halke halke rang chalke..jaanei ab kya honei ko hai
so this is going to be a really random post. like dory in finding nemo. some happy, some blah and some not so happy stories.
thumbs up event of the week:
during lunch with some friends someone said that on this small island called manhattan there are about 7000 restaurants and would approximately take you 10 years to visit every one of them .wow. last week, i had dessert at this really nice chocolate place called max brenner, there was a 45 minute wait line at 10 at nite! needless to say it was totally worth it. we ordered the chocolate fondue thing ( roast marshmallows/cut fruit on the fire and dip in diff kind of chocolate). but the embarassing thing was the fire kept rising, im not sure why it was doing that, finally we got really scared that we would burn the place up so we called the waitress who gave us the u-guys-are-so-stupid look and in one motion poured water on it. end of dessert.
moving on the namesake directed by mira nair is pretty good. its one of the first crossover movies that i acutally liked. tabu and irfan khan as the parents are great. kal penn is just ok. i suppose the story line is very similar to the lifestyle of a lot of the second generation desis living here. i just wish it had a better (read happier) ending.
blah events of the week:
traveling in grey hound.(bus service through diff states) my family is always so scared when i travel through greyhound. i guess to a certain extent its not that safe and it usually stinks (a lot). the bus is always 1/3 ful of students and then there is always one or two random desi uncle aunties on the bus. so its not thaaaat bad. and plus its affordable especially for pple like me who "live on the edge" (i.e late lateeefs). philly downtown where the grey hound hub is located is extremely dangerous, and ive heard stories of a few muggings et al. but since we always try and look at the silver lining, where else can you talk about financial matters and have a conversation about wireless service providers with a bum.
next blah event. the movie : ta ra rum pum pum. first of all the title is just neverending its like pronouncing icicicicici bank. so whoever thought they were being smart naming this movie, ive got news for them they were NOT.
ok bad comeback.
the songs suck. and are just random just liek many of the dialogues in the movie. dialogues that are supposed to be touching or serious, made us crack up like anything. there are so many loopholes in the movie its unbelievable, kids taking a shower in a fountain in central park, coz they HAVE to take a shower and theres no water in their bathroom. (can u imagine dogs swim in that fountain regularly...ewwww just ewwww) , making queens seem like a horrendous area to stay in. i dont think too many pple will be happy aobut this, especially considering its the population that stays in that area that will be watching this movie. and then there's NASCAR which is supposedly filled with desis. im so sure in reality this is totally the opposite. and who calls their kids champ and princess? even the queen doesnt call her grandsons prince! then theres a lot of namedropping in the movie, thanks to the sponsors, tiffanys, castro oil etc. anyway final verdict the movie is so random. overall its ok. some parts arent bad and i guess its better than the regular fare thats been out lately. the director's first movie salaam namaste was far better. for the silver lining now: it does have a kind of positive message i.e dont waste money. watch it if you have nothing better to do. and dont expect anything original too.
not so happy event of the week:
kmart(dept store) in union square is hugely overpriced and has really bad quality stuff. but since beggars cant really be choosers, i had to buy the essentials from there. its mostly all martha stewart stuff. (no comment watsoever)my next venue coming up: chinatown. lets see hwo that goes.
well neway while i was shopping this guy comes up to me, while im looking at the iron boards section and is like hey are you getting bored(board). i had my headphones on so didnt hear it the first time, he repeated his statement and was like "are u getting bored..board? get it? its a joke". i smiled my okay-and-ure-point-is-smile. and then he goes maam have u gotten this red ribbon. which is the aids awareness day ribbon worn sometime in december. so anyway i go no and then he goes "we hand these out so that pple can support pple like us who have aids".
now i know aids cannot spread through a conversation but i was shit scared. i know it stupid. im blaming it on Dubai/ the Gulf. most kids there are very protected. i remember once a drug addict had come to the clinic and my dad kicked us all kids out of the clinic so we wouldnt see how a drug addict looks like. needless to say, i still cant make out how one looks like.
anyway, so i know it was stupid for me to be scared, but i was. and i did take the ribbon he was giving out, but i didnt hold it for more than a second and i quickly gave the guy some cash so he would go away. after i did it, i felt really guilty. when you have something like advanced stage cancer that happens idiopathically and then on the other hand you have something like aids which i believe in most cases is caused coz of ones own behavior ( i dont mean small kids who are infected by the virus), i tend to judge the person and despite knowing about the misconceptions of aids i still think otherwise. and i know its not right. i know in both cases the person knows they are going to die soon. this slow death in itself is a big punishment. everyone knows one day they will die, but its worse when you know that its going to happen soon. and i think pple like me who judge the other make it even more worse. shouldnt be so small hearted.
so this is going to be a really random post. like dory in finding nemo. some happy, some blah and some not so happy stories.
thumbs up event of the week:
during lunch with some friends someone said that on this small island called manhattan there are about 7000 restaurants and would approximately take you 10 years to visit every one of them .wow. last week, i had dessert at this really nice chocolate place called max brenner, there was a 45 minute wait line at 10 at nite! needless to say it was totally worth it. we ordered the chocolate fondue thing ( roast marshmallows/cut fruit on the fire and dip in diff kind of chocolate). but the embarassing thing was the fire kept rising, im not sure why it was doing that, finally we got really scared that we would burn the place up so we called the waitress who gave us the u-guys-are-so-stupid look and in one motion poured water on it. end of dessert.
moving on the namesake directed by mira nair is pretty good. its one of the first crossover movies that i acutally liked. tabu and irfan khan as the parents are great. kal penn is just ok. i suppose the story line is very similar to the lifestyle of a lot of the second generation desis living here. i just wish it had a better (read happier) ending.
blah events of the week:
traveling in grey hound.(bus service through diff states) my family is always so scared when i travel through greyhound. i guess to a certain extent its not that safe and it usually stinks (a lot). the bus is always 1/3 ful of students and then there is always one or two random desi uncle aunties on the bus. so its not thaaaat bad. and plus its affordable especially for pple like me who "live on the edge" (i.e late lateeefs). philly downtown where the grey hound hub is located is extremely dangerous, and ive heard stories of a few muggings et al. but since we always try and look at the silver lining, where else can you talk about financial matters and have a conversation about wireless service providers with a bum.
next blah event. the movie : ta ra rum pum pum. first of all the title is just neverending its like pronouncing icicicicici bank. so whoever thought they were being smart naming this movie, ive got news for them they were NOT.
ok bad comeback.
the songs suck. and are just random just liek many of the dialogues in the movie. dialogues that are supposed to be touching or serious, made us crack up like anything. there are so many loopholes in the movie its unbelievable, kids taking a shower in a fountain in central park, coz they HAVE to take a shower and theres no water in their bathroom. (can u imagine dogs swim in that fountain regularly...ewwww just ewwww) , making queens seem like a horrendous area to stay in. i dont think too many pple will be happy aobut this, especially considering its the population that stays in that area that will be watching this movie. and then there's NASCAR which is supposedly filled with desis. im so sure in reality this is totally the opposite. and who calls their kids champ and princess? even the queen doesnt call her grandsons prince! then theres a lot of namedropping in the movie, thanks to the sponsors, tiffanys, castro oil etc. anyway final verdict the movie is so random. overall its ok. some parts arent bad and i guess its better than the regular fare thats been out lately. the director's first movie salaam namaste was far better. for the silver lining now: it does have a kind of positive message i.e dont waste money. watch it if you have nothing better to do. and dont expect anything original too.
not so happy event of the week:
kmart(dept store) in union square is hugely overpriced and has really bad quality stuff. but since beggars cant really be choosers, i had to buy the essentials from there. its mostly all martha stewart stuff. (no comment watsoever)my next venue coming up: chinatown. lets see hwo that goes.
well neway while i was shopping this guy comes up to me, while im looking at the iron boards section and is like hey are you getting bored(board). i had my headphones on so didnt hear it the first time, he repeated his statement and was like "are u getting bored..board? get it? its a joke". i smiled my okay-and-ure-point-is-smile. and then he goes maam have u gotten this red ribbon. which is the aids awareness day ribbon worn sometime in december. so anyway i go no and then he goes "we hand these out so that pple can support pple like us who have aids".
now i know aids cannot spread through a conversation but i was shit scared. i know it stupid. im blaming it on Dubai/ the Gulf. most kids there are very protected. i remember once a drug addict had come to the clinic and my dad kicked us all kids out of the clinic so we wouldnt see how a drug addict looks like. needless to say, i still cant make out how one looks like.
anyway, so i know it was stupid for me to be scared, but i was. and i did take the ribbon he was giving out, but i didnt hold it for more than a second and i quickly gave the guy some cash so he would go away. after i did it, i felt really guilty. when you have something like advanced stage cancer that happens idiopathically and then on the other hand you have something like aids which i believe in most cases is caused coz of ones own behavior ( i dont mean small kids who are infected by the virus), i tend to judge the person and despite knowing about the misconceptions of aids i still think otherwise. and i know its not right. i know in both cases the person knows they are going to die soon. this slow death in itself is a big punishment. everyone knows one day they will die, but its worse when you know that its going to happen soon. and i think pple like me who judge the other make it even more worse. shouldnt be so small hearted.
5 comments:
Its a nice 'random' post as you put it but I think the last paragraphs deserved to be a post in itself.
Its a paradox in itself! Can we be ruled by our biases and prejudices some of which we may not even realize.
As I once wrote in an article
"
The journey of cultures is to realize that how we judge something is all predetermined by our upbringing, our culture. The culture affects us in subtle ways that we hardly ever realize. Right and wrong, moral and immoral the way we decide the position of acts lying on the line its all decide by our culture but what is acceptable in one culture may be a banal act in another culture. That in a way is the most difficult thing to accept for an essential belief is what is wrong is wrong. Can a wrong also be a right?
"
So to accept a person for what he is is important. AIDS spreads through multiple avenues like unsafe blood transfusion,etc and many times the person may not even be aware of the risk he/she is exposing himself to. In fact watch a movie called "Philadelphia". Its a lovely movie and it explores our fears deeply. I simply love it. Moves me to tears.
To judge someone is wrong. I think you should have held on to the ribbon. I would or at least I hope I would have the courage to do so.
Since I feel strongly for the issue I could write on and on but I will give it a break.
Next time accept a person for who and what they are whether the person is an AIDS sufferer , a cripple or even gay.
I say it with conviction because I accepted a friend for what he was. But that is a private tale in itself.
ashraf: "Can a wrong also be a right?" i agree the definition of wrong that we are programmed with since childhood needs to be changed. i mean we as in me :). i know its wrong for me to be biased, but i also acknowledge that its wrong and i feel the guilt.
its different if its a friend. i am tempted to say its easier coz they are your friend, and you already know and accept them. you cant just turn your back on them. but then i dont know about that either. does the fear get replaced with pity?
i tend to write very honestly on my blog, and hope to learn from my mistakes. i really hope ive not offended u or anyone else.
There are very( I would even say none)things wrong in the absolute sense. Somewhere they may be the norm. Even gruesome acts are in some societies acceptable.
However first of all please dont take my comment the wrong way. It was never meant to be as strong as it came out. I apologize for being too critical. Hope there are no hard feelings.
Blogs are a means of expression. And the freedom of speech is sacred. It should be respected and guarded.
I adore your blog. Keep at it!
I know you feel the guilt but the question what would you do next time something similar happens?? Thats the most important part.
Fears are never vanquished. If one has no fear then only one can accept a person. Because fear fills us with disgust and we are always repulsed. My fried is not afflicted, he is just not straight. The Quran does not accept deviant behaviour, my upbringing does not too but if I dont accept him in this rapidly changing world then its wrong on my part.
There is no pity , only concern and of course the warning "Hope you know I am attracted exclusively to girls"
ashraf im not offended at all!! its really nice that you take time out to comment on my posts and tell me when im wrong, i appreciate it!
and what would i do if this happened again? i really dont know, i guess it just depends on the person. i guess the fact that the person was very unkempt and smelled added to the whole pls-dont-touch-me kind of attitude. i hope i behave much better next time. i do believe though over time fears evaporate, thats when knowledge kicks in and sticks too.
Typo errors in my last comment
(a) few missing after very in line 1
(b) fried is actually friend
Moving on thank God I did not offend ou. When I read your earlier reply I was afraid you would go around citing me as an example of aggressive behaviour against bloggers on the net. Similar cases have been in the news recently. :)
Anyway fears evaporating. Thats a new idea. Will have to think over it before I can give an opinion.
Guess we will just have to wait for the next time to know what will happen
Post a Comment