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This is something I wrote for IBA newsletter. A must read for all the IBAIANs 
The music seemed marvelous. She looked gorgeous as ever. Her dress was outstanding, not too glamorous, and not too sober. Her makeup was perfect, not too dark, and not too light. She held my hands very gently, not too tight, and not too loose. As we gazed into each other’s eyes, I felt it to be the best moment of my life.
Suddenly I heard a voice. A familiar voice. A screaming distasteful voice. Yes it was my mom’s! What was she doing there? Has she seen her? My mind boggled up with these questions as my whole body shook with fear. The intensity reached its peak and suddenly my eyes popped open only to find my mother standing right above my head, still screaming. My next glance was at the clock and within fraction of a second I leapt out towards the bathroom door. The next second I was flying down the stairs with a pair of jeans on my shoulder, a wallet clutched between my teeth, a cellphone balanced between an ear and a shoulder and an unzipped school bag in hands.
Luck revealed its first signs of support with me as I found the car keys at the correct spot. Gaining confidence with this, I reached out to the car. After dumping my belongings at the passenger seat I started the engine and raced off. The clock in the dashboard flashed the time at me, as if it was teasing me and setting up a challenge for me. Little did that naïve know about my expert driving capabilities and my ambidextrous skills during driving.
The target of fourteen minutes was Difficult, yet Achievable. Perhaps this is what successful Mangers do throughout their Careers. Strive to Achieve Goals. With a confidence of a Business School student and a going-to-be Manager in life, I speeded away. Reaching upon the first traffic signal, I grabbed the jeans and pulled it over my legs. That was the only objective behind stopping at the signal and I raced past the red light on my way to save the day.
It was the middle of the semester and I had comfortably consumed all of my four absences. Not that I had wasted them uselessly, but at each time there had been a serious lethargic mishap. I was always the victim and it had never been my fault. There are several people I could blame for it; the first in the list is my darling girlfriend. I believe very few people in this world are blessed with more demanding and attention-seeking partners who hold the power to talk nonstop for hours at night and still have things remaining to talk about. Perhaps it wasn’t her fault too. How would an Indus Valley artist understand how things work at business schools, and especially how ruthless and anti-love the IBA policies are?
The next entity responsible for all my misfortunes is the cellular companies of today. Gone are the times when you could make the excuse of ‘running out of credit’ to hang up a call. All the cellular companies offer the (girl)-Friend(s) and (going-to-be)-Family packages at night which keep cutting down on hourly call rates day-by-day. In case the credit does finish or the phone runs out of battery, there is always broadband internet connection which acts as makeshift substitute for deprived lovers. Perhaps, experts are right when they claim that technological advancement is not favorable for everyone.
My list of people to blame does not end here. For my mishaps, I hold my parents as being equally responsible. They had put in no significant effort in selecting a name for me. Had they thought from the future perspective of the child, especially someone who was going to go to IBA, they would have never kept a name which started from the alphabet ‘A’. On several occasions I had entered the class moments after my name had been called out and was greeted with the sly, winning smile of the teacher. In a class of forty-eight students, I would have comfortably got the attendance had my name started with T or Z. I envy all the Zahids and Zaras in this world. Last semester, I had chalked out a plan to add Mohammed as a prefix to my name. Based on my calculation, this would give me an additional bonus of up to two minutes and twenty seconds in each class. And of course, I shall have all the religious blessings which come from having such a blessed name before your own. With this day’s incident, I was more determined to implement this plan.
As soon as I screeched my car inside the parking, the class bell rung. Luckily I had managed to zip up my pants and stuff my belongings inside the pockets at a signal where I was forced to stop. With the bell still ringing, I ran up the flight of stairs. Two floors above, a Hitler was waiting with a pen and attendance sheet in his hands. Waiting for the bell to end so he could announce my name and look around, and failing to get any response he could put a big fifth A next to my name. And then flash his typical winning smile to the class. But, I was determined this time. It was the last chance and a question of life and death for me. An ‘F’ in this course would have been a disaster for me. With the zeal of a Martyr, the strength of a Wrestler and commitment of a Manager I stormed up the stairs. The bell had stopped ringing. I rushed towards the class door and as soon as I pushed it open, my feet slipped back and I fell on the floor. The door came back on me with a thud and squashed my body. My legs were out of the class and only my face inside the class. I was numb but I heard my name and had enough strength in me to respond back “present” in a weak yet victorious voice. I had done it. I had won this time.
I recently had a vacation after a very long time and it was the first one outside the country. It was to Dubai this time and the fact that I was traveling alone made it all the more exciting.
The so-called business visa, valid for 14 days, was obtained with great difficulty and after numerous visits to agents. Anyways, thanks to my cousins there, it arrived and I traveled.
The first notable encounter was at Dubai International Airport where, apart from the splendor of the airport itself, I became a witness to Dubai’s cosmopolitan nature. There were people from almost all nationalities in the world. Another incident at the airport was with one Arab immigration officer. After waiting for about fifteen minutes in a long queue, I approached his counter only to discover that the officer had conveniently fled for a quick tea break or a chat with fellow Arab and appeared to be totally nonchalant when he returned after another ten minutes. I had heard about how Arabs consider themselves as a superior race over others; this incident, coupled with the demeaning tone in which he and other officers spoke at the airport, confirmed it.
The best thing to overcome the airport encounter was the drive from the airport to my phuppo’s home in Sharjah. The well designed roads with the grand cars on them and the high-rises on the way immediately caught my attention.
July is not a good time for a tourist to land in the desert. With the intense heat both in day and night and temperature clinging along 50 degrees Celsius, most outdoor activities are out of question. But there are a whole lot of indoor places to see and enjoy. The foremost are the artistically designed shopping malls, each having its own unique design and features. From the gigantic City Centers to others focusing on aesthetics rather than size, the malls have everything to offer. For shopaholics and brand lovers, you will find all top brands there. Most were offering sale on their merchandise owing to the holiday season.
However, even if you do not like shopping, it’s still a pleasant experience to visit the malls. Most of them are designed around a particular theme or civilization and tend to reflect all aspects of that in their architecture. The Wafi Mall, for instance, is based around the Egyptian civilization and the Mercato Mall tends to capture the streets of Italy in its design. The Madina-tul-Jumeirah takes you back to old Spanish days. In particular to visit is the Ibn Battuta mall which is named after the famous Arab traveler. This mall is a series of seven courts connected together, each of them portraying a theme of a country. The countries are the ones Ibn Battuta traveled to in his life time.
Apart from the malls, another major attraction is the Wild Wadi, a water park located in Jumeirah right next to the infamous Burj-Ul-Arab. The Jumeirah beach itself happens to be a great place to beat the heat, but if you are crazy about adventure and water-rides, Wild Wadi is just the place. Built over a large area, the park has all sorts of water slides that take you up and down and toss you around. The artificial beach and surfing are itself a fantastic experience. Needless to say, it’s worth spending a whole day at Wild Wadi. However the hefty entrance charges and the expensive food and drinks inside do put you off a little.
Another major activity to do is skiing at Ski Dubai, an artificial snow-park and ski ground built inside the Emirates Mall. Snow inside a desert itself seems a novel concept and the park lets you experience an exciting snow adventure. For the daring ones, there is an artificial snow hill for skiing and the ones, who are contended with spending time in snow, can roam about the park or take lift-chair rides.
If you happen to be a movie fanatic, Dubai will entertain you a lot. Almost all the malls have cineplexes showing the latest Hollywood and Indian movies. There’s also the i-Max screen at Ibn Battuta mall which was showing The Dark Knight recently. Considering the hype of the movie, the shows were all full and I couldn’t get tickets to it.
If the skyscrapers, hustle and bustle of the city and overcrowded malls create a longing inside you for experiencing some nature, Al-Ain is where you should visit. Highly in contrast to Dubai, the small state is a quiet, peaceful town with neat villas and lots of greenery. Traveling on the highway connecting Dubai with Al-Ain amidst multitude of date trees, is itself an enjoyable experience. Surprisingly the weather there was much pleasant than in Dubai with slight drizzling on the way. The major attraction at Al-Ain is a drive to the top of Jabal-e-Hafeet, a mountain located at the end of the city. Despite all its charm, it is still no match for the scenic beauty covering the northern areas of our land.
Another feature at Al-Ain is the motion theatre at Fun-City Park. Though it is not as good as motion theaters in our countries, it still was a nice experience for me.
Other places worth seeing that I could not visit include Desert Safari, Dubai Museum and a cruise journey over the sea.
To speak about the sites and not describe about state of affairs and economic conditions there would be unfair. Undoubtedly the UAE has undergone massive development in recent years and is still pursuing a whole lot of it in all areas. However, considering a few factors, the expansion and economic growth might seem hollow from inside. The financial breakthrough in the gulf has come about with the discovery of oil. Export of oil is the sole source of bread and butter for these countries. And, according to experts, the oil does not have a long life. Thus, despite the huge economic progress and revenues generated from tourism, the economies of these states might come to a collapse if the oil vanishes.
Moreover, the Arabs themselves are useless people with little or no talent of their own. Their economy is being run by immigrants from India, Pakistan, Philippines and from almost every corner in the world. No matter how long the immigrants live, they can never get the nationality of UAE and are always looked down upon by native Arabs. The rules and visa policies are ridiculously stupid and are aimed against the immigrants. On the other hand if you happen to be an Arab with little sense, it is very easy to get a good job in the government with a whole lot of facilities. Thus, the feeling of a united and fraternal nation is far from existence there.
The UAE government has so far been ignorant of investing on military defense and weaponry. In today’s world where defense holds extreme importance in every country’s objectives, the states are quite vulnerable to attack. The attack might seem unlikely considering the strategic importance of the states for the West, but we all now how quickly the Godfathers’ policies sway.
Thus my 14 day memorable trip finally came to an end. The experience was truly amazing and would have not been possible without immense hospitality by my phuppo and her family. I am indebted to my cousins Khurram Bhai, Adnan Bhai and Danish Bhai who took time out of their busy routines and wanted to show me every corner of UAE. Their enthusiasm was far greater than mine. Cannot thank them enough for this.
So here I am back with a post after a very long time. Cannot call this break a writer’s block; nor was i too busy to write something. Just too lazy i guess.
I heard a really interesting fact someone and thought it would be a good idea to blog about it. At a recent festival in Dubai some clever entrepreneur had imported rikshaws from Pakistan and was offering rides to visitors for a trip around the festival. The noisy, sound-polluting, smoke-emitting vehicle for us was a major attraction for the foreigners as some of them had seen such a vehicle for the first time. Apparently the idea was a major hit as loads of foreigners rode the three-wheeler and paid a price as high as 10 AED (Rs 180) for just a short trip. While the foreigners sought entertainment, the native Pakistanis, settled in UAE, looked at them with amusement as they realized how notorious the vehicle was back home.
Tagged by Zunaira
Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
A Time To Kill by John Grisham
Open the book to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
..
Post the next three sentences
If not, Carl Lee could find another lawyer. “I’ll give you the deed to my place”, Carl Lee offered. Jake melted.
Tag five people.
I tag everyone on my blogroll
Why do people find death so scary? This always puzzles me. Fine there is pain when you die, but there are so many ways to make death painless. Look into your lives and you see hundreds of problems, each appearing utterly complicated and unsolvable. Wouldn’t the solution be to end life and gain freedom from all these? But many people have plenty of positive things in life that balance with the problems they face. Or a lot of people are optimists and they see these problems getting solved and a happy life ahead. So they would not want to end their lives. But if the joys in life do not outweigh the miseries and there is no hope, isn’t death justified then? For someone like me who does not have a strong faith in life after death, this attracts so much.
I love you.
You know that I love you.
I know that you know that I love you.
And you still want me to say it?
He took a bath and wore a clean white shalwar qameez. Then he proceeded to comb his hair and beard and put on his cap. He looked at himself in the small mirror in the corner and grinned at himself. It was his ultimate meeting and he needed to look good. He was going to meet his Creator, his Cherisher and his Lord. How proud would God be of him. This thought made him grin even more and he silently whispered Alhumdulillah (thanks to God).
He pulled out a leather bag from under his bed and opened it up. Carefully, he lifted out a sleeveless jacket from inside and raised it up to look closely at it. The garment had 3 metal canisters tightly buckled on the front side with a maze of wires running between them. A couple of wires led to a black remote control on the left side. A red light glowed on the remote that indicated it was active. On the side of the remote a metal ring was attached which was held by strings coming out from the remote. As he ran his fingers on softly the ring, he recalled the instructions which had been given to him a hundred times: “Say the Kalimah (prayer) and pull the ring with all your force”.
With great care, he put the jacket on and tied its front laces. He looked at himself in the mirror again and felt the pride of a soldier going to war. He was going to be a martyr and he knew how much God loved them. As he gazed at himself, his eyes had showed no signs of fear. Fear had been expertly taken out of him and buried miles under. Instead, his eyes glowed with determination; with excitement and joy. He took one final look at himself and pulled on another heavy jacket and zipped it up completely.
As he stepped out of house, his cellphone rang.
“Assalamualikum (Peace be on you) my soldier. All ready to travel to heaven?” The voice on the phone said.
“Yes commander. Thanks to the Almighty, I am”. He replied in a bold, determined tone.
“Subhanallah (Praise be to God). The Lord is extremely proud of you”. The phone hung up with these words.
He took quick steps and walked on the planned route. Soon he reached the front side of the mosque and turned left to reach the side-gate from where he had been instructed to enter. The mosque, as he had been told, was run by muslims who had swayed from the true teachings of God and His prophet. They had developed their own concepts in the religion; things like freedom for women, no beard for men, friendships with non-muslims. The thought of this spurred anger inside him and he was determined to teach them a lesson and make God forever proud of him. With this, he entered inside and sat on his planned spot. He looked around and caught the signal from one of his colleagues who sat right at the corner.
The prayer started at the usual time and people stood up to align themselves in a congregation. He moved in the front row and stood right behind the person who was leading the prayer. As the prayer started, he glanced sideways and was utterly moved. Next to him, stood an eight-year old with his hands clasped on his chest. As he looked closely, the kid was deeply involved in the prayer. He could hear the young believer reciting the prayer in his soft voice. Suddenly he checked himself and his mission was back to his mind. However, the determination was all gone now. He felt weak and numb. Although he had shut his eyes, the face of the kid was still on his mind. He could still hear his prayer. The prayer was the same as his. He had noticed the worshipers and had felt no distinction between them and himself. Within seconds, he was overcome by a new force; a new energy inside him that made him realize how wrong and misled he was. Tears ran through his eyes and he earnestly prayed for forgiveness.
The prayer ended and the people started to walk out of the mosque. He hurriedly reached the front door and was about to step out when a car sped up to the gate. The window opened and three bullets were fired straight at him. They hit the jacket inside and blew him up. The whole place shook with the explosion, killing hundreds of people around.
| The Luxury of Dubai … on At the Oasis in the Deser… | |
 | Hira on She |
| Hira on Death |
| Hira on Death |
 | Madiha on My recent failures |
