Vaqas

New Kindle

2012-01-12T22:41:00.001+05:00

Got new Kindle today. Nervous as heck.

Blindness

2012-01-10T19:19:00.000+05:00

To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable.

John Milton

Top 10 of 'Eleven

2012-01-02T16:01:00.000+05:00

S.J.

2011-12-22T00:51:00.001+05:00

I finished reading it yesterday. What a crazy person! What an incredible human being!

A Great Urdu Read

2011-11-30T01:19:00.001+05:00

"Muji Ki Rihai"

Breaking Bad

2011-11-15T15:16:00.001+05:00

I'm addicted.

How?

2011-10-21T13:17:00.001+05:00

Freedom

2011-10-14T14:03:00.002+05:00

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

Goethe

How I Killed a Kindle in Few Hours

2011-10-11T01:22:00.002+05:00

There is no doubt that Amazon Kindle is a great device. The eInk technology revolutionizes the whole book industry. It is a great experience for readers. How amazing it is to put thousands of books, magazines, and newspapers on it and have it everywhere you go and still keeping the feel of a printed book. Intrigued, I started looking for it here locally. You know whenever an iPhone, or an iPad or anything that matters, comes out and there we have it few days later. But a quick search ever after years of Kindle's release produced zero results. Guess maybe we are not crazy about book reading. That’s what nerds do anyway. So, for about couple of years, I waited for someone to come from US or UK to bring me a Kindle. Finally, an amazing miracle happened.

An old friend of mine, who went to London for studies, came Lahore to get married. I was thrilled to meet him after four years. We really couldn’t get time to catch up until a day after his marriage he drove all the way from Gujrat to meet me. And, and, he brings a Kindle for me. It was a huge thing for me. I kept admiring the beautiful device and how screen looked exactly like paper. I put all the books I always wanted to read on it. Sent some articles from web to read. Everything was working magical. But I was so tired after seeing him off that I really didn’t get a chance to read anything. Next day, I put some more books on it, charge it full so that I could bring it to bed for lazy Sunday afternoon reading. Now the real shit happens.

I put the Kindle on bed, went to drink some water and while keeping an eye on TV, I try to lie down on bed. Suddenly in the process, I hit something with my elbow and, fuck; I had just hit the Kindle's screen. At first, I couldn't believe what just had happened. I shook it, tried to reset it, looked at it helplessly while nothing happened. It was so sudden, unbelievable and dream like that I really thought it was a bad dream. I even fucking pinched myself. I was so depressed, embarrassed, and angry with myself at the same time. How you keep waiting for something anxiously for 2 years and when finally you have it and before you can even see it properly it's gone.

Take my word for it; it's a shitty feeling.

R.I.P Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T23:59:00.001+05:00

Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs

Building

2011-10-05T13:48:00.000+05:00

When I was about 9 years old and in 3rd class, I remember hating English, particularly the long words that were hard to pronounce and spell. The teacher was no help either. She was very, very strict. Since then in my mind the name Safia has become associated to a stern face, short stature, piercing shouts, and a lot of pain in my back. When she was caught and later expelled for reading Urdu story digest in classroom, everybody was ecstatic.

So, back to difficult English words. I distinctly remember struggling with the word Building. To my tiny little mind that was the hardest word that there could ever be, and was sure that nobody would have ever heard it in the whole district. It was so difficult to spell. I before U, or after? But why do we need U at all? There's a second I but where?
It was tricky and mysterious.

During one of those hot days came a huge storm. A lot of trees fell. Some houses were also damaged. It was the biggest storm I had ever seen. A huge old tree fell on the railway track and lay there for few days and no trains passed. Electricity was out for more than a week. One of the few trees that stood the calamity was our neem. Just a couple small branches fell off. I was very proud of it.

On a hot afternoon, when me and my grandmother lay under the neem, waiting for electricity to be back, grandmother started assessing the damages the storm would have done. "I am wondering how many houses would have collapsed, how many people left homeless or dead, how many electricity poles uprooted. God doesn't care" she said in Punjabi, the only language she knew. "I am thinking" she continued, "if these small houses were destroyed, what would have happened to such tall buildings in the city." All of it was said in Punjabi, except when she said "buildings." I was so shocked that my grandmother who had never been to a school knew the hardest word I could have imagined. I thought maybe she was well educated but living secretly.

Later when I told my father that grandmother knew the hardest English word, he laughed. And it formed a long running inside family joke that still, whenever told, makes everybody laugh.

Goodness/Reward

2011-09-21T23:37:00.002+05:00

If goodness has a cause, it is no longer goodness; if it has consequences, a reward, it is not goodness, either.

Leo Tolstoy

Heavenella

2011-08-15T12:06:00.003+05:00

If there is a heaven, it would have rivers flowing of this stuff.

There There

2011-08-13T12:23:00.001+05:00

I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means — except by getting off his back.

Leo Tolstoy

To-read

2011-07-14T10:45:00.007+05:00

Booooooooooooooooooooks
If you have any of these books, or you have a friend who has these, or you have a colleague you really hate and you know where he puts these books, or you have seen someone purchase any of these books and you know where they live, or you have a maps where these might be buried, or you have been feeling guilty and now see a nice opportunity to give me a late wedding gift, or maybe a late birthday gift, or someone once called you philanthropist and you still have to prove that to yourself because you can't sleep at night, or your grandfather left some for you with a nicely written note but you can't read, or you hit an unlikely bump on road once and it turned out to be bundle of some of these books, or you went to rob a bank and instead of money they had some of these in the vault which you dejectedly took home, or you bought a crate of mangoes and instead of your favorite Chaunsa you got these books nicely packed with mango scent, or you were window shopping once and a thief came running trying to catch some breath and handed you some of these and ran away again, or, most likely of all, a meteorite fell in your backyard going 300 feet deep and after digging for a week you found a container which you opened and instead of seeing these books you found God's own credit card, then please contact me.

Terrific Liar

2011-06-28T14:04:00.000+05:00

I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible.

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

5 Years

2011-06-19T14:54:00.003+05:00

I was going through backup of my old blog and found this posted on June 19, 2006. I got out and went to that same spot and snapped one for today.

Oothaan Waale

2011-06-07T02:13:00.005+05:00

Growing up in rural Punjab I got to hear a lot of Attaullah Khan, albeit involuntarily. Tractors, trucks, public transport, but mostly tractors virtually came with cassette players that all their mechanical lives played only Attaullah Khan. And the quality of player and speakers was such that only god's throat Attaullah could be heard screaming from kilometers away with just a dead tin tin in background for music. Folks just loved Attaullah to blood and sweat. Especially my cousins in south Punjab, about whom my only childhood memory is the constant struggle to befriend them, were just crazy about him. Since I developed love for Pakistani Pop early on (Shahzad Roy/Haroon in fringe jackets anyone?), it was natural for me to despise local folk singers who were only played on trucks, buses and tractors.

But, then came this. Coke Studio turned a lot of folk tin tin into musical gold and recording genius. Yesterday morning when I checked above video I was somewhere between amazed and shocked. Given that I have religiously followed Coke Studio and listened each song several times, I believe Coke Studio might just have created the ultimate piece here with Attaullah Khan. Frankly, even though lot of people loved it, I found Arif Lohar's Jugni to be POS (Piece of Sh!t).

The above, my friends, is the greatest Coke Studio could ever achieve.

Happyness

2011-05-26T11:33:00.003+05:00

Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

That Weekend

2011-04-19T02:11:00.006+05:00

What an eventful couple of days!

Edit: Thanks to H and W for showing up.

Life & Stuff

2011-03-15T02:29:00.001+05:00

Coffee aur Cup

Ticking The Other Checkbox

2011-03-07T13:00:00.002+05:00

I'm getting married on Friday, April 8.

Desi Snow

2011-02-28T12:45:00.001+05:00

This is how bus stop of our office building looked like on Saturday afternoon.

Few Moments

2011-02-23T16:10:00.002+05:00

Sometimes while reading you come across a sentence or passage that stucks in your mind for a long time after. Following is part of Prince Mushkin's first discussion with Epanchins from Dostoyevsky's The Idiot which I absolutely love.

"As to life in a prison, of course there may be two opinions," said the prince. "I once heard the story of a man who lived twelve years in a prison--I heard it from the man himself. He was one of the persons under treatment with my professor; he had fits, and attacks of melancholy, then he would weep, and once he tried to commit suicide. HIS life in prison was sad enough; his only acquaintances were spiders and a tree that grew outside his grating-but I think I had better tell you of another man I met last year. There was a very strange feature in this case, strange because of its extremely rare occurrence. This man had once been brought to the scaffold in company with several others, and had had the sentence of death by shooting passed upon him for some political crime. Twenty minutes later he had been reprieved and some other punishment substituted; but the interval between the two sentences, twenty minutes, or at least a quarter of an hour, had been passed in the certainty that within a few minutes he must die. I was very anxious to hear him speak of his impressions during that dreadful time, and I several times inquired of him as to what he thought and felt. He remembered everything with the most accurate and extraordinary distinctness, and declared that he would never forget a single iota of the experience. "About twenty paces from the scaffold, where he had stood to hear the sentence, were three posts, fixed in the ground, to which to fasten the criminals (of whom there were several). The first
three criminals were taken to the posts, dressed in long white tunics, with white caps drawn over their faces, so that they could not see the rifles pointed at them. Then a group of soldiers took their stand opposite to each post. My friend was the eighth on the list, and therefore he would have been among the third lot to go up. A priest went about among them with a cross: and there was about five minutes of time left for him to live.

"He said that those five minutes seemed to him to be a most interminable period, an enormous wealth of time; he seemed to be living, in these minutes, so many lives that there was no need as yet to think of that last moment, so that he made several arrangements, dividing up the time into portions--one for saying farewell to his companions, two minutes for that; then a couple more for thinking over his own life and career and all about himself; and another minute for a last look around. He remembered having divided his time like this quite well. While saying good- bye to his friends he recollected asking one of them some very usual everyday question, and being much interested in the answer. Then having bade farewell, he embarked upon those two minutes which he had allotted to looking into himself; he knew beforehand what he was going to think about. He wished to put it to himself as quickly and clearly as possible, that here was he, a living, thinking man, and that in three minutes he would be nobody; or if somebody or something, then what and where? He thought he would decide this question once for all in these last three minutes. A little way off there stood a church, and its gilded spire glittered in the sun. He remembered staring stubbornly at this spire, and at the rays of light sparkling from it. He could not tear his eyes from these rays of light; he got the idea that these rays were his new nature, and that in three minutes he would become one of them, amalgamated somehow with them.

"The repugnance to what must ensue almost immediately, and the uncertainty, were dreadful, he said; but worst of all was the idea, 'What should I do if I were not to die now? What if I were to return to life again? What an eternity of days, and all mine! How I should grudge and count up every minute of it, so as to waste not a single instant!' He said that this thought weighed so upon him and became such a terrible burden upon his brain that he could not bear it, and wished they would shoot him quickly and have done with it."

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

2011-02-11T01:40:00.002+05:00

How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Leo Tolstoy
I remember when I was a kid I watched a drama on PTV based on this story. Towards the end it had background sound of a beating heart that became my nightmare for many years. I don't remember the name but I always wondered what it was. Just few days back I randomly stumbled upon this story and instantly found it familiar.

Loud

2011-02-03T15:55:00.003+05:00

Recently I randomly discovered a small bakery that makes some really awesome cookies. Nothing too extraordinary about them. In fact they lack some or have less amount of ingredients generally found in cookies from other bakeries. But I really love them. Sometimes I have to go through an hour of non-budging traffic to buy them. One day I offered them to a friend and after tasting his response was that they were "vapid". Similar thing had happened before when I took my roommate to my favorite restaurant specializing in authentic Italian pizza. His response after eating pizza was this: "Not enough spices." These got me thinking about our pattern of liking things. What I find is that we like in-your-face kind of stuff. Something that is exceedingly loud and earthquake alike. Below is my feeble attempt to identify them.

Social aspect: Folks with louder voices, huge houses and long cars have big impact on society and are looked upon as visionary leaders and saviors of everyone and society in general. Silent folks with humble opinions are ignored vehemently. Their voice is never given due attention to. Their opinion buried deepest in the pile of social noise. Just take a look at politicians, the loudest ones are the most successful. They don't even have to have an opinion of their own. They just have to throw huge amount of shit on the opponent to win. Loud and big-mouthed uncles and aunts are widely heard in our families. When we discuss something we talk loudly and overlap each other's chance to talk. Silence, which is just as necessary a part of discussion as talking, is never even considered of. And yes, we don't even rank an act a crime unless its a murder, even that at times.

Design: When we think of design we imagine this: An explosion of colors with lines and huge number of little ornaments flying here and there. And the topping of golden and silver, but shining, beads. So many and bright colors that eyes start to bleed. When I told my dad about a well designed poster I wanted to print he was excited. Later when I showed the actual print and he was like "What's 'designed' about it?" I got curious. I decided to show it to everyone in the immediate vicinity to get an opinion. To make long story short almost everyone wondered where that design was which I kept mentioning. Just like silence is to discussion, whitespace is to design. Look at our architecture, so many unnecessary and nonfunctional elements. Apparently we are in a war with the duo of minimalism and functionalism.

Food: All of our favorite dishes have two things in them: Meat and a truckload of spices. We like tastes that don't have to betasted. We like tastes that deliver themselves to us, in explosions. Then we rush for water and probably jugs of them at a time. We can't taste a silent taste. We can't feel something that's not generating explosions. We can't have a cake which is not 80% sugar. We like intense kicks in our taste buds instead of enjoying several small details. I am sure if we give someone who is accustomed to Desi food a foreign "vapid" dish, he is going to vomit that out.

Music: Speakers. Huge. A bomb in the air. Screams. Whole city dancing. Jazba Junoon. Shout. Louder. Louder. With so few instruments vocals overshadow small little intricacies of musical notes. Its like a throat is killing so many tiny little chirps. Sometimes I wonder why they have piano for music. I hardly ever noticed it in any song.

So, what that means? That means we like to be blown away by anything we see or hear. Everybody's facebook stream is full of that "must watch" stuff because that's how we get attention. We love books that take us to an intense instant gratification instead of those boring classics. I say, maybe its time to pay some attention to that weird guy mumbling something in the corner. Its time to see the worlds that have been around us all the time but we have been blinded by dazzling walls of noise.

The Problem

2011-02-01T18:15:00.000+05:00

Keep Calm and Carry On

2011-01-21T01:50:00.005+05:00

Recently I got this poster printed and later framed by a very talented young carpenter from my tinytown. This reminder on my wall helps when I am depressed because of something unachievable or something I can't change. Inspiring thing about these words is that just like everybody I have an ideal, but slightly different from the kind of ideals people usually have. My ideal is a person who doesn't give a fuck. Seriously. I love people who don't judge, analyze and throw their unwanted opinion in. I love folks who mind their own business, go about unnoticed and nothing can stir their non-existant rage. People who smoke invisible and never-ending weed. After all, as Nietzsche said that everything we do in our lives is meaningless. Things we worry about, things that consume us, things we struggle for, live for and die for are completely valueless. Imagine the things you have accomplished so far, have they made you a happier person? Would you have been suicidal-sad without them if you didn't know about them? You are an educated person, can read and write, living in a cubicle for an office and earning money in a year which many uneducated and poor folks wouldn't earn in decades. Are those people infinitely sadder than you? Or are you infinitely happier than them? All those awards on your shelf, what do they hold?

Everything is fucking worthless. Keep Calm and Carry On.

.

2011-01-18T12:13:00.002+05:00

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Top 10 of Twenty-10

2011-01-10T23:38:00.007+05:00

National Priorities

2011-01-07T15:15:00.000+05:00

In The Name Of...

2011-01-06T00:40:00.003+05:00

A friend of mine who knows I am inclined towards atheism has threatened to shoot me.
I don't know what to do.

Faith

2011-01-05T03:36:00.003+05:00

As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.

Voltaire

RIP Governor Taseer

HNY

2011-01-01T03:11:00.005+05:00

Stalingrad + Library

2010-12-26T22:51:00.010+05:00

Battle of Stalingrad has been turning point for Germany and WW-II in general. It is an incredible, incredible story of blinding passion, fear, deceit, suppression, and patriotism. They way Antony Beevor has told it makes it better than fiction and unputdownable. Books are for all seasons and you can read and enjoy them whenever you want, but this book is meant to be read in winter as cruel winter was one of many reasons Germany fell to Russia. While reading turn off the heat for a "better" experience. It will freeze your spine, both literally and metaphorically.

Mac has a great app called Delicious Library. It scans barcode of stuff (not just books) that you own through Mac's camera, finds info about them and adds to your collection. I have these books in my library. Books in first row are the ones which I have yet to read or reading (i.e. Stalingrad). Others are the ones that I have read. A lot of them either couldn't be recognized (e.g. The Fountainhead), returned wrong item (e.g. Anna Karenina) or didn't have barcodes altogether (e.g. Othello).

@H: I found that book buried deep in pile. Let me know if you still want me to return that ;-)

The Candy Lovers

2010-12-14T23:59:00.000+05:00

Being one of my acquaintances results in instant observation that how big a candy lover I am. I just love to eat sweets. You can send me to a deserted island with a promise of perpetual supply of candies and I will be just fine. This is a kind of love that is transferred through generations. Somehow, as it appears, that I am only one with this enormous responsibility to carry this love forward: None of the siblings particularly like candies so much. I had two ex-roommates who met me, at different times, after years and the first question they ask is if I still go out in middle of the night to buy candies. I just laughed and they understood.

The other day I went to a local shop to buy some sugary stuff. The shopkeeper was busy arranging some stock in back of the shop so I waited. The instant shopkeeper got free and came to the counter a cute little girl of about 3 walks in. Almost simultaneously, we both put our money on counter and demand a certain brand of candy, in unison. Two candy lovers in same shop: First one is the 27 year old tallest guy you would see in a week while the other one is the 3 year old cutest little girl. I looked at tiny little fellow almost embarrassingly. She looked at me indifferently. Both sharing same passion for candies.

The shopkeeper probably realized this and smiled a little. It would have made an impressive advert for Cadbury.

Not Top

2010-12-07T16:57:00.000+05:00

To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.

Robert M. Pirsig

Hello, I'm a Mac

2010-11-26T20:33:00.000+05:00

I bought an iMac today. Hope I would look cool now.

Practical People

2010-11-25T13:25:00.004+05:00

These days I am reading Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. Amazing as his other books. A passage for you...

We are constantly hearing complaints that there are no practical people in Russia; that there are plenty of politicians, plenty of generals, that any number of men of all sorts can be found at a moment’s notice, but that there are no practical men – at least, everyone is complaining of the lack of them. There are not even efficient railway servants, we hear, on some of the lines; it’s not even possible to get a steamship company decently managed. You hear of a railway collision or of a bridge that breaks under a train on a newly opened railway-line. Or you hear of a train’s wintering in a snowdrift: the journey should have lasted few hours and the train was snowed up for five days. One heard of hundreds of tons of goods lying rotting for two or three months at a time before they are dispatched. And I am told (though it is hardly credible) that a merchant’s clerk who persisted in worrying for the dispatch of his goods got a box on the ear from the superintendent, who justified this display of efficiency on this part on the ground that he lost his patience. There are so many government office that it staggers one to think of them; everyone has been in the service, is in the service, or intends to be in the service – so that one wonders, how with such an abundance of material, a decent board of management cannot be made up to run a railway or a line of steamers.

Sounds familiar, eh?

Lisa

2010-11-12T14:15:00.002+05:00

I am weird; I miss Lisa Simpson.

Five Books That Should Be Read in Schools

2010-11-10T17:53:00.005+05:00

Five Books That Should Be Read in Schools/Colleges
These are the five books which I believe can change lives. Not all of them spread the same idea, but they are made of stuff that opens minds.

Designing Design

2010-11-01T14:44:00.002+05:00

Finally I got to read Designing Design by Kenya Hara. In this book, Hara tells us about several projects he worked on and philosophies behind they ways he chose to design. He is Creative Director at MUJI, a Japanese brand for general household stuff. One of the interesting things I knew about MUJI before reading the book was that they don't put their brand name on their products. While starting with the intro to work at MUJI, he describes the aim behind MUJI in a paragraph that both inspires and gives chill to any person who knows what the general aim of every business is.

By the way, just what is the level to which MUJI products aspire, to what extent are our customers satisfied with the products? As a brand, MUJI has neither striking idiosyncrasies nor specific aesthetics. We don’t want to be the thing that kindles or incites intense appetite, causing outbursts like, “This is what I really want,” or “I simply must have this.” If most brands are after that, MUJI should be after its opposite. We want to give customers the kind of satisfaction that comes out as “this will do,” not “this is what I want.” It’s not appetite, but acceptance. Even within acceptance, however, there is an appropriate level. Our goal is to elevate it as high as possible.

Hara discusses design just as one would dicuss philosphy of life, and he makes compelling arguments.

In a world in which the motive force is the desire to get the jump on the next person, to reap the wealth computer technology is expected to yield, people have no time to leisurely enjoy the actual benefits and treasures already available, and in leaning so far forward in anticipation of the possibilities, they’ve lost their balance and are in highly unstable situation, barely managing to stay upright as they fall forward into the next step.

The book itself is a piece of art. Haven't seen paper this beautiful, binding so powerful, and a cover that ignites senses at touch.

Compless

2010-10-18T15:44:00.000+05:00

Last week I sold my laptop. Few hours later it felt like having sold a limb - I started missing it acutely. Being computer-less for days now, I have started discovering strange things in my room. For example, the carpet is not just dark green, it has gray sprinkled here and there. Ants don't make line wider than 4 lanes. If I pull the drapes, I can have my own midnight in middle of the day. I can make my own breakfast. One hour is actually hell of a long time to do anything, especially during the blackout hour. Etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc...

You, Me, All of Us

2010-10-14T16:37:00.001+05:00

The Egg

Lazy

2010-10-08T12:59:00.000+05:00

Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.

Robert Heinlein

Misdiagnosed

2010-09-30T15:39:00.003+05:00

So, well, I am not dead, yet. In fact, saved you guys from creating a "Justice for Vaqas" campaign on facebook. Turns out that first doctor I visited misdiagnosed me. That fungal thing was fiction. Kept taking the anti-fungals he gave me but of course the symptoms persisted.

Upon the extreme pressure from my dad, I visited an ENT specialist. That guy literally laughed when I told him that I though it was fungus grown all over my inside. But when I presented proof in shape of previous doctor's prescription, he fell serious. I think being part of same clan hindered him from making any degrading comments. So, after looking for a long time in my throat with a light beam he suggested that what I had was not a throat problem. It was acid refulx, a kickback from acidic stomach. Few days later his prescription wasn't working too.

So far, the match of fungus vs. acid was drawn at 1-1. I had to see another doctor in order to result in something's victory. The other doctor seemed to agree with acidic claims. Now I am swallowing the pill he gave me and it seems to have improved my condition by 0.05%.

He tells me that it is a slow process. Or, don't signout from facebook yet.

Two Thumbs Up

2010-09-21T21:40:00.000+05:00

Fungal Jungle

2010-09-21T11:38:00.000+05:00

I have got a fungal infection in my throat. It is so annoying and I am so worried about it that I should be swallowing more anti-depressants than anti-fungals.

E.M.

2010-09-09T14:28:00.000+05:00

One Hundred Years of Solitude

2010-09-07T13:43:00.002+05:00

It is one of those books that you wish never come to an end. Beautiful narration and every sentence so masterfully crafted in a way even the most mundane details become sublime acts. I have started to wonder what great experience it would be for Spanish readers since translation does not do much justice.

Newsport

2010-09-03T15:55:00.002+05:00

Well, there may be a trillion conspiracy theories but I totally believe that Pakistani cricket players are corrupt to the core. In fact I wish ICC would put a 50 year ban on cricket team. Only then would we realize how all this time we have been ignoring awesome (and less time consuming) sports like football, basketball, moto racing, hockey, etc.

Takes

2010-08-27T12:20:00.001+05:00

With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.

Steven Weinberg

Midwake

2010-08-25T01:59:00.002+05:00

I was so tired today and slept around 10pm (which is pretty early for me) and now woke up half an hour ago. It's about 2am right now, I feel so fresh but I doubt I would feel the same in the morning. Anyway, I started reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and I was reading the second chapter when I fell asleep. And guess what? I dreamed about a factory "manufacturing" humans.
This is leaving the effect already.

The Never-Ending Iftar Table

2010-08-18T19:18:00.003+05:00

Whenever you turn TV on during Ramadan you are greeted (on non-News channels) either with some kind of cooking show or an ad of some Ghee/Cooking oil showing a never-ending Iftar table graced with all kind of smoking hot food. And it dates back to the days when we all watched PTV and remained in sync with every drama serial or even new ads.

Also, it has become kind of ritual to expect food prices shoot up during this holy month when food should, technically, be least of the worries. You probably might have heard of this before but isn't the purpose of Ramadan to free us of 11 months of gluttony? The very reason behind the surge in food prices is that we all in our wildest dreams dream of that never-ending Iftar table in our own dinning room. Then, the whole nation, starts working "hard" to make those dreams come true. We want to eat the stuff we hardly ever eat during rest of the year. Instead of stop worrying about our meals, we actually stop worrying about everything else but this. Iftar preparations start from middle of the day. This act does not escape the reality of us being a twisted, hypocritical nation.

Last evening my neighbor asked me how I prepare my Iftar. And I replied there's nothing to prepare. Stunned, he asked what I eat and upon finding that he thought for a moment and asked "why don't you come to my house for Iftar? There would be many kinds of stuff." Long story short, it took him some time to grasp that Iftar could be something little worried about to.

I come from a family where food is just 15 minutes in the morning and in the evening. Even in our extended family it is considered 'shameless' to spend considerable money on food. Whenever I watched those ads on TV and asked my mom to cook those "kind of things", I got a good stare. Those kind of things were meant for guests only.

I wish if there is a God, He would come down and give us a good stare and say, "What the fuck do you think you are doing? This month wasn't meant to be like this!"

Wakeup Call

2010-08-05T12:49:00.001+05:00

Few days ago an old classmate of mine posted a taunt on facebook about President Zardari going on a trip to Europe and begging western governments for money. As expected, many ‘liked’ that and few posted comments in support. This was a little too predictable. We just love to criticize. I “like” Zardari as much as next person but here I am going to take a realist’s point of view.

It’s not Zardari alone. Every government since the very forming of Pakistan has been kissing asses here and there to touch some foreign coins. And I would say the fault is ours. We, the people of Pakistan are responsible for it. Two reasons: first, we don’t pay taxes; second, we want what we don’t deserve.

Every government in this world needs money to function. Ideally that money should come from taxes. The purpose of taxes is to pay a percentage of earnings and business transactions to government so we can have roads, cheap health care, street lights, law enforcement etc. But the truth is that from a street hawker to an industrial tycoon nobody pays taxes. There are very, very few people who do so, or pay in full and honestly. We the citizens of this country do not realize this huge responsibility on us. When government does not see money coming from within country, it turns to foreign aid and heavy-interest loans. A financial aid is probably bigger liability than a loan. You payback your loan, you are free. But you can’t payback an aid in money. You have to listen and work for the countries that help you financially. If you don’t it would be like biting the hand that feeds. We need to realize that we are the very people who are responsible for everything that is happening. Yes, we do have corruption problem but again who are the corrupt people? Your father? My brother? Somebody’s cousin? That would make another post.

Now towards the deserve part. We have to admit that aside from not paying taxes, we also don’t obey law, we use unfair means to achieve things, and we prefer relation over right. I laugh at people who go criticizing cricket team. We are a nation with all these problems and we expect our sports teams to be world class? We expect them to perform the same as developed countries’ teams do? Those poor cricketers are just like you and me. They don’t have to be the most perfect people in this country. They can break law or use unfair means just like everyone else.

The ongoing disaster caused by the flood is sad. You can’t really do much about natural disasters. It is nature’s way of standing in the way of man. I have been watching these events on TV. Although I feel sorry for the people who see the work of their lives flowing away in the current but I can’t digest their criticizing government for not doing enough. What we actually want is to remain imperfect ourselves while expecting our governments to be perfect. How is that possible? I know it’s not good to tell someone on his death bed that he is a swindler, but this is reality. Countries where governments do their best are the countries of people who pay their taxes, where justice rules, and who don’t eat someone else’s pie just because they can.

This should be a wakeup call for us. We have to realize that we are getting what we deserve. We cannot expect grapes from weeds. That would be insane. This is the time when we have to choose that whether we want to keep living like animals of a vast jungle or whether we want to change and live like civilized humans.

Now

2010-08-03T00:48:00.002+05:00

There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span.

Ernest Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls

Erregular

2010-07-28T10:25:00.003+05:00

I was about to post a huge philosophical perspective of our society and religion, but then I thought why bother if nobody gives a damn. It's like bhains kay agay been bajana. I know it's a kind of cliché but apt nonetheless.

So, what I have been up to, you ask? Well, nothing spectacular in particular. Couple of highlights are that we (me and three colleagues) went to Kaghan Valley. That was so far the most beautiful place I ever visited, especially Lalazar. Also, I finished reading The Brothers Karamazov couple of weeks ago. I don't think I can comment about that in a line or two but suffice to say that The Brothers Karamazov is one of the most influential books I have ever read. Much I hate to re-watch movies or re-read novels, but I think I will read that again, sometime when I am more disappointed in myself and society in general.

I hope to be a posting regularly now.

(Siri-)Paye

2010-07-22T12:00:00.001+05:00

Saif-ul-Malook

2010-07-21T15:51:00.001+05:00

Lalazar

2010-07-20T18:46:00.002+05:00

Northern Promises

2010-07-16T12:32:00.001+05:00

I will bring photos.
But first, I have to kill this headache before it kills me!

Devil

2010-06-30T23:39:00.000+05:00

I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Sicko

2010-06-04T18:59:00.003+05:00

Just back from a rather elongated spell of sickness. My body is a real mystery: I can run 7 kilometers in the evening and get so sick in the morning that I can hardly sit straight without exhausting myself.
I went to see the doctor, doctor who I have come to believe is my only messiah, and when I told him that I cannot even sit his face got the expression of being very worried. His expression of being worried got me worried that if doctor is worried then it must be something horrible and I should also be worried. But, like I told you, he is my messiah. He gave me this bottle of medicine that could force everyone in a kilometer's radius to stop breathing if kept opened for more than few seconds, but it saved me just when I could see the smokes.

Dread

2010-05-27T12:22:00.000+05:00

The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.

John Locke

Unremarkable

2010-05-21T14:27:00.002+05:00

The Importance of Being Unremarkable

Free Speech / Hate Speech

2010-05-19T22:18:00.003+05:00

The decision of Lahore High Court to ban Facebook, because of a group created to draw pictures of the Prophet, reminds us that we are still far from being a civilized nation. We simply cannot tolerate anything that is not usual. We cannot even tolerate our own people asking perfectly logical questions about Islam and religions in general.

I am not really into drawing cartoons of the Prophet but I am not against it either; I am just indifferent. I simply don't care. I think being into it would be stupid and like signing my own death warrant, and being against it would be against free speech.
Everybody around me gets furious at the mentioning of "Free Speech." I won't blame them. All of our lives we are told to obey: in childhood we are not allowed to speak and question parents, in college we are not allowed talk about unfair policies and incompetent teachers + management, at work we are not to question all the bullshit people higher up in food chain throw at us, and when we grow old and have our kids we don't allow them to question anything. There's a reason that why free speech is still an alien phrase for us. People generally accept that free speech means abusing and misbehaving about something. While it's not true. Even a room full of graduates from reputed institutions (2 to 3 % of total population at best) turns into a room full of coarse and uncivilized social animals merely at the mentioning of this phrase. So, I take an opportunity here to illustrate the difference between free speech and hate speech (which we naturally think are the same).

Free speech: Religions, all over the world, have been the cause of more deaths than anything else. Men died while trying to eliminate the other religion or fighting for their own. All that for a set of unreasonable and unquestionable believes. I can't believe that people actually believe that.

Hate speech: Fuck religions.

Above example should succeeded at clarifying this. Free speech is a criticism that makes sense while hate speech is an irrational aspersion. Since we are not used to hear anything negative about generally followed rules, we are swift in mingling free speech with hate speech. How to tell if that's an "authentic" hate, you ask? Hate is generally judged from the intension of doer. A case in court takes a sharp turn just because of the intention of accused. Another example.

It's a cricket match between Pakistan and India. Shoaib Akhtar is bowling to Sachin Tendulkar. Shoaib thinks that it is perfect time to throw a bouncer. Sachin on the other hand is not wearing helmet, for example's sake. Shoaib throws a bouncer. Ball hit's Sachin's head and he dies at the spot. Now, Sachin is dead and he died because Shoaib threw a 100km per hour ball to his head. But the intention of Shoaib was not to kill Sachin but make play. Shoaib wouldn't even be charged with a murder.

All those people from Scandinavian countries, who at first, drew cartoon's of the Prophet didn't think it was offensive. They just drew like they would draw Bush. Boy, did we take that seriously. Now, if a kid from his parent's basement somewhere in Europe or America creates a group on Facebook, it affects 160+ million people. Know why? Because we have shown to the world that we are such a vulnerable people that even a kid can instigate violence in the whole billion and half of us. Why on Allah Subh'an-a-Ta'la's blue and green earth can't we just ignore that? Why do we have to act like kids in return? Are we that goddam easy to offend? Seriously?

Last. Remember those stories in Islamiat that we studies for 16 years? Those times when Kuffaar threw stones at the Prophet and some old woman would throw garbage regularly? Did the Prophet or any of the Prophet's follower killed those stone or garbage throwers? Now compare shoes full of blood and clothes ruined by filth to a picture on paper.

Full HD

2010-05-18T19:01:00.003+05:00

I just bought a new LCD display for home. This blog looks rather tinycute now. Vanity much?

Law / Mercy

2010-05-06T22:44:00.004+05:00

I have a colleague whose brother (among many others) was refused to take final exam because of failing to attend classes 75% or more of the time. This was probably a rule they agreed to when getting admission in that prestigious institute. Anyway, all those students challenged college's decision in Lahore High Court.

Today, court decided in favor of students, who clearly had violated the rule. In fact, the honorable judge cornered college's lawyer and scolded him for presenting 'too powerful arguments against kids'.

I don't know why I did this (I hate myself) but I told my colleague how the decision was wrong. His argument was that nobody got hurt or the kids would have wasted one year of their lives. I argued in favor of rule of law: If you agree to something you abide or you get penalized. It was the best time to teach those kids a lesson, who would go out in public and private sector with huge responsibilities in future, about importance and impartiality of law. I am sure now they are more likely to 'adjust' things and to be corrupt in their future lives. Consequences reach that far.

I don't know why there has to be mercy in courts while everybody's life is a product of his own decisions. You and I can deal differently but a court of law holds far greater and public responsibility. Were all those students who struggled to attend classes more than 75% of the time were morons? I would be hugely discouraged if I were one of them. More than half a decade back, in class, I was presented the classical dilemma of a hungry person stealing bread. I said he should be punished according to law, or everybody would have the right to steal a bread whenever he/she feels hungry, and it would turn more hard working people into savages. Guess what? The very Islamic teacher gave me 3 out of 10 for that session. 3 for showing up.

Something deep in our culture is totally screwed.

Lot Like You

2010-04-29T13:24:00.001+05:00

A real person, a lot like you

Better

2010-04-23T18:56:00.003+05:00

This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet.
He should have gone up garret at once.

Henry David Thoreau

Remember Duffy?

2010-04-21T16:53:00.003+05:00

Roughly a year ago I introduced you to our new pair of pets, which we later named Fluffy (female) and Duffy (male), thanks to Dinky Mind. Fluffy got sick sick few weeks later. We took her to the village's only veterinarian whose meds didn't help and she died few days later.
Anyway, Duffy, who was pretty aggressive from the start, survived like a devil. People in their homes talk about things to eat, better sofas, plush carpets, clothes, backyard, frontyard, but we talk about Duffy: how he sleeps, how much he eats, and how he likes to run around when weather is awesome. Here's some porn for dog-loving side of you.

More Fields of Gold

2010-04-15T18:50:00.002+05:00

Panorama of our farmland. (click for bigger image)

Fields of Gold

2010-04-14T19:00:00.002+05:00

A sunset over the fields of my village.

Problem and Solutions

2010-04-05T22:16:00.003+05:00

Most of the time there are more than one solutions to a single problem. A solution is simply a tool and choice of a proper tool is important and tells a lot about a person.
I have an example to illustrate this.

Problem: You have an office in a nice building (in fact just short of a 4-star hotel) but there's an issue of insects. They are virtually everywhere in the kitchen. Problem is that when things like sugar, coffee, tea whitener etc are used tiny insects rush to get in open bottles and jars. When someone gets in there whole material has to be disposed and utensils washed off. Needless to say, you are required to be careful and never to leave anything open. To err is human, right? A few times someone forgets something or maybe becomes a little less careful, or even interesting yet, an insect is blessed with some superpowers and rushes in quicker than you expected. Let's say this is recurrent and insects just can't be killed since a new battalion would come from neighborhood soon. What would you do if you are management in-charge there?

Solution 1: You ask people to be more careful. Repeat your instructions often. It's obvious that somebody's mistake helps them get in the bottles. You put a huge text up there in kitchen that mentions "insects' shit" plus more. What then if this still happens? Put a fine on anyone who makes this mistake. Publicly bash him. He would automatically be careful next time.

Solution 2: You buy better utensils. Buy a dispenser or something that doesn't have to be closed manually, and shuts itself automatically when you take your thumb off the button. You spray anti-insect frequently.

Which solution sounds better? #2, right? Here's how...
Solution 2 is more "human" than Solution 1. Things and circumstances have to be molded around human beings instead of vice versa. It's man's dignity which should be preferred instead of sugar and tea whitener. Rules are OK only when there's no alternative. You don't have to thrust limits and punishments upon yourself and your fellows. Innovate!

It's a painful reality that we do not often think of Solution 2. We all love and implement Solution 1. There's shortage of electricity? Please stop using electricity. Ever saw an ad saying that please eat less biscuits because we are running out of wheat and eggs?

There's always an innovative and dignified solution that we should look for. It's only a matter of the way one thinks.

Theory of Life

2010-03-23T16:11:00.003+05:00

I had three pieces of limestones on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and I threw them out the window in disgust.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

A Farewell

2010-03-15T13:38:00.002+05:00

Powerful and tragic.

Ruby & Design

2010-03-14T02:02:00.002+05:00

aka Amazon.com Shipment #1

The Ruby Programming Language
David Flanagan & Yukihiro Matsumoto
In case you couldn't guess all these months, I am in love with Ruby, the programming language. I love it so much that whenever I am working in it (usually in combination with Rails) I completely lose track of time. One of my greatest nocturnal fears is NOT to start working in it near the middle of night or I would sleep most likely at sunrise. The most recent incident happened few days ago and it ruined by sleep schedule. Anyway, this book covers all aspects of it and I know most of them already. I even have a pdf version of it but why did I buy it, you ask, in original and expensive print? Well, check this twisted logic of mine out: I bought it simply because I wanted to support the authors. I love their work and contribution to Open Source community and, in fact, their contribution has earned me few bucks. So, it was time to say thanks, and I wanted to do it with my first Amazon purchase. Crazy, eh?

♦

aka Amazon.com Shipment #2

Designing Design
Kenya Hara
Well, you shouldn't underestimate a Paindoo too much. When I was kid, even in a rural area, I had a "thing" for good designs. I always wondered why things were designed the way they were, and what made them more useful than the counterparts. The first time I handed a sickle I marveled upon how could the handle be better and these kinds of crazy things. In this society design means a truckload of ornaments and twists and colors, which I absolutely disagree with. A design is something that makes things (1) useful, and (2) look good. Recently after watching Objectified I went all crazy about design. Kenya Hara is one of the best designers in the world and Designing Design summarizes his theory about design which I happen to love too: Simplicity. Making designs is all philosophical and to me, a bit spiritual.

Amazon.com Shipment #2

2010-03-10T17:48:00.001+05:00

Crazy?

2010-03-09T10:21:00.003+05:00

Isn't it crazy that we spend a lot of money on unnecessary food and snacks and get fat, and then spend even more on diet food and exercise programs or maybe liposuction to get thin?

Richest of The Cemetery

2010-03-05T22:20:00.001+05:00

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me ... Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me.

Steve Jobs

Amazon.com Shipment #1

2010-03-02T15:52:00.001+05:00

Catch-22

2010-03-01T13:19:00.004+05:00

One of the best novels, ever!

Fish Tank

2010-02-25T12:51:00.004+05:00

Fish Tank is not technically the best movie ever made, but it certainly leaves a scar.
Out of hundreds of movie I have seen this is the first one I have watched more than once.
It just haunts.

It would be injustice to not to mention this song from OST.

Another Excerpt from Current Read

2010-02-24T13:50:00.004+05:00

"Nately's mother, a descendant of the New England Thorntons, was a Daughter of the American Revolution.
His father was a Son of a Bitch."

I laughed out loudly at this, in office.

Hallucinating?

2010-02-22T18:23:00.007+05:00

I will accept that I have been on drugs but, seriously?
Hallucinating non-moronic news about morons was not mentioned in side effects.

A Fan's Dream

2010-02-19T13:47:00.002+05:00

I am a big fan of Mekaal Hasan Band. Some time back when I was watching video of their track Sajan, The Housemate shouted: "Oh aeh tay Sameer saab aey!" ("Oh this is Mr. Sameer"). Turns out the company The Housemate works for is owned by Sameer's father. So, long story short, I threatened him to make Sameer sign me a copy of their album Sampooran (one of the best albums ever). Actually, Sameer gave me his own copy =)
Happy life!

Mediocrity

2010-02-16T18:52:00.000+05:00

Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.

Joseph Heller, Catch-22

An Excerpt from Current Read

2010-02-16T16:19:00.006+05:00

"Major Major's father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age. He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbors sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. 'As ye sow, so shall ye reap,' he counseled one and all, and everyone said, 'Amen.'"

Simplifying

2010-02-06T20:05:00.016+05:00

In the middle of last year I bought a Blackberry Curve 8310. It was a nice handful of a phone and I used it for couple of months. A lot of people whistled at the sight of it. At public places my title changed from "Bhai Jan" to "Sir". But that's the only benefit I could get out of that expensive brick. I never needed push-email or messenger and stuff like that. Then one day light of sanity shined upon me and I bought Nokia 1202. 1202 is the most basic phone you could imagine. It does not even have GPRS. One thing we look for every time we are looking for gadgets is that which one has most features, regardless of if we are ever going to use them. It just has to be a long list of bullet points on it's specifications. 90% of the phones have bluetooth but we hardly use it, don't we? How many of us use GPRS and cannot live without it? 1202 is the best phone (great reception and voice quality) and has the best keypad I have ever used. Plus I don't have to worry about it since it's dirt cheap. And oh! how can I forget about flashlight? The most rewarding feature for this country.

Probably I was the first guy in Lahore who got first generation iPod nano and I wanted to be the first to get second generation iPod touch. It wasn't available here and a colleague was in Dubai so I asked him to got this for me. I love music and it was the best device to listen on. But then I had to worry about it too. Like nobody steals it, it doesn't get dropped and scratchy and blah blah. My younger sister used it like a shoe and that annoyed me. The time you worry about the accessories of your life is the time they lose their worth. A gadget is there to serve you, you are not to serve it. So, I sold it to buy this iPod shuffle. It doesn't even have a screen to browse music on. It presents a feature VoiceOver you use to move through your music library. And oh yeah, it's great for running because I can slip it on my tee.

J.D. Salinger

2010-01-29T17:58:00.002+05:00

I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetary. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Dies at 91.

Eureka!

2010-01-24T12:26:00.007+05:00

Remember that Aphthous I mentioned once? Yes, that has been my friend all my life. When I was in school I used to get that so goddam much that I would be unable to speak or eat anything without unbearable pain. Every doctor, hakeem, neighbor, aunt, uncle, shopkeeper, distant cousin, dad's colleague etc gave their own nuskhaa's. And I tried every single one of them but to no avail. Once, my father took me to a famous hakeem (as it goes for every hakeem) and that old fart kept giving me treatment for tonsils infection, which I discovered after 3 months when I accidently read the label of bottle he used to keep those tablets in. Then I understood why he never showed the "source" of tablets.

Now it does not happen that much but still most of the days I am suffering from it. Lately it was so severe that it rekindled the school memories. Just then I accidently stumbled upon (as it happens in most of the medicine discoveries) an instant treatment for it. And that treatment is Murree Brewery's Lemon Malt. Seriously. Just a week before when I drank a pint of it I felt pain going away next morning. Now same thing is happening right now. Imagine my ecstasy.

P.S: I was too lazy to try this on rats. Beware!

Lamp

2010-01-14T17:46:00.001+05:00

Doubt

2010-01-13T15:12:00.001+05:00

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

Bertrand Russell

I Was on Radio

2010-01-11T17:19:00.003+05:00

One of weird things about me is that being a Punjabi I *love* punjabi songs that employ traditional lyrics but modern music. So to quench this eternal thirst, I sometimes listen to BBC Asian Network radio. The only show that I am able to listen to most of the times is The Adil Ray Show. It's not that Adil Ray plays Punjabi music all the time, it's just that he is a fun loving guy.

So, today when I tuned in (after many days) I found presenters confused about a part of lyrics from a song they had played earlier. It was that why would a shoe make noise as the singer sang "jooti choon choon kerdi aa". Instantly, I sent in an email describing the reason. Adil Ray read it online. Can you freaking believe it? Doesn't happen often.

Listen to the recording of the show at following link. If you can't wait for 2 hours, 28 minutes and 56 seconds, just move the play bar to 2:27:57 to listen when he reads my email.

The Adil Ray Show 11/01/2010

Constructing a Social System

2010-01-10T21:25:00.002+05:00

Constructing a social system that tends to those who agree with it is a piece of cake compared to constructing one that makes those who disagree with it want to obey its principles.

Erik Naggum on Atlas Shrugged

Symphony No. 5

2010-01-06T16:23:00.003+05:00

I was looking for an inspiration while I stumbled upon this musical score by Beethoven. It is the most famous Beethoven work. What awed me most was that at the time of creating this symphony, Beethoven was deaf. How shocking and, at the same time, marvelous is that? It's like a blind painter who makes the world's best paintings which generations after centuries find inspiring.
Listen to this and look at this graphical animation representing different instruments. You will see a pattern of genius.

ttt

2010-01-01T12:25:00.005+05:00

Hi

2009-12-19T13:07:00.002+05:00

It's been so long since I posted something handwritten that I practically have to say "Hi". Well, except for the headache I am feeling right now, nothing much there to write about. I'm loving the winter. I went on a trip to Head Balloki and Changa Manga with colleagues, as you might have noticed from the pictures. Which brought me in a love affair with photography. I was fortunate enough to have a colleague's Canon EOS 20D which had two things I always wanted: Aperture and Shutter priorities. These two things are non-existent in normal point-and-shoot cameras and backbone of semi-pro photography. Anyway, one of my own priorities these days is to save enough to buy a camera with these two things.

Recently a friend of mine discovered 8 bottles of Surficol in my fridge. Needless to say, it is my favorite medicine, if it's a medicine at all because I really love it. Turns out that whenever I had cough I always bought new one and never checked the fridge before that. Well, I didn't want to shock him with a 3 month old pack of salad buried in there.

On the sad note, I have developed a constant fear of being in a bomb blast. I hardly go out for shopping and whenever I go there's this ticktock of a time-bomb that keeps running in back of my head. This is very, very unfortunate what our country has come to.

On such a fearful shopping spree, I bought a wrist watch. It's my first wrist watch in 10 years and I feel all childish again; ready to tell everyone what time it is.

Also, I have been working much of my night-time on a personal project. It's a small web application. You can have a sneak peek here.

Time

2009-12-10T12:31:00.005+05:00

10s, f5.6, ISO100

Dirty

2009-12-04T17:35:00.000+05:00

After coming into contact with a religious man I always feel I must wash my hands.

Friedrich Nietzsche