Fri Chicks, Lahore

Time is 9PM.

Meeting is just over.

You are feeling hungry.

There is another meeting at 10PM.

You can’t go outside to eat.

Solution:

Pickup the phone and order Fri-Chicks Special Deal. It is equivalent to KFC’s WOW Meal and costs Rs.150 less than that. And taste is almost equivalent to that of KFC.

I have done this a few times and I have found Fri-Chicks to be a very good alternative to KFC. And did I mention, it costs way less?

And after discovering things like this I have sort of understood that why they say “L’hore L’hore Hey”

بللھے شاہ

After listening this song for past 2,3 days, I had to blog about it.

پڑھ پڑھ علم تے فاضل ہویا وے کدے  اپنے آپ نوں پڑھیا نیئں
پج پج وڑدا ہیں وچ مندر مسیتے وے کدے من اپنے وچ وڑھیانیئں
لڑنا روز شیطان دے نال وے کدے نفس اپنے نال لڑیا نیئں
بللھے شاہ آسمانی اڈدیاں پھڑونا ایں وے جیڑا گھر بیٹھیا انوں پھڑیا نیئں

A fellow blogger directed me to CokeStudio and I am absolutely hooked on to this song. The poetry is just awesome and the way it is sung is fabulous. Get yourself a copy from www.cokestudio.com.pk. Look for Saeen Zahoor in 1st Episode and you will get to the download link for this song. Song is titled ‘Aik Alif’. Listen and Enjoy.

For the lazy ones, here is the direct link.

Life is Precious

Have you ever killed an animal?

Everyone of us must have done so. I mean I am sure we kill Mosquitos, Flies, Wasps, Cockroaches, All those creepy little insects and the like. But yeah, you are right, these are not animals, these are insects. I have done countless killings like this. I may well be a Terminator if all this counts.

But well, I am not talking about this type of killing. I am talking about killing a real animal who has four legs, a tail, a head, a body and all the other pre-requisites.

I killed a dog this Friday night when I was going to Rawalpindi from Lahore via G.T. Road. It came in front of my car suddenly and I did not have enough time to stop or change direction. So, I hit him bang straight. The poor animal rolled at least 10-12 times in front of me and eventually fell into a road-side ditch. Car got hurt a little and I had to spend some money to get it fixed but the bad thing about this was that I had just took a life and if you are a normal human being, this is never a good memory to have. I was sort of speechless for some time. It felt weird and strange. I was feeling a little bit guilty thinking that probably my feet would have reacted a bit differently on the brakes had it been (Khuda na Khawasta) a human and this guilt is still occupying me a little bit.

Believe me, It’s not fun.

Chat Confusion

Have you ever had the misfortune of calling someone else your wife? I did this yesterday and thank God, I called this only on chat otherwise, you know what could have happened

It all started when I got an email that my wife had joined facebook. Me, being in Lahore thought that she must be online right now so it is a good time to chat with her. I instantly added her in Google Chat from my Google Mail and saw that she was waqa’ee online.

I opened the chat window and started conversation in my usual way like ‘oey, kya ho raha hey’. The response I got was a bit strange. Response was ‘I am a bit busy right now, will talk to you later‘ and something like: ‘yeh tarz-e-takhatub kutch ajeeb nahi thaa‘. I was a bit surprised at this reaction so I pinged her again and I got the response saying ‘I am busy, will talk to you later‘. I thought what is this going on and called my wife on phone. She told me that she never replied to anything, in fact she said that she didn’t even open the chat window to chat with me. I was left stunned at all this. Anyway, I came back to my seat and tried to investigate a little further and what I found out was amusing to say the least.

The name of my wife starts with ‘S’ and her father’s name is Rafiq so her initials are like “srafiq”. The person with whom I was chatting had initials like ’srafique’ as well. After digging down this thing a little further, I came to know that the person whom I was chatting with was ‘Salman Rafique’ aka Fifu, an old colleague at Ultimus and a very good friend. And when I told him that I was thinking him to be my wife, he was like:

سوات

وہ جو دربدر، خاک بسر ہوئے
وہ جو لٹ گئے ، بے گھر ہوئے
وہ نہ مانگیں تم سے تمہارا گھر
نہ تمہارا دکھ نہ تمہارا در
وہ تو چاہتے ہیں بس گزر بسر
انهی وادیوں میں عمر بھر
یہ کڑا وقت، یہ تلخیاں
یہ گردشیں ، یہ بجلیاں
ہے ہمارے رب کا یہ امتحان
چلو قافلوں کو کرو رواں
آو مل کے ان کا ساتھ دو
جو مدد کرے وہ ہاتھ دو
کہ یہ اپنی دھرتی کے لوگ ہیں
انہیں زندگی کی سوغات دو
انہیں پھر وہی سوات دو
انہیں پھر وہی سوات دو

Microsoft sneaks in .NET Framework Assistant in Firefox

If you are a windows user having .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installed and your Automatic Windows Update is ON, there is every possibility of a new extension in your Firefox browser named .NET Framework Assistant and the interesting thing is that this extension can’t be removed by simple means since the uninstall button is greyed out.

There is quite an uproar about this thing from Microsoft in the tech industry. You can find details at this link on how to uninstall this nasty little piece from your Firefox browser.

Shehr-e-Iqbal

“Jis nay Lahore naheen waikheya, uss ney kutch naheen waikheya”.

So, nowadays, I am trying to make my eyes see things and make my mind feel the accomplishment of having seen Lahore (and in turn having seen something).

I started for Lahore from Rawalpindi on 6th of June, 2009 and believe me, its outright boring to drive on Motorway when you are alone. I am seriously thinking about using G.T. Road more often which inspite of all the bad things associated with it has alteast some life around it. Motorway is cool but it is a little bit too cool sometimes.

My first impression of Lahore is that it is a rich place. My friends tell me that this impression is because of the fact that
I am in better areas of Lahore right now. Another thing about Lahore is that traffic moves way faster than Rawalpindi. Roads are wider, amount of traffic is bigger but the speed of traffic is faster as well. The frequency of huge buildings is also way bigger than those in Rawalpindi/Islamabad. And yes, CNG is cheaper, I don’t know why but it is. These are my initial thoughts so don’t take these seriously .

I lost my way to office on the very first day. I was going from Barkat Market to Canal Road, I had to take the left turn to Canal Road towards Johar Town but I somehow managed to miss the turn and ended up going straight. When I had travelled quite a distance the traffic started being thicker and slower and I was like “there is a lot of traffic in the early office hours” but very soon I realized that I am on the wrong way. I asked a Rickshaw-wala key “Paa jee, Neher kithey hey” and he said “Tusee bohet aggay aa gaye ho, Neher tey pitchy reh gayee hey“. I managed to reach office only 12 minutes late.

On my way back, I tried a different route and lo n behold, I lost my way again. I had a general sense of direction though due to which I managed to get back on track. Actually, I was trying to find a restaurant in Faisal Town where I had dinner on Sunday night alongwith 3 other friends. I roamed around the roads but couldn’t find the restaurant. Today, I found out that while I was looking around, I had passed infornt of that restaurant. Now, this is a new habit that I have developed in Lahore, I continuously try to keep myself concentrated on not missing a turn/underpass/shop etc and still I miss that. :S Weird, isn’t it? Am I getting old or what?

One song that kept circling in my head was “Ajnabi Sheher key Ajnabi Raaste” by Salman Alvi and for the first time in my life, I understood how it feels to be alone in an Ajnabi sheher.

Init()

At last, I am doing it now. My first blog post. As they say “If you are in it(know it), we will have to kill you “ so here I am IN it now, into the world of blogging. I had always wondered for all these years that why should I blog? What will I write in my blog since I don’t have any stories to tell. I am an average person living an average life so how would anybody be interested in reading whatever I write. But now, through a twist of fate some pebbles have been thrown into the calm waters and life’s got into some little transitions so here I am. Bear with me if you can. I will try to make it interesting and probably useful (for some).