under control (A), but a bit of damage was done to my toaster and frying pan :P. anyhow after that small skirmish came the part of actually baking. Ok people repeat after me “Whenever you plan bake, PreHeat the Oven even if your recipe doesn’t say so, Yes Preheat at high temperature” such a basic concept of Thermodynamics which Hira will explain to you people :P. and if you don’t, your baking time will exceed from 20 mins to 45 or even more and your cookies will be more like brownies and not actually cookies ok but I think brownie thing was also due to the fact that pan shapes were bit deep, rite? after first batch I had still some mixture left with me so used my cake pan for that and though it took some time I guess 30 mins but it was a more civilized cookie and I think it was because of oven already warm as a result of previous try and plus pan was more suited to cookies :P. so that was zee baking venture, but yea they tasted really well yums :D.

woah another big post errrrrr *bangs his head. But yea people cooking umm its fun, baking is more fun :D. so am gonna try more and of course will need more yummy and easy recipes so keep them coming.

Cooking attempts and a Birthday Wish

2005-12-14T15:17:00.000+04:00

hokay I haven’t posted anything yet about my attempts on cooking, nope not. So this post is dedicated to those tries. But before that Ladies and Gentlemen(if any) Let us first Congratulate a fellow blogger and a frand Heewa on her birthday. She an ipod lover, George Clooney lover, soccer fan, Chelsea fan, Jose Mourinho fan, F1 fan, tennis fan, Agassi fan, U2 fan, bearer of ghunda language these days :D. ummm ok what else I have missed oh yea Toblerone craver and A person who would take a 360 turn at 80 km that too on third gear :P and claims to be a rude and snob but fails miserably (or maybe I am lucky). But above all one good frand :D and a great blogger.

Ohkay I fink I have described enough rite? rite. so now everyone of you do congratulate her although this post is officially 15 hours late but it mite do, so here

Happy Birthday Hira, have a blast!!!!.

Ending with your favorite Quote “chill kero”

PS: I believe this person deserves a dedicated so kitchen stories will come ins next post, till then adios.

Its all Soccer

2005-12-12T04:30:00.000+04:00

Yup as the title says this post is all about soccer and just soccer and the reason simple being the draws for World Cup 2006 have been made, yes all the groups and dates have been finalized and the biggest soccer show is just few months away. Here are the Groups.

Group A
-----------
Germany
Costa Rica
Poland
Ecuador

Group B
------------------
England
Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden

Group C
--------------------
Argentina
Ivory Coast
Serbia & Montenegro
Netherlands

Group D
--------
Mexico
Iran
Angola
Portugal

Group E
---------------
Italy
Ghana
United States
Czech Republic

Group F
----------
Brazil
Croatia
Australia
Japan

Group G
------------
France
Switzerland
South Korea
Togo

Group H
-------------
Spain
Ukraine
Tunisia
Saudi Arabia

This time in quite a complicated way FIFA seeded the teams for the draws which resulted in many eye brows to be raised. But now as the picture looks like couple of groups are what we call the groups of death(meaning the kind of groups where easily one big team can be easily knocked out). Group C and Group E are the two of them, Group E teams have more reasons to worry about because even if they qualify for the knockout stage, second placed team from this group will be playing Brazil (yikes) that means early elimination on the cards. Since Italy aka Azzurri have been my favorite team since World cup 1990(yes people am that old :P), am particularly worried about them. Firstly they are always known as slow or shaky starters to any cup which more than often results in their last group match to be a do or die situation and often it depends on the result from other match too. Secondly they have Czechs, US and Ghana in their group. Czechs attacking qualities are well known to everyone but even US can easily cause an upset or two with some quality young players. As for Ghana simply being Africans means they can easily be another Senegal. So its must for Italians to start the group well and try to finish on top in order to avoid Brazilians so early in tourney but even if they do face them you never know what might happen. They do have some young quality players with the likes of strikers Luca Toni and Alberto Gildarno and in midfield they have Pirlo who is considered to be the best in taking free kicks in Europe right now. Plus some hard working mid fielders as Gennaro Gattuso, Mauro Camoranesi and Gianluca Zambrotta . And world famous defenders Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta. Not to forget under achievers Francesco Totti and Del Piero(not sure will he make up in the final squad or not). Only problem for them is to linkup together as a team and control their nerves.

In other groups England vs. Sweden, Argentina vs. Dutch and Spain vs. Ukraine seem to be mouth watering. Plus there are chances of the warlike clash of England and Germany in the 2nd round and Dutch vs. Portugal again in round 2. So some really hot matches on store. I just seriously hope that of eight teams who make it into the quarters six are the big ones and two the underdogs.

Predictions ummmm if World cup maintains its history of an European team winning in Europe then it will be either England or Germany but me really hoping it will be The Azzurri :D , Spain or France might but highly unlikely. Other wise from Non-Europeans it will be either Brazil (not again) or Argentina(that would be awesome) and if you want a team with flair to win then hope for Czechs to play an outstanding tourney and keep their nerves intact.

To end the post Inter Milan has won the Milan Derby Brazilian Adriano involved in all three inter goals while from Milan side Pirlo’s(the man) free kicks were the casue of two goals. Tomorrow’s ,actually Today’s eurosportsnews will make a good watch.

PS: can someone tell me how can I align that groups into layout of 2 rows and 4 columns, wasted whole stupid an hour or maybe more on that. no Tables dont work for some odd reason this stupid blogspot was creating that table half of the size of the page errrrrrrr. VL is needed but that dodo has stopped visiting blogs sigh.

Tale of the Weekend

2005-12-07T02:31:00.000+04:00

Oh well I have been really busy these days, not with work though but thanks to these daily 3 hour driving theory classes which are must for us third world country citizens. Timings are from 19:00 till 22:00 and by the time I get home and done with dinner its usually past 23:00, so that is why I haven’t been able to visit any of your blogs *apologies.

Weekend was fun, started with my trip to Global Village( http://www.globalvillage.ae ) and boy that place is fun to visit (only if world cultures interests you). With around 40 countries setting up their pavilions, a huge food area and an another big sector for rides(which surely do host some really exciting for most and scary for me rides). I was having butterflies just staring at one, I wonder what the guys who were riding it must be feeling :P. Pavilions are designed in such a way from exterior, that they represent some famous monument or architect from that particular country. Indian pavilion is one huge area and with loads of stuff for ladies but Pakistani stall was closed because of the concert which was my primary reason to go there. Initially concert was damn boring with all those non-inspiring artists and a weirdo host were trying their luck. Then it was turn of Omar Shareef, he started with all his corny jokes and suddenly his session turned into Jumma sermon when he started appealing for funds for quake victims, quite a weird tone. Then came Ali Azmat start wasn’t good, chords and his own voice weren’t matching up plus sound quality wasn’t great. Anyhow he ended on high note and quite made up for a bad start. Though I was hoping he would do “mein” which he didn’t .

Next day around 22:00 hours my colleague took me to bottom of Jabel(hill) Hafeet. Arabs know how to utilize money that is for sure, there they have turned this complete barren land into one lush green landscape, with hot water being pulled from underground and made to flow through land and it was really hot. We wondered maybe they warm it themselves and its no natural :P. but that place was filled with people, some camping up and some having barbeque. Good place for a nighter but not when its filled.

Sunday was my visit to top of Jabel Hafeet, hired a cab and went up there. Road is very well made, no bad turns so no drowsiness. On the way up there was this beautiful hotel and even further up Sheikh’s place(managed to took a nice snap of it , shall upload). But top was kinda disappointing , like people say it is a huge parking lot and nothing, yea nothing. It is covered with boundary and on one side you can view Al-Ain and on the other side Oman. But you cant actually see much since its so much dusty which hides the view. The cab driver was suggesting me to go there once after it rains, he was like then its all clear and I would be able to view the city much clearly. Now I am eagerly awaiting for my first rain in Al-Ain. As Mitra once mentioned it is chilly up there. Indeed It got quite chilly after sunset and damn I missed the shot of sun setting :(. On our way back we had a look at the hotel, took snaps and later on the way down I tried hard to take snaps of the city below glowing with lights but sigh I don’t think my cam is made for night shots. So that was my looooong weekend , today(since its way passed 0 hours) I got my theory test and then in evening university has arranged this cultural show with money going to earthquake victims so inshAllah I will be going there. Do pray for the theory test though I have heard its easy to pass :P it is the damn practical test which is tuffy.

PS: ohh how can I forgot to mention, famous Pakistan series victory on England. Last day demolition of Pomps batting was worthy of Oscar winning performance. Reminded me of the days when Great Wasim and Waqar used to demolish any batting lineup. Special joy to watch rebirth of Shoaib as the match winner(I hope he continues to do so) and Inzamam's further proof of why he is one of the very best batsman in the current era. More Importantly improvement in his captaincy was clearly visible during the entire series. Lastly, farewell to George Best as they call him legend of Old Trafford, I haven’t seen any of his footage but am sure whenever I will, I shall definitely be an instant fan of his.

Yea one more thing here the pics of Dubai Artificial Skiing Resort, have fun ;).

Long Weekend

2005-12-01T15:13:00.000+04:00

UAE National Day and we have 4 days weekend :D, going to Dubai tonite for Global Village Concert and I guess will be on Friday inshAllah. c ya all, Take Good Care.

`©

2005-11-28T02:19:00.000+04:00

Listening to: Hell's Kitchen - Dream Theater

Lesson learnt: Never post a lengthy entry, hardly anyone bothers to read it :P. Infect even I don’t.

Some Weekend

2005-11-26T13:17:00.000+04:00

Nothings better to start your day than having a cup of coffee. Ok weekend was blast , know why? Ok here goes. On Thursday Junoon had a concert in Dubai and since my cousin Talha aka Zerocool was accompanying the band (yup his complete tour was sponsored , lucky ass but then he is not an ordinary fan) there was no way, no way I would have missed this concert. Decided to meet him at the venue where the band would be practicing. Left home around 2ish and guess what I left my cam back, errrrrrrrrrr it was so frustrating, remembered it when I was on the highway so there was no turning back :(. But the good thing was Talha had to buy one so as soon as we met, I took him to the City Center. Got him a nice Sony Cybershot. We did a bit of shopping basically gifts for his family back home and rushed back to the Tennis stadium. He was quite impressed with the size of City Center and I was like yea just wait when you see “Mall of the Emirates” or “Ibn-e-Batuta” then we will talk on mall sizes :P. Entry was no masla when band manager would take you inside the venue himself :P, waited for like a hour or more for that damn thing to start. But it was worth a wait. Oh yea I forgot to mention it wasn’t just Junoon’s concert, there were those Indian bollywood cheapos or the so called “divas” who were supposed to do “their part” too. But Thank God Junoon started first so it was all good, concert was fun as usual their performance rocked, this time they had Tabla guy with them which gave an extra touch. Playlist was kinda similar which they have been doing since past few concerts. Seems like, not much is between them anymore. Two falling apart Poles of a band.

Salman Ahmed and Meekal Hasan played Heer, that was great as ever. Ali Azmat is sporting a new moustache style, I guess he brings about such changes just to keep the change going :P. But more than 2 hours of Junoon was a good fun. Crowd was great too, they were jumping, dancing and rocking, even girls had nothing to fear nothing like Karachi horrors. I took quite a few pics and Talha has posted some on the forum too.

After Junoon’s performance I went back stage and met Ali Azmat and Meekaal Hasan :D, could not meet Salman Ahmed *that is sad*. Haha and yea saw Diya Mirza up close , ok ok not that close. She was having “Red bull” just before her act :P, I guess looking for some energy. We had no mood to watch those Indian dancers shaking theirs so we left and went back to his hotel, got freshen up and went for dinner. Since he wanted to have a shawarma I took him to this Lebanese place there we had food , wasn’t really great but the condition we were in, anything would have done. After that we decided to have a “little” walk it was like 1 AM at night. Bit far we could see Emirates Towers standing tall, glowing with lights. He wanted to check those so I was like ok lets walk for a while and then will take a cab and go there. We ended up walking all the way there , that was a 2 hours walk, more than 4.5 Kms errrrrrrrrr. He kept on taking pictures of Dubai at night and making movie. We took a cab back to the hotel. My legs were dead tired so I straight away went to bed.

At morning, went to the hotel roof for the breakfast. There Meekaal Hasan, Allen (drummer), Ashiq Mir (Tabla master) and Hussnain(Band Manager) were having theirs. We took seats on the same table. Later it was just Meekal Hasan and both of us, so I had a little chat with him about his upcoming album and his other works. That guy is nice I mean he doesn’t sound any arrogant at all, talks nicely and listens to your opinions.

After that I said Goodbye to Talha, even it was their time to leave for the airport. I took the cab got to the bus station and headed home, reflecting on the weekend which has surely left lots of good memories :).

Got home, had lunch, cleaned up my TV longue which was quite a mess and went for soccer. Even I was surprised at myself, wasn’t expecting myself to last long but ended up playing for 45 minutes and after that couldn’t take a single step :P. In evening started reading Bono on Bono, it is a book on Bono but it in a conversation form. I felt like listening to two intellectuals talk and at times they didn’t make any sense at all :P. But still a good read, midway I slept and next thing I know it was 5:30 AM :(. No dinner no laundry errrrrrr. And now it is a new day, new week, back to routine. I am hearing it will be a long weekend this time, because of some UAE celebration and then Ali Azmat’s concert on first in Global Village. Don’t be surprised if I am there again :P.

Sheesh its one huge post , so I doubt many would read it :P. oh yea I did watch “Lord of War” on Wednesday night, good movie if you are interested in war weapons, kind of funny too aur haan Pak drew the second test at Faisalabad and all the blame goes to them first dropping too many catches in the first innings and then preparing the worst pitch that one could ever, a very negative approach. I believe PCB should be fined for making such a placid pitch, not only it kills the game but it will also drive back the spectators.

Happy Birthday Ather

2005-11-22T01:20:00.000+04:00

Ok everybody say it loud, Happy Birthday to you Ather :D.

ok almost 12 hours late but still a post to celebrate birthday of my dearest , sweetest and always there to help one wala friend and brother Ather. May you have many more behtreen birthdays inshAllah :D.


Father and Son	No he is not crying, he is damn excited :D

Second Test England vs Pakistan - Full of Fireworks

2005-11-22T00:23:00.000+04:00

Second test has started and boy did we have some incident filled two days, Mohammad Yousaf’s controversial out, Afridi’s dynamic hitting, Inzi’s composed innings, Pakistani tail hitting out and Rana Naved’s inswinger. But but best of lot happened with Inzamam’s run out and pepsi cylinder bursting out with consequently Shahid Khan Afridi (yes our hero) caught scuffing the pitch and hence 3 match ban slapped. Earlier this year Shoaib Malik lost one domestic match deliberately to avenge for umpire’s decision and now Afridi playing with pitch. Lets hope we set some better examples in future. Although Inzamam’s acceptance of the decision was quite commendable , lol maybe he wasn’t aware of the rules either :D. I wonder what's in store for us for the next three days.anyhow here is a comment on the incident by Hammad aka Activist aka my younger bro.

Mockery of the concept of Runout

Today the dismissal of Inzamam-ul-Haq was an example of mockery of the concept of runout. Lets look at the word runout - it means "batsman getting out while taking a run", now this concept is obviously lost in the dumb minds of todays' umpires! Why you ask? Lets see, Inzamam was no way attempting to take a run and instead he was protecting his body from the ball which was thrown with an intention NOT to take a wicket but to induce fear in the batsman (in this case Inzamam). Now lucky for the thrower the ball hit the stumps and everyone started jumping and appealing for a "runout". Now tell me, was Inzamam running? Was he attempting to score by taking a run? NO! He wasn't! The umpires were supposed to negate the appeal right there instead of referring to the third umpire. The appeal was unreasonable and the decision going against Inzamam-ul-Haq was totally unjustified.

- Activist

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

2005-11-16T11:25:00.000+04:00

And Yes We have done, yes yes we have beaten England by 22 runs in a nail biting, blood pressure rising match. Shoaib and Kaneria wrapped up the tail. Great great stuff. Congratulations Everyone. Man I love this game. clicky clicky.

I dont know if u guys agree or not but I certainly do believe in this, Cricket is one game which brings the whole nation together and if we do well it gets everyone going. Atleast it does to me.

and Yea one must Thank God :).

Yaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy

2005-11-16T11:20:00.000+04:00

Pakistan on a brink of a great victory chasing 198 to win the first Test at Multan England are 138/7 still needing 60 runs with only 3 wickets in hand. Kineria and Mohammad Sami have turned this match upside down, me so so glad. Specially for Sami when he came to bowl I knew this could be his last spell for a long in test career if he doesnt perform but boy what a spell. So was Kineria just awesome, *claps claps*. But still there wickets to go and still as they say in cricket you cannot be sure untill the last bowl has been bowled, me praying for Pak. errrr Cricinfo site is down with all of its mirros , I guess all the Pakis are up watching it.

and me online alone no one to share the joy with when any wicket falls, so here I am sharing with u guys, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay again.*prays.

Announcement©

2005-11-15T21:12:00.000+04:00

Ok guys so I guess ab I had to make this announcement. InshAllah this January when I shall visit Karachi, I will be getting engaged to my first cousin. Her name’s Hafsa and madam has done her BS in Mechanical Eng. From NED. Do remember us in your prayers :). Thanks

In another development Omair aka OM has finally written a post, He is an ex colleague, excellenet writer, fanatic fan of English Action movies :P and an amazing friend. Do visit his site.

November Rain - Guns N' Roses

2005-11-13T23:06:00.000+04:00

When I look into your eyes
I can see a love restrained
But darlin' when I hold you
Don't you know I feel the same

'Cause nothin' lasts forever
And we both know hearts can change
And it's hard to hold a candle
In the cold November rain

We've been through this auch a long long time
Just tryin' to kill the pain

But lovers always come and lovers always go
An no one's really sure who's lettin' go today
Walking away

If we could take the time
to lay it on the line
I could rest my head
Just knowin' that you were mine
All mine
So if you want to love me
then darlin' don't refrain
Or I'll just end up walkin'
In the cold November rain

Do you need some time...on your own
Do you need some time...all alone
Everybody needs some time...
on their own
Don't you know you need some time...all alone

I know it's hard to keep an open heart
When even friends seem out to harm you
But if you could heal a broken heart
Wouldn't time be out to charm you

Sometimes I need some time...on my
own
Sometimes I need some time...all alone
Everybody needs some time...
on their own
Don't you know you need some time...all alone

And when your fears subside
And shadows still remain
I know that you can love me
When there's no one left to blame
So never mind the darkness
We still can find a way
'Cause nothin' lasts forever
Even cold November rain

Don't ya think that you need somebody
Don't ya think that you need someone
Everybody needs somebody
You're not the only one
You're not the only one

Culprits

2005-11-09T22:19:00.000+04:00

Yesterday was a busy day, my first ever shawal fast followed by a hefty buffet(comprised of Mexican, Chinese, Indian and Paki dishes) and when I got back home decided to check on what was running on cinema. Found out about few nice ones including DOOM, Legend of Zorro and Corpse Bride. And the chosen one was Corpse Bride for two reasons one it had surprisingly good critic reviews on yahoo, plus it was its last day on show. Turned out to be an ok movie, I mean it is must watch once because of strong animation but story was kinda disappointing and typical as till the end I was trying to figure out how they gonna bring the guy and the girl together again something that we are quite used to watch in Indian movies now. But still eik dafa daikhna.
While In the mall I discovered Etisilat is running a contest of fastest fingers, rules were a sentence will be displayed on the screen and whoever types it and sends it first as a sms to a specified number will win 5 tele cards that was prize of worth 150 dhs woaaah. Sigh I tried but couldn’t win :(.

Today again my Iraqi colleague took me to the same food place(yesterday he was with me too), he seems to like that buffet. Now most probably will watch another movie tonite. Lets see. Dubai(read Dubai not Al-Ain) is buzzing with events concert of Phil Collins, some bhangra concert, Dubai Comedy festival, Scorpions concert, Brazil UAE friendly soccer match and a called off concert of U2 cover band :(. I Don’t think I will be attending anyone of them, although Dubai is just at an hour drive but with such late night events it doesn’t make it feasible to come back to Al-Ain on same night. Plus traveling cost doubles the ticket’s cost.

People in Pakistan seem to have loads of extra money, I heard about people traveling to Dubai just to attend Phil Collins concert that too on an urgent visa. But then that is what passion is all about, plus how can I justify my own visits to cinema and a plan to attend U2 Cover band’s concert. I believe we all are culprits.

Eid Mubarak

2005-11-06T03:20:00.000+04:00

Eid mubarak to everyone and thanks everyone who wished. I am not finding time to visit your blogs otherwise would have thanked you guys there. Oh well it is really good to be back home, good to be with mom again. But now only 26 hours left before I will depart :( *homesick*. But still its good, met a lot of people, talked to others on phone, learnt couple of recipes and some tips :D. I guess now I shall post once I get there, take care all and thanks again. Goodluck.

PS: Thanks OM for arranging a get-together. It was fun :).

Not Approved

2005-11-01T18:31:00.000+04:00

oh well it was not approved , I guess that was expected in a sense that I am on probation and we arnt supposed to get leaves. Anyhow still 4 days visit, seems more like land and takeoff trip than anything else :). But then there are many who cant even make it for these manys days, I should not be a nashukra.

`

2005-10-31T19:23:00.000+04:00

Will be applying for 3 days leaves for the next week so that I can stay in Karachi till 10th *prayers needed. Thanks :D.

`©

2005-10-30T01:16:00.000+04:00

I hate dish washing, I hate dish washing, I hate dish washing and I repeat I hate dish washing!!!!!! it pains my arms and breaks my back :S and the thought of doing it again after sehri is driving me nuts. Seriously Salute to all Females.

Creative

2005-10-27T02:46:00.000+04:00

Well this got him job at microsoft :P.

First Shot at Cooking and Vertigo Tour

2005-10-26T00:37:00.000+04:00

Oh well tried my luck first time at actual cooking and guess what it turned out pretty well :D, ok ok credit must go to dad he was always there giving out tips and checking out water level :D. but am sure I will catch on it, taste turned out pretty well. It was some chicken salan recipe which my sister emailed couple of days back very simple and very basic stuff. Will definitely move on to more complex ones :P.

For U2 fans out there , here are the two reviews of two back to back Vertigo Tour Concerts attended by my cuzin few days back. Errrrrrr lucky guy, here we wish to attend one just once and he attended two woh bhee back to back :(. Have fun reading :),

19th October Vertigo Tour

and

20th October Vertigo Tour

Final Updates

2005-10-24T12:22:00.000+04:00

Ok final updates I am back :), got here around 7:30 in the morning. Alhumdulillah he is here, looks in good shape mashAllah say now lets c how his trip goes.

Updates

2005-10-23T21:36:00.000+04:00

ok updates are his flight is delayed by 3 hours :(, so as a consequence the driver I had arranged has backed off since he starts his work at 7 in morning. So now I am on my own and the plan is to goto Dubai by bus, reach airport and wait for him. Meanwhile will try to arrange something for the return journey , do have couple of ideas will see which are suitable. Ok guys me off , wish me luck adious.