Today i'm inspired.
I got lost 3 times in the 5 minute route to my office ...
THREE TIMES!!!!
If it hadnt been for my corporate neighbor, who has come to my rescue in directional disaster more times than Superman has saved the world, i would have been gleefully going round and round in circles around the general vicinity of my house til kingdom come.
But thanks to his unerring sense of direction, even when they're being imparted to a hysterical female on the other end of a cellphone, i managed to make it to office twice in the same week :)
I have a whole bunch of great people in office.. its the whole less is more, a few good men (& a girl.. and sometimes we even order Pizza) philosophy... we bring new meaning to the words "lean organization". It dont get no leaner than this... and this i might add in no way refers to the physical attributes of our team..
As they say it takes all kinds to make the world :) so we have a huge variety from the eternally young, to the prematurely :) ahem... mature.. we have lean ones, bear like cuddly ones, tall ones, short ones, and me who is obviously perfect in all respects.. The teams as diverse as any team comprising of such limited number of individuals can be... but the premise is to work hard and then.... play board games... lol
In the space of a month, i've gotten to know most of them relatively well.. first off i think my corporate neighbor rocks... i mean NOTHING can faze him out... If the entire office building suddenly collapses around us, i think his only response would be a ponderous "hmmm... maybe we should get beach umbrellas".. its really cool. He has the ability to bring perspective to chaos and reasoning to my more often than not hysterical reaction to the mounds of work we face on a daily basis.. and considering he's only two years older than me, that leaves me very little time to develop that kind of stability and dead-pan "hmmm" control... sigh... that timeline may have to be revised...
He's very lucky though mashallah.. he's got a wife who's been endowed with immense amounts of patience and understanding... (considering that on her last birthday he was slogging away at his laptop til after 9pm and then caught a flight the same night at 3am).. i was surprised to see him alive after that... and they have a little bundle of joy who is the most adorable creation ever, cheeks that would put apples to shame, eyes that stare at you with uninhibited curiousity.. and oof when that little baby smiles.. your heart stops... he's THAT cute.. mashallah..
Thats my neighbor... :) you wouldnt know it to look at him, but he's also been blessed with (or cursed with in the case of my local FMs viewpoint) an acerbic sense of humor, which is truly brought to the fore when my local FM is anywhere in the vicinity :)
Actually, our local FM brings all our acerbic humors to the fore. I think we should give him a plaque for that :) he's a real good sport and on his recent Office Embarrasment Session (Read: Birthday), we had Happy Bachelorhood written on his cake.. :) lol... apparently the young man (literally... doesnt look a day over 17... lucky bugger) has no intentions of submitting to the marital yoke in a hurry... The singles population in our office is an endangered species according to him and needs as much support as possible to preserve its sanctity... :) But at the end of the day, we love him... He fills our days with joy (the joy of razzing him all the time) ... and allows us to bond as a team (against him :) heheh... But he's a real nice guy(whos never home on the weekends ... hehe)... and always has a plan for lunches on saturday (with non-office people :) ... i think the major reason we love picking on him is because it seems he's the only one out of all of us who remotely has a life :) ... sigh... ahhh how vindictive the deprived can be...
Considering that our local FM is one of the very few true locals in the company, meaning according to the reigning company philosophy of relocating just about everyone, he's managed to evade that and remain at home base, is probably another reason that he's one of the very few who actually have a life... and more reason for us to resent him and his joyful existence... hmmmph ! lol ... oh i almost forgot.. he's nuts about cricket (like everyone else here) and thinks Tendulkar is the greatest batsman that ever walked the earth...
Which brings us to my FD for this region... he's awesome... he's a karachite and hence his nights usually begin after 9pm as opposed to the average Lahori night which is ending about that time:)... he knows all the good bakeries, coffee joints and restaurants... so much so that most coffee places, the guy behind the cash register knows him on a first name basis nearly... Thanks to him i discovered the new love of my life "Coffee, Tea & Co.", got introduced to "Jammin Java" which serves up a mean Caramel Machiato much like the Starbucks version... and experienced "Stevies Golden Kwok" which is Lahore's answer to Baan Thai... awesome food... He was the first person in the company to tell me his lifes history in the first 15 minutes of our orientation introduction and then gave me a chance to do the same.. considering the fact that i like nothing more than yapping about my self (you guyz might have noticed that :) it was perfection at first yap...
When he was younger he wanted to look older... now that he's relatively older, he's happy with himself cause he figures he looks just right... and since my overly youthful local FM is his next door neighbor and exactly in the same age bracket, he figures he has alot to thank our Lord Almighty for...
Me... i'd settle for looking 10 years younger any day of the week.. what can i say... men are bizzarre.. :)
My other FD is adorable.. hes been with the company since the day he graduated.. hes like a big teddy bear person and has the cutest wife and most adorable kids mashallah... a full head of hair (quite surprising for someone whos been in this high stress environment for more than a decade)... he rumbles when he laughs and is totally huggable :).. i'm sure hes a tough taskmaster as my local FM who happens to be his direct reportee might confirm... but to look at him you just want to stand there and go "awwwwww... :)".. he's really cute...
I met my Isloo FM quite briefly, but he seemed to be a jolly enough fellow.. quite happy and rosy cheeked.. and my Multan FM was also quite nice.. since that was the first market visit i had, he kept tutoring me on the tips and tricks of the whole deal :) and took me to Zanzibar where i had the famous Lemon Chicken i mentioned in my other blog..
My boss is quite interesting.... over the last few days we've been working overtime and everytime he's going through some data, he keeps tugging on his hair.. i'm afraid they might fall out one day.. should probably warn him about that.. he's in love with music :) so he's humming ALL the time.. and then since i always end up humming whatever i've heard last, i end up humming the same tune all day long as well.. He has the amazing ability to dish out more work than the total cumulative height of Everest and K2 combined and do it with a smile on his face and an expression which says, "I trust you implicitly and im sure that you'll have this on my desk in the next hour"... lol :) he's amazing that way... it doesnt matter how much work he gives, you just cant say no... and it not because he's da boss.. its just the way he gives it... with the reassuring nod, "you can do it right?" and at that moment you just think you can... he's good!
He's got a pretty understanding wife as well :) considering the amount of time he's out of town and two cute kids who are the inspiration for some of his more wacky ideas:)... nutty about cricket.. he's very good at deriving inspiration from every day life and thinking of the most nutty ideas and then making everyone believe its possible... Prime example : He convinced my dad to let me come to Lahore.. That would make him the world's GREATEST Marketeer in my book!
Usually finance is a dry function. Our Finance function you would be surprised to know is anything but dry... they're downright hilarious... considering the amount of pressure they're always under :) i think its mere hysterics that make them have such a great sense of humor.. Our Fin Contrller is always having a go at our local FM regarding the whole "Tendulker is the King of Cricket" argument... its a neverending debate between both of them :) and will probably never be resolved... He's also always trying to bring order to the chaos surrounding us... hopefully this time round he will succeed... i thwinks we sorely needs it...
Our fin planner is also very local FM focused and cracks really nice one liners on his joyful existence which has the rest of us rolling on the floor and the subject smirking in resignation.. He's also a great one for arranging office lunches... i like him alot just for his propensity to enjoy good food :) lol.. once i asked if we could take the team to a roadside dhabba for lunch and he said.. lol "You're talking about people who'll be cleaning their rotis with tissue papers and asking if the food was cooked using Nestle Pure Life.. " lol... he's a lahori too...
Our Fin D although recently had a Nihari party at his home, prior to which he did a thorough research of all the different types of niharis available, what the key USPs of each were, what the greasiness levels and spice levels were... he's very methodical.. i guess that why he's the boss :) .. He has perfect posture, a very nice wife and 2 adorable kids..
Our ITM was a highly harrassed individual till recently when he got some assistance :) otherwise hes also amazing. You can go to him with any problem, no matter how technical or complicated.. and it'll be done... with a smile.. very nice guy.
Our SD is a very senior gentleman and reminds one of the King of the Jungle.. his entire persona is quite regal.. you have to meet him to see what i mean... He's quite nice, but he'll give it to you straight without any beating about the bush... thats the way it is.. no two ways about it.. whether the news is good or bad.. So you can expect brutal honesty whenever you go to him for advise and thats great for putting things in perspective. The latest birthday session we had was for him.. and he smiled :) i think thats the first time i saw him smile.. He looks quite nice when he does that..
Our OD is soo cute... he's a lovely portly gentleman and he's got mounds of technical information pouring out of his ears.. if you go to him for some technical advise he'll give you alot more value added than you bargained for.. he ends up making things very easy... considering his function :) most of our plans are brought to a halt when he simply shakes his head and says with dead certainty "no can do"... :) its nice to have someone who knows exactly whats going to happen when... :)
and our OM is certifiably the MOST methodical human being in the company. I mean you look at him and you think "Precise". Its the engineer thing :)... he's a real nice guy and was one of the first people to go and buy the OES (Office Embarrassment Session) Birthday Cake and card with me.. considering how little time we all always have, i thought that was very sweet of him. He seems to be very clear headed as a person... and he's always in transit:) He's another local amidst all the out-of-towners. I dont know if he has a life though.. i think thats something unique to our local FM.
Our overall Boss of Bosses is quite an amazing individual as well... he's the only 6ft 4" tall person that i have ever come across who doesnt slouch an inch!... Usually tall people just try to disguise how tall they are by hunching n stuff.. but our big boss is quite a graceful tall person.. he seems supremely comfortable with himself inspite of his height :) and has that quiet dignity about him and fluidity of movement... i've heard that he can make people quaver in their boots and i'm sure thats possible.. he talks in a very well-thought out methodical manner.. in a quietly reflective kind of way... and he's really young for someone at the top.. :) but he's quite nice.. oh and he's so punctual that if you tell him a time for something, be warned he'll be there 5 minutes in advance.. the inside story i got was that his watch is 5 minutes ahead of standard time... my watch is 10 minutes ahead... i still never make it anywhere on time :) thats something i can learn from him.
And that the whole team.. lest i forget the support staff who are also quite nice.. theres ishaq whos the company driver and re-parks my car every day as i park on THIS side of the white line of which we are supposed to park on THAT side of.. theres Akram who does all the outside stuff every day... theres khalid who makes me my tea with extra milk and no sugar.. and theres saleem who when i cough offers to get me joshanda :) Our reception manager is the only other lady in the house and my daily lunchdate... unless i get hungry ahead of schedule which i usually do *embarrassed look... and end up attacking the food ahead of everyone else..
Once i got hungry at 1245 and went and attacked the daily bread and of all people our big boss walked in to grab some water and said smilingly "You got hungry early"... i would have responded had my mouth not been stuffed to the brim... thankfully he walked out before i had to swallow in a rush and think up a coherent response.. lol
:) And thats my life as an office... Mashallah... I dont care how much i have to work as long as i get to make fun of my local FM atleast once a day ;) hehehhe...
cheerios
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Speed Demon ... :>
Oh boy oh boy oh boy... i still cant figure out who used to do that in the Loony toons.. it was an elmer fudd descendent i think :) ... oh boy oh boy oh boy...
You must be wondering at my unleashed glee at this most amazingly somber time in my life whereby i have traded having a life for having a job and become a corporate slave in the truest sense of the word... :) well baby... slaves have their days too... oh hell yeah.... i JUST got the car.. and no its not the Sprite version.. its the bonafide brand new.. latest beauty.. in the color i wanted... Cyprus Blue... oh man...
my heart swelled with joy as i walked out of my Avis Rental this morning and walked up the concrete path to the office doors.. and Saleem, our guy responsible for all things, waved me over with a grin on his face and handed me the keys... i stood there with this stupid smile plastered across my face...
GOD ... thank you... I HAVE A CAR... well not precisely mine.. but OHMYGOODNESSGRACIOUS ME... first car.. wow.. i've come a hell of a long way baby.. mashallah :)
'ight enough of the gleefulness.. i would request each of you reading this blog to kindly ignore my childish expression of joy and quickly say a heartfelt Mashallah and wonder at how God gives to those so massively undeserving...
Sighhh.... in other news we can come to my favorite topic of discussion... FOOD... thanks to my franchise director for north, i have discovered the most scrumptious little bakery cum tea place in the city of lahore.. its like round the corner from our office.. actually everything is round the corner from our office... and its called Coffee, Tea & Company.. i Love all names incorporating the word coffee & tea... considering that i prefer the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Company over Starbucks.. and those who know me will tell you exactly how FANATIC i can be about Starbucks.. does go to show the power of semantics.. the word coffee just attracts me on a most basic level... i love it.. it says richness, aroma, deserts, muffins, cream, caramel, piping hot delightful relaxation... all in that one word.. wow... Nestle should soo hire me..
Their cakes are to DIE for .. and i mean it... at a recent Office Embarassment Session.. or what are popularly known as birthdays in the rest of the world.. :) we got a Strawberry Shortcake.. and i mean ohhhhh lord almighty... it was GLORIOUS... i cant wait for all my friends to come and visit me one by one so i can take em all there... one of my favorite chachis was down from Isloo over the weekend and we both adore good food.. so i took her there and it was soo much fun... They also have the lightest most delightful melt-in-your-mouth strawberry cheese cake tarts.. .. dammit.. i gotta stop. im getting wayyy hungry here...
sigh sigh... and now a wave of guilt washes over me as i think of my propensity to eat and suffer the consequences...
Lifes pretty ok.. Im pretty ok.. The summers are always a real time for me.. Theres no surrealism in the glaring light of day... its the winters when weird things happen in my life.. and its been a trend... most of the weirdness in my life... whether good wierd or bad weird... has always transpired in the winter solstice... so starting Mid September.. that would be right around my birthday... the weirdness begins and continues well into Mid-March... After that i have a reprieve from weirdness for a good 6 months, before the cycle begins again...
Atleast i have Fates cycle all mapped out... i make an extra effort to be happy and upbeat during the DownTime :) we do what we have to to ensure the continuing well being of our fragile minds..
Sometimes... the flow of life carries us along.. smoothly enough through the rapids.. you learn to ignore the rough patches and the scrapes and bruises you acquire along the way from the hidden rocks and river bed.. while the current is strong, it leaves you no choice. Life moves along rapidly with out too much thought, or rhyme or reason... and we're ok with that... with that numbing existence where you experience a rush of adrenaline every now and then at a new discovery.. at the interim mundane bits where you dont think but just let the waters carry you wherever they may lead.. and somehow it becomes a pattern whereby every so often you are jerked awake out of your reverie on the rapids of life and forced to open your eyes and take a long hard look around to gauge how far you've come, what the direction of the flow is, how fast are you going, how soon will you get somewhere... and then once again you lie back, bask in the warmth of the sun and smile and let them carry you again once again...
Thats my life... it scares those around me... my lack of direction.. of focus.. of an unerring avoidance of anything concrete..
Yet its my salvation... it saves me from humanitys number one disease.. procrastination... assumption... frustration... exasperation...
it saves me.. from being disappointed.. from being hurt... from sheer pain.. from desperation...
It allows me to look upon each day as a glorious opportunity to be happy... to be good.. to aspire to new heights.. to leave the past behind and move forward ... to be a bit blase about the whole phenomenon of existential angst.. to be chill about life.. and hence to savor every moment in the best possible way... because i dont give myself a choice otherwise.. because i dont consider any other alternatives except the happy ones.. because if you ignore the negative and the sad long enough, they WILL be forced to slink away eventually and leave you alone.. things tend to disappear when they're ignored... much like people..
It allows me to be me...
i guess i cant put it any other way..
And it scares the beejeezus out of those who would dare to love me.. because they dont think i give any guarantees.. they think i lack commitment and dedication and passion for living... they think my neverending quest to be happy and at peace with myself serves to accomplish little and alienates them from my sphere because they can never understand why i am the way i am.. and i cant be bothered to explain... I cant explain.. Some things just ARE... i just AM..
Thats the escapist in me talking...
:) but you'll never hear me say i was never happy.. because mashAllah.. by the grace of the Almighty... even when i'm not.. i kinda am...
Happiness is a state of mind... just like existence.. :) nurture it..
take care muggles...
Cheers
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
You must be wondering at my unleashed glee at this most amazingly somber time in my life whereby i have traded having a life for having a job and become a corporate slave in the truest sense of the word... :) well baby... slaves have their days too... oh hell yeah.... i JUST got the car.. and no its not the Sprite version.. its the bonafide brand new.. latest beauty.. in the color i wanted... Cyprus Blue... oh man...
my heart swelled with joy as i walked out of my Avis Rental this morning and walked up the concrete path to the office doors.. and Saleem, our guy responsible for all things, waved me over with a grin on his face and handed me the keys... i stood there with this stupid smile plastered across my face...
GOD ... thank you... I HAVE A CAR... well not precisely mine.. but OHMYGOODNESSGRACIOUS ME... first car.. wow.. i've come a hell of a long way baby.. mashallah :)
'ight enough of the gleefulness.. i would request each of you reading this blog to kindly ignore my childish expression of joy and quickly say a heartfelt Mashallah and wonder at how God gives to those so massively undeserving...
Sighhh.... in other news we can come to my favorite topic of discussion... FOOD... thanks to my franchise director for north, i have discovered the most scrumptious little bakery cum tea place in the city of lahore.. its like round the corner from our office.. actually everything is round the corner from our office... and its called Coffee, Tea & Company.. i Love all names incorporating the word coffee & tea... considering that i prefer the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Company over Starbucks.. and those who know me will tell you exactly how FANATIC i can be about Starbucks.. does go to show the power of semantics.. the word coffee just attracts me on a most basic level... i love it.. it says richness, aroma, deserts, muffins, cream, caramel, piping hot delightful relaxation... all in that one word.. wow... Nestle should soo hire me..
Their cakes are to DIE for .. and i mean it... at a recent Office Embarassment Session.. or what are popularly known as birthdays in the rest of the world.. :) we got a Strawberry Shortcake.. and i mean ohhhhh lord almighty... it was GLORIOUS... i cant wait for all my friends to come and visit me one by one so i can take em all there... one of my favorite chachis was down from Isloo over the weekend and we both adore good food.. so i took her there and it was soo much fun... They also have the lightest most delightful melt-in-your-mouth strawberry cheese cake tarts.. .. dammit.. i gotta stop. im getting wayyy hungry here...
sigh sigh... and now a wave of guilt washes over me as i think of my propensity to eat and suffer the consequences...
Lifes pretty ok.. Im pretty ok.. The summers are always a real time for me.. Theres no surrealism in the glaring light of day... its the winters when weird things happen in my life.. and its been a trend... most of the weirdness in my life... whether good wierd or bad weird... has always transpired in the winter solstice... so starting Mid September.. that would be right around my birthday... the weirdness begins and continues well into Mid-March... After that i have a reprieve from weirdness for a good 6 months, before the cycle begins again...
Atleast i have Fates cycle all mapped out... i make an extra effort to be happy and upbeat during the DownTime :) we do what we have to to ensure the continuing well being of our fragile minds..
Sometimes... the flow of life carries us along.. smoothly enough through the rapids.. you learn to ignore the rough patches and the scrapes and bruises you acquire along the way from the hidden rocks and river bed.. while the current is strong, it leaves you no choice. Life moves along rapidly with out too much thought, or rhyme or reason... and we're ok with that... with that numbing existence where you experience a rush of adrenaline every now and then at a new discovery.. at the interim mundane bits where you dont think but just let the waters carry you wherever they may lead.. and somehow it becomes a pattern whereby every so often you are jerked awake out of your reverie on the rapids of life and forced to open your eyes and take a long hard look around to gauge how far you've come, what the direction of the flow is, how fast are you going, how soon will you get somewhere... and then once again you lie back, bask in the warmth of the sun and smile and let them carry you again once again...
Thats my life... it scares those around me... my lack of direction.. of focus.. of an unerring avoidance of anything concrete..
Yet its my salvation... it saves me from humanitys number one disease.. procrastination... assumption... frustration... exasperation...
it saves me.. from being disappointed.. from being hurt... from sheer pain.. from desperation...
It allows me to look upon each day as a glorious opportunity to be happy... to be good.. to aspire to new heights.. to leave the past behind and move forward ... to be a bit blase about the whole phenomenon of existential angst.. to be chill about life.. and hence to savor every moment in the best possible way... because i dont give myself a choice otherwise.. because i dont consider any other alternatives except the happy ones.. because if you ignore the negative and the sad long enough, they WILL be forced to slink away eventually and leave you alone.. things tend to disappear when they're ignored... much like people..
It allows me to be me...
i guess i cant put it any other way..
And it scares the beejeezus out of those who would dare to love me.. because they dont think i give any guarantees.. they think i lack commitment and dedication and passion for living... they think my neverending quest to be happy and at peace with myself serves to accomplish little and alienates them from my sphere because they can never understand why i am the way i am.. and i cant be bothered to explain... I cant explain.. Some things just ARE... i just AM..
Thats the escapist in me talking...
:) but you'll never hear me say i was never happy.. because mashAllah.. by the grace of the Almighty... even when i'm not.. i kinda am...
Happiness is a state of mind... just like existence.. :) nurture it..
take care muggles...
Cheers
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
mizunderstood... thats another Bon jovi song
:) Just had one of those "I really dont get you" discussions... just had the "u dont seem to give a shit about anything" stuff thrown in my face... just felt a little misunderstood.. a little scared... and quite a bit defensive...
i hate to say this... but very few people get me... and that doesnt mean they like me either.. i think most of the people who dont know me very well, like me... those who do know me very well either love me to death because they just cant help themselves or detest me for being the person that i am... i know both kinds... its only a matter of time before people that you meet fall into either category... more in the latter than the former.
The former are few and far between... and the former are the ones i'd die for.. they make me want to be nice to the world :) they restore my faith in human kind.. they know who they are...
Time is irrelevant in the canvas of life... life can span any realm of existance... be it the next 5 seconds or the next 50 years... whatever point that you greet death at, you should hope that you go out on a high note.. having LIVED.. having laughed... having loved... having had friends you would give your first and last breath for ... having felt the passion resident in the human spirit... having shouted in joy .. having cried in agony.. then you have truly LIVED...
our lives are but a mere summary of stolen moments from the hands of time... moments .. little droplets of memories in which we felt joy and grasped whatever happiness came our way... moments in which we didnt question the why's what nots and hows.. but just let go and experienced the joy as it rushed through us and left us breath less.. those are the moments that are the essense of our existence when we finally pass away from this realm...
I find joy in ... well... nearly anything... driving a new car seems to be topping the list... having a nice lunch.. talking to my best friends... a call from my mum... a cloudy sky... the chance of rain... the thought of travel... of plans for a sound sleep... the joy of a good book.. of a great song... of really well made pasta... of a sweet movie that tugs at your heartstrings... of a pretty new ring... from a great bargain... from a really good cup of coffee... from the thought of my friends being in the same city as me :) ... anything and everything is an opportunity to derive joy... and retard sorrow..
My quest for happiness sometimes alienates those around me... its inevitable i guess... life moves full circle... where there is joy, sorrow will soon follow.. and sooner or later in the scheme of things no matter how hard i try to remain aloof and untouched by the unbearable sense of failure and deprivation.. it will come to haunt me.. and i will give in for a brief moment in time til God rescues me from wallowing in the puddle of self-pity.
My faith... which refers in no means to mere religion... saves me from myself. Its a simple faith. i keep it simple. It revolves around the premise that everything happens for a reason and we shouldnt sweat the little things in life.. conversely the big things in life are usually so out of our hands that theres no point to sweating them anyway.. so there you have it... when my life seems difficult and complicated, i just throw up my hands and tell God to fix it... and he does... usually.
So thats the way it works. The people i love, i just do. without rhyme or reason or too much thought. It comes naturally and i just flow with it.. Theres no point in forcing yourself to do something. Inevitably your resentment will spew forth and destroy you. Do what makes you happy... your happiness will define your attitude towards life and those around you... and those you love will conversely be happy because their happiness will to some extent be derived from yours and vice versa... so its the dominoes philosophy... a chain reaction.. a reminder of that movie "Pay it forward" .. lets ignore the fact that the kid dies in the end... that was sad...
I seem chill with life because i force my self to be chill with it...while my insides tremble with fear and insecurity.. my heart palpitates with the entire uncertainty of existance.. my mind loses any sense of relativity as it goes around in circles of confusion.. i project a calm front to the world... because its no ones problem but mine..
The people priviliged enough to be exposed to my inner self know me for the scared little person i am... they build me up when i fall apart... they help me regain my courage because i have their support... they protect me til i'm on level ground again... i'm strong because of their faith in me.. and because of my faith in the heavens above...
I dont like being judged... i detest assumptions... and i hate feeling misunderstood. Theres more to me than any one person can unravel in a lifetime... even i havent understood my self fully... i dont think i ever will.. and im ok with that... i dont live according to expectations... i live according to whim... and thats a scary thing for many people.. but as long as i dont hurt anyone, i'll my life as i see fit... so help me God..
SB on Que Sera Sera posted something lovely today...
Love
I think there are two kinds of love. Well, maybe three if you count Kill Bill Vol. 2, which was just an excuse for Quentin Tarantino to gaze at Uma Thurman through a camera lens and then lay claim to her with a giant cinematic facial at the end by shooting his name across her face in huge letters that might as well have been dripping down the screen.
Anyway, I think there are two kinds of love. One is the kind of love where a person already has decided the things they want to happen to them, the things they desperately want and need and associate with love, they’ve mapped them out on their own heart beforehand, and they’re just trying to find someone to do them with. They’ve already decided that love = zany photobooth pictures and sharing their favorite movie on the couch once a week and saying this one pet name and them both liking the same band and going to the same coffeeshop and looking up and smiling over a book. So every person they date, they take them on the same walk to the same place and take the same pictures and pose the same pose and try the same lean-in, just giving the routine they want a test drive over and over again until it sticks, and then they get all the comforts that come with the routine of loving someone who holds the same things dear, or is at least game for holding your things dear with you.
And then there’s the other kind of love, that kind that sneaks up on you and punches you in the throat, and every part of it seems crazy and foreign at first, from the person and how they make you feel to the new things you find yourself doing, and you’re almost weirded out by how strange it is, and how you’re simultaneously repelled and attracted to it, and you might roll your eyes at it all and say, whatever, I’m not in love, I’m just doing this for awhile, but then one day you realize you want that strange new routine and person and it’s more love than anything else has ever been ever in your whole entire life, ever.
Interchangeable photobooth people, I wish you well, but I’ll take my punch in the throat.
:) You choose your own path and then you live with the consequences of your choices... i choose not to choose... i wait for my path to be revealed to me... call it a lack of ambition, of vision, of planning,... call it a one way ticket to failure, to despondence... to a lack of direction... call it being selfish.. and close minded.. call it what you will...
I call it my life... and so far mashallah... my lifes pretty darn good... One day at a time... one breath, one laugh, one whisper, one moment of joy, one glimmer of hope, one sigh of relief, a sense of wonder at each new day... a joyous curiosity at the uniqueness of life... an open heart ... a happy mind... a fulfilled soul... one step at a time...
we cant have everything in life... but u know what... sometimes you dont need to have everything to actually have everything... sometimes one little thing can give you all that you desired in one singular moment... so where does that leave the visionaries with their long term plans...
:) in their own realm of existance... happiness is individualistic... not communal... faith is individualistic.. not communal.. our lives coexist... but we exist as individuals.. and we need to remember that no one can ever be responsible for our happiness... we need to ensure it our selves.. and by the grace of Allah, inshallah we will....
Im off..
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
i hate to say this... but very few people get me... and that doesnt mean they like me either.. i think most of the people who dont know me very well, like me... those who do know me very well either love me to death because they just cant help themselves or detest me for being the person that i am... i know both kinds... its only a matter of time before people that you meet fall into either category... more in the latter than the former.
The former are few and far between... and the former are the ones i'd die for.. they make me want to be nice to the world :) they restore my faith in human kind.. they know who they are...
Time is irrelevant in the canvas of life... life can span any realm of existance... be it the next 5 seconds or the next 50 years... whatever point that you greet death at, you should hope that you go out on a high note.. having LIVED.. having laughed... having loved... having had friends you would give your first and last breath for ... having felt the passion resident in the human spirit... having shouted in joy .. having cried in agony.. then you have truly LIVED...
our lives are but a mere summary of stolen moments from the hands of time... moments .. little droplets of memories in which we felt joy and grasped whatever happiness came our way... moments in which we didnt question the why's what nots and hows.. but just let go and experienced the joy as it rushed through us and left us breath less.. those are the moments that are the essense of our existence when we finally pass away from this realm...
I find joy in ... well... nearly anything... driving a new car seems to be topping the list... having a nice lunch.. talking to my best friends... a call from my mum... a cloudy sky... the chance of rain... the thought of travel... of plans for a sound sleep... the joy of a good book.. of a great song... of really well made pasta... of a sweet movie that tugs at your heartstrings... of a pretty new ring... from a great bargain... from a really good cup of coffee... from the thought of my friends being in the same city as me :) ... anything and everything is an opportunity to derive joy... and retard sorrow..
My quest for happiness sometimes alienates those around me... its inevitable i guess... life moves full circle... where there is joy, sorrow will soon follow.. and sooner or later in the scheme of things no matter how hard i try to remain aloof and untouched by the unbearable sense of failure and deprivation.. it will come to haunt me.. and i will give in for a brief moment in time til God rescues me from wallowing in the puddle of self-pity.
My faith... which refers in no means to mere religion... saves me from myself. Its a simple faith. i keep it simple. It revolves around the premise that everything happens for a reason and we shouldnt sweat the little things in life.. conversely the big things in life are usually so out of our hands that theres no point to sweating them anyway.. so there you have it... when my life seems difficult and complicated, i just throw up my hands and tell God to fix it... and he does... usually.
So thats the way it works. The people i love, i just do. without rhyme or reason or too much thought. It comes naturally and i just flow with it.. Theres no point in forcing yourself to do something. Inevitably your resentment will spew forth and destroy you. Do what makes you happy... your happiness will define your attitude towards life and those around you... and those you love will conversely be happy because their happiness will to some extent be derived from yours and vice versa... so its the dominoes philosophy... a chain reaction.. a reminder of that movie "Pay it forward" .. lets ignore the fact that the kid dies in the end... that was sad...
I seem chill with life because i force my self to be chill with it...while my insides tremble with fear and insecurity.. my heart palpitates with the entire uncertainty of existance.. my mind loses any sense of relativity as it goes around in circles of confusion.. i project a calm front to the world... because its no ones problem but mine..
The people priviliged enough to be exposed to my inner self know me for the scared little person i am... they build me up when i fall apart... they help me regain my courage because i have their support... they protect me til i'm on level ground again... i'm strong because of their faith in me.. and because of my faith in the heavens above...
I dont like being judged... i detest assumptions... and i hate feeling misunderstood. Theres more to me than any one person can unravel in a lifetime... even i havent understood my self fully... i dont think i ever will.. and im ok with that... i dont live according to expectations... i live according to whim... and thats a scary thing for many people.. but as long as i dont hurt anyone, i'll my life as i see fit... so help me God..
SB on Que Sera Sera posted something lovely today...
Love
I think there are two kinds of love. Well, maybe three if you count Kill Bill Vol. 2, which was just an excuse for Quentin Tarantino to gaze at Uma Thurman through a camera lens and then lay claim to her with a giant cinematic facial at the end by shooting his name across her face in huge letters that might as well have been dripping down the screen.
Anyway, I think there are two kinds of love. One is the kind of love where a person already has decided the things they want to happen to them, the things they desperately want and need and associate with love, they’ve mapped them out on their own heart beforehand, and they’re just trying to find someone to do them with. They’ve already decided that love = zany photobooth pictures and sharing their favorite movie on the couch once a week and saying this one pet name and them both liking the same band and going to the same coffeeshop and looking up and smiling over a book. So every person they date, they take them on the same walk to the same place and take the same pictures and pose the same pose and try the same lean-in, just giving the routine they want a test drive over and over again until it sticks, and then they get all the comforts that come with the routine of loving someone who holds the same things dear, or is at least game for holding your things dear with you.
And then there’s the other kind of love, that kind that sneaks up on you and punches you in the throat, and every part of it seems crazy and foreign at first, from the person and how they make you feel to the new things you find yourself doing, and you’re almost weirded out by how strange it is, and how you’re simultaneously repelled and attracted to it, and you might roll your eyes at it all and say, whatever, I’m not in love, I’m just doing this for awhile, but then one day you realize you want that strange new routine and person and it’s more love than anything else has ever been ever in your whole entire life, ever.
Interchangeable photobooth people, I wish you well, but I’ll take my punch in the throat.
:) You choose your own path and then you live with the consequences of your choices... i choose not to choose... i wait for my path to be revealed to me... call it a lack of ambition, of vision, of planning,... call it a one way ticket to failure, to despondence... to a lack of direction... call it being selfish.. and close minded.. call it what you will...
I call it my life... and so far mashallah... my lifes pretty darn good... One day at a time... one breath, one laugh, one whisper, one moment of joy, one glimmer of hope, one sigh of relief, a sense of wonder at each new day... a joyous curiosity at the uniqueness of life... an open heart ... a happy mind... a fulfilled soul... one step at a time...
we cant have everything in life... but u know what... sometimes you dont need to have everything to actually have everything... sometimes one little thing can give you all that you desired in one singular moment... so where does that leave the visionaries with their long term plans...
:) in their own realm of existance... happiness is individualistic... not communal... faith is individualistic.. not communal.. our lives coexist... but we exist as individuals.. and we need to remember that no one can ever be responsible for our happiness... we need to ensure it our selves.. and by the grace of Allah, inshallah we will....
Im off..
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Its my Life!... hell yeah :)
Why'd i call the blog that? :) well coz its the song thats running on my laptop right now..
I vividly remember the exact moment i was first exposed to my heart throbs new creation. Amsterdam... Midnight.... the european MTV... June 2nd 2000... i cried....
At that point in time when we were all letting go for 4 and a half years of a life we'd grown to love and to hate... with the upcoming convocation... the impending entry into the big bad world of 9 to 5 workdays (little did we know) and 366 days a year of khwari... of the goodbyes that had to be said to an every day association that was to be brutally rend asunder ... a gaping hole had started forming in our hearts and was slowly sucking the joy out of everyday existence...
i'd just left right after giving my last final final in my CBM ensconsed life.. taken off for the netherlands for a blissful 6 weeks in the prime period of job hunting... basically i just figured milni hogi to baad mein bhi mil jai gi... tension kyoun lein bhai...
and amidst all the confusion.. there it was... 'It's my Life'... by the love of my life... Bon jovi.. me n my best friend have come to a good compromise on this front since he's also the love of her life.. we figure in this one instance we can be understanding and gush over him collectively.. :) But regardless, i heard the song... and i cried.. because at that instance in time and in all instances to follow, that song defined me... it defined all the things i wanted to scream out to the world.. it defined my entire philosophy of life and existance... it shouted out 'LIVE' and let live.. and it gave you courage not to fear the future but to embrace the present... because the future will never be yours to embrace :)... all you have is today... you will ALWAYS have Today...
and so i cried..
i cried even more when i learnt that Bon jovi had a massive concert planned in Rotterdam on September 1st 2000 and i was flying out on the 10th of July... i even contemplated extending my stay or going BACK for it :) but the fact the the tickets for the concert got released for sale on june 6th and sold out by the end of the day on June 6th kinda sealed the deal as well :) ...
It was a beautiful time in my life... Amsterdam will always be my dream city.. my ambition in life at that time was to get a job, get shifted to Amsterdam and own the apartment next to the Armada Hotel on Keizergracht... thats where we'd stayed for a week with khala khalu and the kids in aug 1997 on our way back from america..
i spent those 6 weeks wandering the canal sides of Amsterdams cobbelstoned streets... alone! :) lol... at 22 that was a huge thing for me.. ami had twisted her ankle earlier so every morning, i used to just grab my knapsack with my camera and some money, walk down to the Aerdenhout-Hemsteade train terminal (about 5 minutes from khals house) and take the beautiful train down to the Amsterdam Centraal station.... and then i just divided the city up through my map and my online research ( yes yes.. Turkey was the not the first time ive done that :) and i went everywhere... the university which lies smackdab in the middle of the city.. Dam square with its open air music concerts and mimes... Rembrandtplein the sweetest most active square in Amsterdam.. had a cinema and McDonalds and road side cafes and the skies were always blue and cloudy... :) and since i hate the sun that was my vision of perfection so there you go :)...
Every single photograph i took was Postcard quality.. the city lends it self to photography so brilliantly, it takes ur breath away... and i wandered those streets day after day, eating the mayo fries and the apple turnover (ahhh... major craving :) ... a couple of day i took the train down in the opposite direction to Leiden.. the walled city... spent an entire day walking around that.. that day was sunny... saw a beautiful church... sat on bridge and had my lunch... had an ice cream bar in the sunny day... the reason i remember the icecream was because A. it was the twix icecream :) and B. It was sunny in Holland.. both things were novelties for me..
And thus began my neverending love affair of everything Dutch :) i came back asking God for two thing in my Job, a Dutch company and saturdays off... came back and he made me join Philips... :) I love Allah mian..
I came back and ami n nani were still in Amsterdam.. so for about a month, my driver and i experimented in the kitchen with veggies and rotis lol :)... apnay haath ka khana pata nahin kyun buht ziyada acha lagta hai... but seriously, when i cook, i cook for me... and since i love to eat what i love to eat obviously whatever i cook i will love.. :) abu was a jaan and used eat everything up.. the bhindis and tori's and daals and tehri mehri roties that me and aquil used to cook up... and always have something nice to say... lol... i think he was just happy i was exhibiting some remotely female domesticated tendencies... :) ... the secret ingredient to making everything taste damn good... Chat Masala.. :) i just liberally doused everything i cooked with it at the initial stages and whatever mush used to come together was damn nice tasting mush...
:) Its really my life mashallah... every step of the way as i look back from that day till today... since the first time bon jovi brought tears to my eyes by proclaiming to the world what i'd been screaming silently in my heart.... I made that conscious effort.... and its really truly been a good life... mashallah... apart from the instances where i felt a bit stifled by the close mindedness of it all.. its been my terms and my decisions.. and i've managed to be happy inspite of everything and inspite of not having a long term plan.. :)
Life is for the living... its for the dare-devilish, big of heart, strong of spirit, staunch of faith... and to each his own...
Btw my new operator logo on my phone is a really cute flower 3d logo.. theyre very cute...
:) ok i gotta go ... lunch time..
cheerios
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
I vividly remember the exact moment i was first exposed to my heart throbs new creation. Amsterdam... Midnight.... the european MTV... June 2nd 2000... i cried....
At that point in time when we were all letting go for 4 and a half years of a life we'd grown to love and to hate... with the upcoming convocation... the impending entry into the big bad world of 9 to 5 workdays (little did we know) and 366 days a year of khwari... of the goodbyes that had to be said to an every day association that was to be brutally rend asunder ... a gaping hole had started forming in our hearts and was slowly sucking the joy out of everyday existence...
i'd just left right after giving my last final final in my CBM ensconsed life.. taken off for the netherlands for a blissful 6 weeks in the prime period of job hunting... basically i just figured milni hogi to baad mein bhi mil jai gi... tension kyoun lein bhai...
and amidst all the confusion.. there it was... 'It's my Life'... by the love of my life... Bon jovi.. me n my best friend have come to a good compromise on this front since he's also the love of her life.. we figure in this one instance we can be understanding and gush over him collectively.. :) But regardless, i heard the song... and i cried.. because at that instance in time and in all instances to follow, that song defined me... it defined all the things i wanted to scream out to the world.. it defined my entire philosophy of life and existance... it shouted out 'LIVE' and let live.. and it gave you courage not to fear the future but to embrace the present... because the future will never be yours to embrace :)... all you have is today... you will ALWAYS have Today...
and so i cried..
i cried even more when i learnt that Bon jovi had a massive concert planned in Rotterdam on September 1st 2000 and i was flying out on the 10th of July... i even contemplated extending my stay or going BACK for it :) but the fact the the tickets for the concert got released for sale on june 6th and sold out by the end of the day on June 6th kinda sealed the deal as well :) ...
It was a beautiful time in my life... Amsterdam will always be my dream city.. my ambition in life at that time was to get a job, get shifted to Amsterdam and own the apartment next to the Armada Hotel on Keizergracht... thats where we'd stayed for a week with khala khalu and the kids in aug 1997 on our way back from america..
i spent those 6 weeks wandering the canal sides of Amsterdams cobbelstoned streets... alone! :) lol... at 22 that was a huge thing for me.. ami had twisted her ankle earlier so every morning, i used to just grab my knapsack with my camera and some money, walk down to the Aerdenhout-Hemsteade train terminal (about 5 minutes from khals house) and take the beautiful train down to the Amsterdam Centraal station.... and then i just divided the city up through my map and my online research ( yes yes.. Turkey was the not the first time ive done that :) and i went everywhere... the university which lies smackdab in the middle of the city.. Dam square with its open air music concerts and mimes... Rembrandtplein the sweetest most active square in Amsterdam.. had a cinema and McDonalds and road side cafes and the skies were always blue and cloudy... :) and since i hate the sun that was my vision of perfection so there you go :)...
Every single photograph i took was Postcard quality.. the city lends it self to photography so brilliantly, it takes ur breath away... and i wandered those streets day after day, eating the mayo fries and the apple turnover (ahhh... major craving :) ... a couple of day i took the train down in the opposite direction to Leiden.. the walled city... spent an entire day walking around that.. that day was sunny... saw a beautiful church... sat on bridge and had my lunch... had an ice cream bar in the sunny day... the reason i remember the icecream was because A. it was the twix icecream :) and B. It was sunny in Holland.. both things were novelties for me..
And thus began my neverending love affair of everything Dutch :) i came back asking God for two thing in my Job, a Dutch company and saturdays off... came back and he made me join Philips... :) I love Allah mian..
I came back and ami n nani were still in Amsterdam.. so for about a month, my driver and i experimented in the kitchen with veggies and rotis lol :)... apnay haath ka khana pata nahin kyun buht ziyada acha lagta hai... but seriously, when i cook, i cook for me... and since i love to eat what i love to eat obviously whatever i cook i will love.. :) abu was a jaan and used eat everything up.. the bhindis and tori's and daals and tehri mehri roties that me and aquil used to cook up... and always have something nice to say... lol... i think he was just happy i was exhibiting some remotely female domesticated tendencies... :) ... the secret ingredient to making everything taste damn good... Chat Masala.. :) i just liberally doused everything i cooked with it at the initial stages and whatever mush used to come together was damn nice tasting mush...
:) Its really my life mashallah... every step of the way as i look back from that day till today... since the first time bon jovi brought tears to my eyes by proclaiming to the world what i'd been screaming silently in my heart.... I made that conscious effort.... and its really truly been a good life... mashallah... apart from the instances where i felt a bit stifled by the close mindedness of it all.. its been my terms and my decisions.. and i've managed to be happy inspite of everything and inspite of not having a long term plan.. :)
Life is for the living... its for the dare-devilish, big of heart, strong of spirit, staunch of faith... and to each his own...
Btw my new operator logo on my phone is a really cute flower 3d logo.. theyre very cute...
:) ok i gotta go ... lunch time..
cheerios
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Home sweet Home....
I'll be back in ma home town tonight... oh yeah baby... me is gonna be hoooome!
:) so much excitement for a itty bitty little trip aint it. Cant help it. Its been 3 good weeks. I havent breathed the karachi pollution into my overly healthy lungs.. although people would insist the Lahore pollution is far above the levels found in Karachi..
ok im going hooooommmeee..
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
:) so much excitement for a itty bitty little trip aint it. Cant help it. Its been 3 good weeks. I havent breathed the karachi pollution into my overly healthy lungs.. although people would insist the Lahore pollution is far above the levels found in Karachi..
ok im going hooooommmeee..
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
Monday, April 12, 2004
The Roadtrip!
I had a great weekend...
All the way through friday evening, when i went out with my friends from good ol' khi and planned out our excursion to isloo the next morning, decided the alto would probably not be the best option for a 4 hours journey across the motorway and chose to retain our nice new city rent a car and then our rent a car driver decided to drop himself home in defence Y block and handed over the car to two karachi born FEMALES completely unschooled in the art of Lahori driving not to mention having a complete and utter lack of any remote sense of direction... Lets just say the one hour journey back to Gulberg & Fortress was about as interesting as any night time driving experience in a new land could've been. I've heard it usually doesnt take less than 15 minutes to cover the distance. I guess we were taking the scenic route.
:) Considering that I was the brilliant person driving while my fearsome friend had a remote bit of road sense... we managed quite well. I used to burst out screaming with the sheer joy of driving a BRAND NEW HONDA CITY... only 4000 Kms on it... * Silent scream of joy... IT WAS THE COOLEST FEELING IN THE WORLD... after driving around in my amazingly lovely yet gracefully old and a bit rickety '86 Charade and my '81 Toyota which ROCKS to date... any car that can make it over the Karakoram Highway in one piece has my undying respect for life.
But mAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNnnnnhhh... ohhh man.. that car drove like a bloody dream.. lol... every time the feeling of sheer unadulterated joy used to overwhelm me i used to end up screaming with the mindblowing happiness of it all, and all the directions used to fly out of salaina's head.. so we ended up going in circles quite a bunch of times before finally making to the correct highway... :) sighhhh.... the joy still pervades my soul...
So we started out bright n early (* gaffaw).. at 9am... as opposed to the planned 6 am as per our original plan.. my chacha from Isloo called up to find out if we'd left at around 8am and stated with deepset certainty that he'd told my chachi he'd be completely surprised if we managed to make it out of the house before 9am. :) turns out he was right. Anyway, we piled our luggage and ourselves into the car, and the merry 5 started off on the road trip of a lifetime lol...
it was unbelievable from the word go.
1. I was driving.
2. We were navigating Lahore with a MAP... lol..
so we finally managed to make it to the Motorway. Might I add i am a damn fine driver :).. and right before the first toll booth, the car went silent and then started bleeping teeroun teeroun.. like an ambulance.... lol... turns out the rental people forgot to tell us it was a Lahore only vehicle.. So after laughing ourselves hoarse over the irony of it all.. and considering the fact that my hororscope from msn alerts that morning had stated that i may experience mechanical difficulties on long-distance journeys... freaky!!... we called the rental people and they sent us a car with absolutely no chor lock or any other type of mechanisms.. :) i guess they understood that the poor car would be in the hands of novices and decided not to take any chances with anything we would abandon halfway down the motorway...
All in all, the whole motorway driving experience was pretty damn good.. especially since i was driving.. :) *huge grin... initially i was very careful to slow down in front of all the little phone box poles.. coz i thought thats where the little speed radars were... lol.. but 25% of the way down the road, we threw caution to the winds and averaged 160km/h... we covered the whole motorway in 3 and a half hours instead of the regular 4hrs 15 minutes. The entire stretch consumed one full tank of gas.. so by the time we got into isloo we were frantically looking for a Petrol station. :) found one early on in and heaved a sigh of relief...
After that it was one long eating fest... i got to my chacha's house and my chachi who is certifiably the worlds best chef.. had cooked up a storm for the dinner that night... yummm... so me n my 3 cousins ate to our hearts content and crashed... the next morning was pretty much the same.. an awesome breakfast... an even more scrumptious lunch... with my all time favorite home made concoction the Italiano.. pasta, mince, boiled eggs, potatoes, cheese & white sauce all together ... its the most heavenly experience in the world... sighhhhhhhhhhhhh.. * big satisfied smile stretched across face. The crowning glory was my three younger totally adorable cousins, who always manage to evade me everytime im in isloo, also came over so we had a good kashmiri.com mushfest ....
In the interim, we also met up with ':)', bunny and umy in isloo so now when we miss one another we'll actually have phycial entities to attach to the thought... lol ... they're all so unbelievably cute and bubbly... if i wasnt so young at heart ;) i'd feel like an 80 year old hag... it was awesome meeting all of them... our conversation basically centered around how 'deprived' some people were.. hehehe... but it was amazing... and i loved every minute...
The drive back, we again opted for the Motorway over the GT Road. We figured we'd save that for the next time. Listened to City 89 FM for a bit and when that died, we shifted to the 3 song collection of Kal ho na ho... we'd tried finding the entire soundtrack at the Daewoo stopover the day before but we only found the 4 movies in one cassette collection and decided to settle... so.. side B the beginning three songs.. 'kuch to hua hai', 'time to disco', and 'kal ho na ho'... were played, rewinded and replayed umpteenth times, til salaina threatened to clobber me from the back.... :) and we reached lahore city limits and got our FM 89 back on track...
I got this one amazing shot of the setting sun. Once i get some freaking photoediting software into this comp i'll upload it.. But certifiably awesome road trip...
*smile... love you guyz...
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
All the way through friday evening, when i went out with my friends from good ol' khi and planned out our excursion to isloo the next morning, decided the alto would probably not be the best option for a 4 hours journey across the motorway and chose to retain our nice new city rent a car and then our rent a car driver decided to drop himself home in defence Y block and handed over the car to two karachi born FEMALES completely unschooled in the art of Lahori driving not to mention having a complete and utter lack of any remote sense of direction... Lets just say the one hour journey back to Gulberg & Fortress was about as interesting as any night time driving experience in a new land could've been. I've heard it usually doesnt take less than 15 minutes to cover the distance. I guess we were taking the scenic route.
:) Considering that I was the brilliant person driving while my fearsome friend had a remote bit of road sense... we managed quite well. I used to burst out screaming with the sheer joy of driving a BRAND NEW HONDA CITY... only 4000 Kms on it... * Silent scream of joy... IT WAS THE COOLEST FEELING IN THE WORLD... after driving around in my amazingly lovely yet gracefully old and a bit rickety '86 Charade and my '81 Toyota which ROCKS to date... any car that can make it over the Karakoram Highway in one piece has my undying respect for life.
But mAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNnnnnhhh... ohhh man.. that car drove like a bloody dream.. lol... every time the feeling of sheer unadulterated joy used to overwhelm me i used to end up screaming with the mindblowing happiness of it all, and all the directions used to fly out of salaina's head.. so we ended up going in circles quite a bunch of times before finally making to the correct highway... :) sighhhh.... the joy still pervades my soul...
So we started out bright n early (* gaffaw).. at 9am... as opposed to the planned 6 am as per our original plan.. my chacha from Isloo called up to find out if we'd left at around 8am and stated with deepset certainty that he'd told my chachi he'd be completely surprised if we managed to make it out of the house before 9am. :) turns out he was right. Anyway, we piled our luggage and ourselves into the car, and the merry 5 started off on the road trip of a lifetime lol...
it was unbelievable from the word go.
1. I was driving.
2. We were navigating Lahore with a MAP... lol..
so we finally managed to make it to the Motorway. Might I add i am a damn fine driver :).. and right before the first toll booth, the car went silent and then started bleeping teeroun teeroun.. like an ambulance.... lol... turns out the rental people forgot to tell us it was a Lahore only vehicle.. So after laughing ourselves hoarse over the irony of it all.. and considering the fact that my hororscope from msn alerts that morning had stated that i may experience mechanical difficulties on long-distance journeys... freaky!!... we called the rental people and they sent us a car with absolutely no chor lock or any other type of mechanisms.. :) i guess they understood that the poor car would be in the hands of novices and decided not to take any chances with anything we would abandon halfway down the motorway...
All in all, the whole motorway driving experience was pretty damn good.. especially since i was driving.. :) *huge grin... initially i was very careful to slow down in front of all the little phone box poles.. coz i thought thats where the little speed radars were... lol.. but 25% of the way down the road, we threw caution to the winds and averaged 160km/h... we covered the whole motorway in 3 and a half hours instead of the regular 4hrs 15 minutes. The entire stretch consumed one full tank of gas.. so by the time we got into isloo we were frantically looking for a Petrol station. :) found one early on in and heaved a sigh of relief...
After that it was one long eating fest... i got to my chacha's house and my chachi who is certifiably the worlds best chef.. had cooked up a storm for the dinner that night... yummm... so me n my 3 cousins ate to our hearts content and crashed... the next morning was pretty much the same.. an awesome breakfast... an even more scrumptious lunch... with my all time favorite home made concoction the Italiano.. pasta, mince, boiled eggs, potatoes, cheese & white sauce all together ... its the most heavenly experience in the world... sighhhhhhhhhhhhh.. * big satisfied smile stretched across face. The crowning glory was my three younger totally adorable cousins, who always manage to evade me everytime im in isloo, also came over so we had a good kashmiri.com mushfest ....
In the interim, we also met up with ':)', bunny and umy in isloo so now when we miss one another we'll actually have phycial entities to attach to the thought... lol ... they're all so unbelievably cute and bubbly... if i wasnt so young at heart ;) i'd feel like an 80 year old hag... it was awesome meeting all of them... our conversation basically centered around how 'deprived' some people were.. hehehe... but it was amazing... and i loved every minute...
The drive back, we again opted for the Motorway over the GT Road. We figured we'd save that for the next time. Listened to City 89 FM for a bit and when that died, we shifted to the 3 song collection of Kal ho na ho... we'd tried finding the entire soundtrack at the Daewoo stopover the day before but we only found the 4 movies in one cassette collection and decided to settle... so.. side B the beginning three songs.. 'kuch to hua hai', 'time to disco', and 'kal ho na ho'... were played, rewinded and replayed umpteenth times, til salaina threatened to clobber me from the back.... :) and we reached lahore city limits and got our FM 89 back on track...
I got this one amazing shot of the setting sun. Once i get some freaking photoediting software into this comp i'll upload it.. But certifiably awesome road trip...
*smile... love you guyz...
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
yeah yeah i missed you too .....
Comment #10:
hey hey hey :)
i cant access the internet for 7 days and all hell breaks lose..
i miss you guyz alot too.. miss the life i had lol... miss the life i cudve had.. i should write this in the blog :)
take care all of you
*****************************************************
:) Good morning people... i blame my lack of attention to my dearly beloved blog due to a slow internet connection and 14 hour workdays...
Somehow, and i qoute my dad alot in this context.... Work expands to fill the time. So no matter what you do, you will always use atleast 3 hours above the quota you alotted your self..
Yahan ka khana waisey aapas ki baat hai, buht zabardast hota hai. Although i went to the famous Freddy's during my orientation for a lunch and im pretty sure i ordered the one thing that didnt quite seem palatable. Damned if i could remember it. Went to Uno's Chicago Grill the other day.. the lemon chicken was pretty ok, though a bit on the dry side, considering i finished off the sauce it came with when i ate my french fries. As always i couldnt attack my main meal til i'd finished all my fries... i dont know when that will stop.
I'd had the lemon chicken in Zanzibar as well in Multan. That was niiiiice.. although over fried.. but extremely lemony... very extremely lemony.. kinda like a burst of spiked 7Up... with extra lime... :) good though...
Then there was the very nice Aylanto lunch my agency in Karachi treated me to when they were trying to be nice to me ... lol :) the next day they immediately tried to strategically balance the scale by ordering in Subway and bringing any notions of heigtened expectations crashing down to earth :) (Ali, if you read this... i mean every word :))
The best lunch i've had so far was TODAY.. :) with my two freaky friends from my lovely freaky city of Karachi... we met up for exactly 30 minutes at Pizza Hut and stuffed ourselves with thin crust pizza mushrooms wings and loads of hyper-speed conversation... i forget how much i can talk until i'm around the people i can talk so much in front of. I love my freaky funny little friends.. :)
sighhhhh.... and they'll be going back to my freaky lovely city by the 23rd.... OHHHH GOOOOODDDDD... what have i done!
:) Anyway.. otherwise Lahore is a great place to be for the next few months... Its hot as Hades.. you step outside and you'll be burned to dehydrated crisp.. BUT... not a DROP of prespiration. I mean its incredible.. you could be cooked to the bone without a single drop of moisture appearing anywhere on your person..
I got a personal printer. I mean we had a network printer and then they gave me my own coz the network one always used to be acting up. Now my only form of exercise is finito :) atleast that ridiculous peice of machinery made me leave my desk atleast 17 times a day. Now i will well and truly become a.... humanoid. Connected at one end to the IBM Docking terminal and at the other to a cellular phone.
Makes you wonder regarding the true meaning of life doesnt it? i'm pretty sure this wasnt it... hmm... all in good time...
i read the comments on my last blog.. i was extremely pleasantly surprised :)... like i KNOW Yasin misses me. He has no one to talk to on the other side of the glass partition at work anymore.. actually i think he does but its not quite the same.. i miss him too..
Mary misses me coz she misses my blogs :) besidz as family she'd better me missing me..
':)' misses me coz she doesnt know any other way to think about me... considering we've never met, i guess its been a perpetual missfest for both of us..
The rest of my fwiendsies miss me :) and it was nice to know that....
Theres an organization here called 'TEDDS: Trust for the Education of Deserving xx Students'. They started off really small and right now have two fully functional schools which are educating about 800 students. The idea was kicked off by a gentleman who apparently started off in less than affordable circumstances and was helped through out his life in his education by one benefactor or another.. He ended up going to LUMS and founded this project in the process..
Last year 2 students from this project got into the LUMS student scholarship program which goes to show that quality is being produced. It costs Rs. 12000/- to put one child through one school year... Checks can be made out to TEDDS... i gave in a bit... if anyone's interested, lemme know...
Sigh... i just need to unwind now.. aaaahhh.. i'm really wound up tight ...
yeah yeah .. i know i didnt say anything worth reading... i cant always be a fountain of wisdom you know..
catch you again... later
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
hey hey hey :)
i cant access the internet for 7 days and all hell breaks lose..
i miss you guyz alot too.. miss the life i had lol... miss the life i cudve had.. i should write this in the blog :)
take care all of you
*****************************************************
:) Good morning people... i blame my lack of attention to my dearly beloved blog due to a slow internet connection and 14 hour workdays...
Somehow, and i qoute my dad alot in this context.... Work expands to fill the time. So no matter what you do, you will always use atleast 3 hours above the quota you alotted your self..
Yahan ka khana waisey aapas ki baat hai, buht zabardast hota hai. Although i went to the famous Freddy's during my orientation for a lunch and im pretty sure i ordered the one thing that didnt quite seem palatable. Damned if i could remember it. Went to Uno's Chicago Grill the other day.. the lemon chicken was pretty ok, though a bit on the dry side, considering i finished off the sauce it came with when i ate my french fries. As always i couldnt attack my main meal til i'd finished all my fries... i dont know when that will stop.
I'd had the lemon chicken in Zanzibar as well in Multan. That was niiiiice.. although over fried.. but extremely lemony... very extremely lemony.. kinda like a burst of spiked 7Up... with extra lime... :) good though...
Then there was the very nice Aylanto lunch my agency in Karachi treated me to when they were trying to be nice to me ... lol :) the next day they immediately tried to strategically balance the scale by ordering in Subway and bringing any notions of heigtened expectations crashing down to earth :) (Ali, if you read this... i mean every word :))
The best lunch i've had so far was TODAY.. :) with my two freaky friends from my lovely freaky city of Karachi... we met up for exactly 30 minutes at Pizza Hut and stuffed ourselves with thin crust pizza mushrooms wings and loads of hyper-speed conversation... i forget how much i can talk until i'm around the people i can talk so much in front of. I love my freaky funny little friends.. :)
sighhhhh.... and they'll be going back to my freaky lovely city by the 23rd.... OHHHH GOOOOODDDDD... what have i done!
:) Anyway.. otherwise Lahore is a great place to be for the next few months... Its hot as Hades.. you step outside and you'll be burned to dehydrated crisp.. BUT... not a DROP of prespiration. I mean its incredible.. you could be cooked to the bone without a single drop of moisture appearing anywhere on your person..
I got a personal printer. I mean we had a network printer and then they gave me my own coz the network one always used to be acting up. Now my only form of exercise is finito :) atleast that ridiculous peice of machinery made me leave my desk atleast 17 times a day. Now i will well and truly become a.... humanoid. Connected at one end to the IBM Docking terminal and at the other to a cellular phone.
Makes you wonder regarding the true meaning of life doesnt it? i'm pretty sure this wasnt it... hmm... all in good time...
i read the comments on my last blog.. i was extremely pleasantly surprised :)... like i KNOW Yasin misses me. He has no one to talk to on the other side of the glass partition at work anymore.. actually i think he does but its not quite the same.. i miss him too..
Mary misses me coz she misses my blogs :) besidz as family she'd better me missing me..
':)' misses me coz she doesnt know any other way to think about me... considering we've never met, i guess its been a perpetual missfest for both of us..
The rest of my fwiendsies miss me :) and it was nice to know that....
Theres an organization here called 'TEDDS: Trust for the Education of Deserving xx Students'. They started off really small and right now have two fully functional schools which are educating about 800 students. The idea was kicked off by a gentleman who apparently started off in less than affordable circumstances and was helped through out his life in his education by one benefactor or another.. He ended up going to LUMS and founded this project in the process..
Last year 2 students from this project got into the LUMS student scholarship program which goes to show that quality is being produced. It costs Rs. 12000/- to put one child through one school year... Checks can be made out to TEDDS... i gave in a bit... if anyone's interested, lemme know...
Sigh... i just need to unwind now.. aaaahhh.. i'm really wound up tight ...
yeah yeah .. i know i didnt say anything worth reading... i cant always be a fountain of wisdom you know..
catch you again... later
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
Thursday, April 01, 2004
i'm hungry dammit!
i heard lahore did that to you. something in the water apparently. but its certifiably true.
The only other thing thats going to rise here along with my weight will be my stress level.. and possibly the number of silvery strands glimmering in the relatively golden brown recesses at the top of my head.
Pink is the new red. I got razzed by my best friend on wearing bubble gummy pink prints in the big bad business world lol :) apparently its not a reccommended tactic. Couldnt help it man. i only have so many outfits i like you know.
functionality v/s convenience v/s aesthetics v/s strategic advantage... dont have time to look at all the factors..
something you like, which makes you feel comfy and pretty deep inside... go with it.. f*** the world.. who gives anyway.. With our continuously decreasing life spans there isnt too much that we can actually accomplish if we keep worrying about the insignificant details...
I burned my entire music collection, compartmentalized into related categories, onto CDs to take with me. Ended up on 5 different CDs. That was like wow.. i love my computer at home. I think i've ventured down this road before.. chalo .. hota hai hota hai...
i wish i had more to share.. but in between transiting from one business class lounge to the next.. again the damn transition refuses to register. i guess it will when the true physical impact comes forth. yeah im referring to my weight again. dammit. really gotta take some action on that. i MISS my running... i will to my dying day insist there is nothing better than running.. nothing!
its the most freeing relatively athletic activity in the world.. reminds me of the Helen Hunt Nike Ad for women in What Women Want... " No Games... Just Sports"... running is the one thing that truly has no rules.. no pace requirements.. you define your road... your speed.. your comfort level... your rules..
Thats the way i want to live my life.. i want my life to be a good run.. :) a damn good refreshing satisfying no holds barred run... and since i have the one pre-requisite required for achieving that, im all set to go..
yeah :) im referring to my relatively brand new nikes.. the best damn investment i ever made..
you may gasp but i even wore them to my workplace once.. no one said anything.. :) lol i actually had a visit that day so i picked comfort over everything else. Fashion has no place on the streets of lahore my friend.
i miss you guys. i miss the feeling i used to get of being able to communicate with all of you on a regular basis.. i miss the comments i used to get... everytime i used to write something, someone used to come to me and say, you'll never be able to keep it up. how long will you write anyway. you'll stop someday...
well maybe i will... maybe the cynics will win... but as for now... i'll just slightly rephrase Bon jovi.. "i'll stop when i'm dead"...
love you guyz
take care... live your lives... and love every second.. it wont come back you know..
au revoir mon amis
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
The only other thing thats going to rise here along with my weight will be my stress level.. and possibly the number of silvery strands glimmering in the relatively golden brown recesses at the top of my head.
Pink is the new red. I got razzed by my best friend on wearing bubble gummy pink prints in the big bad business world lol :) apparently its not a reccommended tactic. Couldnt help it man. i only have so many outfits i like you know.
functionality v/s convenience v/s aesthetics v/s strategic advantage... dont have time to look at all the factors..
something you like, which makes you feel comfy and pretty deep inside... go with it.. f*** the world.. who gives anyway.. With our continuously decreasing life spans there isnt too much that we can actually accomplish if we keep worrying about the insignificant details...
I burned my entire music collection, compartmentalized into related categories, onto CDs to take with me. Ended up on 5 different CDs. That was like wow.. i love my computer at home. I think i've ventured down this road before.. chalo .. hota hai hota hai...
i wish i had more to share.. but in between transiting from one business class lounge to the next.. again the damn transition refuses to register. i guess it will when the true physical impact comes forth. yeah im referring to my weight again. dammit. really gotta take some action on that. i MISS my running... i will to my dying day insist there is nothing better than running.. nothing!
its the most freeing relatively athletic activity in the world.. reminds me of the Helen Hunt Nike Ad for women in What Women Want... " No Games... Just Sports"... running is the one thing that truly has no rules.. no pace requirements.. you define your road... your speed.. your comfort level... your rules..
Thats the way i want to live my life.. i want my life to be a good run.. :) a damn good refreshing satisfying no holds barred run... and since i have the one pre-requisite required for achieving that, im all set to go..
yeah :) im referring to my relatively brand new nikes.. the best damn investment i ever made..
you may gasp but i even wore them to my workplace once.. no one said anything.. :) lol i actually had a visit that day so i picked comfort over everything else. Fashion has no place on the streets of lahore my friend.
i miss you guys. i miss the feeling i used to get of being able to communicate with all of you on a regular basis.. i miss the comments i used to get... everytime i used to write something, someone used to come to me and say, you'll never be able to keep it up. how long will you write anyway. you'll stop someday...
well maybe i will... maybe the cynics will win... but as for now... i'll just slightly rephrase Bon jovi.. "i'll stop when i'm dead"...
love you guyz
take care... live your lives... and love every second.. it wont come back you know..
au revoir mon amis
Princess of the GemWorld
*****************************************************
I dare to dream... so sue me.. :p
GemWorld
Copyright © Fars - FS 2004
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