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Listening to: Hell's Kitchen - Dream Theater


Lesson learnt: Never post a lengthy entry, hardly anyone bothers to read it :P. Infect even I don’t.

Some Weekend

Nothings better to start your day than having a cup of coffee. Ok weekend was blast , know why? Ok here goes. On Thursday Junoon had a concert in Dubai and since my cousin Talha aka Zerocool was accompanying the band (yup his complete tour was sponsored , lucky ass but then he is not an ordinary fan) there was no way, no way I would have missed this concert. Decided to meet him at the venue where the band would be practicing. Left home around 2ish and guess what I left my cam back, errrrrrrrrrr it was so frustrating, remembered it when I was on the highway so there was no turning back :(. But the good thing was Talha had to buy one so as soon as we met, I took him to the City Center. Got him a nice Sony Cybershot. We did a bit of shopping basically gifts for his family back home and rushed back to the Tennis stadium. He was quite impressed with the size of City Center and I was like yea just wait when you see “Mall of the Emirates” or “Ibn-e-Batuta” then we will talk on mall sizes :P. Entry was no masla when band manager would take you inside the venue himself :P, waited for like a hour or more for that damn thing to start. But it was worth a wait. Oh yea I forgot to mention it wasn’t just Junoon’s concert, there were those Indian bollywood cheapos or the so called “divas” who were supposed to do “their part” too. But Thank God Junoon started first so it was all good, concert was fun as usual their performance rocked, this time they had Tabla guy with them which gave an extra touch. Playlist was kinda similar which they have been doing since past few concerts. Seems like, not much is between them anymore. Two falling apart Poles of a band.

Salman Ahmed and Meekal Hasan played Heer, that was great as ever. Ali Azmat is sporting a new moustache style, I guess he brings about such changes just to keep the change going :P. But more than 2 hours of Junoon was a good fun. Crowd was great too, they were jumping, dancing and rocking, even girls had nothing to fear nothing like Karachi horrors. I took quite a few pics and Talha has posted some on the forum too.

After Junoon’s performance I went back stage and met Ali Azmat and Meekaal Hasan :D, could not meet Salman Ahmed *that is sad*. Haha and yea saw Diya Mirza up close , ok ok not that close. She was having “Red bull” just before her act :P, I guess looking for some energy. We had no mood to watch those Indian dancers shaking theirs so we left and went back to his hotel, got freshen up and went for dinner. Since he wanted to have a shawarma I took him to this Lebanese place there we had food , wasn’t really great but the condition we were in, anything would have done. After that we decided to have a “little” walk it was like 1 AM at night. Bit far we could see Emirates Towers standing tall, glowing with lights. He wanted to check those so I was like ok lets walk for a while and then will take a cab and go there. We ended up walking all the way there , that was a 2 hours walk, more than 4.5 Kms errrrrrrrrr. He kept on taking pictures of Dubai at night and making movie. We took a cab back to the hotel. My legs were dead tired so I straight away went to bed.

At morning, went to the hotel roof for the breakfast. There Meekaal Hasan, Allen (drummer), Ashiq Mir (Tabla master) and Hussnain(Band Manager) were having theirs. We took seats on the same table. Later it was just Meekal Hasan and both of us, so I had a little chat with him about his upcoming album and his other works. That guy is nice I mean he doesn’t sound any arrogant at all, talks nicely and listens to your opinions.

After that I said Goodbye to Talha, even it was their time to leave for the airport. I took the cab got to the bus station and headed home, reflecting on the weekend which has surely left lots of good memories :).

Got home, had lunch, cleaned up my TV longue which was quite a mess and went for soccer. Even I was surprised at myself, wasn’t expecting myself to last long but ended up playing for 45 minutes and after that couldn’t take a single step :P. In evening started reading Bono on Bono, it is a book on Bono but it in a conversation form. I felt like listening to two intellectuals talk and at times they didn’t make any sense at all :P. But still a good read, midway I slept and next thing I know it was 5:30 AM :(. No dinner no laundry errrrrrr. And now it is a new day, new week, back to routine. I am hearing it will be a long weekend this time, because of some UAE celebration and then Ali Azmat’s concert on first in Global Village. Don’t be surprised if I am there again :P.

Sheesh its one huge post , so I doubt many would read it :P. oh yea I did watch “Lord of War” on Wednesday night, good movie if you are interested in war weapons, kind of funny too aur haan Pak drew the second test at Faisalabad and all the blame goes to them first dropping too many catches in the first innings and then preparing the worst pitch that one could ever, a very negative approach. I believe PCB should be fined for making such a placid pitch, not only it kills the game but it will also drive back the spectators.

Happy Birthday Ather

Ok everybody say it loud, Happy Birthday to you Ather :D.

ok almost 12 hours late but still a post to celebrate birthday of my dearest , sweetest and always there to help one wala friend and brother Ather. May you have many more behtreen birthdays inshAllah :D.

Father and Son	No he is not crying, he is damn excited :D

Second Test England vs Pakistan - Full of Fireworks

Second test has started and boy did we have some incident filled two days, Mohammad Yousaf’s controversial out, Afridi’s dynamic hitting, Inzi’s composed innings, Pakistani tail hitting out and Rana Naved’s inswinger. But but best of lot happened with Inzamam’s run out and pepsi cylinder bursting out with consequently Shahid Khan Afridi (yes our hero) caught scuffing the pitch and hence 3 match ban slapped. Earlier this year Shoaib Malik lost one domestic match deliberately to avenge for umpire’s decision and now Afridi playing with pitch. Lets hope we set some better examples in future. Although Inzamam’s acceptance of the decision was quite commendable , lol maybe he wasn’t aware of the rules either :D. I wonder what's in store for us for the next three days.anyhow here is a comment on the incident by Hammad aka Activist aka my younger bro.

Mockery of the concept of Runout

Today the dismissal of Inzamam-ul-Haq was an example of mockery of the concept of runout. Lets look at the word runout - it means "batsman getting out while taking a run", now this concept is obviously lost in the dumb minds of todays' umpires! Why you ask? Lets see, Inzamam was no way attempting to take a run and instead he was protecting his body from the ball which was thrown with an intention NOT to take a wicket but to induce fear in the batsman (in this case Inzamam). Now lucky for the thrower the ball hit the stumps and everyone started jumping and appealing for a "runout". Now tell me, was Inzamam running? Was he attempting to score by taking a run? NO! He wasn't! The umpires were supposed to negate the appeal right there instead of referring to the third umpire. The appeal was unreasonable and the decision going against Inzamam-ul-Haq was totally unjustified.

- Activist

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

And Yes We have done, yes yes we have beaten England by 22 runs in a nail biting, blood pressure rising match. Shoaib and Kaneria wrapped up the tail. Great great stuff. Congratulations Everyone. Man I love this game. clicky clicky.

I dont know if u guys agree or not but I certainly do believe in this, Cricket is one game which brings the whole nation together and if we do well it gets everyone going. Atleast it does to me.

and Yea one must Thank God :).

Yaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy

Pakistan on a brink of a great victory chasing 198 to win the first Test at Multan England are 138/7 still needing 60 runs with only 3 wickets in hand. Kineria and Mohammad Sami have turned this match upside down, me so so glad. Specially for Sami when he came to bowl I knew this could be his last spell for a long in test career if he doesnt perform but boy what a spell. So was Kineria just awesome, *claps claps*. But still there wickets to go and still as they say in cricket you cannot be sure untill the last bowl has been bowled, me praying for Pak. errrr Cricinfo site is down with all of its mirros , I guess all the Pakis are up watching it.

and me online alone no one to share the joy with when any wicket falls, so here I am sharing with u guys, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay again.*prays.

Announcement©

Ok guys so I guess ab I had to make this announcement. InshAllah this January when I shall visit Karachi, I will be getting engaged to my first cousin. Her name’s Hafsa and madam has done her BS in Mechanical Eng. From NED. Do remember us in your prayers :). Thanks

In another development Omair aka OM has finally written a post, He is an ex colleague, excellenet writer, fanatic fan of English Action movies :P and an amazing friend. Do visit his site.

November Rain - Guns N' Roses

When I look into your eyes
I can see a love restrained
But darlin' when I hold you
Don't you know I feel the same

'Cause nothin' lasts forever
And we both know hearts can change
And it's hard to hold a candle
In the cold November rain

We've been through this auch a long long time
Just tryin' to kill the pain

But lovers always come and lovers always go
An no one's really sure who's lettin' go today
Walking away

If we could take the time
to lay it on the line
I could rest my head
Just knowin' that you were mine
All mine
So if you want to love me
then darlin' don't refrain
Or I'll just end up walkin'
In the cold November rain

Do you need some time...on your own
Do you need some time...all alone
Everybody needs some time...
on their own
Don't you know you need some time...all alone

I know it's hard to keep an open heart
When even friends seem out to harm you
But if you could heal a broken heart
Wouldn't time be out to charm you

Sometimes I need some time...on my
own
Sometimes I need some time...all alone
Everybody needs some time...
on their own
Don't you know you need some time...all alone

And when your fears subside
And shadows still remain
I know that you can love me
When there's no one left to blame
So never mind the darkness
We still can find a way
'Cause nothin' lasts forever
Even cold November rain

Don't ya think that you need somebody
Don't ya think that you need someone
Everybody needs somebody
You're not the only one
You're not the only one

Culprits

Yesterday was a busy day, my first ever shawal fast followed by a hefty buffet(comprised of Mexican, Chinese, Indian and Paki dishes) and when I got back home decided to check on what was running on cinema. Found out about few nice ones including DOOM, Legend of Zorro and Corpse Bride. And the chosen one was Corpse Bride for two reasons one it had surprisingly good critic reviews on yahoo, plus it was its last day on show. Turned out to be an ok movie, I mean it is must watch once because of strong animation but story was kinda disappointing and typical as till the end I was trying to figure out how they gonna bring the guy and the girl together again something that we are quite used to watch in Indian movies now. But still eik dafa daikhna.
While In the mall I discovered Etisilat is running a contest of fastest fingers, rules were a sentence will be displayed on the screen and whoever types it and sends it first as a sms to a specified number will win 5 tele cards that was prize of worth 150 dhs woaaah. Sigh I tried but couldn’t win :(.

Today again my Iraqi colleague took me to the same food place(yesterday he was with me too), he seems to like that buffet. Now most probably will watch another movie tonite. Lets see. Dubai(read Dubai not Al-Ain) is buzzing with events concert of Phil Collins, some bhangra concert, Dubai Comedy festival, Scorpions concert, Brazil UAE friendly soccer match and a called off concert of U2 cover band :(. I Don’t think I will be attending anyone of them, although Dubai is just at an hour drive but with such late night events it doesn’t make it feasible to come back to Al-Ain on same night. Plus traveling cost doubles the ticket’s cost.

People in Pakistan seem to have loads of extra money, I heard about people traveling to Dubai just to attend Phil Collins concert that too on an urgent visa. But then that is what passion is all about, plus how can I justify my own visits to cinema and a plan to attend U2 Cover band’s concert. I believe we all are culprits.

Eid Mubarak

Eid mubarak to everyone and thanks everyone who wished. I am not finding time to visit your blogs otherwise would have thanked you guys there. Oh well it is really good to be back home, good to be with mom again. But now only 26 hours left before I will depart :( *homesick*. But still its good, met a lot of people, talked to others on phone, learnt couple of recipes and some tips :D. I guess now I shall post once I get there, take care all and thanks again. Goodluck.

PS: Thanks OM for arranging a get-together. It was fun :).

Not Approved

oh well it was not approved , I guess that was expected in a sense that I am on probation and we arnt supposed to get leaves. Anyhow still 4 days visit, seems more like land and takeoff trip than anything else :). But then there are many who cant even make it for these manys days, I should not be a nashukra.