The Word of mAn[S]o0r

round is a shape too… isnt it??

(thought me after gobbling up a half-roll and a packet of kurkurre post midnight)

Abhe at office.. and feeling hungry again :@

p.s.
Kurkurre are YUMMM!!

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Chocolate!!

mmmmm!!! yummy!

And you know what is pure bliss?!

A ONE KG BAR OF CADBURY DAIRY MILK!!

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One of the first things which hit me, when i came to stay with my parents was this….. i was given the ‘guest room’!! Damn! i mean.. i no longer have a room at my parents house!! Kind of makes the disconnection permanent.. doesnt it?!

Oh well.. atleast i have ’somplace’ and not living off the couch

but then, my mother cheered me up

“mansoor, how can it be that you dont have any contribution in our home. We’ve left the drilling and hanging up of the paintings around the house for you.” (read: we didnt wanna do it.. so who better to dump it on).

how positively wonderful!!!

so two days out of my 7 days here were spent drilling holes in various walls around the house, hanging stuff off em, and then hearing about what a job (good and bad) im doing. Not bad huh?!

Also, this morning i gift wrapped various gifts mother had bought for her nieces back home. I hadnt realized it, but the gift as Eidi tradition is slowly starting up in my family as well!! All i have to say to it is… “nnnnnoooooo!!!” we used to get off so easily with just giving Eidi!!

Realizations while performing the above mentioend tasks…

• i love drilling holes! and
• i love gift wrapping stuff.

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This one was too funny not to blog about!

During a conversation with a friend of mine on which mobile phones to get, she told me she was interested in SonyErricson w300i recently as it was a flip phone and she wanted a flip phone. I casually mentioned the nokia 6131, to which she replied…

“oh! if nokia 6131 is also a flip, then i might go for it, afterall.. i am a nokia baby”

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On our way back from murree, we encountered a hailstorm! It was the first such experience of my life! and well, i just had to capture it! Without further ado, i present…

Whats it like to be in the middle of a hailstorm!!

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Eid kay purmussarat moqay per aap ko jashn-e-azadi mubarak ho!
Nacho, gao, aiyashi manao! Aap azad hogaye 11 mahinon kay lye!

this was an sms i received from my cousin on Eid and i couldnt help but smile at it. All during ramzan, the only thing we do is remain hungry, most of us that is. This was evident throughout the month with various bloggers putting up posts related to it (im too lazy to go find them, but they’re there! i assure you). Whats up with that?! Why then do you even go through the motions of remaining hungry?
The first day of Ramzan, i witnessed two people in a shouting match in the middle of the road. Throughout the month, I saw people lying through their teeth. I saw people cursing, stealing (mobile phones?!) and what not.. So i ask, does staying hungry really does any good then?

Sid put up a very good post on the issue, where she made up a dua to the true lord of most muslims now, Satan, and how they ask his forgiveness for even trying to be pious in the month of ramadan! It made me think that what if that is what truly is in the heart of us *muslims* nowadays?! Anyways, give it a read.. thats what inspired this post.

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Standing outside the labour room, you watch your cousin-sister going in. Her hubby at her side… you stand outside and wait. Pace around, wondering.. if everything is all right.. oh God!! what if there were complications?! Why isnt anyone telling us anything?! Consoling other family members who are going through the same.. you wait…

and wait…

then you hear it!! The first sounds of a baby crying! Giving testament to the fact that a new generation in the family has started! You see a small wrapped up bundle… so small, so tiny.. so fragile…..

you hold the bundle of joy in your arms and you finally realize…

what a miracle life really is!!

*my nephew turned two years old a month back! his little sister is going to turn one day after tomorrow! may you both have a wonderful life! and be bringers of joy to this world! amen*

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This year, since family is in Islamabad, we took a different direction from our traditional Eid day, and decided to do something funky. Thats when Eid in murree came up as a viable idea!

I

My dad had booked a hut in Murree for the second day of Eid (which at the time, was wednesday). Since Eid fell on wednesday, we thought why not, and headed there anyway. In retrospect, it was a *very* good decision! This is one of the things i like about Islamabad! Hill resorts such as murree and bhurban are very close and all it takes to head out is a couple of hours of planning for an overnight stay.
Being Eid, most of the roads were empty, which suited us just fine. A lot of the shops were also closed therefore, we prepared ahead and took all things we thought were necessary from home. But ofcourse, no matter how much we prepared, there were still somethings which we forgot to take, and had to search for on the way. These included mobile cards and medicines.

II

The way was absolutely lovely! A bit sunny, which my mom was not at all in favour of, but the greenery and the peace made up for it. Our car started giving us some problems at the beginning, heating up every little while later, which we later attributed to the AC being on. As soon as we rolled down the windows, it started behaving and the rest of the way was pretty uneventful.

III

Arriving in Murree was a shock! Never in our recent trips (me once, mom five times, dad countless, brother three) had we ever seen it so deserted! 98% of the shops were closed, hotels were empty, and traffic pretty much consisted of us and two more cars! Talk about peace and serenity. We made our way to the rooms dad had booked, which was the naval lodge at murree located at Pindi Point. As soon as we arrived, i was blown away by the view! it was amazing! Pindi point is the highest peak in the surrounding areas, and the lodge was at the very edge of it. Plus, by the time we reached there, the clouds had started building up and that made it all the more breathtaking. These are two things i really appreciate about nature, being from karachi. 1) mountains 2)greenery.

After settling in, we decided to take a walk upto mall road and check out the market situation there. Mall road was located about a kilometer away and given our slow pace, it took us a good 40 minutes to get there. But it was fun all the way!

IV

Mall road was not as deserted as we had thought, and thankfully, we werent the only ’sir phiras’ as my dad put it, to be in murree on Eid day. We found quite a few places open, including White Onion, Red Onion and Lahore Broast. Since we were already there, and it was tea time, we sat down in white onion and ordered tea and chips. Our order arrived 30 minutes later, and cost us just around Rs. 300!! (Murree is not cheap either).

Then came the dreaded part.. the walk back! It was getting dark (we had overstayed at the WO) and almost deserted. Thankgod there were four of us. My mother started feeling very cold on the way back, even after a shawl, a jacket and a sweater. I loaned her my sweater then, and enjoyed the cold nipping all over my body on the way back. It was an eye opener at the very least.

The way i described it seems like it was about 10 or 11 when we made our way back, and even we thought so. Thats why we were in for a shock, that when we reached back.. it was just 6:30!!

V

Since 6:30 was not a respectable time to turn in, nor was there anything good on TV, we took the car and headed back to Mall road. This time, got ourselves seated at the Red Onion and ordered dinner. For the first time in my life, i saw someone pay 1000 for four soups, a plate of biryani and half chicken handi! OMG! is murree expensive or what! After dinner, a little walk up and down mall road for mood elevation, and an expresso culminated our dinner experience. The way back was uneventful, and we turned in soon after. But before sleeping, i made it a point to go and take in the night light view of the mountainside and true to my expectations, it was BREATHTAKING!! I stayed outside for as long as my fingers would allow, then had to come back inside. (I had stopped feeling them).

VI

Sunrise!!!!! For the first time in my life was i ever so excited about seeing a sunrise! I expected it to be awesome, and somehow woke up at 5:30 in the morning (i suspect food the night before had a big part to play in it, but alls well that ends well). The sunrise wasnt as exciting however, since it was all cloudy, but the transformation from night to day was enough to cover any feelings of dissapointment i may have had. At 6:30 i came back inside and crawled into the comforting warmth of my blanket to catch up on some much needed sleep.

VII

The next day was bhurban day! Woke up at 10, had breakfast of egg and toast, and packed up to leave. The drive to bhurban was great! The whole scene always reminds me of the pathways in UK, when i went there as a child. Arriving at PC Bhurban at 12 AM, we had ample time to roam about taking in the weather before settling down for lunch. We decided to take the hiking path they’ve built, and for some unknown reason, started from the wrong side. They’ve built it in such a way, that when you start, there’s quite a steep drop after which it slowly levels out and rises upwards. That way, you dont feel too tired when you finish. The way we started from, the steep decline became the steep INcline and in no time were we gasping for breath! Joking around and being crazy saved the day and the whole experience became one of my most treasured memories (the whole trip is a treasured memory, but this is a special time inside it). Food was at Terrace Cafe! Being the one to try out new things, i went for the Hawain Burger, which was a chicken burger with a piece of pine-apple. It was delicious! (fq.. you’d like it! it had the sweet infusion on the otherwise spicy burger). During lunch it started raining and since we were on the terrace, we were granted with an amazing view! There’s really something else about the sounds of raindrops as they patter away on the roof overhead.

VIII

From there on out, we planned our exit so as to reach Islamabad around maghrib. Exited bhurban at 3, came driving down and took the newly constructed murree highway back. At the time however, we thought we were lost, since the whole scene was pretty much new to us and we couldnt recall any of the roadside stalls. Thats when a little panic started to settle in, but since we could see signs giving the distance from Islamabad, we kept on going. Just halfway though, we encountered a hailstorm!! This was the first hailstorm of my life and it was awesome! Truly coming face to face with the might of the heavens is enough to humble a person! Thank god my father retained control of the car and we made it back safely. On the way, i saw no less than three cars which were smashed into the siderails, ditches or the mountainwall.

IX

That concluded my two day Eid trip to murree! If there were words to describe it, they would be truly amazing. I never thought spending Eid on vacation would be this much fun! Being away from the extended family does have its advantages, though as a friend rightly pointed out, it does rob us of the pleasures of collecting Eidi!

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Every year, without fail, Eid is greeting in the morning by waking up late and my dads admonitions on 1)my laziness 2)lack of responsibility 3)tardiness and what not.

This year, was not any different.

7:40 Woke up
*brother in my bathroom, taking a shower.. i start waiting*
7:55 Dad comes in, sees me sitting on the bed, the admonitions start
8:05 Brother still taking a bath.. i go up, ask dad for directions to the Eid gah, so that they could leave an i would follow. Recieve further admonitions
8:10 Washroom free!! Hurriedly get in, take a shower, shave and change
8:20 All ready, thankfully dads still waiting! yayy! hop in the car, and make our way to the Eid gah for prayers.

*whew!!!

After namaz, i meet three VERY old friends of mine, who had shifted out of karachi years ago. Two of them are studying abroad, back for Eid holidays, while the third is in Lahore. That was fun.
Come back home, have breakfast with the family. Every eid, its so strange eating and drinking in broad daylight! Really something to be thankful for that atleast.

Mom and Dad are off to the Naval Eid Milan party here, i excused myself to… well.. BLOG! What else After they come back, we’re off on our way to murree and bhurban!

yayy!!

this eid’s turning out to be quite good! Oh yea, and the phadda at home is solved too! so double yay!

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Dear All!

!~!~! Eid Mubarak !~!~

May this year bring a very happy Eid to all of you!!

Love,
Mansoor

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