Blogger beta added on blocked list…

Subscribing to blogger beta was the worst decision i’ve ever made in my life!! Not only am i going through all the teething problems associated with beta (which i had quite quietly), i’m almost being forced to change where i blog.

Never knew i’d actually feel pain quitting blogger.com. Its been my cocoon, my incubator… bringing me into the blogging world and making me feel all there is associated with it. (Even though my cousins say i have *yet* to get a life).

I dont know where i’ll be migrating just yet, though some options are wordpress.com, blogsome.com or getting my own server. I think i’ll opt for option three, but that would be after Eid at the earliest. (comments welcome).

As of now though, at least i’ve got one way of posting here… through http-tunnel.com. If you guys can use a separate browser, then install it, configure it, and use it to browse through the blogspot world. Its a great piece of software, quite transparent too, and lets you feel free. The only downside is.. the free version only gives 1.5 kbps of bandwidth….

Signing out now.. apologize in advance for prolly not being able to reply on comment (though i will try).

crashed

My system just crashed yesterday morning!!! uummm.. well, not excatly crashed, its running as much as it can, my profile got corrupted, which ofcourse, resulted in me loosing all my settings!!

What i miss most though, is my firefox settings! I had a plethora of extensions, greasemonkey scripts and above all, a very exhuastive list of live bookmarks which i’ve lost now.. so since yesterday, i’ve been spending my time on the computer trying to get back all that i’ve lost. Plus, i dont believe much in making backups.

But, as with all crashes, it’s given me the opportunity to try out new stuff, streamline my operations a bit, and generally loose some of the crap which had accumulated over time. Now what i need to do is to uninstall a lot of stuff, and the regeneration will be complete.

kids are so cute!!

My nephew, S, is two years old and sometimes he does the cutest of things. I wont go over how he’s the best nephew there is, and had the most wicked yet innocent smile ever, and that he knows even at two just how to play people and that he’s become my jaan.. cuz im sure its the same for everyone.

Anyway, i spent half-day with my aapi (his mother) and the kids today. After iftar, i was feeling my usual heavy headedness and badly wanted a smoke to complete my own iftari.. so after everyone was done and all, i quitely tried to slip downstairs without anyone noticing. Well, i had almost succeeded! My nephew, S, heard the door opening and ran towards it. When he saw i was trying to leave, he tried his level best not to let me with “maamu, aao”, “maamu andar”. I told him i would be right back, and not to worry… but he was not to be dettered. Then, and i dont know how he did it.. but he devised the best way to get me to come back.

Very innocently, he held out his hand… and said “maamu, chabi” indicating to me that he wanted me to handover my car keys!!!

That was just sssooo darn cute!!! though i was surprized that how at age two, he could come up with that?!

After i handed over the keys, he happily let me leave. Though by that time, quitely slipping away was no longer an option, as everyone was gathered at the door.

A TAX-ing experience

Not really one of those inspirational titles, but anyway, here goes.

Today, i wrote up (and will subsequently) file the first tax return of my life. After see-ing the horror on everyone’s faces whenever tax time rolls around, i thought it was going to be one hell of an experience. Add to it, that i did not have any help, still dont know *where* excatly to file the return, and where im going to come up with the money to pay it (thats resolved now), it promised to be one hell of a ride.

But thankfully, CBR proved to be quite a bit more helpful than expected. Thanks to their website, and all excel-based (autocalculating) forms, the whole experience turned out to be a breeze.

In just under 1.5 hours, i had written up and printed out my first ever return form. Im feeling quite proud of myself here. Just one problem though i missed the lowest tax slab by just a measely 9k!! and now my tax has gone up 2k!!

Tomorrow, im gonna go file it, and hopefully, going to return without much problems.

when ur on ur own….

the only one worth relying on is yourself.

This came to me as revelation this morning, after a series of events.

1. I have a batman (an orderly.. not the crime fighter :p) with me where i live now, to make sure the cleaning, washing and other stuff gets taken care off. After a week of living at this place, i’ve realized the batman is really not interested in cleaning, washing and other stuff.. That i’ve started doing myself mostly….

2. The dhobi is not giving back my clothes.. as a result, now i have no clothes! So from today, i start washing my own clothes too…

3. This morning, for sehri, the batmans for the entire building (forgot?) to wake up and bring sehri to the rooms of other people around me… thank goodness i goto the mess for sehri, so i had it.. otherwise, everyone else is keeping a sehri-less roza.

4. My batman is not really interested in waking me up in the mornings either…. This issue, i have yet to resolve….

5. My best friend, whom i even threatened last nite that if she doesnt wake me up in the morning, i’ll start looking for a new best friend.. forgot to wake me up! Consequently.. im looking for a new best friend now. LoL juz kiddin! she’s just toooo sweet not to remain my best friend

and so, when on your own, you can only rely on yourself, or get wasted :p

Pehla Roza

Ramzan has finally begun in our fair city (country) after the usual mess by the Ruet-e-Hilal committee. Personally, its going to be a very different ramzan for me this year.

Till now, Sehri’s used to comprise of mom’s daant (for waking up late), Kellogs Frosties, Egg + Toast, and Tea. Iftars were at home, with the usual pakora+samosa deal, fruit chat followed by dinner. Last year, i didnt even go out with friends all that much, hardly four times, the rest were all at home.

This year, since i’ve started living alone, I’ve yet to see what will iftari be like. But i like the sehri that i had today. Anda Paratha, Dahi-sugar-paratha and Tea! YUMM!!! (they also had palak-allo which is *not* so yumm, hence omitted).

I got woken up at around 4:15 by my roommate, and we headed to the mess to have sehri.. ate.. came back.. prayed, and then i promptly went back to sleep! Little did i know… (well, i did actually.. at the back of my mind), that i would oversleep!!

Came to office at 10:30! Its 11:49 and im already feeling way thirsty…. plus, writing about sehris and iftaris right now wasnt a good choice either :S

This is going to be one TOUGH ramzan!! Happy fasting everyone!

Now for the words of wisdom for anyone caring to listen
1. Be kind to your fellow man this ramzan!!!
2. Fasting is no excuse for not working!!!

bus… thats it.

hungry for a day

What do you do when you go hungry for a day??

Make sure it doesnt happen again by getting Rs. 350 worth of junk food in your room

Right now, im having the Pringles… yummmmmm!

*crash*

I’ve been going on and on over at KMB about motorcyclists in the wonderful(?) city of Karachi… Little did i know, i was gonna have my first run-in with one… that too.. driving at over 60 MPH!

This happened while going to the airport to drop my brother and mother for their flight to ISB, just as you cross the last signal before climbing up the terminal. I was barelling down that road, saw a green signal, people waiting at the intersection, and floored the accelerator thinking i’d get through before the signal opens……. (Before i go on, one point to note is that the intersection is surrounded with a lot of tree’s/shrubs which ofcourse makes it impossible to see more than one car deep if your coming up the road. The cars i saw were stopped…. Anyways…) then i saw it! A bike with two passengers breaking the signal and crossing the intersection! I swerved right, trying to avoid them, cursing under my breath…. they cleared the road and i breathed a sigh of relief… almost!

Then i saw the SECOND bike breaking the signal and crossing the intersection!!!! this time, there was no time nor room to manouver out… in what seemed like a split second… i jammed on the breaks (which on a mehran are pretty non existant) and almost prayed/cursed in the same sentence!

Then we collided!

Luckily for him (the bastard!), he wasnt hurt…. nor was i or my brother (Thank God!!) his bike was kind of battered by then and my car was pretty much totalled from the front…. i was pretty thankful and sane till that moment, then i heard a strange noise coming from within the engine comparment… and lost it! For the second time in my life… i wanted blood! HIS blood!!! I got out and started shouting at him! Wo tou he was either too shocked or dazed (probably he’s an imbicle) to say or do anything back, to bach gaya! Just at that time, my mom came over in the other car… the moment i saw her, i kind of cooled down… a cousin of mine also got out, and went brutal on his ass! (i love you for that cuz!!). After a couple of punches.. and the crowd trying to break us up… i sent my mom n the other car over to the terminal, the flight wasnt gonna wait for a phadda afterall, got my brothers luggage from my car, transferred it to a third car which was thankfully there, left my car at the intersection and went to see them off. It took me a futher half hour to really cool down! The adrenaline rush doesnt go down easily.

What a send off they had from karachi! Sorry mom… Sorry bro!

Damn motorbike drivers!!!

On top of that, he had the gall to say “gaari dekh kar chalao”!! that was enough to get him two three more punches!

Damage assesment: Bumper gone, Bonnet dented, both fenders dented, right axle damanged, engine foundation broken, radiator assembly pushed inside, headlights broken, bumper lights broken.

dude! where are the keys?

My brother took the car yesterday…..
the car keychain also had the key’s to my room cupboard on it….
i went to my room at 6:30…
my brother came back at 1…

i read Angels and Demons for six and an half hours! (The book is totally worth it!!)

Today, i seperated both set of keys! He’s again taken the car…..

I think i’ll complete the book today.

on its way..

Today, i spent the morning getting my car boarded for transport. Surprisingly, the whole procedure takes about 15 minutes….. The actual procedure that is! The waiting and all takes about 4 hours :S which ate up my morning.

Went to get the car today, and the first thing i noticed was……. a FLAT!!! i mean, things cant happen without screwing up! now can they. Ol murphy still breathes somewhere :@

So anyways, with no other option, i changed the tyre… and took the car out. One thing i love about a corolla… it is air-conditioning! It rocks! My journey from tariq road to NLC headquarters was pretty uneventful.. when i reached there however, the contact person wasnt there. Turns out… he’d gone to hyd in the morning. Thats what the wait was about.. figuring out he was in hyd Khair, someone i got in touch with, got in touch with him, who inturn got in touch with his staff and told them to process my case. That way, i got the car boarded without much paperwork, otherwise, just obtaining an NOC is hell.

In the meanwhile, while waiting for people to get in touch, i thought i’d go get the puncture fixed, then decided to have lunch… and subsequently dropped in at Agha’s with a single purpose.. a Henny’s sandwich! I head Inspirex go on n on about it and thought why not have it. Picked up a BBQ sandwich and a Strawberry fanta, and ate in the car. The sandwich was… fresh and yummy. Though with a pretty steep price tag. Satisfied, my next stop was again NLC where thankfully the word had come through and my car was processed.

Then i realized another fact (because of which i just love a Corolla’s AC), it was raining FIRE out today!! I got dehydrated almost! The searing heat hitting my face felt…. well… like searing heat hitting my face!

Now, im sitting at the office, where thankfully the net is working. I need to get back to work, and do some of it… My boss has been pretty accomodating so far, just hope he remains like that…. I need one more day late, to see-off my mom n brother tomorrow.

And im still unplugged at home