April 2010
11:21 pm // Things which pissed me off during last 48 hours
I had the most awkward listening time with a British-Pakistani guy yesterday who tortured my ears for literally over 20 minutes telling me brutal and horrid stories of his family in some remote village in Pakistan! He told me how one of his brother has committed dozens of murders and how his family prefer “annihilating” the complete families of their enemies rather than just settling the score with the single person guilty for it. Worst part was that he was laughing this crazy psychotic laughter with every disgusting line he would utter!
Worst part is that I could easily tell how he is exaggerating stuff and yet I decided not to say nothing to him, I kept on sipping my cup of tea and kept looking at him. Then I just got up and told him that I know more horrible people but they even have some sense of decency. I hate how much I have changed over the last two years, because if it was someone wasting my time or brain-power like this I would have really given them a shut-up call and would have told them what a piece of crap they are! I feel like a hypocrite even right now…
Second thing which pissed me off yesterday was a chat with a Pakistani guy who has been living here in Glasgow for over 25 years. I bought a jar of jalapeños and some mushrooms - and while at the check-out counter we have this small exchange:
Him: oh! you have tried them before?
Me: Yes, I have.
Him: You must be finding it difficult to adjust to these European things
Me: Hmmm…I don’t think so!
Him: Really have you tried them before?
Me: Yes I have.
Him: In Pakistan?
Me: Yes!
Him: Pakistan?
Me: YES! PAKISTAN! We have them there!
Him: You have them in Pakistan?
Me: Okay I am in a little hurry now. Allah Hafiz
Seriously, my interaction with local desi community is really pissing me off. I think I was better off without being in touch with majority of them. They really annoy me with their way of thinking, their approach to thing and even their messed up styling sense! It is like when I am around most of them they are like a relic stuck in 1800s of Pakistan!
A wide majority of them are the worst export Pakistan could ever make to the world and if I ever get to become a figure of importance in Pakistan (for some weird reason) I will make it necessary for every Pakistani leaving country to go through a common-sense-test! They really happen to be the worst representation Pakistan could ever get. If you have formed an opinion about Pakistanis based on your interaction with any NRP (Non-Resident Pakistani) I beg you to please reconsider that all. I have just never heard more negative stereotyping about Pakistan from anyone Westerner even if they are dead drunk than a sober expat Pakistani!
I also hate it when people send me these conspiracy theory emails. If the conspiracy theory is so outrageous that it has even deeply offended my non-sense part of the brain I just end up replying with a long description of how the whole hypothesis is factually flawed. Or yes if the conspiracy email has originated from a family member or a good friend then it also becomes my automatic moral obligation to let them know what they have done. The one I got yesterday was from a cousin which told me why not to buy products which start from specific barcode number or not to eat Hall’s Soothers and Cadbury because they are from Denmark and apparently they are making some weirdo Islamophobic film. For God’s sake Hall’s and Cadbury are British and no you cannot tell the country of origin from the barcode!
And yes finally towards the top of the list is this another desi dude I took some Engineering courses with at University. I met him yesterday after quite sometime and he told me that he is getting himself into a Phd program at University. I just wanted to know if he got any tip on how to secure a Phd placement (I really don’t want to pay even a single penny for my Phd at least!). To which he became so secretive that I literally had to tell him that “hey listen, there is no way I can steal your place - I am not even considering a Phd in optics, I am definitely going towards a management Phd”.
Okay perhaps I am just having a ‘little intolerance phase’. *take a deep breath and get some peppermints*
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p.s. I do not have the brains at the moment to proofread this long rambling!
Real Love
Delorean
Delorean - Real love (via wingspan)
Port Of Amsterdam
David Bowie
David Bowie - Port Of Amsterdam (via brouillon, onesongbyday)
9:59 am // Visa confusions and perhaps it is time...
I have a 30 day visit visa to Dubai and I will be hopefully driving from Dubai into Saudi Arabia and then back within the first 7 days. Now according to my travel agent in Glasgow I won’t have any trouble getting back into Dubai via road, but as per my friend in Dubai I cannot do that since my visa will only allow me single entry.
Should call UAE embassy and clear this thing with them.
Also I went to sleep around 6pm and I just woke up! Literally have wasted a whole day!
And on a totally unrelated note, I have a feeling that it is really time that I should pause for a while and take the next big leap in life.
Play
Play
12:59 am // Weird interviews and becoming an Organ Donor
Okay so earlier today I got interviewed by a total stranger. This pleasant and fairly old lady came up to me today and asked me what do I do? I told her that. Then she asked me more about my present studies, my undergraduate studies and what do I intend to do in future. I sort of reluctantly replied to that (out of respect for her being an elder). Then she told me that her niece also went to the same University for the undergrad and apparently graduated the same year as mine (I tried my best to look positively surprised though I couldn’t actually remember her). Finally she left wishing me good luck.
Anyway, I have always proudly registered my desire to be an organ donor wherever I can and tonight I came across another one. NHS Scotland lets you register as an Organ Donor, here. I am a practising Muslim and it does not conflict at all with my religious convictions and if anyone of you reading this is not yet registered in their national (or however it is in your country) database just because you find religion to be a hindrance in doing so - I welcome you to get in touch with me via disqus on this post and I will love to answer any question about it.
Becoming an organ donor in Scotland becomes even more important because of such a low number of ethnic Asians/Middle Easterners registered on it. Just imagine if that is you or worse a loved one tomorrow who needs an organ and you/they cannot find it just because people from your ethnic background were not that much into being on the national register?
If you still have any doubts I recommend you look at this wonderful FAQ on Organ Donation, here.
Sahara Lab De (Feat J.Hind)
Bohemia
Bohemia - Sahara Lab De (Album: Da Rap Star / 2009)
Seriously don’t ask me for translation from Punjabi!
Bohemia is an American-Pakistani Punjabi artist widely credited for pioneering Desi Hip-hop and Rap scene.
First We Take Manhattan
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhattan (Album: I’m Your Man / 1988)
First we take Manhattan,
Then we take Berlin!
80s were cool!
11:14 pm // Question for tonight!
I personally believe we can fall in love more than once, but I do wonder if we can fall in love every time? What do you think?
Better than Me
Hinder
Hinder - Better than me (Album: Extreme Behaviour / 2005)
11:16 pm // I am accepting donations!
Yes, I am accepting donations in shape of good case studies on Business Strategy (Manufacturing/Quality or Operational, both will do). If you get me the good stuff I might just make you my super-secret-extremely-tasty-because-I-believe-so wraps!
I guess time to go home now - am pretty sleepy and if I stay any longer at Uni Library, I will not be able to safely drive myself back home.
And for tonight my music recommendation is Yndi Halda’s “illuminate my heart, my darling”.
Soldiers in "WikiLeaks" Unit Apologize for Violence →
truthout.org
We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. Josh Stieber was in the same company but was not there that day, though he contributed to the your pain, and the pain of your community on many other occasions.
There is no bringing back all that was lost. What we seek is to learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to tell others of our experiences and how the people of the United States need to realize what we have done and are doing to you and the people of your country. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused.
We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region.
We acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones as we tell Americans what we were trained to do and what we carried out in the name of “god and country”. The soldier in the video said that your husband shouldn’t have brought your children to battle, but we are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. We did unto you what we would not want done to us.
More and more Americans are taking responsibility for what was done in our name. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny.
Our government may ignore you, concerned more with its public image. It has also ignored many veterans who have returned physically injured or mentally troubled by what they saw and did in your country. But the time is long overdue that we say that the values of our nation’s leaders no longer represent us. Our secretary of defense may say the U.S. won’t lose its reputation over this, but we stand and say that our reputation’s importance pales in comparison to our common humanity.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
—Arthur C. Clarke
2:19 am // checklist
- Submit revised Project Proposal to my advisor who apparently isn’t exactly fond of me (yup I am not an expert at face reading but I am not that dumb either). [done]
- Submit project proposal to a client. [delayed till tomorrow]
- Send pictures I took on BBQ to friends. [gonna do that now without fixing them in LR]
- Sleep [deferred for another 20 mins]
- COL! - Curse Out Loud! []
11:45 pm // if days were a wee-bit longer!
Honestly I wish days were longer than 24 hours!
North
Phoenix
Phoenix - North (via newfilosofee, givegrace)
A Firsthand Look at Firefights in Marja →
atwar.blogs.nytimes.com
A definite must see! NY Times video blog entry shows US marines against a pretty good Taliban sniper - and shows exactly how few inches mean a lot.
Play
Play
Play
12:09 am // sorry for not being there
Just heard some very disturbing news…I just wish I was there. Sorry!
But I guess this is all we will have now, regrets for not being there.
10:52 pm // Icelandic ash, Middle East trip...
Thanks to Hana now I know why my car had a layer of dust on it. I really wanted to visit Iceland this summer but couldn’t because of other places to visit a little higher on my priority list. But it seems Icelandic-volcanic-ashes have decided to come visit.
Even today many of the European countries have their airspace locked down since the rock and other minerals in the ash can clog the engine and cause it to stall (true story!). And since it is not windy as such these days this dust is moving pretty slow.
But yes, you cannot exactly see a dust cloud as such. We these days are having pretty nice sunny days out here in Glasgow and hope it remains so because got a BBQ on this Sunday.
Also yesterday I got my ticket to Dubai and Pakistan. Will be travelling to Dubai-Saudi Arabia-Pakistan and then back to Scotland in June. I had an option to fly into Saudi Arabia but after talk with a very good friend in Dubai have decided to drive from Dubai to Saudi Arabia and back. So yes practically we will be driving through the centre of Saudi Arabia for over a day (one way) and then back after performing Umrah. Only upsetting part is that I will be spending less than 15 days with my family in Pakistan since I have to get back to Glasgow for meeting with my dissertation advisor.
This also means that I cannot go on with my Scandinavian trip right now because my passport is still stuck with UAE embassy and will be then stuck with Saudi embassy for a while (will write something about Saudis very soon!). But really hope to make that trip before August this year.
And yes interestingly I have been advised by people not to travel right after I come back from “Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan” because this is apparently a route which can easily get me “flagged”! And this is when I have not told them that I have just turned down an offer to visit Afghanistan and then India on the same trip!
Anyway I honestly hate this one aspect of borders as we see them today.
Other than that I just ordered a camera grip for my Canon. I realized that I need extra battery and a better grip on my camera - so this baby comes with ability to add two more batteries and if they run out I can just use normal AA batteries. And yes, while placing that order I fought with the “urge” to finally get the Sony PSP-3000. I literally added it twice to the basket and then removed it while using the excuse that they (Amazon UK) are out of stock on the Black colour!
Sos
Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys - SOS (via mirza)
Listen
Sohail Najmi - Halka Halka (album: OST Botal Gali / 2006)
Botal Gali (trans. Street of Bottles) is a Pakistani independent film by Shahzad Nawaz (maker of Daira) which tells a very interesting fictional story about an actual street in Karachi called Botal Gali (there is another similar one in Lahore even). This street is filled with used liquor bottles of all shapes, sizes and brands. You will find the cheapest unknown brand to the rarest world-famous one. And the whole film revolves around the question; if Pakistan is a Muslim country and alcohol is banned, where all these empty bottles come from?
In this particular OST, there is one line which I find really very thought provoking. It translates roughly as, “Allah the most merciful, on the day of Judgement what will you give me? On one fault of Adam you punished him by giving him the World; but here I am with a lot of faults, what will you not give me?”.
Russia's Encounter With Islam - The Wall Street Journal →
online.wsj.com
In the 19th century the Russian empire was home to some of the most progressive Muslim thinkers in the world. Then Lenin arrived.
In the 19th century, the Russian empire was home to Islamic modernist movements that were the most progressive in the world. But in 1918 the Bolsheviks came to power fearing competition from any force challenging their drive to build a new Russian empire on the ashes of the one they had just destroyed. In virtually every Muslim region of this vast territory Muslim nationalists—many of whom were professed Bolsheviks—sought to escape Russia’s grasp on the basis of the Bolsheviks’ own insistence that all nations of the empire had a right to self-determination.
Lenin quickly disabused them of this idea through one of his many feats of ideological gymnastics. Self-determination is indeed a right, he argued, but because it would stand as a barrier to the unity of the working class it was in reality a counterrevolutionary act. By 1928 Lenin, then Stalin, had liquidated virtually the entirety of Russia’s illustrious Muslim intelligentsia. For the duration of Soviet rule successive Soviet rulers sought to eradicate Islam, though there was a tame official Islamic establishment deftly used to court foreign Muslim states.
The Soviets’ anti-Muslim strategy failed, but its unintended consequences are now obvious. The Chechen struggle for independence was a manifestation of anti-colonialism which in its beginning had very little to do with Islam. Chechens were not fanatic Muslims. Historically speaking, they were late converts to Sufi Islam, less fanatic than most of the other branches of the faith. They maintained—and continue to maintain—that they were victims of colonial conquest and entitled, like the Georgians, the Uzbeks and the Azerbaijanis who had “union republics,” to become automatically independent when the Soviet Union broke up.
