Mothers Day and Tare Zameen Per

Zee TV aired Tare Zameen Per today as a mother day special, and even though I didn’t watch the whole movie but the parts (scenes) that I did, were enough to make me (or anyone else for that matter) cry. The movie is a classic.

I remember when I watched it first time in cinema almost ever eye was wet, every hand had a tissue. I think the movie have touched millions of hearts. And specially when you have a kid in a family who is Autistic.

Okay, yes I admit, I did end up shedding some tears here and there.

Here is song “Maa” (Mom) for you from the said movie.

Quote(s) of the day

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody

Bill Cosby




If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed and color, we would find some other cause for prejudice by noon.

George Aiken.




In archaeology you uncover the unknown. In diplomacy you cover the known

Thomas Pickering




To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all

Peter McWilliams

State of existence

There are times when I hate my existence... perhaps death will be the cure.

Author: Me
Reason: Unspoken
Pain: Ultimate
Run away chances: None.

Update

Last few days have been awful. In their own way, and, in different domains.

I do have many different chunks in my mind to write about, but I have no idea how to relate them or where to start.

In short, I have burnt a lot of calories.

Yesterday I bought a new desk top and this will be a first blog post from the new PC. I have tried to keep myself busy in assembling and installing.

I think you can see I have no clue what I would like to write, so I will stop.

Blogroll rants

I like the RSS Live Blogroll on some blogs. The updated blogs will appear at top with recent post title — pretty convenient. I made a small search to find such a plug-in or widget for wordpress but I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Instead, I found something else, now if you hover the mouse on blogroll you will see a popup window with recent posts from the link. Hope it adds at-least some convenience.

I also updated some links which were changed or moved to other addresses and removed old ones. Although there are dozens of links I would like to add but as most of you know me, I remain the ‘lazy’ one to do so.

In the mean time, hope you enjoy the new blogroll plug-in.

I am your Master - I am a Man

I am so sick of it when most men dissemble themselves aesthetically as gentle and nice when in reality — recreant they are. I know this individual as (boy friend / potential future spouse) of a dear friend; let’s just call him Mr. X for now, and I will refer to my friend as Ms. A.

So, Mr. X sneaks into Ms. A’s cell phone and goes through her SMS and call details; and he had courage to inquire and argue about one call length she had (Approx. 20-25 min). As if his very first act of looking into private things wasn’t unfledged at all, not disgusting at all.

The call at hand was from Ms. A’s friend who is having some of his own problems and he was just discussing those with her. But Mr. X insists the only possible explanation for such a lengthy call is — you are having an affair on his back. What utter nonsense. If she wanted to have an affair with someone else why would she stick with such a lowlife like you anyway?

So after the altercation they had over the issue, the conclusion; Ms. A’s SIM got broken and she is not allowed to contact with her friends who are guys. What saddens me more though — is— she might do as he asked. She will, as most women do, allow him to treat her like a property and not an equal companion with equal rights and freedom.

Although I wish the best for her and hope she stays happy, it is highly unlikely the wishes and hopes can solve the problems. I believe, men will never manumit, they never have. The answer is not in the hope things will get better but in an action from women, in a refusal of being treated as a slave.

The best dance

I received the following video on facebook with the title “Who says Taliban are backward?” The title is probably just a hoax but nevertheless, I assure you, this is one of the best dance video you will ever see in your life time. So enjoy!

Tapping your cell phone

I don’t want to freak you out but take a look at this YouTube Video. It will certainly change your perception how you look at your cell phone.

Money Planning

I seriously need a money planning. I was just going thru the transaction history of my account for the past month and guess what, I have spent more than what I earn for a month — 10% more. Okay I had to pay the TAX this month but it still doesn’t explain what the heck did I do with all that money? I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t do clubbing and I didn’t even go for a cinema past month.

Maybe there is a chink in my pocket and I am dropping out my money everywhere? :\

Follow-up on my last post.

Since I was still furious, just to confirm it from my end I called Western Union and asked what sort of identification I need if I am receiving money. He asked my country, I told him I am in Malaysia but I am not a Malaysian. We discussed about the amount since there can be restrictions on larger amount and finally after checking it for me he told me I can use any “Government Issued Photo Identity”. e.g. Driving License.

So it’s confirmed now, shall I complain to Western Union about their Agent, or RHB about their branch and employee? Or just be me and forget what had happened?

RHB bank - Western Union and their service

I am so F******* P***** off right now.

I went to RHB bank just now to receive money thru Western Union, because I was suppose to buy medicine for my 12 year old cousin back in Pakistan, who is Autistic and still doesn’t speak or hold proper social skills. Let me remind you that this is not the first time I am receiving money using same method. Here is what happened.

I filled up the form and went to the counter. “Hello, I am here to receive money using Western Union” and I handed over the form.

“Do you have your Passport?” asked the lady

“No, I have my ‘i KAD’ (Expatriate Identification Card)” I produced my I KAD

“I am sorry, you need to have your Passport” she said

“But I have my i KAD, you don’t expect me to carry my Passport all the time, do you?” I said, knowing that I have used the i KAD countless times for both Western Union as well as Money Gram.

“Maybe at other agents, here we need your original Passport” she sounded confident which made me more p****** off since just last month I received money from the same bank as well as same branch and I told her so.

“Just last month I used it right here on this very same counter” Now I wasn’t smiling anymore.

“Maybe last month, now we don’t, this is a big amount”

“It is exactly the same amount I received last month; it wasn’t big amount last month?” I was being sarcastic now.

“No we need passport” Now her customer service sweet smile was gone and she sounded agitated as well

“Why the heck not the i KAD? I don’t make it at home, your Government gives me this card, Immigration told me I can use this anywhere instead of Passport as my authentic identification, you can even verify my finger prints from the database right now, you can even verify this card is authentic using simple SMS service to immigration” My voice was defiantly raised.

“But bank policy changed” It was clear she was out of excuses.

“I don’t see any notification posted, perhaps you have some notice or memo you would like to show me?” She kept quiet, and I tried to lower my voice and politely asked again “would you please confirm it once again from your superior, I am telling you I have received money using my i KAD previously several times” and she went away to consult someone.

After few minutes she came back with this guy who didn’t even greet me with a hello and said “Sorry, our system went down, cant process Western Union requests right now”

My Blood Pressure jump to my tamples again.

“I am sorry, this is just an idiotic lie, but let me ask you this, this means you are saying I can use my i KAD but only your system is down right now – correct? So I will wait right here till your system comes back online” I was bluffing, I didn’t want to collect the money anymore, I was simply just angry and I was seriously thinking to bring it higher and complain.

“No” he replied with blank and confused look, I am sure he wasn’t used to of getting someone who will argue. Maybe most people just go back when asked.

“You know what – Sir, I am really, I mean really disappointed in your service and behavior right now, and I will make sure you have to give an explanation for all this” I spoke slowly and angrily “May I know your name and designation?”

His eyes widened and narrowed, and you won’t even believe what he did. Can you imagine? He babbled “Oh and …. That is there” and run away in one direction out of my sight, pretending he just remembered something important and avoiding telling me his name. Arghhhhhhhhhhh

I was so P***** off.

Call for header design

Okay so any volunteers who would like to design a header for my blog? Yeah I am talking about this picture at top; I don’t have anything in mind what I would like, but something calm — something thoughtful — something abstract.

The design specifications are, I think it should be 1600 pixels in width and it will be squeezed to fit according to user’s browser. Height, I believe should be 200 pixels.

If you know my email address you can send it in my mail or you can comment and ask for it. And thank you if you even consider doing it.

Upgraded

As mentioned in this post, I started to feel obsolete in blogging world looking at many widgets and fancy options in other blogs. I tried to insert few new things in my theme only to find out it wasn’t compatible and they told me I was living in a stone age – alas.

I decided to change the theme, and when I did, they once again laughed at me, I was “Obsolete” since I was using a Stone Age version of Wordpress; never mind, I upgraded to 2.7 version of wordpress as well as a new theme called Atahualpa. Hopefully, I am upgraded now.

There are more than 200 options of the theme itself and various in wordpress, it will keep me busy for few days trying to figure out what is what. Though I have noticed some fonts have been messed up in some posts.

Income Tax

So it was my first visit to Income Tax office here in Malaysia. I filled up the credentials without actually knowing what the heck was I doing, as everything was in Malay. Even after I selected the language to English I think many things still appeared in Malay. Anyway, the important thing is I received my file no and the remaining amount I need to pay. So I hope I can do it anytime online now. And hopefully next time I won’t need to visit the office either and I can use the e-service since I have my password now. I guess, now is the time to take a nap.

The Gender of the Monkey

With Reference to Mr. M's post (Link) about the monkey. Here is a prove of my claim that the monkey was - a female.

Google Friend Connect - The world has changed

There are so many fancy gadgets and what not; for the bloggers and blogging world now. I haven’t been writing much from a year or so and now I already started to feel I live in a Stone Age. Just to keep up, I tried to register and put on this “Google Friend Connect” thingy on my blog, but honestly, I don’t really like it, because I am unable to properly adjust it in my sidebar. I have tried to reduce the width of gadget as well as expand the width of sidebar but all in vain.

Hmmm any suggestions? I am still skeptical about keeping it or just throw it off and go back to my simple world.

Woods Camp

Woods Camp – a lot has been written on it on various blogs with many amazing pictures and videos as well. Here is my version.

As mentioned by Mr. M the idea of this camping date’s back to August 2008, right after the first camp, there are very few people with amazing ability to turn ideas into reality – and one of them is Mr. M. he proved it once again.

Around a month ago I first found out about the camp but I wasn’t sure if I will be able to join it for many reasons, some of which were personal and some family related. In the end I did make it.

During the course of preparations, arranging, settling things, marketing etc and God knows what else, I used to get updates mostly from Mr. M and partially from the Committee Members or Ms. Y. It looked promising knowing there were so many colleagues and friends who were willing to join along with the students. But disappointingly some of which couldn’t make it at the end, with the reasons ranging from business, family and personal choice. Similarly some of the students couldn’t make it either.

We ended up with thirty eight participants. Mr. M asked me few times to join him while he was arranging things but I was never able to make it because of my contact hours during work. On 18th of April when we got there it was my first time to see the place. Let me list down the Good(s), the Bad(s), the Cute(s) and the Ugly(s) of the experience.

I might post some photos later (if I am not really lazy) otherwise if you are a camper drop a comment or email and I will send you some. Or collect a CD from me once I burn few.

The Good(s)

-Finally going there on Woods Camp in reality.
-Being away from Kuala Lumpur and work
-Amazing view of nature, trees, crystal clear fresh water. (Not to forget ice cold)
-Independent and responsible committee members (Hats off to you guys)
-Decent transportation (it was a mess last time)
-Just laying down in the streams (it was heaven in itself)
-A chance to know a different side of every participant.

The Bad(s)

-Maintenance of the chalet (I would have preferred more cleaner one)
-The place being too big, it was too far away from one place to other
-The HEAT and the HEAT and HEAT and HEAT HEAT HEAT (it sucked out all my energy, specially the second day and I was completely dried out)
-No spoons (yes no spoons, had to eat with hands and I really don’t know how to. I ended up eating not only with my mouth but my chin, cheeks and even nose.)
-Loosing a game of chess from Ms. J (Just Kidding. I know you are a wonderful chess player. At least I won all other 3 games I played with others)
-The fact that I would have loved some others to be able to join the camp, but they couldn’t.


The Cute(s)

-The Poser Monkey.
-There were many participants who were cute in their own way, and since I don’t write the complete names there is no point to mention the initials.

And the Ugly(s)

-The waste. Either from one of the participant or the Monkey. But I hope it was the monkey (kidding)
-The Lizard (or was it crocodile/dragon?) it was around 1.5 meter long. Black. Ugly. Disgusting. I went up to the chalet around 2 AM and I saw it on Mr. M’s chalet. I didn’t dare to go closer.

Charles Petzold

Charles Petzold is a legendary author about computers, specially programming on windows platform. He is one of my favorite authors and he never seizes to inspire me as a programmer, as a student of technology; and he gives me a strange sense of motivation—He is a true visionary.

I am reading one of his books again and some of his lines are echoing in my head since yesterday. I just wanted to share.

“Late at night, when the day’s work is done but the brain is still buzzing, programmers have sometimes been known to ask themselves this question: Is programming an art or a science?

Surely it seems like a bit of both. As an artist, the programmer starts with a palette of basic tools, spreads open a canvas as wide as available memory, and with a dash of inspiration begins fashioning a unique creation where once existed only random bits. But the canvas can’t be decorated with complete anarchic abandon. The syntactical rules that govern the tools of programming may allow an infinite variety of constructions, but at the same time they are as strict and unrelenting as the laws of nature.

Programmers are the designers and builders, architects and bricklayers, visionaries and engineers of the modern age. The edifices we build become the global cities of the future, an ever-expanding series of links and connections between people, communities, and information, often with a beauty truly admired only by those who share our passion. To nonprogrammers, our creations are rarely respected—unacknowledged when they work correctly, cursed when they fail, and abandoned when they become superseded—even as they become ever more essential to users’ lives.

A computer program is a magnificent machine. Were it to be implemented with whirling gears, levers, and pistons, it would fill our rooms with a music of breathtaking complexity. We’d see logic in motion, algebra in action, a dance of data. A strange vision, yes, but that’s really the perspective the programmer sees, as pieces of a program are fitted together with a precision unmatched by machinery in the corporeal world. Few joys in life come close to the thrill of getting a new program working, seeing it suddenly blink awake and take life before your eyes.

Such joys are never experienced by the vast majority of computer users. Most people who use computers these days aren’t programmers and never will be. They instead simply run applications—word processors, e-mail programs, Web browsers—that other people have programmed, or they use appliances—cell phones, DVD players, bread machines—that have computer programs embedded deep inside.”

An attempt to come back

Over the past few months I have been thinking to write again, but write what? It seems I have lost the ability to write and worse, living here in Malaysia has caused my already broken English to become “Minglish”. Where my every other sentence end with word “Lah”. And there is an endless list (which perhaps will need a separate post)

I am having feeling of “uselessness”, being caught in void and static. And I desperately need to do something, and I know what I should – I must. But that’s where the “Excuse Master” comes in. It’s another part of me, with great excuses about why I shouldn’t do, or can’t do what I must. Anyway, till next time, here are few lines of chat I had with my student the other day, sometime they scare me :\

STUDENT: sir..
Me: Yes Sir?
STUDENT: your ass want print screen or burn in cd?
Me: My "Ass"?
STUDENT: WHICH ONE
Me: I have only one
STUDENT: ASSGNMENT
Me: phew ....you scared me

Sigh

“This queue is for the cab?” I heard the polite voice in a low tone.
“Yes” was my reflective reply
“Ah so big?”
“umm hmmm” and I shrugged. “When I saw it I was like Wooohhh, but I am too tired to take the train”
“Yeah, same here” she said with a smile.
She was wearing a local traditional dress but with stylish touch. Silk and pure white, her shirt was made of net and she wore a white singlet inside. Proper blush on her cheek bones and she picked a natural tone for the lips. Her eyes were adorned with green eye shadow which rather suited her. Not to forget her high heels, shoes in black and golden combination. She was pretty.

In our conversation I found out she looked younger than her age and it was impossible to believe she was a mother of two. I now know where she works and I felt compelled to visit her just to say “Hi” but later decided not to. Give me a day or two to get her out of my mind.

Ohh by the way, I bought an external Hard Disk 320 GB. I am not sure why or if I really needed one, but ah well, maybe it will come handy sometime.

Difficult Situations

I feel I am not really good emotionally and expressively when it comes to deal certain problems specially if they are between friends and they concern emotional yet ethical issues. I have (perhaps most of the time) given priority to ethics over the feelings, emotions, even friends. But yes I hate to be caught up as a sandwich. Often I will try to convey my view point indirectly and rarely, direct, in polite ways. But yes it is exasperating.

Puala Pangkor

I am sick. Flu and fever. And I was actually looking forward for this weekend so I can do a lot of pending work as well as sleep as much as I can. My office colleagues want me to go with them to Puala Pangkor and I am - was resistant; I didn’t want to spend more at this point as I already did a lot last month and I have other plans. And of course this weekend was planed for a long sleep, wasn’t it?

And since morning as the fever and flu worsened I started to think, not to go and they started to push to come along. Probably in next 4-5 hours we are scheduled to leave in the middle of night so in the morning we can catch the ferry, and I just did a little search to see where exactly this place was and what exactly was there. I found more then 4 thousand pictures tagged with Pangkor on flickr and here are few links. I guess I am more convinced with these pictures then the long speeches they gave me about the place from past 2 weeks.

I am sick. Flu and fever. But I think, I am going there tonight.

PS: I cant find my sucky camera :\

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Okay enough. This way I will endup posting hundreds.

I shall be back.

Past few weeks have been crazy. Immense work load, moving and also some personal things. Although I will be busy next week too, but it’s a short week so hopefully things will turn back to normal. I am suppose to write a lot, but I am not sure if I will be able to when I actually sit back to write. Sigh.

I shall be back – soon.

The Pakistani Spectator

Wanted to blog, but I have been really busy at work. The less available time, I spent in answering The Pakistani Spectator’s interview. Here is the direct link.

Aamir Khan’s Blog.

Good God, I didn’t know my all time favorite actor had a blog. The site is pretty simple, a link to chat and the blog. I am too sleepy at the moment, but thought I would share it first.

Here you go, the link.

Dr. Farrukh Malik's opinion

Dr. Farrukk Malik’s honest opinion about my blog, here is an excerpt.

Link to post.

It’s for the first time that I encountered JonyBr at Random Thoughts on Random nights. I happened to read two of the posts with this blog, one titled strange feelings in which the author was not able make the point to why he is writing it all. It didn’t touched me, having read this I clicked away to the home page where I happened to read the top most post present titled You can not make everyone happy. The title was really attractive but when I end up reading this post, I though hmmm ordinary but I will say the write ups were some regular musing that ought to go around and I must respect the choice of the blogger to what he/she wants to write.

It made me smile for 3 immediate thoughts.

1. This is exactly what I meant in my post You can not make everyone happy.
2. This also reminded me something from Mathew (7:1-2) “Judge not, lest you be judged” and a previous post here.
3. This actually increases my ratings on blog ratings sites such as Technorati because of the track back/link. Ah, well, I returned the favor.

You can not make everyone Happy

On 2^nd of Jan I found out it was a birthday of one of the colleague. We are on friendly terms and since she was working too hard from past few weeks I decided to buy a cake for her as a good gesture. Of-course I hoped it might make her feel nice. But a cake without candles? So I ended up buying 36 candles as well, and we actually had a small birthday party in the end. Indeed, as hoped, I think she was touched and said thank you.

But to my surprise I later learnt no matter what you do to spread small pieces of joys you can never make everyone happy. There will always be people, who, for the strangest reasons won’t appreciate, even if you only see them like once a week and for only to say a Hello. Some even said it right at my face and I was like “huh what?”. Argggggg.

Strange Feelings

After having a quite lonely new year’s start like always I woke up at 6 AM while it was still dark outside. Since I still had a little time I decided to check my mails first, and ended up on one of the blog which is subscribed in my list. And she (the author) spoke about the phone call she made and how she heard the sound of breaths on the other side, and her thoughts while listening to those breaths. In a complete silence, when you only hear three things, the ticks of clock, your own breath and the thoughts in your head – I didn’t know what I felt, but I do know whatever that emotion was, it was immense. It was pleasing and painful at the same time.

Friday Prayer

Alas. It’s a time of shame and embarrassment. I mean really, I feel ashamed. I was so busy, working, that I even forgot it was Friday and I am supposed to leave for a Friday prayer. And it was an Indian, a Hindu friend to remind and ask “Don’t you have to go for a prayer today?”.

“Oh shit, yes I have to”

“How can you forget a Friday prayer?” he asked, and I was speechless.

:\

New Year's Night

My New Year eve was spent at home, staying online. Even the online world seemed deserted. Only fifteen minutes before the midnight we went out, found a place some 5 miles away from twin towers and watched the fireworks, from far far away, in small glittering manner. It looked beautiful. As much as I wanted to see it from as near as possible I equally would have hated the crowd and the rush. But bless those people who took some magical pictures and uploaded on flickr, so I can share them here. Anyone interested to see how it may have been can get an idea from these lovely pictures.

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