Driving techniques that you might not find anywhere else.

All the regular drivers out there know that the road is a very unfriendly, scary place. Here are a few things you can do to make it a bit happier, a little less menacing.  

Note: All of the following are to be done with a smile on your face. Otherwise there is a chance you might seriously offend someone and ultimately get beaten.

1.Don’t you hate it when someone cuts you off?

Give them a hand gesture that says ‘you go ahead sir’.  This will make them think that this is a very nice world where people let others pass.

2.Did you ever get that angry stare when you cut across someone?

Raise your hand in a thank you style. This will make them feel very generous as if they let you pass willingly. Who doesn't like being thanked anyway?

3.For car enthusiast.

When you see a fancy car by your side, give the driver a thumbs up and then see them show off their car. Everyone wants appreciation, no?

4.The random kid with the face plastered to the window.

If you see a small kid in a car next to you, ALWAYS make a twisted face at him/her. Make sure that you pull your tongue out and/or take your hands to your ears and wave frantically.

5.Random people staring at you.

If you see people staring at you constantly from a car nearby, pretend you are listening to a song. Start by nodding your head slowly. Increase your tempo. Start banging imaginary drums with your hands or play an air guitar if it suits you. Make eye contact, act shocked. Smile and look away.

6.For passengers.

Wave and smile at everyone. Drivers must not do this unless the car is stationary. 

Stay happy. Make others happy :)

Malala and Opinions

At the end of any pointless argument people end up saying “you are entitled to your own opinion and I am to mine”. Why then  would you like to waste three hours of your life trying to impose your opinion on someone else  or even bothering to ask what they think about the issue? The reason is simple. Sometimes these discussions are actually beneficial. A well drawn conclusion can help solve a few problems. However, usually arguments just lead to a bad throat.  Nowadays people argue for the sake of having an argument.

I was having a debate with a friend a couple of months ago. The discussion was heating up fast and getting a bit personal. I thought it would be best to drop the argument there and then but my friend refused and I quote “let’s continue. In the end one of us will win and the other will lose”. I might be naïve but I don’t think the point of having a discussion is to declare someone victorious based on how great his or her opinion is on a particular topic.

So yeah anyway. I am not against discussions. I am against having an opinion. At this some of you might think that I have gone completely bonkers. Even though that’s entirely true, I think I have a point. Bear with me if you like…. or can. Nowadays the media bombards us with information here and there. Whether it be printed news, tv channels or even social media, the information pool that we have access to is huuuuge. While this may be very nice in a way, it also creates problems. First of all we never get the complete picture. Secondly we cant really know what the truth is.

What my sister’s friend told me about her maid’s previous owner’s daughter might be as accurate as what JEO TV plays every hour on its stupid channel. If anyone of you is associated with the channel, my apologies but I just hate they way they announce news with the dadhaan and dashhh sounds.

My point being that we might think we have loads and loads of knowledge on a subject of current affairs but I think the truth of the matter, in most cases, never reaches our eyes and ears. And thus based on incomplete and at times, fake facts, forming opinions and defending them against that of others as if one’s existence was on the line, seems pointless to me.

Recently a friend of mine, who has a great blog by the way check it out at  http://hellodogthisismyblog.blogspot.com/, asked me what my opinion was on the whole “Malala controversy”. Truth be told, I never bothered to make an opinion on it. I never tried to hunt people down with a different opinion and then blow them to bits by my points and facts.

This however is what I do know.

Malala is a very little girl by age but has had experiences that I might never have. Not many people take a bullet to the head, survive and go on to become a world symbol. I know for a fact that she did speak for her rights and her education. She might not have initially been that selfless but from what I have seen of her in her interviews she is trying to promote education along with child and women rights globally. Anyone who says these things deserves credit. Whether or not this is a publicity stunt, I don’t know. But at least she is saying all the right things that make sense.

Some people blame her for spreading a bad image of Pakistan. I disagree. I think she helped focus a lot of eyes on Pakistan and that automatically showed the world whats going on here. Was the projected image exaggerated? Yes maybe, but my background differs greatly from hers and our perspective is thus subjective. It is also true that people abroad only got to see one side of Pakistan because of Malala. The bad side, with the terrorism and no women rights etc. I guess we are the ones who should be blamed for not highlighting the positive aspects of Pakistan. No?

As far as; who is behind her, or who is benefiting from her campaign, or whether she is an international agent or not. These things I believe fall into the category of pointless discussions because even if she were a CIA agent as some people call her we will never actually find a signed contract or something saying ”I solemnly swear…”.

Why do people hate her? Maybe its because she got an honorary MS degree from a pretty good university while some of us are having trouble in getting our bachelors done. Maybe its because of the Canadian citizenship, the world tour or her tea parties with the leaders of the world.

So based on the things that I do know, I wish that Malala succeeds in her covert mission of spreading education. No pun intended.

End.

PS. This is the longest I have written in a while. I am sure I would have made grammatical and spellings and all other possible errors. My apologies for that.  

Someone who met me for the first time last week said “when you start talking it seems like you will say something really important but by the end one realizes that it’s not true”. Let me know if you agree with her.

My 7 years old Sony Ericson W 8-10i Walkman Phone

So this post is purely for myself. I wont share it on Facebook or anywhere else as i don't think it would matter to anyone :) I strongly recommend you to not read this if you value your time. For me however my phone is a big deal and i really want to write about it.
I bought the phone when i was in 8th grade for 15 600 Rs. 200 for cover. 100 for a strap. My mother was furious at me but more at my father for "allowing me to spend so much money on something so useless" :)
At that time there were no smart phones. This was a head turner and I used to treat it like a priceless jewel. Its amazing though how new cellphones get released everyday. It took almost one year for the Nokia Symbian phones to flood the market. My innocent cheap cellphone got lost in the midst of all the technological advancements. The smart phones later wiped cellphones like mine off the market.
Its funny how when people meet me they pay more attention to my phone then to me.
A few of the remarks that I get are:
"Phone change kar ley yaaaar" (Please change your phone)
"Is that W 8-10i. can i see it. This was an amazing phone maaaan"
"You had this phone when i last met you three years ago"
"you still have this phone???"
Any way.
The camera doesn't work now. The strap broke. The strap holder broke. The flash stopped functioning this year. I had to reset the software last year. The buttons on the keypad aren't visible. The screen, the memory card and the battery cover come off every-time it falls and it falls nearly once everyday :). Oh and the phone shuts down sometimes when i am trying to make a call.
Buttttt
I have no idea why I still love it. The excuses I present to people are that its battery life is still 3 days, sends messages just fine, can even play a few songs and there aren't any good phones that i like out there. bla bla
If I remember correctly i got the phone as a gift right after my birthday. So this is me saying happy belated 7th birthday to my phone

I hate myself for not taking the time out to write a blog-post for such a long time. Will be back soon. :) 

War against chemical weapons

"If you kill one person unjustly it is as if you killed the whole humanity, and if you saved once person it is as if you saved the whole humanity." (Quran Surah 5 Verse No 32) 

In Islam or any other religion that I have come across, killing someone is considered a very serious issue and is allowed only as punishments to the worst of crimes. I think we can all agree that killing someone without reason is unacceptable. What I don't understand is how we can justify bullets and bombs but chemical weapons are tabooed. I am completely against the use of chemical weapons but equally so of a gun, sword, dagger, poison or any other weapon that ends someones life. If innocent people are being killed anywhere in the world their deaths should be condemned because they were killed unjustly not because they were killed improperly. 

On a side note, with today's media being so untrustworthy, one can never distinguish news from propaganda. I am not sure whether the people of Syria want a better govt or if they are content with what they have. Is the govt actually using chemical bombs or if this just some "misunderstanding". Either way waging a war against a country can't solve it's problems. A war will just lead to the death of more and more people, economic decline, and the resulting govt may or may not be what the people like. 

“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”  (Gandhi)

Please no more wars.


(My knowledge on this topic very limited. Please forgive me for not quoting exact facts about the whole issue.)

Smileeeeee

IF you are travelling by car, wave and smile at the people on the bus. When you are on the bus, do the same for people in cars.
I am sorry I was gone for so long. Actually I had nothing to do and not doing anything productive puts me in a really negative mood and I just sink into a stupid hole. But this friend, just now, made me smile by saying a few random things on Facebook and so I thought I would write about the importance of smiling and making people smile.
You must have heard this quiet a few times in movies etc. "A smile can change the world". I think that dramatizing something renders it meaningless but I still agree with the statement. Its not about changing the world, its about making it a better place and for that you need to change one life at a time. The easiest way to do that is by giving people a reason to smile. I don't have to quote any scientific research here about how even a forced smile can make ones brain release chemicals that tell him or her that he or she is happy.
I personally enjoy making faces at random babies or waving my hand at strangers until they smile or wave back. All this at the cost of being labeled crazy. I don't mind though. If it takes me trying to balance a water bottle on my head or a spoon on my nose to amuse someone, then be it. I get amused too when I do these idiotic things but I love it when someone smiles.
I just realized that this is not a well structured post but I have a headache right now and I cant write well but I still want to get the message across even if it makes me sound like a beggar.
PLEASE PLEASE SMILEEEE whenever where ever you get the chance, or even if you don't :)

I hope this made you smile :)

Family

Currently I am feeling ill. Fever, Flue Etc. but there is no other place I would rather be other than home. My mother keeps fussing over what I am eating, my sister keeps on cracking jokes saying I am faking it and my father makes me eat a thousand medicines. Family, they take care of you.
By family I don't just mean parents and siblings, I mean cousins, aunts, uncles, grand parents and all. Nature has programmed them to take care of you. I know some families have a few evil conspirators but apart from them your relatives just want to help you and see you succeed in life. We sometimes take families for granted.
I heard this story a few months ago. A father, mother and one child were in Saudi Arab. They got in a car crash and all died unfortunately. Two days later the son back home found out that three of his family members have died. He immediately wanted to reach Saudia to take care of burial and everything but there was a problem with his Visa and he couldn't get there in time. Ultimately the three people had to be buried by strangers without their family being able to even see them.
I was shocked to hear this and I got to the conclusion that without family one is nothing.
Give your friends and family a call sometimes. Let them know you care about them as much as they care about you. Tell them they are awesome. Visit their homes if you get the time. Don't slip away from them. Having a family is an awesome blessing. We need to realize this.