December 2013 – My Random Ramblings

Taliban play Football with severed heads of Pakistani Policmen

Note: The video and content in this post is very graphic and gruesome in nature. Viewer discretion is advised.

When I started this Blog I never knew one day I would make a post on a topic as gruesome as this. Someone shared a link with me of a Vimeo in which a defected Talib confesses how he along with his accomplices attacked a Police Check Post in huge numbers, killed policemen and severed their heads. The raiding party then took away the severed heads and played Football with them. To me, as to anyone this is something beyond imagination. The live commentary explains in Urdu how these animals attacked and killed the policemen and then declared them infidels. They Taliban are then shown playing Football with the severed heads. At the end the man says he defected the Taliban because he got a call of conscious. And prays for his forgiveness.

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Book Review: The Sunset Club by Khushwant Singh

The Sunset Club by Khushwant Singh is about three friends, a Hindu, a Muslim and a Sikh. They are all octogenarians and know each other since last forty years. The scene is set in Delhi around Lodhi Gardens where the three friends meet on evenings almost everyday. They sit on a bench, now called as the “Borra Binch” (named after them as all three old fellows occupy this bench) and chat about things personal, the latest happenings, life, religion, sex, India, Pakistan, God and almost everything that comes to their minds. All three love to drink, they like to reminisce and tease each other. In between this Khushwant Singh the master storyteller conveys strong messages about the subjects that matter to us, as is evident from their (the three friend’s) talk.

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The wily revenge

There are times in one’s life when you just can’t take it anymore. It can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Down where I live the rules are made by my snuggler. The ones I make are but ignored, made to be broken and disregarded. Its that simple. Try as I may, no amount of lamentations, remonstrations or protests work. Let me un-complicate it further. I can’t even choose to keep my belongings where I want them to be. Because if I do, they normally disappear resulting in my acting like Sherlock Holmes looking for them in every nook and corner, without much luck.

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I am Malala: Book Review

I am Malala is the story of a girl who stood up for her right to education in Swat at a time when the Taliban were destroying schools and killing people. Her father hailed from a impoverished village but wanted to get education and to do that he spent a very difficult life. After getting educated he dreamed of opening up a school in Swat, which he ultimately did. In this book Malala tells of the hard times faced by her father and later by her family in establishing the school. She talks of a Maulana harassing her father since the school had both male as well as female pupils and teachers. It is a story very different from the ones you get to hear and read. Malala was different in that she refused to keep quiet and preferred not to cow down. In this effort she was rightly supported by her father, different organizations and the people around her. I am sure she is not alone in the valley, there are other Malalas out there.

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Always Smile :-)

Smile! Smile at the wayfarer whom you know not, smile at thy neighbor whom you ignore so much, smile at you mom who loves you more than anything, smile at your sister who respects you, smile at your brother whom you love, smile at your children, smile at the lowly worker and brighten his day, smile at your boss (which you will anyway), smile at the landlady, but don’t forget to smile at the tenant if you have one, smile at the milkman but don’t forget the mailman, smile at the window cleaner who knows you not, smile at the pizza delivery man who works hard, smile at the mason who’s building a wall not for you, smile at the relative you prefer to ignore, smile at the shopkeeper and make him happy, smile at your dad and make him feel good, smile at the bellhop who carries your bags, smile at your teacher and make him feel glad, smile at the animals for they are good at making out between smiles and frowns, smile at birds, smile at trees and plants for they breathe the same air, smile at the one who doesn’t smile often, smile at the one who doesn’t smile back for he will one day, smile at the lady but don’t ignore the man, smile at the kids and they will smile back, smile at your peers, smile at your friends, and at their friends, and at their friend’s friends, smile when you are sad, smile when you are happy, smile while you are smiling, smile during day, smile at noon time, smile at night, smile at breakfast, lunch and dinner, smile at all times, smile at everyone, smile regardless of anything because if you smile the world smiles at you.

I met this guy while jogging and smiled at him, he gave me a blank look which confused me. More than that I felt very embarrassed. I forgot it thinking perhaps he was having a bad day. I met the same guy couple of days later, he looked at me, I smiled, and he looked away. That’s when I decided to write this piece. I hope he gets to read this.

Road Poetry III

Spotted this at the (not so) Super Highway on my way from Hyderabad to Karachi. Needs a little zooming to read what the bloke means to say. If translated to English (the poetry in red) it would mean something like this,

My love how unfaithful are the people of your city,

After killing the man they ask whose corpse this is. Pretty romantic, eh?

The one on the fender (in Black) is a little hard to translate. It sort of means,

My love gave me poisoned wine,

others declared me unfaithful,

One who used to say “do not forget me”,

Messaged me to forget her.

That’s one heartbroken man, I would say. Smile

How to send SMS text in Urdu on Android Phones

Sometime back I did a post on how to read Urdu SMS on an Android mobile phone. Actually at that time Android smartphones did not support Urdu fonts and reading an Urdu/Arabic SMS was a nightmare. One of my cousins had found a solution to this problem. By keeping two cellphones, an Android and a Nokia (running Symbian) he would forward the Urdu SMS to his Nokia phone and read them on it.

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Book Review, “More malicious gossip” by Khushwant Singh

This book by Khushwant Singh could also be titled as “My Musings”. More malicious Gossip is about the guru’s point of view about so many things in one place. The book has three trenchant parts each dealing with a separate subjects. The 280 pager is full of interesting stories, gossips, ideas and personalities.

Online Shopping experience–TCS Connect

I wanted to buy a cellphone and just did not have the time to visit market for the purpose. Online shopping was the best option, but where to buy it from, was the biggest question. After shortlisting the Huawei Ascend G510 I searched online for websites that offer home delivery. This brought me to TCSConnect . Not knowing much about the website I explored it a little and found the phone listed there.

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Huawei Ascend G510 Review

I was pretty much satisfied with my Q Mobile A10 and had not planned on getting a new one. But nature has its own ways, so one fine evening inadvertently I left it at the counter of a bakery while paying the cashier. By the time I came back to get it, the brickly thing was gone. And along with it was gone my 4 GB of digital life, contacts and pics. Damn! But then there was just no way to get it back the best I could do was to have it blocked. And that’s just what I did. Next thing, I got new SIMs issued in my name and finally looked for a cellphone. I did not want to spend a lot of money so Huawei Ascend G510 was the logical thing to buy as it would do the job and leave not that big a dent in my pocket.

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