The Ramadan is nearly coming to the end, the month of blessings will soon be gone for a year, I hope everyone enjoyed their Ramadan…

Here are a few great pictures taken from all over the world in Ramadan:)

Here is a link to those images…

I don’t have anything to say, i’ve been thinking of coming up over and over to my blog to write so many things i wanted to share but i really never had it to make it up to the blog finally just because many things were personal, not really personal though, my friends have been a big mess for me lately… i feel demented. The internet access at hostel is limited, each and every source of online entertainment has been slapped with a ban, no orkutting no facebooking, any website with the word girl is slapped blocked. Studies suck, Ramadan is not well, i haven’t been as religious as i should have been, i get bored to death daily, i don’t feel good in the company of anyone, i don’t miss home and i don’t enjoy music, i am even scared, scared alot by the recent political instability, the bombings, the attacks, the presidential forcefull take over, the situation in Peshawar and specially in our vicinity, Eid is approaching and i don’t feel like celebrating it…. I don’t even have anything decent to write about, my words are gone and so are my abilities to carry on with the world, i feel like i don’t even exist the way i used to be, i don’t have the same knowledge i used to have and i am no more a geek, i come online and spend hours thinking what to do, no good movies, no fun. Life Sucks!

Just came across this via Stumbleupon.com , LOL! This guy is surely nuts!.
*Click the image below to read the text clearly.

Sick and bored as i am in the dead city of Abbottabad this summer, my friends from the group are all enjoying their vacations abroad. Out of my closest mates, one is currently in America and the other one recently returned from India after an amazing one month of holiday and is now taking some rest till he sets up with us again.

We have a plan set in the mid of August to go to Naraan-Kaghan and maybe Nathia Gali on the return, but unfortunately the costs that i’ve calculated are going to be massive in case we have to spend around 4-5 days, the problem is we need to either book a Hiace that’ll set up for around 5000/day that makes 25000 or 20000 minimum for a 5 days trip, now this is something big. Other than that, the food, the hotel stay and other miscellaneous costs are gonna make it nearly un-affordable, we can’t even take our own ride cos i guess making one person or two persons drive will make them crazy as well as the vehicle and we’re scared of running out of fuel and the other vehicle issues. Plus the hotels are also nearly occupied fully (from what i heard). I hope the plan works out and we have a good economical solution though cos that’s probably the only trip am going to have in summer with friends.

Than we have a full fledged trip either to Karachi or Lahore at the end of the year, the entire class is to go and the university is to bear the expenses as well as our class funds. Since am the class in charge and to work out the plan for the 4-5 days trip, i’ll be finding the best hotels and book them a month ago so that we have no problem getting the cash on due time, plus we are lucky in a sense that per class fund is way too much while we are only 16 guys in the class so means we can have the most luxurious accommodation too. I tried to be a bit techy so went Hotels.com but was not able to find a single hotel from Lahore, same was the case in HotelClub.net as well as HotelReservations.com until i stumbled across the portal of HotelsCombined which to my surprise had 4 cities from my country on the main page, i quickly chose Lahore and came across various options.

Out of all the options out there i found Country Club Hotel as the most economical, though the rates are not mentioned but since a friend has already been there and loved it i would settle for that, although we can still have a fair discount at Holiday Inn but than its a better place to stay at the same price and yet too far from our areas of interest. Lahore is a big city and you have to have your own transport somehow, and since we’re going on a visit, we really can’t help. Though the last 3 times i’ve been to Lahore i never really enjoyed much but i hope this time i enjoy loads since the tour is with the entire class and plus we’re sponsored by the campus so that’s another great news.

BTW, my being techy was kind of helpful, atleast i managed to find out online booking is a trend we can live with as well;).

Though this might not be a new name for the people but i am sure most would have come to know about these amazing and talented Pakistani girls(surprisingly from the NWFP) through the latest hype and promo’s they’re getting over the GEO Tv under the label for fire Records as there Album “Chup” is released. I am not quite sure about the exact name of the album though!

I heard about Zeb and Haniya long time back when i was stumbling across Sajid and Zeeshan’s soundclick page and came across there page, it than made me have a look at there own website where a chunk of 3 of their songs were available, when i heard the pushto-persian mix “paimana” it got me so much carried away that i had to hear the other two as well, and than as i did, i was quite impressed by the way the compositions and everything was done, the voice of one of them was amazingly Classic and Classical at the same time. I later found through an instep review, and an Orkut community that they belong to NWFP - Kohat. That was quite something of a news for me though cos its probably the first time someone from NWFP hit the pop scene in Pakistan and that too with a bam!!!

Best of Luck Zebunnissa and Haniya Aslam!

I am a sick fan of ColdPlay for like 2 years now, all the previous album’s that came up with some amazingly hit numbers and that are still in my Music player made it clear that ColdPlay was the best experience of music i’ve enjoyed when it came to rock bands. I never listened to any song prior to that over and over again, but the way Coldplay was, it really was a great experience every time i listened to their songs.

Speaking of their new album, frankly speaking i was outta touch of TV and Music that i never knew when did it hit the stores but apparently when i got the word out through Youtube, i was not late to download it. Hearing the album for like 3-4 times i was satisfied at all, atleast i was expecting something amazing from ColdPlay this time. Other than Lost, Violet Hill and Viva La Vida, the entire album is a blend of experimentation (one of my friends say) and i personally think the same cos the eastern touch they gave to there beats, and the excessive use of Piano (that too a de-tuned one in one of the songs - Maajid pointed it out) really made it look weird all in all. I personally rate it 6/10 cos i love Viva la Vida and both the versions of Lost, but other than that the album is just not ColdPlayish.

BTW i;ve seen the videos of Viva La Vida and Violet Hill on Youtube before they were taken down cos of Copyright issues by the EMI on California Court Records so don’t remember much, but there is no use of a good video when the songs are not worth it. ColdPlay disappointed me~!

As mentioned in my previous posts, i am bored to death in a boring city called Abbottabad where you can’t even go out after 10 PM cos apparently except the Medical Complex and a Khokhay wala, all other places are shutter closed. I planned to intern this vacations and that too with a motivated heart, thinking i am really a competent ass with some gutts i could get into just anywhere, but it kills my heart when i hear experience of friends (ok don’t lend ears on them) and than one or two in my own. Before getting into somewhere i had firmly decided i will not use any family influence, or take any support from the siblings and well, am still home;).
My priority was never going to be a bank but since am sick-ass, i thought there is no better place to work other than a bank here in Abbottabad cos that’s the only place where the offices and environment are both good, NGO’s were never in my list even, i hate them! plus Bank’s have good and stylish offices as well *coughs*.

I first went to UBL to apply for an internship cos as corporate bank and being my favorite bank i thought it’ll be a good idea to intern in a bank that has the best services in the country, i was asked to meet the HR guy on the top floor of the office, the initial appearance of the HR guy alone was enough to scare the butt out of a innocent soul like me, a dirty office giving the look of a “Sarkaari Daftar” in a very stylish building and than with the smoke in his hand and Windows 98 installed on his Pentium-2(though i still doubt it) and my entrance making him feel un-comfortable i just said i am here for the internship and i was referred by an employee of yours, his answer was simply, sorry you are late. mission failed and also UBL lost the image it had in my eye, at east there is a better way of saying NO, though my dad thought a plain NO is better than having taken your CV and than making its way to the bin, but well i had different opinion.

Next thing i did after UBL job was to make contact with Faysal Bank’s manager,the bank happened to start its operation some 2 weeks back here, but never on earth did i saw the bank’s manager and never any employee, all i can find are two guards all the time, Telephonic contact always leads to the same way as if you’re talking to a Government official. No donuts here as yet, but i’ll try again.

Next on my list here is Meezan Bank, the bank that’s probably according to me nothing but using Islam as a name to deal with stuff like Interest,Insurance, Insurance Polices, Insurance Quotes etc but that’s just my perception from the outside cos what i’ve learned so far is that NO INTEREST, NO INSURANCE in Islam.

The point altogether is that i am kind of unhappy with the way how it goes here, these banks are private and at-least they should be co-operative and know how to talk to people. In case the fruits are still sour, i think its better not to intern at all, with years left ahead of my professional life, let this year be just another fun!

The last time i came over at home to Abbottabad was probably the best days of my life that i spend here, not only was the internet connection in my place stable and steady but the overall vacations were a great fun. I traveled loads last time from Azad Kashmir, and than over to Nathiagali, Bhurban, Murree and all that too many many times.So the 2 months span was like a mere 2 weeks for me, and i must admit i really enjoyed the vacations last summer. This year, things look pretty and shockingly opposite, i come home from my university and find out that somewhere in Karachi the internet cable has been knocked out, the second thing i find out after installing a DSL connection (I’ll post a review about it soon) at my place is that its a complete waste of time and internet stability is now big time need.Other than that, its been over 4 weeks am home and I’ve never left the place for good, even parents got sick and tired of me watching me sleeping 18 hours a day and eating loads and having nothing to do.

I tried to involve myself into some sort of internship but before i could even submit my CV somewhere, i was told i was too late, though 2 of the new banks in the area are still waiting to get my CV, but they’re gonna blow my heads in the Car Insurance department, with insurance not in my good books either but turns out i am still a complete moron with no spare time from 9 to 5 to go and drop by a CV. I still have over a month to go from vacations but gosh, i miss hostel life like hell already, and since most of my friends are outta touch, no one has planned any trip as yet. If things aren’t that good till the next week, i might grab a public transport and go for a day or two to Nathiagali, that happens to lie a mere 45 minutes drive from my place, but hell no, i have to wake-up for that.

On a random at my hostel, you’ll often find small notes and piece of papers lying over my desk begging my roommates to wake me up for class cos i slept 2 hours before it was gonna start, this was for a very important class however cos the paper size and marker size is large. God Help me!

The topic sounds crazy but mark me wrong at the end of the post than if they’re not linked one way or the other to my life. WAPDA as you all know has been playing Cat and Mouse with the entire country and Peshawar as i heard my friends experience it is on one of the severe affected areas. 18 hours of no Power and when the power is on, its good to give health to keep a single ceiling fan rolling at a snail speed. Luckily i happen to be on the safe side from the load shedding since i live in the hostel at my campus and the only best and worth appraisal thing our university administration has done so far is by installing a heavy duty back up Generator so that in case the light goes out, the backup switches on on its own within 5 seconds and we have the power available for use again.

How Mangal Bagh is related is an interesting little story that happened few days back to three of we friends. Annoyed by the unlimited and untimely load shedding of the WAPDA authorities a friend of mine decided to have a custom made, Heavy Duty UPS (Un-interruptable Power Supply) built at a place called Baara and for the purpose we had to go there personally, now Baara if some of you know happens to lie under the area that are under Mangal Bagh rule now. My friend was more keen to take me since i once asked him i’d love to go there and see how things are and well on the given day we set up for Baara that is not more than 45 minutes drive from Peshawar, but before we leaving he made sure we all were dressed in Shalwar Kameez because he thought it will be an important factor to keep us atleast safe, we covered the distance pretty quickly but as we moved along i was carefully looking at how people look like in the areas we went through, they were not much different till we crossed the Baara check-post and left me surprised, all of a sudden the clothing and faces of most of the people changed, i could hardly see a man without a beard, a cap for namaz and lifted shalwar upto ankles as we do before namaaz. I never was scared though since for me it was not something very unique but the fact that it was all in one place really was something unique, anyways we went over to the desired place where the electrician asked us to wait till the power comes back and he test’s the UPS,while we waited outside in the good but hot weather talking to each other near the sides of the main Baara road, i just received a message on my cell phone to which i made no delay in reply but before i could do that we were spotted by “One of them” not sure what to call but he was one of the guys of Mangal Bagh, he quickly comes to us, shakes hands and asks the purpose of our visit and we tell him. Armed with a Ak-47 and looking like a typical extremist he than asked me if i had a picture in the phone, i was too stunned but dunno why i said No, though it had a few or maybe lots of pictures and he took my phone and started looking for them, thanks god the guy was not technologically literate so he hands over the phone to the electrician to whome we came and tells him, look for a picture in the name of God and your Faith that it has one or not but the electrician was kind enough to say no quick, while my blood was drying and color was turning pale. He however returned the phone and said, what’s with your hairs? I was wearing Shalwar Kameez with a slight gel over my hair to straighten them up a bit, i stood silent and than he asked the same from my other 2 friends, and stressed one of them what’s with you? who had an Italian like beard,none of us could say a thing but we just said we are guests here and will be careful next time, he was calm by than and said you are guests but Muslims as well, so be careful. The electrician was constantly taking our side but he made him silent and before leaving told us, “next time you come here you must come with a namaz cap over your head, and yeah lift your shalwar upto your ankles, you look so ugly without it” we said yes and quickly lifted the Shalwar upto our ankles. The guy left but the fear we had to go through was just something i can’t type over. We left the place soon because there was no sign of the Power coming back, but it indeed was not a very healthy and good experience there. Atleast i was very sure i might never come back here again. The Electrician told us to come next day if possible and after a slight tech-talk we all left with the adventurous memories of Mangal Bagh attached to our brains.

P.S: My friend forcefully took me there the next day as well , this time with no gel or spikes on, with a proper lifted Shalwar upto ankles and a namaz cap over our head and yeah we faced no problem at all.