Samandar-e-Bemaina - The Abbasnama

mein ne samjhaa tha ke tu hai to darakhshan hai hayat
tera gham hai to gham-e-deher ka jhagra kyaa hai?
teri surat se hai aalam mein baharon ko sabaat
teri aankhon ke sivaa duniya mein rakha kyaa hai?
tu jo mil jaaye to taqdeer nigoon ho jaaye
yun na tha - mein ne faqat chaha tha yun ho jaye
aur bhi dukh hain zamanay mein muhabbat ke siva
rahatein aur bhi hain visl ki rahat ke sivaa

Mujh se pehli si muhabbat meray mehboob na maang.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

N: wat makes u think that an artistic temprament generally is similar to mine?

Xill-e-Ilahi: well...

N: you amuse me at times. LOL

Xill-e-Ilahi: =) what's that supposed to mean?

N: ah well ***raises her brows***

N: =) never mind

Xill-e-Ilahi: ok. it didn't see mind-able anyway.


Funny how its sometimes a lot of fun making other people smile.


Life, otherwise, continues to be boring. Amma's back but I don't like cherries and she didn't bring chilghozay (what are they called in English? I wonder). The renovation shit is giving me major headaches and the NBFC rules are giving me bigger ones. I hope I never have to read them again. If any of you prays for me, please please please double the prayers...

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 1:30 AM | Permalink | Comments

I remember how Zaheer Abbas once told me that for a true afficionado of the game, the West Indian team was always the best team after his own team. True, he was referring to a past generation. I suppose its Australia for most kids nowadays. The same way its Brazil for football. But for someone who felt that the best thing in the history of cricket was the four pronged pace attack led by the two Cs of fast bowling - a west indian victory even after their retirement is a mood lifter.

So the party's on, crew! one more and they get the series win.

"we be burnin', not concernin' what nobody wanna say
we be earnin' dollars turnin' coz we mind de pon we pay..."

woo hoo!



As an afterthought, I feel i'm getting a tad too excited. it's only a crappy one-day series. and thrillers or no thrillers, i still say down with limited overs cricket.

Also Jayasuria's decision reversal has served no purpose. he's not made the team.

and that's about all i could gather from the dawn sports pages that was worth mentioning. i've sworn myself off ten sports till after the exams.

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments

I only watched three overs of the match (because I was studying - so don't ask, Fudge!!!) and they were the first two of the West Indian innings and the last one of the Indian innings. Awesome match. It almost made me reconsider my opinion that one day cricket should be banned altogether in favour of the five day version. But it wasn't that good.

Jeremy Coney on Lara's defensive technique - and this is seriously quote of the year material:
"Trying to get a ball past him is like trying to sneak a sunrise past a rooster."


And I just found out today that Gilgit is backward enough to not be accessible by mobile. Also that the Serena Hotel over there has an incompetent twit at the PABX which is why i had to call fifteen times before I could get through to my mother. Fifteen! Sheesh.


Also there are few things in life i would pass over in order to swot the foreign exchange manual. Even an evening with Adeel Noor would be more interesting. Well actually its not that bad...

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 2:08 AM | Permalink | Comments

Because you are there when I need you.
And because I always need you.
And because of the million and one other reasons I'm not going to go into ( mainly because this is beginning to sound like some of your favorite Hindi films)

Because, in a nutshell, you're you and that matters,

I wish you the happiest birthday of your life with even happier days to follow. May that smile never fade and the twinlke never leave your eyes.

Happy Birthday Fudge!

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 1:42 AM | Permalink | Comments

Finally!!!!

My leave officially starts from Saturday so I'm away from ICI for at least two weeks. Not that this leave has any ayashi element whatsoever. study leaves in general stink. they stink more when they're shorter than required. khair. Allah Malik hai.


There is a certain degree of unease about leaving ICI too. I really doubt that the Doodhwala/Panwala combo will be able to handle Humpty on his return. Not that that's my problem but the way Humpty blows things out of proportion, any proverbial shit hitting the fan will eventually fall on me. Lets see what happens. I hope Humpty's ranting and grumbling voice doesn't enter the earshot range of Mr. Boy.


Important birthday coming up. I hope I remember when it's time to wish her. I know birthdays matter to her. How bloody irritating.


Random wrong number of the day:

Hello

Hello Abbas

Ji

Tumhari awaz ko kya ho gaya hai? Stop trying to be throaty!

I'm sorry I haven't recognized you yet.

Abbas! its me! Fazeela!

***totally mystified*** Fazeela who?

@#$!!# I think I picked up JB's cell by mistake. You're probably the wrong Abbas

***even more mystified*** JB? Who's JB?

Jehanzeb. don't u know him?

No

well he knows you. sorry anyway.



Interesting. and from an Isloo number too. so who in heck is Jehanzeb? Haven't got a clue.

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments

Humpty Dumpty will enter his room
He'll turn on the swith and then - KABOOM!
All of ICI's horses and Ferguson's men
Will pipe bomb Humpty's ass off again...

Boy do I hate that guy. I hope the Lahore people bust a cap in his head. Danny De Vito will thank them for it. Poor Humpty aspires to be the desi De Vito. He's about the same height and weight, he's balding too and he taxes his peanut trying to come up with some innuendo laden response to everything. And the guy wouldn't know UK GAAP from Accounting for Dummies. And he thinks he's an expert on Excel because he knows how to insert comments. Even Jaffery Sahib can do that! I could go on and on and on but why bother? He's not even worth the mention on cyberspace. Compared with him, some of the guys on IWorkWithFools are absolute geniuses. Khair. may he rot in hell.

the only entertainment left in life are the telephonic conversations at lunchtime with Her Fudginess the Queen. talking about nothing is unexpectedly not a turn off. i hate to admit it but my recent immature phase is goint to be extended simply because im enjoying it so much. i feel like im back in my teenage years, playing the class clown and having genuine fun. wierd. i didn't think you could have that effect. hmmm.... (waise have u realised you've appeared in a lot of my recent posts? see? ici really is pathetic. or i would be happily discussing Monica Bellucci or Claire Forlani instead of you....)


on the gharailoo front, the world at large is pretty mad at O'Head. As Wodehouse quoted in one of his earlier books, the name of which i forget, "Silwood is a sweet boy, but he will not stand the bearing reign". Well people O'Head is also a sweet boy - and he has similar prejudices. Methinks its too late to do anything. Give him his space and tolerate him if you can, and if you can't well send him back to face the music.


Oh and Polo liquid orbs are better than tic tacs any day of the week. But Airwaves is the only breathmint that can be used all day.

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

People on Metrolite have a particularly wierd way of structuring their sentences. and even wen Sana or Saan T as she is known in certain quarters, (who's not a regular)is filling in for the other girl, quratulain i think her name is, she lapses into the same metro style.

ab paish keraingay hum aap ko, eik report

afridi nay maara hai, aik chakka

bilkul bakwas hai, yeh andaz

I mean why does the subject of the sentence have to be the last word in it?



In unassociated news i saw a rickshaw called sharjah. which shudnt really be worth a amention from a guy who's also seen tehelka, akhri grenade and even Daith aaf de gaim. But the thing reminded me of the patriotic spirit that symbolises a paki. no matter how much u curse them wen they lose - u alway remember their high points. cricket team zindabad!


oh and just in case ure reading this fudge, i really was studying all day today. even wen u were out tafreehing with ure buddies at luch i was in the library parh-ing. which is no big deal since exams are right around the corner but since u keep asking im telling anyway. as the mentos ad goes. dobara mat poochna!


somebody asked me to name a person who i would be most excited to meet. now i've met Musharraf and Mahnoor Baloch. I've shaken hands with Miandad and Wasim Akram told me that in meeting me, the pleasure was all his. Ahmed Faraz once said walikum salam and i have actually mock-punched the great Mohammad Ali as a first grader (me not him obviously). But to be true, i can't hold my excitement at once again meeting my nephew. He shud be in Khi by the first of June. And he's learnt my name too now. Can't wait.

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments

Yeah I plagiarized this off Kirna's blog.


But it is one of my favorite songs ennit? And going by Icemanic law, that gives me the right to reproduce this (even if I have to be a nice guy by giving all the credits to the owner and all).

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments

Watching the antics of the KPMG kids across the half wall reminds me, surprisingly, of my own bachpan at Unilever. Farhaj, Fahad, Sameer and Adeel might as well have been Mobeen, Hameed and myself. The poor guy Adeel is ragged constantly – the same way Hameed was about two years ago. (Well Mobeen and I are still at it but at least the rest of the world’s stopped bugging him). I guess auditors are the same everywhere. They even talk about the same stuff: evaluations, promotion lists, idiotic managers, classes, work, and all the other regular crap. The most punctual guy gets in at 9:30 (only an hour late) and the rest of the team is in by around eleven. Now that sounds ridiculously familiar. One of them hogs the phone (like other members of his batch - who'll understand what I'm talking about) one is always working and one never is. Typical audit team. Maybe we PwC guys aren't as unique as we make ourselves out to be...

Strike one more off the unmarried first cousins list. The shadi was boring as hell even though I only attended two rasms. All I can say is thank you Nazim Gulberg Town, for having the sham-e-ghazal at the adjacent hall. The attempts to imitate Jagjit and Nayyara Noor were pathetic (but still more interesting than the shadi) except for the Wo ishq jo hum se rooth gaya thing which was simply awesome. Helped the time pass a wee bit faster - make that less slower.

Humpty Dumpty of ICI is beginning to really get on my nerves now. He's acting like a new job incharge with a bunch of probationers. In fact he's acting like Wali Muhammad Bhutto with the new kids. May dogs eat his corpse. The only good thing is that ZQ seems to understand how rotten this assignment is and has sympathized with me even if he's not done anything about it. The tragedy is that Zohair and I will probably miss out on the June audits.

Little else to record except that Fudge's motivational/nagging messages about my studies are taking their toll and I'm beginning to shift gears. Parh raha hoon na!

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

Even the darkest clouds don't stop sunrays from peeking through gaps. you make me happy, when skies are gray. thank you, fudge. for being there when i need you. you redefine the word friend.

The time has come, the walrus said,
To talk of many things
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax
And cabbages and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings


Over a hundred messages this week. Most of them were to the same person. Few of them made sense. Am I an obsessive/compulsive type of guy? I think yes. Soulmates think not. Whatever. Its fun to let go and act like an immature jerk sometimes. Times, they are a-changing. I sense good days ahead. Maybe, for once, I'll be right.

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 1:37 AM | Permalink | Comments

I got this off somebody's Orkut profile and well, it was funny enough to blog

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

Things I don't like about ICI

1. The location. Underneath the bridge may be a good opening phrase for a Nirvana song but it totally sucks when you have to go through one to look for some means of public transport.

2. The timings. Eight thirty is when I used to wake up or actually before my normal wake up time when I was at GTM. And I have to be here by then because I’m on “SECAWND-MAINT”. Why would I want to catch a worm anyway? To hell with early birds.

3. The work. I am so not cut out for starting things from the bottom and working my way to the end result. I’ve always started with the ultimate objective and worked my way back. Why can’t I use my own style? Because I’m on “SECAWND-MAINT” And its not even as if the work is interesting. It’s a totally crappy mix of data entry, consolidation and reconciliation. Which makes it about as much fun as a Rangeela flick. (not really an apt analogy – Rangeela was mildly amusing)

4. The “room”. That is so absolutely not the term for this place. Two and a half walls do not box in a room. And the half wall separates us from the KPMG people who I do not allow any interaction with because we’re from PWC and that makes them, well, untouchables at best. Not even close to us purebloods. Why don’t we have a separate room like normal auditors? You guessed it - “SECAWND-MAINT”.

5. The PC. A PC without internet access is about as useful as a gun without bullets. Why can’t I bluff about our need for an internet connection because we have to access PWC-Comperio and blah blah blah? Who would believe “SECAWND-MAINT” again?

6. The reception staff. I have no idea why people think I enjoy waiting while they do their girl talk about how “my mother doesn’t let me straighten it so I use my Panasonic to curl it and then use this clip to hold it high like this so that it looks nice and neat…..” etc etc ad nauseum. All while I’m waiting for her to hand me my swipe card so I can enter the damn place.

7. The guy I’m reporting to. He’s a cross between ZQ, EFG, Fakhar and Saeed Ahmed (KTF). Enough said.

8. The timeline concept. I’m not used to having deadlines for every little stage of everything I do. Give me one deadline for work to end and I’ll meet it. But then… “SECAWND-MAINT”!!!

9. The job period. Why in hell did this have to be planned so that my leave would fall right between it? A leave that I have been more or less informed is going to be CURTAILED because of this crap! Arghhh!

10. The emptiness. On the floor we’re seated, there’s something like 300 sq feet per employee. That’s lonely.

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

The fan is placed almost exactly under the tubelight, creating that eerily ICAPpy effect without even trying. like the shadows in the abandoned housing block ajay locked us up in back in first grade. didn't think i'd ever think about it again. light, dark, light, dark slowing now that the loadshedding strikes. my watch is still ticking away wildly. hellboy pushes his chair back loudly, the scraping noise snapping me out of my reverie.

are reveries supposed to be pleasnt, Abbas?

snapping me out of my whatever then.

a couple of guys drop by, idle chatter, nothing said. thoughts flit over to the assignment. secondment. same difference. different bosses, same problems. pivot tables.

turn it around it might make sense

selbat tovip. it doesn't.

thoughts stop for a while as i try to make sense of the powers of the court.

Why does a section of the law have the word "etc" in it Abbas

CIA, sir

CIA?

Govt is covering its ass, sir

noontime shadows stream through the windows. shadows at noontime? is there even such a thing?

think of a thing and it exists Roofi

How do you know this is Roofi, not Roomi? theyre freaking identical for god's sake!

Easy sarah, f is for spectacles.

Ghufran is a better librarian than Jaffery. Or maybe i'm just quieter now. FOCUS!!
fan's moving again. 3 pm 3PM??!! i've moved on to investments in associates. way cool.

Lunch karega?


luch after three in the afternoon. sepia coloured scenes of college flick through my mind. like changing channels you want to stop and see. i'm not at ease. food tastes bad. we talk of papers, music videos, cricket and work.

work. ICI.

do you? I see us.

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments

Somehow this really really fits my mood. Home all day. nothing to say. nothing happened anyway.

Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi at 3:53 AM | Permalink | Comments