It's been a while since I came to blog on two consecutive days. I just spelled consecutive with a 'q' in the middle, and kept wondering why the word looked wrong! So cheers to my state of mind!
But here I am, on a second consecutive day, blogging my heart's worth. I wonder, what people did before there was blogging? Well they wrote in their diaries. Heck even I've tried doing that. I remember I started in 7th grade, right after I read the "Diary of Anne Frank" (rare admission, I cried). But somehow that was difficult to do.
It's not always possible to have your diary with you when the mood strikes to let it out. I guess it worked for Miss Frank because she was confined to a small apartment, or was it the attic? I guess I need to read it again. But yes I do remember losing interest in eating for a while after I'd read that. Even Kit Kats didn't appeal to me for a while (ok, not for a long while, but definitely for a while). Back to what I was trying to say. So with a diary there's always this requirement to have it with you when you need it, and trust me, if you carry something around with you everywhere you go, there'd be lots of interested parties in the content. Now a laptop, now that's an exception to the rule. Specially if you do what I do. You are always expected to carry it with you. And hence the perfection of this science called blogging!
See now I can hook up whenever I want to say something, or even if I can't connect to the wonderful world of the internet, I can always write something down in one of the many word documents I have floating in my machine, and then post whatever I feel like posting when I can go online.
But the real reason that I'm back here today (yeah, like you really need a reason, I mean all you need is some free time at work) is to elaborate on what I was talking about yesterday.
See Miss Frank lived in the 40's, and her life that I am sure would have been full of enormous possibilities was cut short by the insanity of one man. Fast forward more then 60 years, and tell me what's changed?
Nothing.
Think again!
Hmm...
The way I see it, now we not only have to cope with the insanity of one person, but with the insanity of countless maniacs. Who've all somehow managed to secure places in the world hierarchy where they can effect our lives by a single sentence they utter.
See now we're just ending lives that I'm sure are as filled with enormous possibilities as was Miss Frank's. Sometimes we do it in the name of God, sometimes in the name of land, sometimes in the name of democracy. But in the end, that's what we're doing.
I think murder is deplorable in all way and forms . But somehow I can understand why one of the two people who know each other, hate each other or even love each other may decide to go the way of Dirty Harry, and pull the trigger. But I can't understand how an individual can enlist into what is essentially a boot camp, and after 4 months there walk over to some border far off, and pull the trigger on someone s/he doesn't even know!
Why would you do that? Did you ever think that maybe if you were made to sit in a bar with the person you just pulled the trigger on, and allowed to talk for just 5 minutes, you might have ended up the truest of friends. Friends who pass the test of time and situation! But no, you just pulled the trigger on someone, because they taught you to do that in the boot camp...
Miss Frank, I know the worst possible form of horrible happened to you, but you were contending with the madness of an individual, while we're coping with the senselessness, the inanity of society as a whole! In your time the whole world realized the inhumanities in the actions of the mad man, whereas in my time, the whole world has transformed into a mad man.
Jonie Mitchell's dog eat dog comes to my mind...
I'm very sorry for what happened to you, Miss Frank, but I am glad that you weren't born into this era...
In this time of freak decisions, and rapid professing of love lost forever, I just want to sit for a while and breathe. Breathe an air that doesn't smell of innocence lost, never to be found again.
So Miss Frank, while you wrote in your diary, we blog. And while your diary was recovered (by your father who who survived I believe), our blogs will probably be lost forever. And to tell you the truth, I have no idea how many Anne Frank's were lost in this incessant desire to enforce our rights and wrongs on everyone out there.
We don't live in a society that's improved! We have invented instant coffee and forgotten how to enjoy a cup of coffee. We have taken our healthcare nearly to a point where we can even battle death looking it in the eye, but we've forgotten how to value life...
Let's all just sit down and listen to Sinatra sing "strangers in the night", and let our nights be places where strangers can meet and where magic happens...ahh hope, a fool's hope, but hope nonetheless...
Maybe later.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
To Bob Dylan...
Hmm...so today is another day. It's dull, gloomy, sad and depressed. The consistent drizzle, which feels like an unbearable constant from a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong. You can still hear the sound of the wind cutting through the high strung trees of Raleigh. But today the sound is entwined with that of the dogged, persistent rain...
On another day, I would have woken up, looked out the window, and walked out my room, skipping in my walk, whistling the tune of a good love song!
But today...somehow I woke up, looked out the window and I just wanted to keep on looking out. Something was pushing inside of me, urging me to stop moving, stop thinking, perhaps even stop breathing, and just watch the slow downpour merging with the world I live in. Somehow I thought of all the bombs exploding, bullets firing at that very moment. I could hear the laments of a mother losing her child, of true love ripped apart in the name of glory for God! It was like the war had moved into my bed room, and I was in the middle of an insane cross-fire, somehow shielded from physical harm. But every passing moment eroded me emotionally...
And I thought of some Dylan songs. See it's in moments like these when listening to 'Blowing in the wind' helps me find my bearing. Helps me to realize that nothing, no cause nor effect, can ever justify firing a missle! After all, the only thing worth doing in this world is respecting life in its entirety...
Dylan's probably been writing songs and making poetry forever now that appeals to the general common sense, that appeases the mind into a realization of the hopelessness of war.
Here's the song I hum in my head whenever the current affairs of our globe get too much to handle.
Blowin' in the Wind
by Bob Dylan
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
And pretend he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
I guess the answer really is just blowing in the wind...O I am sad today, and O how I want to wake up tomorrow in a world that is at peace with itself. A world that allows life to prevail. A world free of all prejudice. A world relishing in nature, humming soft cradlesongs to all who inhabit it...
Is there anything more foolish then being foolishly optimistic? But that's what I am right now, and I hope I remain this way for the remainder of my days.
Here's to you Mr. Dylan, for you've been preching something that all of us as a global community should have embraced centuries ago...
On another day, I would have woken up, looked out the window, and walked out my room, skipping in my walk, whistling the tune of a good love song!
But today...somehow I woke up, looked out the window and I just wanted to keep on looking out. Something was pushing inside of me, urging me to stop moving, stop thinking, perhaps even stop breathing, and just watch the slow downpour merging with the world I live in. Somehow I thought of all the bombs exploding, bullets firing at that very moment. I could hear the laments of a mother losing her child, of true love ripped apart in the name of glory for God! It was like the war had moved into my bed room, and I was in the middle of an insane cross-fire, somehow shielded from physical harm. But every passing moment eroded me emotionally...
And I thought of some Dylan songs. See it's in moments like these when listening to 'Blowing in the wind' helps me find my bearing. Helps me to realize that nothing, no cause nor effect, can ever justify firing a missle! After all, the only thing worth doing in this world is respecting life in its entirety...
Dylan's probably been writing songs and making poetry forever now that appeals to the general common sense, that appeases the mind into a realization of the hopelessness of war.
Here's the song I hum in my head whenever the current affairs of our globe get too much to handle.
Blowin' in the Wind
by Bob Dylan
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
And pretend he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
I guess the answer really is just blowing in the wind...O I am sad today, and O how I want to wake up tomorrow in a world that is at peace with itself. A world that allows life to prevail. A world free of all prejudice. A world relishing in nature, humming soft cradlesongs to all who inhabit it...
Is there anything more foolish then being foolishly optimistic? But that's what I am right now, and I hope I remain this way for the remainder of my days.
Here's to you Mr. Dylan, for you've been preching something that all of us as a global community should have embraced centuries ago...
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Travel horrors, jet lag, and WORK
Disclaimer: I don't really use bad language here, but you'd find a bit of it in this post.
Well let me start off by saying that finally I am sitting in the bright and sunny comfort of Raleigh, NC! How I got here, and all that's happening is a completely different (and at parts quite weird) story...
See I took off from Isloo as planned, and landed in Dubai as planned. No delays, no plane going bonkers, no passenger carrying a 2 foot sword in his walking stick (again all the things that I've witnessed in the flights I've been on). So I landed in Dubai, feeling good at least about the flight working out, of course when you leave your family for 3 months, it does kind of boil down on you!
And then I checked into my Dubai-JFK link. Again on time, with the boarded passenger area filling in slowly. All seemed well until the flying time came and went, then it was 1 hour, 2 hours, and finally after a 3 hours delay, we took off! OK, now the airline had already started losing its mind at this stage. First they kept announcing that the three flights coming in from India were delayed! But why are we delayed because of that was the question that came to my mind, which was answered by the fact that about 70% of the passengers were coming on the flights already delayed! And then they started announcing that the reason for the delay was actually bad weather in NY! OK, a bit weird, but...can happen!
So 3 hrs delayed, we finally took off! And we flew and flew and flew! I know, I know, it was supposed to be a 16 hr flight! And then the dreadful announcements started coming! Dear passengers the weather in NY still hasn't improved, but hopefully it would get better by the time we land. Dear passengers, NY is reportedly in the middle of the second worst snow storm in the history, but hopefully it would clear by the time we land! Dear passengers, NY is a no go, and we'll actually be taking you to Dulles Airport in DC!
SHIT! DAMN! FUCK!
OK, so we changed routes and went on to DC! And the plane landed, and I along with the other 300 passengers on the verge of a break-down due to constantly sitting for 16 hrs; started getting our things together. And then came another announcement. Ladies and Gentlemen, due to all the flights being re-routed to DC, the airport is busy, hopefully we'd be able to get a hanger in about an hour. Strange I thought, cause the airport was literally empty...
So we started waiting, and we kept waiting...and we waited for 4 freaking hours! 4 hours of inactivity, stuck in that little plain! And O yes, I'm a smoker! AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
OK, so finally we move to a hanger, go through the entry point, and we have to re-check our luggage, as Emirates has to take us to NY! Kill me! Kill me now! Get the most blunt knife you can find and just KILL ME!
Now the plane's supposed to leave at 3.30 am for NY. And again we check our luggage in, and walk into the boarding area. We sit, and wait...and we wait...and then...well we wait some more! Now the story is that the crew flying the plain has to rest as they've used up their flying hours, and the other crew is on their way. And of course they're being driven to work by an absolute imbecile, who took the wrong exit! Alright, now my mind is just ringing warnings! This can't be happening! Heck it doesn't even sound logically possible!
So finally the crew arrives, after another 4 hours wait, and we take off for JFK! We land, with an hour to my next flight, and I have a big smile on my face! Man, I'll finally make my link to Raleigh! And then we begin to wait and wait and yep! You guessed it right! Wait some more. Reason being that Emirates is so small an airline that they only have one hanger, and we can't dock until the other plane gets out!
Guess what, I miss my link, as we keep sitting in the plane, waiting for it to freaking dock the port! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
So as we land, we're told that Emirates is going to arrange our links and put us in a hotel room to rest! OK, but dude, I just want to get to Raleigh! How difficult is that! So I get my luggage (btw my bags were the last out from the conveyor belt) and walk into the long queues to get a next flight outta here! So I am told that the next available flight leaves in about 7 hours! So I get a hotel pass, and rush off to finally take a shower, begin to feel a little like a human being, eat food that doesn't taste like cooked tooth-paste, and if I'm lucky, get a hour or two's rest! So far so good, and apart from the freezing cold (I feel like my arms are going to fall off after being frozen in the -20 degree NY cold) the plan works! I walk into a hotel room, check my email, get a (sing with me now) long long long and hot hot hot shower, change into clean clothes, fill myself up with edible lasgania, and get two hours worth of sleep!
So I get up, quickly grab everything, forget my belt in the hotel room, and get the next available link to JFK. I go through the US security screenings, where they do everything just short of poking you with sharp objects, and walk into the boarding area! Guess what! MY fucking flight gets delayed all over again! Yep, someone up there is seriously pissed at me! So I wait and wait and wait, with the added pleasure of gates being opened to let in freezing cold gushes of wind! And finally our flight takes off (btw the delay was attributed to the crew not being there again), and yes we're 3 hours delayed again!
And finally I hit Raleigh at 3 am and take a cab to the hotel, and just crash to sleep. After unpacking of course and lining everything up neatly, see I'm a freak for that while traveling! And yes! Since it's a week night, I get up at 7, after hardly a few hours of sleep, and rush off to what's going to be my work site for the next 3 months!
And a long excruciating day at work begins! But there's solace, the team I'm working with are extremely friendly and homely sort of people, and they're competent as well, and hard working to top it off! Quite a rare, if not an impossible combination to find (my working friends would agree with me)! And at around 7 in the evening, I finally head home, and well wake up the next day, to begin what's hopefully going to be an easy schedule of working as much as I can so that I don't have to sit in that hotel room forever. And every now and then, finding time to explore Raleigh, and all the wonders it has!
So here's to another my kind of trip coming to an end, with me, surprisingly, amazingly, astoundingly, unbelievably, still in one piece!
And yes, I'm missing my family and friends like anything!
Next time then!
Well let me start off by saying that finally I am sitting in the bright and sunny comfort of Raleigh, NC! How I got here, and all that's happening is a completely different (and at parts quite weird) story...
See I took off from Isloo as planned, and landed in Dubai as planned. No delays, no plane going bonkers, no passenger carrying a 2 foot sword in his walking stick (again all the things that I've witnessed in the flights I've been on). So I landed in Dubai, feeling good at least about the flight working out, of course when you leave your family for 3 months, it does kind of boil down on you!
And then I checked into my Dubai-JFK link. Again on time, with the boarded passenger area filling in slowly. All seemed well until the flying time came and went, then it was 1 hour, 2 hours, and finally after a 3 hours delay, we took off! OK, now the airline had already started losing its mind at this stage. First they kept announcing that the three flights coming in from India were delayed! But why are we delayed because of that was the question that came to my mind, which was answered by the fact that about 70% of the passengers were coming on the flights already delayed! And then they started announcing that the reason for the delay was actually bad weather in NY! OK, a bit weird, but...can happen!
So 3 hrs delayed, we finally took off! And we flew and flew and flew! I know, I know, it was supposed to be a 16 hr flight! And then the dreadful announcements started coming! Dear passengers the weather in NY still hasn't improved, but hopefully it would get better by the time we land. Dear passengers, NY is reportedly in the middle of the second worst snow storm in the history, but hopefully it would clear by the time we land! Dear passengers, NY is a no go, and we'll actually be taking you to Dulles Airport in DC!
SHIT! DAMN! FUCK!
OK, so we changed routes and went on to DC! And the plane landed, and I along with the other 300 passengers on the verge of a break-down due to constantly sitting for 16 hrs; started getting our things together. And then came another announcement. Ladies and Gentlemen, due to all the flights being re-routed to DC, the airport is busy, hopefully we'd be able to get a hanger in about an hour. Strange I thought, cause the airport was literally empty...
So we started waiting, and we kept waiting...and we waited for 4 freaking hours! 4 hours of inactivity, stuck in that little plain! And O yes, I'm a smoker! AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
OK, so finally we move to a hanger, go through the entry point, and we have to re-check our luggage, as Emirates has to take us to NY! Kill me! Kill me now! Get the most blunt knife you can find and just KILL ME!
Now the plane's supposed to leave at 3.30 am for NY. And again we check our luggage in, and walk into the boarding area. We sit, and wait...and we wait...and then...well we wait some more! Now the story is that the crew flying the plain has to rest as they've used up their flying hours, and the other crew is on their way. And of course they're being driven to work by an absolute imbecile, who took the wrong exit! Alright, now my mind is just ringing warnings! This can't be happening! Heck it doesn't even sound logically possible!
So finally the crew arrives, after another 4 hours wait, and we take off for JFK! We land, with an hour to my next flight, and I have a big smile on my face! Man, I'll finally make my link to Raleigh! And then we begin to wait and wait and yep! You guessed it right! Wait some more. Reason being that Emirates is so small an airline that they only have one hanger, and we can't dock until the other plane gets out!
Guess what, I miss my link, as we keep sitting in the plane, waiting for it to freaking dock the port! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
So as we land, we're told that Emirates is going to arrange our links and put us in a hotel room to rest! OK, but dude, I just want to get to Raleigh! How difficult is that! So I get my luggage (btw my bags were the last out from the conveyor belt) and walk into the long queues to get a next flight outta here! So I am told that the next available flight leaves in about 7 hours! So I get a hotel pass, and rush off to finally take a shower, begin to feel a little like a human being, eat food that doesn't taste like cooked tooth-paste, and if I'm lucky, get a hour or two's rest! So far so good, and apart from the freezing cold (I feel like my arms are going to fall off after being frozen in the -20 degree NY cold) the plan works! I walk into a hotel room, check my email, get a (sing with me now) long long long and hot hot hot shower, change into clean clothes, fill myself up with edible lasgania, and get two hours worth of sleep!
So I get up, quickly grab everything, forget my belt in the hotel room, and get the next available link to JFK. I go through the US security screenings, where they do everything just short of poking you with sharp objects, and walk into the boarding area! Guess what! MY fucking flight gets delayed all over again! Yep, someone up there is seriously pissed at me! So I wait and wait and wait, with the added pleasure of gates being opened to let in freezing cold gushes of wind! And finally our flight takes off (btw the delay was attributed to the crew not being there again), and yes we're 3 hours delayed again!
And finally I hit Raleigh at 3 am and take a cab to the hotel, and just crash to sleep. After unpacking of course and lining everything up neatly, see I'm a freak for that while traveling! And yes! Since it's a week night, I get up at 7, after hardly a few hours of sleep, and rush off to what's going to be my work site for the next 3 months!
And a long excruciating day at work begins! But there's solace, the team I'm working with are extremely friendly and homely sort of people, and they're competent as well, and hard working to top it off! Quite a rare, if not an impossible combination to find (my working friends would agree with me)! And at around 7 in the evening, I finally head home, and well wake up the next day, to begin what's hopefully going to be an easy schedule of working as much as I can so that I don't have to sit in that hotel room forever. And every now and then, finding time to explore Raleigh, and all the wonders it has!
So here's to another my kind of trip coming to an end, with me, surprisingly, amazingly, astoundingly, unbelievably, still in one piece!
And yes, I'm missing my family and friends like anything!
Next time then!
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
A Resounding Win---& a foot long smile
Wow! Now what a game that was! 4 days of pure unadulterated fun! I don't remember the last time a test match took me to such tenter-hooks! I mean it didn't even go all the way to complete 5 full days, but it was just excellent!
OK, maybe the undue excitement can be attributed to the fact that we won, I mean that's the reason for the foot long smile on my face, and it refuses to go away! It's just a wonderful feeling!
You know what I feel like right now, I feel like Butch Cassidy in the bicycle scene, where he takes his best friend's sweetheart for a ride in the farm! Raindrops keep falling on my head, they keep falling...
O and yes, it was the biggest win by runs in the history of test cricket. So what did we have in this match from Pakistan's side? An early collapse, 34-6 would you believe. Then an act of defiance against the tides of favour by Akmal (100+), Razzaq (40+) and Shoaib (40+). Then we had a fully carnevourous bowling performance, with all the seamers doing their bit and then some. Follow that up by godly batting in the second innings (the top 7 guys getting at least 50 each, world record btw) including one sparkling hundred by a lad trying to make his way out of his uncle's BIG shadow. And for everyone who said that they're batting so well because the pitch had gotten dead, there was a less then three sessions bowl'em out display to conclude the proceedings, ofcourse it included a glorious batting display surrounded in devestation (Yuvraj going to get his secind test match ton).
The result, you have the biggest win by runs in test history.
Of course there was the end of the match celebration and good ol' Inzi when asked about his back saying "we are fine now!". That one's going to stay with me.
So here's to an exciting conclusion to a test match lost in the first 10 over, and then slowly, painfully, aggressively, labouriously won back! And won back in style.
I'll come back after the euphoria has faded a bit and I've seen the highlights for today (speccially looking forward to Yuvraj's second ton, that should be a treat).
Have fun...
OK, maybe the undue excitement can be attributed to the fact that we won, I mean that's the reason for the foot long smile on my face, and it refuses to go away! It's just a wonderful feeling!
You know what I feel like right now, I feel like Butch Cassidy in the bicycle scene, where he takes his best friend's sweetheart for a ride in the farm! Raindrops keep falling on my head, they keep falling...
O and yes, it was the biggest win by runs in the history of test cricket. So what did we have in this match from Pakistan's side? An early collapse, 34-6 would you believe. Then an act of defiance against the tides of favour by Akmal (100+), Razzaq (40+) and Shoaib (40+). Then we had a fully carnevourous bowling performance, with all the seamers doing their bit and then some. Follow that up by godly batting in the second innings (the top 7 guys getting at least 50 each, world record btw) including one sparkling hundred by a lad trying to make his way out of his uncle's BIG shadow. And for everyone who said that they're batting so well because the pitch had gotten dead, there was a less then three sessions bowl'em out display to conclude the proceedings, ofcourse it included a glorious batting display surrounded in devestation (Yuvraj going to get his secind test match ton).
The result, you have the biggest win by runs in test history.
Of course there was the end of the match celebration and good ol' Inzi when asked about his back saying "we are fine now!". That one's going to stay with me.
So here's to an exciting conclusion to a test match lost in the first 10 over, and then slowly, painfully, aggressively, labouriously won back! And won back in style.
I'll come back after the euphoria has faded a bit and I've seen the highlights for today (speccially looking forward to Yuvraj's second ton, that should be a treat).
Have fun...
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