tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21613598475199721182024-03-19T03:12:53.459-07:00Intricate ZoneIntricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.comBlogger150125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-90565338272192211342010-11-30T20:54:00.000-08:002010-12-03T20:09:37.658-08:00Silent pledge of Silence<span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >In life, a lot of things happen. And after lot of incidents, you make a lot of promises to yourself, and you claim of a lot of things to the people around you</span><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >. You say that you won't do this again, you say that you will start doing this and that from now on. But after a little while, as you relax, as you calm down, you realize that you cannot hold up to a lot of these promises.</span><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br />But sometimes, just sometimes, after some incident, you don't make any promise to others, not even to yourself, but without any promise, a silence settles within you and this silence you propagate around you as well.<br /><br /><br />You become a quiet person. You lock that talkative, bubbly person somewhere deep down and then you throw away the key.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdJhH4IXILe6ASjVMb-8Z_yq4H9LRdcDQR-qp_9gFxc3vxq0QGK0hxrutgEfXy5qztdBzC6ye-k9HqfSbS7P_X9klaY0GeU1PxUPQ8k8Wc639oEBoMvH1A-Wtpeh3wTcJLGHxSCDB5ZSTz/s1600/silence.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 244px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdJhH4IXILe6ASjVMb-8Z_yq4H9LRdcDQR-qp_9gFxc3vxq0QGK0hxrutgEfXy5qztdBzC6ye-k9HqfSbS7P_X9klaY0GeU1PxUPQ8k8Wc639oEBoMvH1A-Wtpeh3wTcJLGHxSCDB5ZSTz/s320/silence.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546673053769436754" border="0" /></a><br /><br />And not many people realize that. Because some people only knew you as a quiet person, for them you are the same.<br /><br />And those who did know how cheerful you actually are fail to notice because from where they are standing, you are fine and you are happy. Because you smile when you meet someone and you smile at jokes cracked by your friends and hold back a retort.<br /><br />But from where you are standing you understand that the smile on your face when you meet people is the smile that you put on to hide the tears in your eyes, so that the focus shifts to the smile instead of the tears.<br /><br />And you know that when you smile at a joke cracked by a friend and hold back a retort, it is because you don't have anything to say, because silence is your refuge now.<br /><br />And quietly and silently is how you start spending your days. And quietly and silently you start to remove yourself. You don't remove people from you lives, instead you remove yourself from theirs, because if someone detests you so much, isn't it better to save them the torture of having to look at you, or even seeing your name somewhere, or seeing anything that would remind them of you?<br /><br />So quietly and silently you step out of their lives. And with a final goodbye you close the door and you never look back.<br /><br />These are the silent pledges of silence.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrB4YIWXUvxQ0PLlUCYsObQsq23OGJ9hOzV9DUU6Soov-gc-CaUyKW2pBsbbm4j2dEBmnA5b__Ai6Y10HEAboghi6JhJUdNN5O3SbTzMKwBZW-pAiE0Lhj8YPyKOCfKboK5a8BWsHh4Bu/s1600/in-silence-lg-by-chiharu-shiota-450x411.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 292px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrB4YIWXUvxQ0PLlUCYsObQsq23OGJ9hOzV9DUU6Soov-gc-CaUyKW2pBsbbm4j2dEBmnA5b__Ai6Y10HEAboghi6JhJUdNN5O3SbTzMKwBZW-pAiE0Lhj8YPyKOCfKboK5a8BWsHh4Bu/s320/in-silence-lg-by-chiharu-shiota-450x411.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546673534550916626" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /></span>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-37495339549412272252010-11-16T23:12:00.000-08:002010-11-16T23:21:55.015-08:00Eid Mubarak<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8ZCdRYsYDGrLtgJVoQT14PaUc43245QnY8fzrsYR5Yk-_ZYnu9f1bIQCtthc27-3eXfqt0Uv36ahLV0RR1kNjDIvzqrRy043XYgXAIRRQI-MpV-6wCm5XlPRNqRqqRr0CWplJS-4UrDM/s1600/Eid-Mubarak.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8ZCdRYsYDGrLtgJVoQT14PaUc43245QnY8fzrsYR5Yk-_ZYnu9f1bIQCtthc27-3eXfqt0Uv36ahLV0RR1kNjDIvzqrRy043XYgXAIRRQI-MpV-6wCm5XlPRNqRqqRr0CWplJS-4UrDM/s320/Eid-Mubarak.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540415296720146418" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">And it's Bakra Eid again.. my favorite favorite Eid :) :)<br />I used to spend the entire day downstairs with animals in the few days before Bakra Eid.<br />This is the eid of sacrifice and Muslims offer sacrifice of animals in the path of Allah on Bakra Eid.<br /><br /><br /></span></span>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-5188763629630259092010-11-06T21:50:00.001-07:002010-11-06T21:50:02.969-07:00Kids….<p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Trebuchet MS">We should learn a few things from kids, like;</font></p> <p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Trebuchet MS">Having a fight and then forgetting all about it. Forgiving the person you fought with instantly. </font></p> <p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Trebuchet MS">Being curious at how everything works.</font></p> <p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Trebuchet MS">Standing up, falling down and then standing up again. Never giving up hope or faith.</font></p> <p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Trebuchet MS">Finding joy in the most simplest of things.</font></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/TNYvw2k5mrI/AAAAAAAAALI/eb-cDlcWaeM/s1600-h/il_430xN.55325177%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="il_430xN.55325177" border="0" alt="il_430xN.55325177" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/TNYv05QX6vI/AAAAAAAAALM/yWmfVyyG0OI/il_430xN.55325177_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184"></a></p> <p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Trebuchet MS">Smiling in a way that makes everyone (even the so-called adults) smile and forget all about their worries.</font></p> <p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Trebuchet MS">Not to be judgmental.</font></p> <p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Trebuchet MS">Not over-complicating things.</font></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/TNYv4Nsv-VI/AAAAAAAAALQ/TrPPue7ZlLk/s1600-h/ist2_5823844-vector-kids-hand-and-feet-prints%5B6%5D.jpg"><img style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="ist2_5823844-vector-kids-hand-and-feet-prints" border="0" alt="ist2_5823844-vector-kids-hand-and-feet-prints" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/TNYv8xNBPHI/AAAAAAAAALU/8Yiz42o3PLw/ist2_5823844-vector-kids-hand-and-feet-prints_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="244"></a></p> <p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Trebuchet MS">Not dwelling in the past.</font></p> <p><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Trebuchet MS">Being Happy…</font></p> Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-36781015567823107292010-10-29T22:35:00.000-07:002010-10-29T23:14:31.404-07:00All about Recipesss....<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJIH6rKRB5AlPxM77kaKtloRb5ERITwDbAbH6fKbQlx6hmt1vc71L7GXvw-sW4XOGi7P4APFChVD6vVxMD8MOAtEdnInoEa-jn5nKO6OiLbOQazI30PQeGwy4OxIQQqV4Uzr2_zLBFoM7q/s1600/chicken-manchurian.jpg"><br /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">A new addition to our very own blogosphere is the blog "<a href="http://recipesindemand.blogspot.com/">Recipes in demand</a>"</span></span>. <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJIH6rKRB5AlPxM77kaKtloRb5ERITwDbAbH6fKbQlx6hmt1vc71L7GXvw-sW4XOGi7P4APFChVD6vVxMD8MOAtEdnInoEa-jn5nKO6OiLbOQazI30PQeGwy4OxIQQqV4Uzr2_zLBFoM7q/s1600/chicken-manchurian.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJIH6rKRB5AlPxM77kaKtloRb5ERITwDbAbH6fKbQlx6hmt1vc71L7GXvw-sW4XOGi7P4APFChVD6vVxMD8MOAtEdnInoEa-jn5nKO6OiLbOQazI30PQeGwy4OxIQQqV4Uzr2_zLBFoM7q/s320/chicken-manchurian.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533717137125899138" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The blog is all about the most yummiest of recipes, with the most mouth watering ingredients. Written in a way that makes even <span style="font-style: italic;">me</span> think I can do it.. :D and believe me that IS something. :)</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The best thing about the blog is that it is updated daily. So you have something new to look forward to everyday.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHU4KiG-4o-unc809pqSeANnvZ_Va56oqAx13mX2M4J6t1z0HKkmCWViRBXWTiZwCJThLM_ySpmosovnvs-3jUU4MldrlG46R7HGBtJQpCMSvfz3RgTfLcxiCL-NUPJxrwEU-5T5i-zmG/s1600/rasmali2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 223px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHU4KiG-4o-unc809pqSeANnvZ_Va56oqAx13mX2M4J6t1z0HKkmCWViRBXWTiZwCJThLM_ySpmosovnvs-3jUU4MldrlG46R7HGBtJQpCMSvfz3RgTfLcxiCL-NUPJxrwEU-5T5i-zmG/s320/rasmali2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533717618138533154" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHU4KiG-4o-unc809pqSeANnvZ_Va56oqAx13mX2M4J6t1z0HKkmCWViRBXWTiZwCJThLM_ySpmosovnvs-3jUU4MldrlG46R7HGBtJQpCMSvfz3RgTfLcxiCL-NUPJxrwEU-5T5i-zmG/s1600/rasmali2.jpg"></a><br /><br />The method given is written in a simple language and the ingredients are easy to pronounce (meaning you'll be able to find them in your home and thus not waste money on something you'll never use in anything else).<br /><br />So people check out this blog.<br />Start following it.<br />And DO add it to your blog roll.<br />And spread the word.<br /><br />Happy Cooking! :)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZOwfnV6pjAGuWuO44Tw2x2ELsIK7AXthyphenhyphenh0yVrrKuvf37cUD6x3KQkI_mdJNGcS8A2b19YvBuDM4qrEq3QtJqi_t86PQf8y97dLTvNxeh4sAqtvgAWzvvKc1aZ1gdvDbY35sX1AERftb_/s1600/ShowImage.aspx.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 167px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZOwfnV6pjAGuWuO44Tw2x2ELsIK7AXthyphenhyphenh0yVrrKuvf37cUD6x3KQkI_mdJNGcS8A2b19YvBuDM4qrEq3QtJqi_t86PQf8y97dLTvNxeh4sAqtvgAWzvvKc1aZ1gdvDbY35sX1AERftb_/s320/ShowImage.aspx.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533718204710833410" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-25501299197554364722010-10-24T21:16:00.000-07:002010-10-24T22:22:46.002-07:00LCD Needed... NO... DEMANDED<span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >I have been complaining for a long time that I have a regular CRT Mon</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">itor while all (well.. almost) others have the privilege of using a LCD monitor everyday at office. As expected, my inane demands and complains have proved fruitless.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The best output I have gotten so far from all the lamenting and whining is a screen saver on the CRT I have been using for the last two years. As old as it looks it has managed to survive all this long. If my CRT wasn't this deterministic to face all odds with persistence and keep on living I would have gotten a LCD long ago. As the rule states;</span><br /></span><blockquote style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />"As long as your CRT monitor is working, you can't get a LCD."</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBquxlVHxWP-2L_gTsFVTm-34He9CGL6kgKltYvvoG7O3biduWcPaxQIiXpq4X1seSp9DNJx18IOy9GKzEFfBf7B1l0HidCqaPShuOP7VI_ZKbKnhR1sDLql1f3f1SwY8mYj-mPi5shgj/s1600/buffalo-lcd-monitor.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 294px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBquxlVHxWP-2L_gTsFVTm-34He9CGL6kgKltYvvoG7O3biduWcPaxQIiXpq4X1seSp9DNJx18IOy9GKzEFfBf7B1l0HidCqaPShuOP7VI_ZKbKnhR1sDLql1f3f1SwY8mYj-mPi5shgj/s320/buffalo-lcd-monitor.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531849270807116082" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But all of this has resulted in some amusing and interesting suggestions from my team mates:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">1. "You should have come to your brother before you went to your boss. Come on, let's steal someone's LCD. Is there someone you don't like in office, let's steal their LCD."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">2. "The next time you have a drink of water, don't forget to pour it on your CRT... </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >accidentally</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> of course."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Any other suggestions, people.</span></span>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-63088643525711278582010-10-16T06:54:00.001-07:002010-10-25T22:36:49.359-07:00NOW, it’s over… :D :D<span style=";font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;" >Finally got my MS degree on Monday. Yaayyyyyyyy… Now it feels like it’s over, when I finally have the prove. <img style="border-style: none;" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-openmouthedsmile" alt="Open-mouthed smile" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/TLmuqvaKQbI/AAAAAAAAAJo/EYYczRME1PE/wlEmoticon-openmouthedsmile2.png?imgmax=800" /> </span> <p><span style=";font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;" >A lot of things happened since the time I was working on my Research Survey's Final report till now. A lot of things that I would have preferred not happening at all. But also a lot of things I am extremely happy about. :D </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;" >The day I got my degree in my hands, I decided to put an end to all the things and try and enjoy my life to the fullest. :) Not that I was not doing it before.. but still... I intend to read a lot of books and watch a lot and lot of movies :D :D </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;" >All the other things that I wanted to learn before and kept putting them off saying that I will read up on them after my MS.. I don't think I am going to do that.. because now I don't like opening any book other than novels... Though it has been months since I gave my final presentation.. I still haven't been able to bring myself to read anything useful.. </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;" >The point is NOW.. it's over, because NOW I have the prove. :)<br /></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;" >Thanks to the friend who sent these congratulations images. They sure made my day.. :)<br /></span></p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBpcndN-UolnwVfsm2i7m8oBVUp0a7-gbDo5-dqhSF68HELXNxGcV3DZ-WDEag9VNmEXx7y0cRKQjm8Ehyphenhyphen6W_nAJwnhy4RDII6A2vYREbjpJcCkeB8KJcI39n6Ukb9ESE7cxXi0_fwhWl/s1600/balloons.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBpcndN-UolnwVfsm2i7m8oBVUp0a7-gbDo5-dqhSF68HELXNxGcV3DZ-WDEag9VNmEXx7y0cRKQjm8Ehyphenhyphen6W_nAJwnhy4RDII6A2vYREbjpJcCkeB8KJcI39n6Ukb9ESE7cxXi0_fwhWl/s320/balloons.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532208924031567986" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zpAV7iBBYZapkRj4QbIEK0cTiQSa2ZuowVn9CVbGCA-2b2slL6bWIDurgdd5-s6Yk_P1LQhv5GjMHlhVhZajX6uZRoR0xMmac_74sEnF4OQ8Gr2OmJRvtIimhX-X2UjtNZ_CJ5wlk9cp/s1600/for+U.gif"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 301px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zpAV7iBBYZapkRj4QbIEK0cTiQSa2ZuowVn9CVbGCA-2b2slL6bWIDurgdd5-s6Yk_P1LQhv5GjMHlhVhZajX6uZRoR0xMmac_74sEnF4OQ8Gr2OmJRvtIimhX-X2UjtNZ_CJ5wlk9cp/s320/for+U.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532221687388219378" border="0" /></a>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-30194267199888191012010-09-13T20:52:00.000-07:002010-09-13T21:18:45.830-07:00Eid Mubarak<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">It's the forth day of Eid (and I don't think there is any such thing as the forth day of Eid :P) and here I am wishing everyone Eid Mubarak. I know I am <span style="font-style: italic;">pretty</span> late, but better late than never, right?<br /><br />So here goes,<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRZ0bBa744qwaclTr-3Zx74yfSr5H_hAJjZCQRty-WTBt5NVuvrcSE-9-DCp2qfLgrZaFb4S1oltgnE13vmJXYzAwoFLkrZ3Cw5Z8t6lCM93GVM4kGx8OtQIlT7hEimFpTfCmxJqzGhyEs/s1600/eid-mubarak.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 314px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRZ0bBa744qwaclTr-3Zx74yfSr5H_hAJjZCQRty-WTBt5NVuvrcSE-9-DCp2qfLgrZaFb4S1oltgnE13vmJXYzAwoFLkrZ3Cw5Z8t6lCM93GVM4kGx8OtQIlT7hEimFpTfCmxJqzGhyEs/s320/eid-mubarak.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516618664449818754" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsV5vRYpY-beJK-wYHZbiBPQnqwrWyEkbBCcFviictA8IXoPr766jnlssiIMTCvmfLE0lGqDK7ypMxY-YwFHCw7iCkvVFBPGuxUx7uPmJpMFk7ragpPUr4mF5G2Kbs-b6OVHn7p4BovQq8/s1600/eid+mubarak.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsV5vRYpY-beJK-wYHZbiBPQnqwrWyEkbBCcFviictA8IXoPr766jnlssiIMTCvmfLE0lGqDK7ypMxY-YwFHCw7iCkvVFBPGuxUx7uPmJpMFk7ragpPUr4mF5G2Kbs-b6OVHn7p4BovQq8/s320/eid+mubarak.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516618527876151474" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></span></span>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-63780267459020541622010-09-07T19:53:00.000-07:002010-09-07T20:51:42.228-07:00The story of Hope and Fate<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">What we are always told in life, is to hope for the best and expect the worst.. or something to that effect. But we are never warned that, hopes, the unrealistic ones, can be extremely devastating. These hopes have the power to let you sink to the bottom, to eventually leave you hopeless. You start wondering where you are, how did you get there, what went wrong, what did you do wron<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">g, what did you do to deserve this.<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />We are never told to know when to stop hoping, when to give up entirely. And this is something that can never be told because it is one of those things you learn after bitter experiences. You learn when it is time to stop hoping. This should be the time when you've done all you could to stop something bad from happening, in fact you have done more than you even imagined yourself doing. This is the time when you have given more than you could, more than you were capable of giving. This is the time when you realize that your efforts are going in vain. And if it's not just a personal experience, then your efforts might be given a wrong meaning, a reflection of a thought that never entered your mind. And this is the time when you should stop. All the time you were trying to bring improvement in the state of affairs, you were hoping that things would eventually turn out well, and that you'll forget all of this or at least mark it and put it in the 'Fun and Learning' cabinet of your memories storage. But as it doesn't turn out that way, this is the time when you give up just on the efforts, this is the time when you have to sit back and leave everything on Allah. Allah asks us to make efforts but also to trust Him and to believe that whatever He gives to us is the best for us, no matter if it doesn't seem that way at the time. So this is the time when you keep hoping, but this is also the time when you stop fighting. You leave everything on Allah, and you don't even so much as move a finger to improve the situation. You just let it be. At this point, again, things could go in both ways, they could either be in your favor, or they could either push you to the edge, to the line which separates you from 'living your life' and 'just going through it'.<br /><br />If all goes well, then you are happy, then all the decision you made seem to be the right ones, all hopes that you had seem to be realistic.<br /><br />But if this is not the case, then you are quite far away from the happy-folk's land, all the decisions you took seem to be the wrong ones, all hopes seem to be unrealistic. And this is exactly the time, when you should stop hoping that things would ever be the same again. You should always hope that somewhere along the way you'll be able to buy a home in that happy-folk's land, but you should stop hoping that things would go your way at the moment. If they haven't until now, then hoping that they ever would is equivalent to pushing yourself to the edge and then not even wanting to be rescued. If you have left everything on Allah, then accept whatever he sends your way, because whatever he sends would eventually turn out to be the best. The things that you didn't get in spite of working hard, praying hard and hoping hard, are the things which are not good for you, which are not meant for you to have. There are somethings which have to be accepted as fate. But at this point, you should know that at least in the future you'll be saved from the torture of thinking 'I could have done something', because you know that you did all you could have done, and you know that you gave even more of yourself than you should have and than you could have.<br /><br />I might have not been able to make my point clear through this post. I might not have been able to do justice. But I guess this is something you have to go through to understand, to really understand. And unfortunately, we all go through it at some point in our life. :)<br /></span></span></span></span>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-23127329039988287082010-09-05T07:34:00.001-07:002010-09-06T20:44:56.748-07:00The book with two faces<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Yes, yet another article on facebook. Yes, yet another article focusing on the atrocities and injustice of this social networking site but also shedding light on the exhibition of extreme imbecile attitude from our side. With too many emails popping up with Facebook in the subject line, yet another article on the same topic seems to be a drag, it's like playing the old, old song everyone has tuned themselves out to. In spite of knowing this, I want to and need to have a say in the matter.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjufQWZU8p326V3RH3wdd882MDdokHvSk7FlpcHmDPDNP_mJYoTB_eDP1qwjRIOlfLoRItJybtNlU6U-DFb77yfLkxhLqXuHdzWrDEYOW2wmPzdVBnNuZWF9NH3xG68HxR9xP-9iXDBYy50/s1600/facebook-small-logo-thumb-360x360-75537-thumb-300x300-78195.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjufQWZU8p326V3RH3wdd882MDdokHvSk7FlpcHmDPDNP_mJYoTB_eDP1qwjRIOlfLoRItJybtNlU6U-DFb77yfLkxhLqXuHdzWrDEYOW2wmPzdVBnNuZWF9NH3xG68HxR9xP-9iXDBYy50/s320/facebook-small-logo-thumb-360x360-75537-thumb-300x300-78195.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513815032277006962" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Most of us claim that we cannot imagine life without facebook. You don't have to exercise your imagination cells for this diminutive task as we've all been there done that. There was obviously a time when there was no facebook and I think we all survived that dark age.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We claim that facebook lets us connect with our friends. Well, ever heard of MSN, GTalk. It's not exactly called 'connecting with friends' when you update your status every other second as if the world actually cares about what you do the whole day. It's simply called 'addiction'.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpOnKYw9SLki54bPsg1Fyp_3abjuYuRp3we73RpoQXKFFpqMoIARzhRDMdLUkMb7E2lb-udEHgkjVPzZ9QO8ACS-j0fqYI46ykIoAVCIm_MJEgjNNbDrjawFp_5yi7dUDReEtlgNqN3hN/s1600/facebook_1356306c.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpOnKYw9SLki54bPsg1Fyp_3abjuYuRp3we73RpoQXKFFpqMoIARzhRDMdLUkMb7E2lb-udEHgkjVPzZ9QO8ACS-j0fqYI46ykIoAVCIm_MJEgjNNbDrjawFp_5yi7dUDReEtlgNqN3hN/s320/facebook_1356306c.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513814512535994642" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">And to connect with who, the friends who lack the sheer decency of calling you up to invite you to their party, instead they prefer to send you an event notification. And the people who can't even remember your birthday and need to be alerted by a system. In order to keep up with such friends we refuse to abandon facebook!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">And then, of course, there are our farms to worry about.</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">"Who would plow my fields if I don't log in after every 14 hours or so?"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">And all the photos uploaded by 'friends' without looking at which I am bound to contract a deadly disease. At one hand we keep complaining about the threats to our privacy posed by any social networking site and on the other hand we ignore of all such breaches made by facebook which badly needs to go through quality assurance. I am not going to accentuate the loopholes in their privacy policy nor am I going to highlight the bugs in their system. What I am trying to put forward is a simple statement</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">"Have we actually become obsessed with a social networking site which has put an end to our social life?"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I though socializing meant meeting a lot of people. </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >Actually</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> meeting, talking face-to-face. But yes, in this busy life of ours we don't find enough time to socialize, yet we find the time to 'relax' in front of the pc and meet people simultaneously. Working in parallel, the need of time.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Why am I against facebook? Why do I advocate quitting facebook. If I don't like it I can quit, why force others to do the same?</span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I do so because of one simple reason;</span><br /></span><blockquote style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">"I can't stand being humiliated in front of the whole wide world."</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I am not going to quote any Quranic verses or Hadiths because to be honest I don't find myself knowledgeable enough to do so. Yeah, shame on me to talk about something I don't have a clue of. But what I speak here is, to the best of my understanding, pure logic based on a simple enough postulate;</span><br /><br /></span><blockquote style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">"You defend what you claim to belong to."</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We cater to our egos at all the wrong times. Now when there is a need for our so-called ego to come in and play it's part we sing a lullaby of our social needs and put it to sleep. The time when our reputation is at stake we choose to hide behind the veils of internet, because who would know if a Muslim logs in or not. They keep insulting our religion and we keep pretending we didn't hear a thing. From all the books they could have burnt they chose to celebrate a day to burn OUR book. And all we have to say is</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">"they are not actually burning it they have just put an event."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">If all it is is an event then why not "Burn all books day".</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We keep fooling ourselves with excuses that sound lame even to ourselves. We try to evade the truth by weaving reasons, such as:</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >"We are not visiting that page"</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Would you keep going to a building where there is only one room where you are treated like dirt, like you are made of stone and nothing hurts you?</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >"In fact we have joined the community against celebrating such events."</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Really!? How's that coming along? Has it brought any betterment yet?</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >"This is exactly why Muslims have been labeled extremists. Quitting facebook altogether is the intense reaction they are hoping for so they can later make fun of us."</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">NO. Extremism would be to stop using internet. Who is stopping you from using other social networking sites. There are alternatives for all the facilities they provide.</span><br /></span><table border="1" style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><tbody><tr><br /><td>Socializing</td><br /><td>Chatting applications, Email groups (where private conversations are in fact private)</td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td>Photo sharing</td><br /><td>Picasssa, Flickr etc.</td><br /></tr><br /></tbody></table><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >It's not going to put even a dent in their business. They have millions of non-Muslim users.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Its not our intention to make them suffer. It is just our way of saying 'No'.</span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;" >We keep coming up with ideas of how to participate in the event and defend our religion.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Either come up with an idea strong enough to compel them to quit insulting us or.. quit yourself.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Quitting facebook would be equivalent to shouting out to the world, without even raising our voices one pitch, that</span><br /></span><blockquote style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />"We are Muslims. And we respect our religion more than anything else."</span></blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This of all the places is not where you can apply the theory "Can't fight them, join them." It's a situation where you keep fighting till you win. No one's asking to wage a war against them. Just a request to make them understand that what they are doing is not called freedom, it's just simply wrong. And this post is a request to all Muslims to make them understand that there cannot possibly be any other motive behind these gestures,.. other than the obvious one.<br /><br />Note:<br />This goes not just for facebook, though the post has been written in a way that focuses only on Facebook. This goes for all entities which are promoting or participating in such events.<br /></span></span>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-56483005553605701242010-07-29T09:19:00.000-07:002010-07-29T09:20:24.600-07:00The CrashThis post was written yesterday, 28th July, 2010 Wednesday, the night of the crash.<br /><br />It's been a long time since I wrote something for my blog, and all the recent posts have come from some deep, dark corners of my mind, so I sure didn't want another sad post to be my first post after a long time. But I have to get this out of my system.<br /><br />Today, at office, concentrating on coordinating with the QA department to resolve the issues occuring at client side, the news of a plane crash in Islamabad landed on my ears. We all have become a bit accustomed to hearing bad news, a bomb blast here a riot there, or maybe it's just me who has become utterly heartless, but whatever maybe the reason, I continued to work on the task at hand.It was after a while when I started hearing from my colleagues that their relatives or acquaintances happened to be in the plane. That is when it started mattering. That is when the environment at my office became what can be called gloomy. Coming from a team where laughter is the evidence of work being done, the quiet seemed to be a bit saddening.<br />Coming back home, it was the first time when I was actually waiting for 9 o' clock news. All along I beared with the sense of drama being created by the news channel (is there a need to mention the name?), what with focusing on the news caster and going from bottom to top.. really, were they trying to imitate the entrance scenes usually attributed with the lead roles of movies.But still, just focusing on the words and tuning out all the drama they were trying to put in for I don't know, increasing the viewership or something, I watched half of the report being shown. All of us watched the families crying, calling out to their loved ones, while we constantly ignored the question they kept broaching for the audience, "Who was responsible for it all?". Do we really need to ask that? It wasn't like a bomb was placed in the plane that we would need to ask where the security was? It's not like the President of some country was flying that we would ask who wanted the President dead. It was a plane crash!! For crying out loud.. A PLANE CRASH. I went along with all of that. But then the news channel brought in something that compelled me to storm out of the tv lounge, and I really mean storm out.<br />They interviewed this person, who actually seemed to be a pretty intelligent and experienced guy. And to keep it brief, what this guy was saying was that the crash was due to some HUMAN ERROR. And all of a sudden.. they found the guy responsible.. Yippeeee... Congratulations to the news channel, they found that out all by themselves.. And here's the person to be blamed for the deaths of 152 (is the figure correct?) people including himself.. and the person is.. the PILOT.<br />Now what I ask is...<br />We all have been taught never to speak ill of the dead. I think this is not just a teaching of Islam, but all religions. Then how come blaming the pilot is not considered speaking ill.<br />There have been countless times when the pilots have been RESPONSIBLE for getting the passengers safely to land.. how many time the news bulletin have thanked these pilots?<br />How many times did this particular pilot flew the plane safely? How many times was he thanked?<br />Do all planes who face difficulty in bad weathers crash? NO. Then are these pilots ever considered the heroes of the nation. Then how come this pilot is the villain of the story?<br />And how come we are forgetting that the pilot himself passed away too. I don't think he was out for a suicide mission. How many people do we know of who would gladly and deliberately crash the plane on a mountain?<br /><br />Okay. Let's just say for a minute that this WAS the pilot's mistake. Let's just say HYPOTHETICALLY that the pilot himself crashed the plane deliberately. That this was in all his and only his mistake. Then haven't we been taught to forgive and forget. Well who would forgive when the lives of 151 innocent people were lost. But when you call something a mistake, then as far as I know, it's a MISTAKE, something that was not done on purpose, but something that just happned. Aren't we supposed to forgive in that case? And it's not like the pilot himself is alive? He died with them all. Who are we to judge? Who are we to decide? Why not let the matters of Allah be His matters only? Why interfere? Who gave us the right?<br /><br />Just received an sms, informing that an ex-class fellows's sister in law, the mother of a 6 year old girl, is also a victim. Which reminds me of something else. While they were interviewing the affected families, none of the relatives, in their state of immense grief, once mentioned that the pilot is to be blamed. Had any of them said the same thing, I would not have been this angry, because going through something like this, takes a lot from you, and mostly it takes away the ability to decide, the ability to decipher between what's right and what's wrong.And in such a state sometimes somethings are said or done, that needs to be forgotten later on. In fact, that needs to be forgotten immediately. Then if these people didn't say anything like this how come the people who have expertise in planes and in flying, who had not been embraced by grief thought they can blame someone and actually came out and did just that.<br /><br />And for the life of me I cannot understand how a pilot can say something like this about a fellow pilot. Have they all resigned? Do they think they'll never fly a plane again, and such a thing cannot happen with them? Did they forget all that?<br /><br />...........Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-32242303163964577752010-06-04T23:09:00.000-07:002010-06-05T00:07:47.151-07:00The essence of 'Life'..<span style="">A post to collect all the thoughts which have been going through my mind a lot lately. Things I have pondered over. Things I keep thinking about. Things that I keep discussing with people. And things that I have wanted to write a post on for a long time.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Happiness went away on a greyhound bound for Georgia:<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></span><br />(The above is a line from a song :P)<br />It seems like ever since we've 'grown-up' happiness doesn't seem to stick around. And dissatisfaction has become more permanent since we've started with our jobs and have started earning money. And this is not just my opinion. I have really asked around and this was the general opinion. And reasons have also come up. The main reason being that we've stopped enjoying the small things. We've let go of the small joys and have started focusing on the big things. We've forgotten that it's actually the small things that bring life into our lives. We've unconsciously started running after money.. and tada... we do have money now.. (well to some extent.. at the end of every month.. before we spend it all... :$) and I thank Allah for that.. not that I dislike the concept of salaries.. but we've engrossed ourselves so much into "adulthood" we've lost all essence of life..<br />Remember the times when we went out for lunch/dinner with family/friends ONCE in a bluemoon. That was the time we enjoyed eating out. Now eating out has become a norm and eating-in has become .. well.. how do you put it.. not very interesting...??!!!<br />Remember the times when we used to rent movies over the weekend. That was when it was actually we fun. We still enjoy watching tv and movies.. but it has become a routine and hence, not that much interesting any more..<br />Remember the time when we used to read.. actually read books. When we became so much involved in the 'story-book' that we found ourselves IN the book. That stopped happening for me a long time ago. Now we all have so many other things going on in our minds that it has become impossible to detach ourselves from our real lives and enjoy being a part of the book.. Now every time I am reading a book something steals me away from it, more often than not it's my cell phone, with another forwarded message or sometimes a 'hi-hello' one from a friend.<br />A few months ago we had a company-sponsored training. The focus of the training was "Communication and Presentation Skills", but the trainer also mentioned a few things related to the topic of this post. She said back when we were children we were not afraid to try out new things. We enjoyed doing something new everyday. She also said to spend time with children, play with them. And she is right. When you are playing with children you are really having fun. And it was also advised to spend less time watching tv. There are other ways of relaxing. One activity which we should all carry out to realize the quality of our life was this: In one minute write down all the things that you enjoy. It seems that one minute would be less and you would have more things to write when the time's up, but that doesn't happen. In my case there was still time and I had nothing more to right. :| (I don't exactly remember the time allowed, maybe it was less than one minute, but I do remember that I was short of things to write. It was like sitting in an exam, writing answers you didn't prepare for.)<br /><br />Now we are living a routine life.<br />We've stopped spending time with our families. If I give my example, I spend 9 hours of everyday in office, and when I come back I switch on my computer and start looking for things that I can watch that day. The only hours I spend with my family are the hours where there is no electricity and hence no TV, computer,... but even then I have my cell phone. Why do I feel it important to share jokes with my friends or talk to them but I don't categorize spending time with my family as important?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lack of Confrontation:</span><br /><br />Another thing which is actually sort of related to happiness is that we've started taking ourselves too seriously. (I know it's a quote, but couldn't find the reference. It goes something like ' Don't take yourself seriously, nobody else does. But it's a quite true).<br />We think we are just too important. We let our egos take the best of us.<br /><br />As children when we used to have fights with our friends, the next day it was all better. Don't say that then it was on petty issues.. like who'll bring a ball the next day.. we still fight on small issues.. it's just that our priorities have changed. A ball seemed important then. We've changed our perspective of "what's important" now. And our perspectives are still quite wrong.<br /><br />We've put up a image of ourselves for others so that they would like us. But inside, we are not that good.<br />Because inside we keep grudges,<br />because inside we hate others,<br />because inside we are jealous of others,<br />because from inside we are not happy,<br />because from inside we actually dislike our own existence.<br /><br />These days we don't confront people. And for good reasons. :) We don't wanna fight in front of the whole wide world. So we refrain from that.. which is good. But we still keep grudges, we start ignoring others, we meet everyone with a smile, but no one should know what's going on in those little heads of ours.. because what goes on up there is not something everyone would like to know. We think it's our right to analyze people, and so we focus on all the bad things. We think it's right to criticize others and call it healthy criticism. We think it's right to judge others. We think it's right to be jealous of others, because we don't consider it jealousy, we consider it improving ourselves, bringing betterment in ourselves. Well, is that really true?<br /><br /><br />I think I have written enough. Comments are welcome. :)Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-16256571562222213502010-05-17T20:34:00.000-07:002010-05-17T20:40:51.187-07:00Would we still???On my way to office, yesterday morning, I was, as I usually do, reciting Ayat-ul-Kursi, durood shareef..<br />When I noticed that I do this whenever I get scared of Mobile-Snatchers and the likes and I started to wonder that we, human beings,.. well most of us, remember Allah in our times of need. We do remember Him when we are happy but the enthusiasm is heightened in sorrow. And I questioned myself..<br />"If I had everything good in my life. And I knew that sorrow won't reach me.. Would I still remember Him? Would I still pray?"<br /><br />And this is what I put up for everyone to think (comments are welcomed)<br /><br />"What if we have everything good happening in our life? And we know for sure that nothing bad is ever going to come? And we won't do bad to anyone around us, so that we don't have to beg for Allah's forgiveness either. And we had nothing bad happen to us in the past as well. Would we still talk to Him? Would we still cry out to Him? Would we still pray?"Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-23711161782807947252010-01-29T19:07:00.001-08:002010-01-29T19:07:24.664-08:00<p>Note:</p> <p>Received in a sms. Don’t know who the poet is.. if anyone does, please do leave the poet’s name in comments. :)</p> <p> </p> <p>Zamana dost ho jaye to buhat muhtat ho jana,</p> <p>K is ke rang badalnay mein zara se dair lagti hai</p> <p> </p> <p>Koi jo khwab dekho to usay foran bhulla dena,</p> <p>K neendein toot janay mein zara se dair lagti hai.</p> <p> </p> <p>Kisi ko dukh kabhi dena to itna soch kar dena,</p> <p>Kisi ke ah lagnay mein zara se dair lagti hai</p> <p> </p> <p>Buhat hee mautabbar hain jin ko muhabbat raas aa jaye,</p> <p>Kisi ko raah badalnay mein zara se dair lagti hai</p> Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-69841730973353963282010-01-18T21:39:00.000-08:002010-01-18T21:39:00.155-08:00Just when you….<p>Just when you start thinking your life is good.. it decides to take a harsh turn..</p> <p>Just when you think everything has fallen into place… you realize everything is starting to fall apart..</p> <p>Just when you think everything’s gonna be all right.. you realize you thought too quickly.</p> <p>Just when you think you’ve finally found friends among strangers, one of them turns their back on you</p> <p>Just when you think you can start trusting people again, someone betrays you</p> <p>Just when you think you’ve had enough.. you are pushed a little more towards the edge</p> <p>Just when you think you can’t get hurt any more.. someone hurts you deeply and badly..</p> <p>Just when you think you have had enough bad experiences to make an incorrect choice again, you realize you are again walking on the wrong path..</p> <p> </p> <p>But just when you think you should give up.. just when you think it’s not worth all that pain.. you realize you are wrong.. you realize that it’s just another challenge you’ll have to face, just another fall you should get up from.. just another reason for you to be happy, just another opportunity for you to prove yourself to the world… :)</p> Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-68318546398097580802010-01-17T08:23:00.001-08:002010-01-17T08:23:57.053-08:00Vote for my blog…<p>I have nominated my blog for Best Personal Blog at <a href="http://blogawards.pk/" target="_blank">Pakistan's First Blog Awards</a> .. yes, I have nominated myself, talk about being pretentious.. :P</p> <p>Please vote for me at the following link</p> <p><a title="http://blogawards.pk/2010/01/16/personal-blog-intricate-zone/" href="http://blogawards.pk/2010/01/16/personal-blog-intricate-zone/">http://blogawards.pk/2010/01/16/personal-blog-intricate-zone/</a></p> <p>Don’t forget to drop in nice comments too.. as they will be counted as well..</p> <p>Thank you very much.. :)</p> Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-46631841098252863672010-01-08T21:38:00.000-08:002010-01-08T21:57:06.944-08:00The Awakening<span style="font-family:verdana;">Disclaimer:</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Received this in an email. :)</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><center><strong>The Awakening<br />(Author unknown)</strong></center><br /><br /><br />A time comes in your life when you finally get…when, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out…ENOUGH1 Enough fighting and crying and blaming and struggling to hold on. Then, like a child quieting down after a tantrum, you blink back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes.<br /><br />This is your awakening.<br /><br />You realize it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety and security to magically appear over the next horizon.<br /><br />You realize that in the real world there aren’t always fairy tale endings, and that any guarantee of “happily ever after” must begin with you…and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.<br /><br />You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of who or what you are…and that’s OK. They are entitled to their own views and opinions.<br /><br />You learn the importance of loving and championing yourself…and in the process a sense of new found confidence is born of self-approval.<br /><br />Your stop complaining and blaming other people for the things they did to you – or didn’t do for you – and you learn that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected.<br /><br />You learn that people don’t always say what they mean or mean what they say and that not everyone will always be there for you and everything isn’t always about you.<br /><br />So, you learn to stand on your own and to take care of yourself…and in the process a sense of safety and security is born of self-reliance.<br /><br />You stop judging and pointing fingers and you begin to accept people as they are and to overlook their shortcomings and human frailties…and in the process a sense of peace and contentment is born of forgiveness.<br /><br />You learn to open up to new worlds and different points of view. You begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand for.<br /><br />You learn the difference between wanting and needing and you begin to discard the doctrines and values you’ve outgrown, or should never have bought into to begin with.<br /><br />You learn that there is power and glory in creating and contributing and you stop maneuvering through life merely as a “consumer” looking for you next fix.<br /><br />You learn that principles such as honesty and integrity are not the outdated ideals of a bygone era, but the mortar that holds together the foundation upon which you must build a life.<br /><br />.......<br /><br />Then you learn about love. You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would have them be. You learn that alone does not mean lonely.<br /><br />You stop trying to control people, situations and outcomes. You learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility and the importance of setting boundaries and learning to say NO.<br /><br />You also stop working so hard at putting your feelings aside, smoothing things over and ignoring your needs.<br /><br />You learn that your body really is your temple. You begin to care for it and treat it with respect. You begin to eat a balanced diet, drinking more water, and take more time to exercise.<br /><br />You learn that being tired fuels doubt, fear, and uncertainty and so you take more time to rest. And, just food fuels the body, laughter fuels our soul. So you take more time to laugh and to play.<br /><br />You learn that, for the most part, you get in life what you deserve, and that much of life truly is a self-fulfilling prophecy.<br /><br />You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for and that wishing for something to happen is different than working toward making it happen.<br /><br />More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success you need direction, discipline and perseverance. You learn that no one can do it all alone, and that it’s OK to risk asking for help.<br /><br />You learn the only thing you must truly fear is fear itself. You learn to step right into and through your fears because you know that whatever happens you can handle it and to give in to fear is to give away the right to live life on your own terms.<br /><br />You learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom.<br /><br />You learn that life isn’t always fair, you don’t always get what you think you deserve and that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people…and you lean not to always take it personally.<br /><br />You learn that nobody’s punishing you and everything isn’t always somebody’s fault. It’s just life happening. You learn to admit when you are wrong and to build bridges instead of walls.<br /><br />You lean that negative feelings such as anger, envy and resentment must be understood and redirected or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you.<br /><br />You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the simple things we take for granted, things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about: a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a long hot shower.<br /><br />Then, you begin to take responsibility for yourself by yourself and you make yourself a promise to never betray yourself and to never, ever settle for less than you heart’s desire.<br /><br />You make it a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting, and to stay open to every wonderful possibility.<br /><br />You hang a wind chime outside your window so you can listen to the wind.<br /><br />Finally, with courage in you heart, you take a stand, you take a deep breath, and you begin to design the life you want to live as best as you can. </span>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-26037846514720798322010-01-01T09:48:00.001-08:002010-01-01T09:48:19.115-08:00Celebrating New Year?!!?<p>As I tried to weave my way through the web service I received an sms,… wishing me a happy new year;</p> <blockquote> <p>“Hmm… this one’s a bit early” I thought</p> <p>“What’s the date today again? Oh 31st December, 2009. Oh I didn’t realize. The new year starts tomorrow!” </p> </blockquote> <p>The thoughts rushed through my mind filling me with as much enthusiasm as,… well, the web service I was working on.</p> <p>For me, it was nothing to be excited about. If you think about it realistically, just for a second there, you would realize too, that there IS nothing to celebrate actually. </p> <p>Would the world look any different tomorrow? na.. I don’t think so..</p> <p>Would I be any happier or satisfied tomorrow? Naa.. fat chance, then why should I celebrate?</p> <p>For me, everything’s going to be the same. I’ll follow the same routine in Jan 2010 as I followed in Dec 2009.</p> <p>Then why on earth are the people outside my window celebrating with fireworks, I ask myself at 12 AM, 1 Jan 2010.</p> <p>This is how we begin the new year… with fireworks. </p> <p>What for? </p> <p>Fireworks, or any kind of celebration for that matter, seem like an utter wastage of time, another bunch of money down the drain.</p> <p>Should we, as a nation, be celebrating new year when we have so many things to mourn about?</p> <p>Why do we keep forgetting we have nothing to celebrate today. Not this time, at least. Not this year round. </p> <p>No milestones achieved.</p> <p>No promises kept.</p> <p>In fact, as far as I can see, there is only LOSS.</p> <p>So many lives lost. And if that wasn’t enough to sooth our urge to destroy we went ahead with burning shops and bringing chaos to an otherwise saddened nation.</p> <p>We literally ended the year with a BANG. Bravo!!</p> <p>In this new year, though I don’t see the sanity behind calling it new except the fact that now the wall in my room will be adorned with a new calendar, we have another set of recently unemployed people to worry about, yet another family hoping for justice and mourning the loss of their loved ones, a collapsing economy with little hope, brand new addition to the category of not-school-going kids because they will not be joining school after vacations considering the sad fact that the means of income for their household, the shops their fathers owned is now no more than a mere ashtray.</p> <p>Yes!!! NOW I see the reason behind the celebrations going on out there. It’s all clear now. Yes, they have much to celebrate. No one can stop them. No, not even rational thinking.</p> <p>And then there are all those people who keep asking me about my new year resolutions. And I find myself at a loss of words when I remember that this time around I have decided not to go with the New Year thingy. After all, this is not OUR new year, is it?</p> <p>Yeah, yeah we don’t actually go by the Islamic Calendar, though we never fail to take an off if the day is an important one according to the Islamic Calendar. This way we get to enjoy the benefits of BOTH the calendars. Lucky, smart people we are..</p> <p>I have nothing against following solar Calendar. What I am against is adopting THEIR custom of celebrating new year.</p> <p>And I am not against resolutions either. But why  do we have to wait for a new year to begin so that we can try to be what we want to be. Why do they have to be New Year resolutions? Why can’t we start with our resolutions or work towards achieving or goals in the middle of the year? And why do we have to have resolutions for an entire year? Why can’t we take one month at a time?</p> <p>And if new year resolutions have an importance of their own, why didn’t we come up with anything at the start of Muharram. Simply because that’s not how it’s done. That’s not how the world does it. And we, obviously, have to do what everyone else does.</p> <p>How many of us thought we should start this new year with offering prayers instead of fireworks and sms? How may of us left our beds for Fajar prayers after a night of unearned celebrations?</p> <p>Nothing wrong with analyzing the year that just passed, trying to sort out what can be done to make the coming year better. But is that really what we’re looking for when we wish each other a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR? Really?!!?</p> Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-35964886224186311562009-12-29T01:31:00.001-08:002009-12-29T01:31:01.559-08:00Justifying Failure<p>Sometimes you don’t fail because you didn’t work hard enough..</p> <p>Sometimes it’s because you didn’t exactly know what to do…</p> <p>But could <em>that </em>be a justification???</p> Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-65648622635908366472009-12-17T21:36:00.001-08:002009-12-17T21:36:48.490-08:00To study or not to study..<p>It’s been long since I have written something for my blog, or written anything for that matter. And today when I am here, I shouldn’t be.. I have taken an off from office and I should be doing nothing but studying.. but allow me to justify my (extra curricular) activities by saying “I am tuning myself to my study mode” :P</p> <p> </p> <p>Anyways, this is supposed to be my second last semester of Masters, and InshaAllah, I’ll be done with Masters in July 2010. </p> <p>But sometimes I wonder whether it is of any use studying all this or not. For e.g. two out of three courses I am taking this semester are pretty interesting and knowledgeable, but all the knowledge gained (that is, if I do gain any) will be lost as I won’t be able to implement any of it. I am not at this point in a position to implement them. But then again, if I learn them now, I hopefully won’t have to learn it the hard way, that is, if I remember all the things I learn, and if I forget then it would mean I would have to learn them all over again <em>the hard way</em>. Then what exactly am I doing here? </p> <p> </p> <p>But then again I don’t expect to gain any technical knowledge in Masters, now, do I? We were supposed to do that in BS and after that you are on your own.</p> <p> </p> <p>I had a conversation with a friend a while back, and she was of the opinion that if you sit in a class for three hours, every week, for an entire semester and then also give exams, you are bound to learn SOMETHING.. and she is right. You ARE bound to learn something. </p> <p>But… Do I pay attention in the class?? (well, that’s my fault only) and there are still a lot of other things.. would I learn enough? would I remember enough? Would I be able to implement or make use of it? Ever?? Would saying that I have a Masters degree (once I inshaAllah get it) would be correct? Would I have the same amount of knowledge a Masters degree holder should have?</p> <p>Or am I just wasting my time? </p> <p>Well, right now, I AM.. I should be studying.. I have a paper tomorrow..</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/SysUxM0GVLI/AAAAAAAAAIY/ejI4lGwg0OI/s1600-h/u15799552%5B2%5D.jpg"><img title="u15799552" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-left: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-bottom: 0px" height="174" alt="u15799552" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/SysUzKWZ5WI/AAAAAAAAAIc/P6sFyce7EBw/u15799552_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="174" border="0" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/SysU4p-bkiI/AAAAAAAAAIg/dKnjKEHUfYY/s1600-h/studying-main_full%5B2%5D.jpg"><img title="studying-main_full" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="184" alt="studying-main_full" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/SysU7I4DJYI/AAAAAAAAAIk/WPyLbzO6gao/studying-main_full_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" /></a></p> <p>But hey, people, who read this some day.. share your experiences.. am I the only one feeling this or do all of us go through this at some point in time… :|</p> Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-22305351938597537942009-11-01T06:29:00.000-08:002009-11-01T06:53:47.337-08:00Inserting HTML tags<span style="font-family:verdana;">The problem with writing HTML, ASP etc. codes in your page is that the browser considers anything starting with an angle bracket as HTML code, it will try to make something of the code and hence your page will not be the way you intended it to be.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Let's say you are writing a tutorial for HTML and you want to convey to your readers how to make certain words appear bold in html. You'll naturally use the tag for bold... you'll try to use the tag, write some text within the opening and closing tags and try to show your users how the tag is used... instead, what you'll get will be the text appearing as bold and the tags used to make words appear bold absent.. this is because the browser considered the bold tag to be what it actually is.. the bold tag, it would think that you intended the text to appear in bold.. how is it supposed to know you are writing a tutorial anyways... (on second thought, if you are good enough to be writing HTML tutorials.. you would know this already) </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">What makes a tag, a tag are the surrounding angle brackets.. if you omit them anything you write won't be considered HTML or ASP tags.. the trick is to use the codes for the angle brackets...</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The codes are as follows</span><br /><center><table border="1"><tbody><br /><tr style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><td width="50" align="center"><</td><br /><td width="80" align="center">&lt;</td><br /></tr><br /><tr style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><td width="50" align="center">></td><br /><td width="80" align="center">&gt;</td><br /></tr><br /></tbody></table><br /></center><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">So for the above example, you'll write something like..</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><b>This is bold text.</b><br /><br />Refer to the following link for more codes..<br /><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Code_in_Your_Posts">http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Code_in_Your_Posts</a><br /></span>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-81823276172751251842009-10-18T08:40:00.001-07:002009-10-18T08:40:38.309-07:00My Blog is Fabulous<p>There are people in this world who think my blog is fabulous.. Yeh!!!!!!</p> <p>Hurray!!!!!</p> <p>** Happy Happy **</p> <p>** Smile Smile **</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://harisgulzar.wordpress.com/">Haris  Gulzar</a> honoured me with this award.. Thanks a lot :D </p> <p>Do I have to give a award-receiving-speech? I think, I better not :P</p> <p> </p> <p>Here is the award:</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/Sts25A-t6JI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/RzlOicqUmIE/s1600-h/image%5B2%5D.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; border-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vrd8gsFvaig/Sts28aHgbEI/AAAAAAAAAIU/JBXFlTJKZCc/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" width="244" height="144" /></a> </p> <p>Rules of the Award:</p> <p>* List five current obsessions.</p> <p>* Pass the award on to five more fabulous blogs.</p> <p>* On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them.</p> <p>* When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well.</p> <p>* Don’t forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by leaving a comment on their blog.</p> <p></p> <p> </p> <p>Hmm… so FIVE obsessions.. really? five?</p> <p> </p> <p>Okay, let’s try it.. (I think I’ll copy some of Haris’s, coz when I read them, some of them seemed like mine.. :) )</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>TV Shows:</strong></p> <p>I have been a TV buff, since,… well… as long as I can remember. No matter what’s happening in the world, no matter if I have an important exam the next day, I would still find some time for TV. :) </p> <p>Now I don’t watch TV, but I still watch TV shows.. on my computer.. I won’t even start listing the shows I have, do or plan to watch.. it would be a complete waste of space.. so just believe me when I say this,  it’s an obsession all right.. :)</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Farmville: (for the lack of a better obsession :P )</strong></p> <p>It’s an on and off obsession. </p> <p>I have never been a games freak. And I still won’t call myself that. </p> <p>Some of my friends got me to play Farmville, and as I said, since then, it has become an on and off obsession.</p> <p>Sometimes I don’t even like playing it, and I still keep playing.</p> <p>Yesterday, if  I hadn’t been playing farmie here, I would have completed that dreaded, lengthy fourth chapter, and would have been able to write *SOMETHING* in the paper. The teacher gave a full question out of chapter 4, and only those topics from that chapter, which I didn’t even bother skimming through.. Can you believe it!!! Well, I know, everyone can… it must have happened with everyone at one time or the other..</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Talking:</strong></p> <p>Oh now I am getting the hang of it, coz talking is REALLY an obsession. I can talk for hours.. seriously HOURS</p> <p>My mom sometimes gets so irritated that she asks me to stop talking.</p> <p>My friends.. well.. most of them are just like me.. Anyone else, who isn’t that talkative, can’t bare me, let alone be my friend.. :)</p> <p>If you want prove… check out the length of this post.. it said to list down 5 obsessions.. I could have just abided by the rules and listed them down, instead of writing a story for each.. </p> <p>A lot of people, well one in particular, (are you reading this post? or did you just leave it, like all other posts? :P) has complained about how long my posts are, and how he can’t read any of them, because they are all soo long… </p> <p>I would stop now.. I’ll write a post on this obsession sometime, maybe.. :P</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Eating:</strong> (this is one of Haris’s)</p> <p>Yes, me too, I live to eat.. not eat to live..</p> <p>If I am working/studying I get hungry.</p> <p>If I am free I get hungry.</p> <p>I eat a lot when I have exams.. and I always have exams.. so.. well… </p> <p>(and they have just called me for dinner.. haha :P)</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Chatting:</strong></p> <p>Is that the same as talking?? well, I am talking about internet, instant-messenger chatting…</p> <p>I get tired of typing, and I still chat. </p> <p>I sit in front of the computer at office, and still when I come back to home, I switch on my computer and sign-in to all the messengers.. and pity the person I find online at that time.. I’ll keep bugging that person, till they decide to answer :P</p> <p>Okay, here are the five blogs I follow, and are fabulous for me</p> <p><a href="http://rabbzz.wordpress.com/">Rambler</a></p> <p><a href="http://ammadsal.wordpress.com">Ammad Saleem's Blog</a> </p> <p><a href="http://linguapura.blogspot.com/">Things I’ll never say</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.hina212.com/">Bewildered Soliloquy</a></p> <p><a href="http://nadiamf.wordpress.com/">What happens in London</a></p> <p> </p> <p>I have been really late with this post. I didn’t do any justice with the tag… and this time I won’t give the I have been busy excuse.. but that’s what I have been, busy.. oh was that the same excuse? :P :P</p> <p>Thank you, Haris, once again, for honouring my blog with this fabulous award. :D :D</p> Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-4619328645213339312009-10-09T10:05:00.001-07:002009-10-09T10:05:51.201-07:00Sometimes goodbye’s the only way<p>I read a blog post, a while ago, about friendships and how they are supposed to always, always end. (Will post the link when I find it)</p> <p>And the writer was absolutely right.</p> <p>There was this line in the article that I really liked, and it was something like</p> <p>“Your friends would do exactly what they promised they won’t do”</p> <p>And this is a fact. Because when we make friends we just consider them “our friends”, forgetting the most crucial fact.. they are also “people”. </p> <p>No one’s like you, no one is supposed to be like you. What would be the fun in life when everyone was just the same as you are. What would be the fun if everyone understood each other.</p> <p>That article constantly reminded that all friendships eventually reach the same fate… “THE END”… all are supposed to end at one point or the other, the thing is, when would that point come.. sooner than you think.. or later than you anticipated.</p> <p>But I have to disagree with the “ALL” part. Not ALL friendships end. Sometimes you have to make compromises, sometimes you forget about your ego for the other person, that is the time when you realize that your ego is insignificant as compared to the friendship you share with that particular friend of yours. Sometimes you give the other person a second chance. Sometimes you find a way out of the misunderstandings. Sometimes the fights would lead to a better, stronger friendship.. but not all the time… So you fight when you want to end the misunderstandings and continue with the good times as if they were not interrupted at all.</p> <p>But there are also times,….</p> <p>When you realize that there are too many misunderstandings, too many problems without a solution, at that time, instead of using harsh words and ending up hurting each other and THEN ending everything.. it’s better just to end it, without the preceding “big fight”.</p> <p><strong>Sometimes goodbye’s the only way</strong>… for everyone involved. It’s not good, but then again, it’s not supposed to be good, but it’s the only way.. and you would eventually GET OVER IT, you’ll HAVE TO.</p> <p> </p> <p>Say your goodbyes with a smile.. and let go…</p> Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-10100786651184485572009-09-27T10:50:00.000-07:002009-09-27T11:13:51.958-07:00Happy Second Birthday to Intricate Zone!!!!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhod0ViifSo2SU_fhB_8yMA8XPR8aYHyAq-2aFyAh8Ivw7vPkiy6ItYI_yjRt7u_953HiT4ceKGfEx6l6261BB9RALa56T0mAXsoD0NO9ZaVgHiyu1cj1A6X63NhHPLa4BGgcJbjIUaAb5k/s1600-h/2008-07-24-2nd+birthday+party.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhod0ViifSo2SU_fhB_8yMA8XPR8aYHyAq-2aFyAh8Ivw7vPkiy6ItYI_yjRt7u_953HiT4ceKGfEx6l6261BB9RALa56T0mAXsoD0NO9ZaVgHiyu1cj1A6X63NhHPLa4BGgcJbjIUaAb5k/s320/2008-07-24-2nd+birthday+party.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386209193155810642" border="0" /></a><br />Happy Second Birthday to my blog.. Intricate Zone... YEH!!!!!!<br /><br />The first post <a href="http://intricatezone.blogspot.com/2007/09/and-pakistan-lost.html">"And Pakistan Lost"</a> was published on September 25, 2007.<br />And the blog has now completed TWO WHOLE YEARS... HURRAY!!!! :D :D :D :D<br /><br />Though the journey started with a different address, but who's noticing..<br /><br />Yeh.. again...<br />:D<br />:D<br />:D<br />:D<br />:D<br /><br />Good thing I don't have to repeat the same kind of story as was narrated in my first post, coz yesterday Pakistan WON!!!! against India.. Yeh again!!!!!! Hurray again!!!!<br /><br />And yet again...<br />Happy Birthday to my blog...<br />Happy Birthday to Intricate Zone......<br /><br />:D<br />:D<br />:D<br />:D<br />:D<br />:D<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimzOQ7XIj8jurdR0oeBU6ujB3HTQzAT61Xh8NRjTcMM-H6EV7rB8ykfb_VgayJRF_C7ELqzOKvlYQXNjwP4CbmFdF8S8lFycywp2S38eINyybwp055NPM3KR6WGxOMJA6tUW3-mrf1kFTZ/s1600-h/birthday_cake-candle-off-number_2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimzOQ7XIj8jurdR0oeBU6ujB3HTQzAT61Xh8NRjTcMM-H6EV7rB8ykfb_VgayJRF_C7ELqzOKvlYQXNjwP4CbmFdF8S8lFycywp2S38eINyybwp055NPM3KR6WGxOMJA6tUW3-mrf1kFTZ/s320/birthday_cake-candle-off-number_2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386211704923368658" border="0" /></a>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-3951964461970301652009-08-28T23:09:00.001-07:002009-08-28T23:09:56.157-07:00Those magical, magical days…..<p>While I was chatting with a few friends of mine, at night, a memory long buried popped up in my head and demanded attention. And I asked <a href="http://linguapura.blogspot.com/">The Writer</a>, when I didn’t think he would know a thing about it, let alone remember it;</p> <p>“Did you in your childhood read/heard the story Podna Podni?”</p> <p>And as a reply, I got an excerpt from the story itself. He remembered the full story word for word. We went on discussing our favorite parts of the story. Mine was</p> <p>“Guhs guhs mere kaan mein guhs” :P</p> <p>(While on another window I started narrating the whole Podna Podni story to a friend, who had somehow missed it in her childhood).</p> <p> </p> <p>This is a story I heard in Kassette Kahani. I don’t know how many of you have spent your childhood hearing these Kassette Kahani’s but I know a major part of mine was spent listening, and relistening to them. Always getting my parents to buy me the volumes I didn’t already have. Each Kassette Kahani would have an advertisment of the Kassette next in the series, and then I would want that one too. Traded it with friends just so that I could hear the entire collection. Although some of these stories were the Urdu translation of fairy tales like “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “Cinderella”, these would be the ones I have had had a pleasure of reading as well, but hearing it was another kind of magic.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the Kassette, the story of Podna Podni is narrated by a Nani amaan to little kids.</p> <p> </p> <p>For those of you who are wondering; Podna is the name of a little bird (am not sure what the English word for Podna is, was it Sparrow?) Anyways, the King’s men caught Podni and then Podna sets out on a mission to rescue his Podni from “Raja”. Along the way, he meets ants, ocean.. and something else, I still can’t remember what the third thing was, these three after hearing Podna’s noble mission, offers him their help, in reply to which, Podna says;</p> <p>“Guhs guhs mere kaan mein guhs”</p> <p>In the end, of course, like all kid’s stories, Podna rescues Podni from Raja with the help of his three friends…</p> <p> </p> <p>This post is in the memory of all those days, we spent reading and hearing fairy tales. The time long gone, but which still gives pleasure. Those were truly the days… :D</p>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2161359847519972118.post-53748046868618413102009-08-24T08:22:00.001-07:002009-08-24T08:33:29.732-07:00A year gone by<p> </p> <p>I have been meaning to write this post since 1st July, 2009, but never got around to actually writing it, and until recently I had decided not to write at all.. But it’s worth a shot :)</p> <p>So… 1st July, 2009 was the date I completed exactly one year at my job. One year gone by.. first year completed of the career journey. And if I think about it, a lot has changed since I graduated from University and joined my very first job. And of course, this is nothing new, it happens with every one, and so has happened with me as well. </p> <p>There was a time, when I had spent a month at office and a senior had commented </p> <blockquote> <p>“Aap ko aik maheena ho bhi gaya.. aur pata bhi nahi chala”. (You’ve been here for a month, it didn’t seem like a month to me)</p> </blockquote> <p>I took no time in replying</p> <blockquote> <p>“Mujhe se pochein, mujhe to aik aik din pata chala” :P</p> </blockquote> <p>Such was the extent of my boredom, during the first month. All I was expected to do was to read documents and even edit them. It took me everything not to say</p> <blockquote> <p>“You know na, I haven’t been hired as a technical writer, rather as a Software Engineer. My appointment letter actually <em>says</em> ‘Associate Software Engineer’.”</p> </blockquote> <p>At that time, I couldn’t figure out WHY on earth was I being asked to edit some centuries old document, and put in what.. screenshots!!!!</p> <p>I was also given the code of one of the projects and was asked to go through it</p> <blockquote> <p>“Ghool ke pee lein isay”</p> </blockquote> <p>my Boss would tell me. And this is what I tried to do, of course, I wasn’t actually able to do the same, but that did help me to understand a lot of things.</p> <p>I can still remember my first meeting cum training session, where my supervisors explained the entire theme of the project on a small white board. I don’t think I remember any thing else from the meeting.. except a few terms I didn’t have a clue about.. and I wondered why everyone kept using them but I never realized those terms will become a part of my vocabulary, and I’ll be the one using them in every sentence that comes out of my mouth.. :P</p> <p>My vocabulary is now punctuated with a lot of terms which don’t actually exist in the dictionary, and if they do, not at all in the sense we use them in our day to day life. The process started when I joined University.. I learnt the word Cheetah there, before that we simply used the word Genius or Einstein… and I thought the process would end there, and that I have learnt all the jargon terms.. but I was so wrong.. In this training session, the words that got my attention and got stuck in my memory were.. let me put the entire sentences here..</p> <blockquote> <p>Code nahi <em><strong>phatna</strong></em> chaye</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p><em><strong>Peeli screen</strong></em> nahi aani chaye, chahe kuch ho jaye.. koi bhi screen aa jaye.. <em><strong>peeli screen</strong></em> nahi aani chaye…</p> </blockquote> <p> </p> <p>Yeah.. go on, call me illiterate for not knowing these terms during bachelors, but we actually didn’t. We simply used to say, in plain terms.. “Yaar error aa gaya”</p> <p>But now I use all these terms like I learnt them during my first year in this world and not the first year at job.</p> <p> </p> <p>The first month went by slowly.. with no friends at the new place, my reserved self refusing to go and talk to any one unless and until it was absolutely necessary, avoiding a face-to-face conversation as much as possible, and using our network chat software, trying to figure out whether I’ll be editing documents all the time, or will I be given actual work someday, and then at a later time, am I Support Engineer or what, I should have joined Support instead of the so-called Development team.</p> <p>But things began to roll, slowly at first, the clients called up with all the problems. In fact, my very first cut over was to go live with all the modifications. I was taken to the client side so that I can get accustomed to the environment, meet our clients and all. That cutover, went smoothly enough. Just one script refused to execute, giving an error every time we tried. I got nervous like anything.. saying things like</p> <blockquote> <p>Phele to yeh script sahi chal rahi thi (This script worked fine before.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Thankfully, my supervisor handled the situation pretty well, not loosing his head like I did on the face of a problematic script (:P). </p> <p>And this above, is actually called a smooth enough cutover, because there are always problems.. always…</p> <p>I was given a project, which can’t actually be called a project from scratch, but it wasn’t equivalent to giving support to clients either. I was to develop a new module in the existing site, and I wasn’t even able to complete that when I was given another project, I was asked to make changes (which started out as a few changes and later became a big change) in the same project (but on the existing modules).</p> <p>Then came the time when I was to visit the client side and test out all the new developments and modifications. Again, my boss sensing my nervousness decided that he and my supervisor will go along with me, to make sure everything’s going fine.</p> <p>My boss asked me then</p> <blockquote> <p>How much time do you think it will take you to test out everything?</p> </blockquote> <p>And I said something like.. two hours or maybe two days… and it actually turned out to be WEEKS!!! That time was horrible (but marvelous at the same time :D), I discovered a lot of things I had done wrong, because I didn’t know any better, I used to take the office laptop at home and worked there, then directly went to the client side the next day. </p> <p>But all that going to the client side for so long, did a very good thing. Before that, I didn’t really like going to the office everyday, but after the client’s visit, I thought, going to office is much better than going to the client side, and though I hadn’t really made any friends at office, at least there was some one to talk to, I could roam about.. and that’s what I did when I came back.. I roamed about, and talked to everyone.. and I started to ease-in a bit with the environment..</p> <p>Again changes were requested in the project currently deployed at the test server. And again I went through the same cycle; development, testing, testing at client side, entertaining their <em>farmaishine </em>(wishlist).. it was another month or so there.. and finally, a cutover.. on a SUNDAY!!!</p> <p>During this time I got permanent as well.. thankfully.. I was worried that after so many problems occurring at the client side, they won’t make me a permanent employee… might even let me go.. :)</p> <p>My Masters began after a month into the job as well.. so all was going at the same time, job, first project, first cutover, classes, midterms, assignments, finals… everything.. and we thought Bachelors was difficult. :P</p> <p> </p> <p>So eventually the project ended, went live with it, and since then, it has been one project after the other, and the journey uptil now has been good. At the beginning, I took more tension then needed, but slowly I got used to it, now I don’t deliberately forget about lunch just because I have work to do. I’ll always have work to do, so better always have something to eat to go along :P</p> <p> </p> <p>For once in my life, I am getting along with my seniors. Never during my academic life (till Bachelors) have I ever been friends with any of my seniors. My seniors didn’t know me, and I didn’t know them, that is changing (but not much), I hope for the betterment. :)</p> <p>(This post, highly resembles another post of mine, doesn’t it.. can’t help it.. just love to talk about the first few months at my job :P)</p> <p>So, I have grown from a fresh graduate to one-year experienced employee, from someone who sat quietly at the corner, working and only working, with no messengers connected, to a person to whom people keep telling “aik yahoo messenger hee reh gaya hai woh bhi khul lo yaar” (Only Yahoo! Messenger has not been installed, why don’t you go ahead with that too?), from a person who didn’t budge from her seat now keeps bugging people until one of them agrees to go to the tuck shop with her, from the person who came in the office, switched on her computer and started working immediately to a person who now gets everyone to go to the roof with her before starting work, from the person who completely forgot the meaning of the term lunch, now starts buzzing her lunch mates to go to lunch from noon almost every other day… and the list goes on… </p> <p> </p> <p>I know this has been the story with everyone else, but looking back at the year makes me realize that it was a good first year, MashaAllah, Allah ka shukar, :D, hope the rest of the career is as fun, or more fun.. Let’s just keep hoping for the very best and nothing else :D</p>Intricatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11253799057649651775noreply@blogger.com12