yaadein
eid day at home used to be one of the days i used to look forward to all year. We used to get up early in the morning at 6ish, my dad used to go to eidgah for eid ki namaaz and we used to switch on tv to the live cast of eid prayers and then we would follow the prayers from the tv. and before the prayers used to start, we would try to identify which sheikh had come. almost celebrity status. when my dad returned home, we would wish everyone eid mubarak and then would have kheer kurma (sp!) which my aunt would have prepared the nite earlier. then my dad would give us eidi(eid money) and we would distribute to all. for bakri eid we would get our goats two days earlier and us kids would spend time "bonding"with the goats, talking to them(yea we are a bit weird) and feeding them. and since we had a huge courtyard we did the qurbani there only, sadly within hearing distance. obviously none of us kids ever went to see the qurbani, and we didnt even eat the qurbani meat for few days after which my parents would convince us that the meat is actually from outside and not the qurbani meat, but now i know otherwise.
at noonish relatives would come to our house, and us kids would watch movies/cartoons/songs or play board games. all of us were pretty bigre huwei and never really helped in the cooking or in the cleaning of the meat. my apa always had this task and she never complained about it either. and we were happy to let her to do it all. only one eid i was part of this task and seeing all the meat just put me off so much i couldnt eat for three days.
after prayers and lunch, we would all play dumb charades or pple would talk to each other and phones would be ringing off the hook. and then later in the evening we would go visit pple and then the whole family would go to the beach and we would sit on the sand eating nuts and fruits. the next two days, would be filled with long drives, picnics, playing cricket/cards and eating all kinds of desserts.
its so much different now, when im back in the US. it sometimes doesnt even feel like its eid. which always makes me a little sad. but even now when im back home, its still different. not bad different but just different. now when all of us have moved away, and have grown up .eid day is no more the games we used to play as kids, or how much eidi one got, but just a time to be together and although u dont really stay in touch with so many of the relatives that you have its just nice to see them after so long and still be able to laugh and have a good time. reminds you that no matter how much time passes, or how far you move away, that bond will always remain.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
the tale of two cities
ive been sleeping like a log for the past week. as much as id like to contribute that to jet lag, its not. perhaps its something in terms of the water here. dont know. but am sleepy and lethargic all the time. from the start my trip was jinxed. the landlord refused to shorten my lease. i forgot to throw out a bunch of stuff from my bathroom and the cab driver to the airport was in a terrible mood and although i tipped him quite a bit (its a mystery to me why as well) his mood just didnt get better. watever. and then my bag never made it on my connecting flight. i got the middle seat. with two crying babies in the seats in front and behind. and just when i thought things couldnt get worse, the kid behind started kicking my chair. the guy next to me didnt talk one bit and negated everything i said. "i love new york city" was responded with " i absoulutely hate new york city" ok jeez. bite me. after trying to talk, i mean i know its sometimes annoying to sit next to the person who doesnt shut up but then its just polite to introduce ureself and have some kind of conversation. i mean you are sitting next to hte person for the next 15 hours or so rite. neway the guy on the right decided me and the other dude were boring as hell and he switched seats even though he had an aisle seat. i agree with him. on the other aisle seat there was this kid who was playing some game and i really wanted to join the game. i usually play inflight trivia (general knowledge questions) and i really enjoy playing that and my mom usually has a love-hate relationship with that game. she never plays with me but always wants to read the questions and somehow even if its just me playing by myself, her blood pressure rises. we are way too competitive desis. =).
neway my flight was late, we stopped in germany and i spoke to two pple who were like are u from there and im like yea and i was like wow how did they know, till they pointed to my backpack. i can be totally duh sometimes. then there was this resident doctor from boston called zara, i really love that name, and we had a five minute conversation. and she seemed liek a really interetsing person and when she asked me what did i watch during the flight. and since i have teeny bopper taste and nothing remotely refined i said i watched my super ex girlfriend and the breakup (both sucked majorly, wasted grey cells) and then i asked her and she was like oh i watched this documentary thing. (i cant even remember the name-goes to show how much i pay attention) neway i was a bit embarassed. im sure shes just like three four years older to me. but far more mature. neway we had nice conversation and then said our goodbyes. i wonder if anyone ever actually keeps in touch with pple they meet on a plane. i know i have never. i have exchanged emails once in a while but never really called or emailed. for that matter, no one has done the same.
neway, at dxb, a lot of pple hadnt got their stuff and it was highly irritating to have pple cut the line and pretend that they dont even see u standing there. normally im ok with this and would be like fine ure in a huge hurry, go ahead. but i was really irritated by then, lack of sleep, lack of good food, etc and my family had been waiting for me 3 hours at the airport. so i gave the guy a piece of my mind and just when im like "wow im assertive", the attendant is like listen its not our airline's problem. you have to wait for more time before we can file your complaint. gone are the days, when pple were helpful to each other. just coz they could be.
the sad part of the story is that i am so absent minded i never even noticed what color my bag was, what brand it was is door ki baat. so basically im complaining about a bag with no tag and no idea about the color jsut that its huge. i cannot believe my dumbness sometimes. finally we did find it, coz we usually tag our bag with our standard blue plastic bag. which even then, i wasnt sure if i had that identification on my bag.
to be continued...
P.S i started this post two days ago. today is eid and wishing everyone who has stumbled over this blog/ read this blog a beautiful eid. May this eid bring you loads of happiness and joy.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
kuch cheezein kitnei sach hotei hai. [ some things are so true]
mk: darasal hum dono ki dosti itni pakhi thi, kei humein koi aur sei dosti karni hi nahin padhibas hum dono hi kafi thei
ani: mujhei maloom hai
mk: sarei gham sarei khushiyaan hum dono saath saath sahei. ajeeb bat hai yei kei jabhum saath hotei toh ek dusrei ki maujoodi ka ehsaas hi nahin hota, aur jab alag hoja tei todi deir kei liyei bhi. toh aisa lagta kei sarei duniya mein akelei hogaye.
mk: the thing is we were such good friends, that we didnt need any other friends
ani: i know
mk: all the happiness and sorrows we used to share. and the strange thing was that whenever we were together we never realized each others presence (or rather significance).
and if only for a small time we were apart, it would be like we were completely alone in the whole world.
- Tanhaiyaan (Haseena Moin)
mk talking about her sister zara. me and my sisters used to be like this. but then they went off and got married! =)
zara: mohabat hamari zindagi ki sabsei baree zaroorat toh nahin hai, kei iska zikar har kitaab ya phir har kahani mein ho. mujhei aisa lagta hai duniya kei tamam logh is saazish mein lage rehtai hai, ya kisi na kisi tara apnei aap ko yakeen dila dei tei hai, keh aglei mor pei kissi shandar see cheez karhi hai jissei woh bas thodi si mehnat kei baad haasil kar sakte hai
s:yei ghaliban shakespear nei kaha tha
zara: main bhi pehlai bahut jazbaati hoti thi,phoolon ki, baarish ki, aur titliyon ki baatein karti thi. lekin mujhei ab pata chala zindagi bas tabthi dhoop ka naam hai. aur baki sab ek khwab..
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
i said i wont, but i lied.
coming to u live from the undergrad library.
wats more embarassing?
a. snoring in the library and waking up to see pple are staring at u. some even smirking and pointing.
b. singing loudly cheesy songs in the library bathroom only to discover after a whole five mins there is another person in the bathroom.
c. talking on the phone in the bathroom. and then someone yelling from another bathroom, shutup im trying to concentrate.
only one of the above has happened to me.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
two days and more.
so in case of the situation where they dont let me start early and i end up being @home for many months. many of my friends think im the luckiest person on earth to have such a huge break. i get so many of the its-the-last-time-u-will-have-such-a-long-holiday-u-wont-get-any-leave-when-ure-working. blah blah blah. i dont know why pple keep saying that to me. its just freaking me out. well for one, i could go back and do my phd (yea rite) ok thats the last resort and im not even thinking about it unless they pay me and beg me to go back and do it. which will never happen unless i develop another brain or something. well two, i could quit my job. khuda na khasta. pls god dont make that happen. but im just saying. it could happen. i could become this famous script writer for some desi movie and write and direct and i could take 6 months off and go scouting for some location for my movie. overeactive imagination. i could also decide to have my own cafe and ditch the job. ok that comes in the category of quitting my job. on brighter thoughts, i could become the MD of the bank and work from home or like pretend im working in the overseas office and actually be holidaying in the bahamas or something or wherever MD's (managing director) holiday. who knows.
so i really dont want to take a long break between school and work unless im using that time to do the cliched backpacking around the world (which i have no funds for-but i guess i can start the poor-graduate-student-backpacking-fund) i have no idea how i can get money for this. that is such a selfish motive, why would anyone pay. and besides i think my mom would flip. her reaction to me when i wanted to go study abroad for the summer semester in undergrad( abroad in terms of spain). "why do u want to go abroad from abroad". the first abroad being the US. and then again this backpacking thing is very romanticisized (sp!) thanks to movies, its not all hunky dory and if it is then ure not really doing the backpacking the correct way. u arent supposed to stay in good hotels and eat in good restaurants. ure supposed to be living the simple life. sorry im quoting from a stupid reality show.
neway, so now my alternatives is to get back the teaching job. which is a really out there idea. coz its highly unlikely they would hire me for 4 months. unless i pay them to hire me. who knows then they might. but then who knows they might not. unless they didnt have to pay me. then again i found the uni very cliquey and the students kept smirking at me. its weird being called maam by pple who are even older tahn u. neway if thats the case id rather work in the psychiatry department of some hospital. im not sure if ill be able to volunteer. i will need to pull major strings to even ask for a volunteering job. too many medical students doing the rounds and plus im not even doing anything related to medicine. but then agian i can say maybe i want to. but thats opening a whole can of worms and its enough to make my family beserk. if not that, then the radio station. i dont even mind doing the midnite shows when only the broken hearted or those who are studying are listening to the radio. and plus id be less self concious coz hardly anyone would be listening. but that again is really tough to get into in dubai coz its popular and eveyrone wants to be the rj and get free tickets to every movie premiere. competiion is so tough sometimes. or i can do the most unexciting and the most likely to come true. i can go back to my old job and be asked a gazillion times when im either moving back to dxb or when im getting married or when im going to become their boss. haaha, i wish. seriously pple have this fear that ill come back and take over their position. chillax, dudes. or maybe they are humoring me and are like going u wish. i have few friends at work place so it cant be that bad but i really dont want to end up working till 8 every day and on my weekends too. on technically the months, where im supposed to be on "holiday"
damn. why is it so hard to make decisions.
P.S on a totally tangent topic, the new ben stiller movie about statues and paintings coming alive in the museum when its nite is one of my must-sees. when i was a kid i used to imagine that this happened. i used to even think that perhaps even all our stuffed animals and my sisters dolls came alive when we were in the deepest slumber of sleep. then i grew up and id ont think that anymore. (hmm) haha i dont. but i was so excited to see that someone thought like me and made a movie of it. wot, can i say great minds think alike. now that ive said that im so sure the movie is going to stink and will flop bigtime.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
todays senti scene of the day.
dil chahta hai ( the heart desires)
sid: Kyun chahti ho tum akash ko itna? [ why do u like akash so much?]
deepa: pata nahin, bas chahti hoon. [ i dont know just do]
sid: deepa, tum bahut achi larki ho. [ deepa ure a really nice girl]
deepa: (angrily) if mein itni achi larki hoon, toh phir mujhei akash kyun nahin pasand karta!
[if im so nice, then why does akash not like me]
sid: yei reit dekh rahi ho, isko jitna bhi koshish karo pakadnei kei liyei wutni hi jaldi haath sei pisal thi hai.
[u see this sand, (holding sand in his palm), the tighter u try to hold it, the faster it slips away from ure hand]
(ok this is majorly paraphrased and the hindi is so much better in the movie)
i love this movie. and this is one of my favorite scenes in this movie. the others are too long to write/type.
- Dialogue from DCH (Farhan akhtar)
why do i always end up in a situation that leads to sticking my foot in my mouth. baaahhhh.
Read more...Friday, December 15, 2006
the forgotten ones
im one of those pple who usually do their supermarket shopping usually under some timeline/deadline/curfew. max an hour. and i usually make a list of what all i need and should buy. and then theres the list of stuff i dont need and shouldnt buy. but which i still end up buying. chocolate cake/icecream etc all come into this category. neway, usually im in my own world and dont even look around who is in my surroundings.
today at the check out counter, i saw this elderly lady struggling with her purchases and managed to stand behind me in the line. I asked her if she wanted to go ahead in front of me. when the guy in front of me was like the check out lady has said that he would be the last one before she goes off duty. WTH.
i so wanted to punch him. the elderly lady looked at me and was like im 91 years old and im doing my shopping alone. i felt so bad at that moment. wat kind of life is this where u reject the elderly and leave them to fend on their own. wat kind of life is this where simple things are a struggle to do and u become so dependant on someone else. but then there is no someone else coz no one cares. i felt so sad and was like if u wait five mins i can help drop ure stuff home. she said thanks and i quickly went to another line and got my stuff scanned and quickly paid and when i came back she was gone. i looked outside as well around the area but i couldnt find her. i hope someone helped her.
allah kabhi kissi ko mohtaji na dei.
badal ko salam
so i have two finals this coming week. and by finals i mean like take it home types. where u have considerable time to work on each. i really hate these kind of exams for one they are much harder, much much harder. and secondly the pain is not like pulling of a bandage, swift. its more like prolonging and constantly questioning whether ure doing the right thing or not. and thirdly they allow pple to talk together and compare answers, work together etc - althought its explicitly said its not allowed.. and honest to god it sucks. coz u might be doing ure own thing and obviously two brains in most cases is better than one. so u might end up getting a lower grade coz of the simple lack of ethics. and not only that. the class genius hands out his answers too and those guys who are paly n all with the class genius quite obviously get every single thing right.
baaaaaaaaaah. im so mad.
neway, moving on. after a long time i went out with one of my friends for dinner yest. and over the last semester we hardly talked coz of,i wouldnt say a misunderstanding but more like an event that downgraded him to a friend to being a sneaky person. we never really had any showdown as such but just stopped communicating just cordial hi and byes. i can never be that rude to ignore the person. besdies i wasnt that mad anyway. just zapped. but watever, ive forgotten that now and plus the nostalgic leaving school, may never see them again kind of thing is sort of sinking in and plus life is too short to hold grudges. sahi. and so we started talking again and i really dont have any major issues with him anymore. and sure everyone deserves a second chance. however, its very hard to trust the person like u did before. or be the same person that u were. equation changes. u are definetly still more guarded. no matter how much nicer they are to u. word of advice: never ever lie to ure friends, always be upfront and hopefully they will see ure sincerity in ure honesty.
badal ko salam
so i have two finals this coming week. and by finals i mean like take it home types. where u have considerable time to work on each. i really hate these kind of exams for one they are much harder, much much harder. and secondly the pain is not like pulling of a bandage, swift. its more like prolonging and constantly questioning whether ure doing the right thing or not. and thirdly they allow pple to talk together and compare answers, work together etc - althought its explicitly said its not allowed.. and honest to god it sucks. coz u might be doing ure own thing and obviously two brains in most cases is better than one. so u might end up getting a lower grade coz of the simple lack of ethics. and not only that. the class genius hands out his answers too and those guys who are paly n all with the class genius quite obviously get every single thing right.
baaaaaaaaaah. im so mad.
neway, moving on. after a long time i went out with one of my friends for dinner yest. and over the last semester we hardly talked coz of,i wouldnt say a misunderstanding but more like an event that downgraded him to a friend to being a sneaky person. we never really had any showdown as such but just stopped communicating just cordial hi and byes. i can never be that rude to ignore the person. besdies i wasnt that mad anyway. just zapped. but watever, ive forgotten that now and plus the nostalgic leaving school, may never see them again kind of thing is sort of sinking in and plus life is too short to hold grudges. sahi. and so we started talking again and i really dont have any major issues with him anymore. and sure everyone deserves a second chance. however, its very hard to trust the person like u did before. or be the same person that u were. equation changes. u are definetly still more guarded. no matter how much nicer they are to u. word of advice: never ever lie to ure friends, always be upfront and hopefully they will see ure sincerity in ure honesty.
the height of all heights.
not to mention the wannabiest of the wannabees. i miss my dubai.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
this holiday season..
so we went to watch the holiday despite having finals next week. there was a time when i wouldnt step out of the house coz i had finals in three weeks. wat a difference in attitude. haha. who cares. neway, latest on the travel agent update. once u send them the check thats it, it becomes main kaun tu kaun. seriously. im getting super attitude from the agent and hes on the point of yelling at me. and none of my damsel in distress act is working. damnit.
ok watever. neway back to the holiday.story is simple two single girls who exchange their houses one in UK and the other in US in order to attempt to get away from their lives in order to get over their heartbreaks. and in turn they find love instead. its kinda cheesy. and seriously jude law is wrongly cast. but hes too good looking with glasses. sorry, im sounding like a 16 year old. but cant help it. jack black is ok. cameron diaz is better. however kate winslet rocks. shes done a great job and is likeable as the bridget jonesque diary kinda figure.
and as usual its about the bad guy versus the good guy. and as always girls are too dumb and tend to fall in love with the bad guy. she sums it up pretty well in the movie when she describes this phenomena to jack black who is going through his own heart break. something on the lines of. so you like the bad guy, thinking u can change him, and no matter how bad he treats u try to persuade ureself that it might be something u ve done or uve not done and when he does one good thing u ve sort of convinced ureself. so basically in the constant pursuit of trying to prove ureslf rite u dont see the "light".
the movie though cheesy sometimes has its moments. and besides anything to deter from studying for derivatives. im seriously conteplating becoming a movie trailor director.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
the colors that we use and the strokes that we make define our picture to be made.
does anyone know why google has the "scream" painting image as their logo. im too lazy to google the significance. neway i finally bought my ticket. the ticket saga has officially ended. yay. not before i got another call from another travel agent who was giving me earlier dates (which i wanted ). and of course i was tempted like anyting. so ended up calling my travel agent and creating a on going trading scenaro of my own. 'so how much is he giving u, wait wait bibiji' but the sad part being. and as my decision making skills are soo poor. i was like great now i have to decide. finally i opted for the less shadier more reliable one, maybe a little more exp too. hopefully my ticket will come in two three days. if not, then i will be in deep deep trouble.
before leaving i have to take care of a whole list of tasks. first on the line is graduating, sorry second on the list is that, first is finishing my finals. third is to take care of paperwork/rent/visa issues. fourth is to find storage space. fifth an apt in nyc. pple who do read my sad blog and are from nyc or have some information on how to find an apt in one of the greatest city world, please do pass on ure wordly tips. sixth calling up my friend who is getting married in 12 days.
eeps, i wonder what she must be feeling now. my sister got married last year and it was chaos in my house and with the rishtadaars coming from all corners of the world, the house was like a big mela. poor girl had not time to herself, there was not a moment of peace or silence or even the two mins to be able to talk to her fiance. saddddd. probably the only moment of personal time is when ure in the bathroom but that too is interrupted with pple knocking to use the bathroom or not use the bathroom and just knocking randomly (hahaha im guilty of THAT) or other people who want their OWN personal space so that means having to intrude on someone else's personal space or like if the phool wala(decorator) or the ac wala ( the guy to fix the ac) has come and theres no one around (lets rephrase no one who is willing to do anything which involves moving a muscle ) is around so i believe it is quite stressful. finally she got so sick of all of us and kicked us all out (me, my family in its all entirety). her one argument and most valid one " im going to have dark circles under my eyes on my wedding. let me sleep and get out!!" thats enough to shut us all up.
that and then those hazaar issues with the tailor and the wedding dress and the thousand other dresses which you probably will wear once in ure lifetime. at times like these sucking up to the tailor is one of the better options. 'masterji hum bas aapkei paas hi atei hai, koi aur darzi pasand hi nahin' - (to the tailor-we only go to u, and we dont like any other tailor other than u).
This statement is usually after one has gone and given half their clothes to another tailor, whose shop is not even in another neighbourhood, but may be right next door.
there is no ethics left in the world.
(i wonder why desi pple call their tailors as master. its just so weird to me)
neway my mom has a pretty good alternative strategy. coz the above strategy is old. our tailors name is val-jee bhai. so subah sei (from morning) some relative is put on duty to check up on val-jee bhais daily sometimes 6 hourly progress. that way, women in my family have excellent delegation and managerial skills. hahaha. finally val-jee bhai will get so fed up of this constant questioning and will succumb and forget everyone elses clothes and do ours first. hehe. vot to do. desperate times call for desperate measures. and he will try his level best to not screw it up as often tailors are quite well known for. coz u know what that means, another relative put on duty to check out the alterations progress. hahaha. we suck.
well, anything that involves using the phone pple will happily oblige. things like going and talking to the hall decorator, the manager at the hotel, sorting out the menu. all these things which actually requirework will rest on the shoulders of a few. but i love ghar kei weddings, what do u mean ghar kei, well more like u know who is getting married and u are close to them. my cousin got married as well last year and it sucked coz i wasnt able to attend her wedding. damn school work. we practically grew up together and i still have tihs image of ours where we are like three or something and we are hiding under the side table. those were the days when two pple could fit under a side table. hahaa. neway we are sitting under that hiding and we both have this mischevious grin and i think my mom just captured that for posterity. dont know how she did that though. neway, so i missed out on her wedding and now im missing out on my friends wedding which i wont be able to go to. ive never been to a wedding in delhi and it sucks that i cant go coz of these stupid ticketing issues. and thats like a ghar ka wedding, coz she is one of my closee friends. i hate going to weddings where u dont know half the pple and ure randomnly smiling at everyone and no one in particular.
merai kyal sei weddings are supposed to be short n sweet and without much fanfare. invite not who u know, coz there are gazillion pple who u know but more like pple who u love and respect and who u know will be happy to share ure happiness.
ok i totally went of tangent with this post, this post was supposed to be on how relieved i am that finally things are wrapping up and a new chapter in my life will be starting, inshallah.
Monday, December 11, 2006
4 am conversations when my brain is shutting down(??) shld be documented
Ik says:
my landlady had a baby and sent me the pictures
Ik says:
dam she is being very nice
Ik says:
I want to re negotiate my rent with her
Ik says:
and she is being nice
Ik says:
dam
me says:
coz she showed u her kin
me says:
oooh i know
me says:
u can blackmail her that ull kidnap her baby
me says:
if she doesnt lower ure rent
Ik says:
OO god
Ik says:
u take it o a whole new level
me says:
always one to come up with new ideas
Ik says:
yah and then i can breast feed a one week old baby
Ik says:
I have a car also so it will be easy
me says:
hahaha
me says:
shutup
me says:
ok wait for few months
Ik says:
hehe
Ik says:
months only
Ik says:
not days
Ik says:
u sure
me says:
u can at least have some excuse for maternity leave
Ik says:
paternity u mean
Ik says:
i am str8
Ik says:
sent it to u [email with baby's pic]
me says:
are u giving me the babys supari
Ik says:
nope
Ik says:
am i mad
me says:
dude they are calling their child a product[on reading the email where they are calling their (landlord lady n hubby) a product.
Ik says:
to trust u
Ik says:
why
me says:
i can kidnap her and we can share the loot
me says:
90% to 10%
Ik says:
yeah since u are doing all the talking and me the action that is an even split
Ik says:
I take it u have finished ur HW for tomorrow
me says:
we can be lois and clark
me says:
no i have not
Ik says:
then it is too tough and u are frustrated
me says:
i take time out of my busy schedule to talk about stupid plans that can make me money
Ik says:
this is practice for the *some bank* interview
Ik says:
I get it
me says:
yes theyd be happy to know I’m in the baby kidnapping business
Ik says:
hehehe
Ik says:
they may have investors
Ik says:
u never know
Disclaimer: im just kidding before anyone sends me hate mail or something.
the trials and tribulations of buying an airline ticket in december
ok the above title has everything to do with my post. firstly, i dont know why everyone insists on traveling at the same time as ME. yea im a procrastinator. sorry Procastinator with a capital p. neway, its been quite a hassle getting a reasonable priced (read cheap ticket) back home. yea i can do it online rite. wrong. in the world of credit cards, those who dont have one are at a huge disadvantage. and forget using someone elses card, some airlines have these stupid restrictions that the credit card holder has to be one of the travelers. so if suppose i was a 15 year old who wanted to travel alone and obviously i dont have a credit card. i cant ever travel using that airline. thats just reducing ure clientele. and that is just bad business.
second rant: after i call up the airline to report this huge inconvenience, the rep tells me ok i can book it on the phone but oops wait let me check..oops oh the ticket is no longer there. and when i loook back at the website, surprise suprise its no longer there. one of my friends/bhai knows all these ecommerce tricks and im so irritated and having been duped many times by these airline websites. its all a hoax, they can track exactly what ure accessing and conveniently reduce the demand and push the price up. or remove the ticket altogether and make u all frantic and paranoid enough to buy the mroe expensive ticket that u see. sneaky psychology, if u ask me.
neway finally i decide to find a travel agent the point of last resort, and its always shaky to do that. an asian friend gave me her far east travel agent number. i called her she totally said flatly no im not a travel agent. then my friend immediately called her back, and they started conversing in chinese, the normal pleasantries hi how are you hows it going and all that. and then the lady goes so by the way are u looking for a ticket. this is my WTH moment. so my friend is like yea my friend wants a ticket back home and then she says oh we dont do that route coz all are clients are far east asian and its far too expensive for us as a travel agency. okaaaay, why did she have to lie about it. so weird. and waisei bhi acha hua u never know kahin aur na paunch jao.
so then i decided desi travel agent. but sometimes they have a reputation of giving dhagga/dhoka/ditching u. at least i remember a long ago incident of my friends. or else they think that ure related to them and they yell at u on the phone "arrei kyun pehlai book nahin kiya, ab kaisei milega! bibi ji kuch hai nahin! kya karei!"(why didnt u book it before, now how will we get it, there is nothing, what should i do!) and i mean really yelling.
talk about way too much apna pan jatana.
even my mom doesnt yell at me like this. hell no one yells at me like this. and then obviously i go into my bheegi billi mode and im like haan ji haan ji.sahi hai sir jee. (andar sei im like fool just give me the ticket! ticket aajaye phir dekhna) . ok yea im all talk. im a bheegi billi. period.
i just hope i can find something soon. cant waitttttt to go home!
now i trace back my path and i fear its clearer to me than was
university campus the right is the school of drama and the left is the student center. and in the middle are two poor souls who dont know they have been photographed by urs truly
Sunday, December 10, 2006
andei ya phir tamatar
wat the hell is THAT!do u think they are having the same conversation?? i cannot believe how pathetically corny the movie vivah is. story is simple. a couple who gets engaged and then the movie is about their lives from engagement to shaadi/wedding. i should have figured by the name that it would be kinda overtly senti. but this corny and cheesy, i cant imagine. .coming from me this is a big deal. since i have a huge stamina for crap hindi movies. i have watched something like dil ka rishta (dont ask. dont even google it) thrice. But within 10 mins i was cringing with the overdose of sentiness and after half an hour i wanted to kill myself, the music director of this movie (seriously, mujhei haq hai) and the screenplay writer. highly sidey read overtly cloying type dialogue-giri. Aaaaaaaargh...
is it just me hallucinating or were the protagonists actually(actor-actress) whispering to each other throughout the whole movie. dude, who talks like that. kaun kambakth baat karta hai aisei. (hahaah, this movie is getting to me)
the height of wierdness. and in the age of internet and free nightime minutes, why would they sit and write letters (ok some will say its sweet yea yea ok .but this shouldnt be the only form of communication ). i cant believe pple are so organized to do that, takes me forever to send out two three pieces of mail monthly. this way,if it were me, i dont think we would progress beyond hello and goodbye.
let me put this in context. the guy tells her so i cant talk to u/ or write you letters for a whole month now that im going to japan. i seriously dont get this part of japan having no post office or wireless service providers. its called making an international call. Jeez. just shoot me already.
and i know i may be all cynical and paranoid and just nitpicking. watever. the scene where they talk for the first time, in the arranged marriage scenario type thing, he gives his blurb on his liking someone else, and im thinking finally there is some climax to this story, nope no such thing. he of course is the quintessential good guy who just likes the bad girl (the girl with the numerous boyfriends) from afar. wat crap. and in the first two minutes he tells her he has tried smoking and drinking, but doesnt do it anymore. pls pls. gimme a break. having heard many of these stories of "meet the guy". which i shall save for another day. i have never heard any story where the guy will say any of this in that time span. or girl for that matter. no gender bias.
nanei farishtei hai saab. (little angels)
watever. and the characters are all so one dimensional. either black or white. no one is like that. we are all gray. some more grayer than others. neway, some parts are still ok and the climax part where she(the main girl) saves her cousin and gets burnt in an accidental fire, but the guy still marries her even though she has 3rd degree burns.that is all good. i mean that. pple watch movies and a lot are somewhat consciously or subconsciously influenced by them. so movies that have a good moral to them still have my support no matter how much i cringe from inside. Read more...
Saturday, December 09, 2006
down with z-u-n-e
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Paatshalaa!
PZ: Relax ammi, im cool.
Hahaha. My mom is totally like this. Ok, i know that is random. Just missing home a bit and I was watching this movie and felt like posting it. Neway..
What a depressing day today. It took me, i kid you not, four hours to fix one program and i was missing a variable. 4 hours wasted just like that. Tauba. Had lunch with my advisor today and shes expecting inshallah a baby girl. Its quite scary pregnancy and all and surpisingly she says you get used to it and its one of most happiest phases of life a girl goes through. and that its supposedly a miracle to have something growing inside you. yes, i know all that. changes nothing. am still super scared. Read more...
Monday, December 04, 2006
graduating class of 2006: wear sunscreen
we had the grad dinner yest and it was a huge turnout. as usual we were really late, as much as id like to take credit for converting my non desi friends to indian standard time. i did not. and this time i was ready to go an hour and half before. and desis are badnaam for no reason . lol. but its a weekend and calling a cab is a huge problem here. no one picks up the damn phone. neway, thats not the point. we reached and we sat on our own table and not with any of the professors. theres pros and cons to this. pro is that you get to talk with your prof on a one on one level. two the conversation at the table can get quite dry. neway it was on top of mount washington and the restaurant was pretty classy, food sucked royallly. and my heart was all set on the dessert (will it be chocolate cake, will it be cheesecake, or will it be chocolate cheesecake) traders on our table were all ready to bet on the cheesecake. sadly there was neither. it was some sort of dessert plate. sort of like byte sized desserts. i know im sounding like a hog. but wat to do these are the highlights of the grad dinner. oh the other highlight was they gave us each a flash drive. isnt that so geekily cool! i dont own a flash drive and no matter how anyone else reacts to this i know my mom will be totally excited about this. i get the geeky genes from her.
then there was the professors speeches and some professors were really funny. one prof said we were so overworked and this course has been so tensing and high pressure ( i agree) and that when we graduate we will miss that challenge and wont know what to do with oursleves so in response to that hes going to post a weird exotic russian option to price. to allow us to cope with these withdrawals. that made me laugh. then we had this other professor who is like the smartest ever person i have met in my whole life . i cannot imagine how all these professors can think of these things. and this class has been the hardest class in my whole time here. but its also been my favourite as well. neway hes like the new james bond movie, casino royale, has a plot of buying puts( a put is a financial instrument where the bottom line is you make money when the stock price falls) on airline stocks and then making airplanes crash. then this is the funniest hes like if james bond is doing financial eng then we finally have arrived.
hahaah. good, hopefully fewer of my relatives will ask me ure studying WHAT? and will stop asking me why their credit card statements are charging them interest!
neway for a moment just a moment i felt a bit sad especially when the profs were giving heir speeches. especially this other prof who was like dont just cruise by but be someone in your field. i almost feel guilty when i hear this coz i often just cruise by and dont speak up and dont apply myself or ask questions and dont think too much out of the box. i had a great time here though and learning from each one of these prof was a priviledge, not only are they excellent at what they teach but they are awesome pple as well.
afterwards they asked if some students want to give a speech, so some brave souls volunteered and gave thanks to everyone and some even offered that if they can ever do anythign for any of us they would be happy to do so. i think that was kind of sweet.
neway then we had the picture session and a lot of pple thought i looked different all dressed up( i hope its good different). and then that was it. i feel somewhat graduated today.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Go pens!
ok, so everyone who hasnt ever been to a hockey game are totally missing out. this is ice hockey. it is brutal, exciting and fun all at the same time. today was one of the biggest games for the penguins (pitts team) and it was so much fun. the above picture is from my cell phone its very tiny and we were sitting really high up. but i took the picture neway coz i want to preserve all these memories. it was quite funny this incident in the cab when we were getting to the stadium. the cab driver was like u guys dont seem like hockey fans are you? OK im not sure what hockey fans look like but yea im pretty sure we dont fit the bill. so we are like no. then hes like let me guess you are building a robot that is supposed to play hockey and you need to do this for your project. okayyy one thanksss for letting us know that we look like geeks and secondly why would anyone build a robot that plays hockey. how totally useless. (ok this may actually be some phd types dissertation and they might be totally pissed at me for saying that. well too bad.) then hes like ok so its for your class, you are sociology majors and this is part of your project. haahah. ok now we look like the artsy . totally OK by me. hahaah. finally i felt bad for him he was all out of guesses and i told him the truth. it was funny though.
neway. i think part of the excitment of these games are huge crowds sitting together and cheering their team. who none of us(our group) knew or even had heard of before the game. it was quite a thrilling experience. and i never knew this game can be so violent. the players even punch each other and hit each other with their sticks. in fact after half time two of the players were punching each other and the referee was just watching. i was a bit shocked at that. but some pple say its just a ploy and this is the highlight of hockey as well. where the players are supposed to fight it out. seems a bit barbaric to me though. but other than that the excitement is very similar to soccer where youre trying to find the puck and ure going from one end to the other. its very fast paced and thats what enjoyable and even though im desi, i really have no love for cricket. i know its sad. i think its just a lazy game and its only fun when pakistan and india are playing. or only when my dad used to watch it and convince me to watch the last 10 overs. which used to take forever.or ig uess when rahul dravid was playing. haha. i till today believe i did see him in real at a hillstation near delhi, although many pple think its a figment of my imagination. woe to them. :P. neway i remember the last cricket game i saw was in my undergrad. we were in this really shady desi restaurant 50 of us packed in a studio size room like sardines at 3:00 in the morning. the things you do for your friends. =) . i also like the fact that they have these ads at the hockey game and then coz we were a huge group, our school got an honoroable mention on their huge TVs. woohoo. my 2 seconds of fame. haha. i also like the "couple focus". where they suddenly put the camera on couples and its a whole range young couples, mixed couples, really old couples. its quite sweet. neway now i can officially cross out the " going for a hockey game" from my list of things to do one day.
Friday, December 01, 2006
good morningggg dxb
i was reading yest about the taxi problem in dubai in gulf news. apparently it takes an average of 15 minutes to get a cab. this is the hail a cab scenario. not the call the helpline and wait kinds. i never knew that. i thought there were gazillion cabs in dubai especially when im driving. i drive pretty fast but still not fast enough for these dudes. and especially when i was a newbie on the dubai roads, the amount of time i got the get-out-of-my-way-look is too many to enumerate. i guess dubai is goign to be heading the new york way. where only cabs will be seen. and with their whole metro thing going into gear (at least i think so) it seems more and more likely. maybe thats their business strategy flood the market with a trillion cabs and force everyone to use the metro. suits me fine as long as it doesnt take me an hour and half to get from jumeirah to bur dubai. (a 15 minute drive)
in the trend of posting my fave dekko clips from youtube. heres another movie which i like and i really like their theme song. especially the bagpipes type tune thing.
salaam e-ishq (tribute to love)
salaam-e-ishq, o meri jaan zara kabool kar lo. o humsei pyar karnei ki zara si bhool kar do.
its too cheesy to even translate, but salman khan says it with such a straight face. wuski toh daat deni pareigi. hahaha.