where was i going.

An interesting situation arises.
Somewhere between Hollywood and the desert, a man is walking south towards the left.

I have no idea what that meant. Im sure it meant something. Maybe its part of my book.
-----------------------------------------------
Here are some words that I never use.

1) Forsaken
2) Kingdom come
3) Heathen
4) Levee
5) Bittersweet
6) Erroneously
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There was a time when I thought itd be interesting to make a list of all the people ive known over the years.
The thought is quite mind boggling.

And I now realize why my friend asked me to stop talking whenever I brought up this particular topic of conversation. He would hold his head and say “STOP IT !! STOP IT!!!”. And I never really understood why he said that until this very day.
I don’t remember which friend it was though.

Imagine filling up a book with names.

Usman and Waqas (Neighbours when we were in Saudi Arabia)
Salman (kid whos father bought our car in 1986)
Abdul Mutalib (guy who worked at our house who thought he was Anil Kapoor)
Anil Kapoor (indian film actor who looked like Abdul Mutalib)
Motaa Kashif (some fat kid who lived in Saudi when we did)
Claire (texan girl I had a crush on in class 3)
Nabeel (kid who was with me in class 2)
Mariam (girl in class 3 who I think liked me)
Gary (good friend I had in class 3)
Ateeq (pathaan guy in apartments)
Mr. Iqbal (mechanic who helped me start my car once when it had stalled on boat basin at 12 at night. And then called later to check if I made it home alright)
Husnain Mooney
Amina Sayeed
Rubaab
Afzal
Sir Rauf
Zeeshan
(random people i knew in my early city school days)
Shabana (Indian girl who lived on our block in Saudi)
Shabeena Aunty (who used to put mehndi for all the girls on eid)
Sameer (who used to dance like Micheal Jackson- or so we were made to believe)

I just listed those people off the top of my head. And for every one I just listed I can think of 20 other links. Who link to 20 other people.
Theres a story attached to every one of these names.
A funny one or a sad one. Its weird.

Like Zeeshan.
We used to be friends in class 5 I think. And I used to go to his house to play soccer. And it was there that I sweared for the first time. :)
His house used to be where Indus is. Right next to it theres this maderssah and some plots after that there’re these four town houses. (Which you don’t see because theyre kind of hidden inside a gate.)
But back when we initially moved to Pakistan, we were living in Clifton Gardens (the apartments). And I used to cycle to Zeeshans house. And right behind his house there was this massive construction going on and there was a huge sign that said Bon Vista Residency - Booking Open.
And we used to see these huge tall towers coming up that seemed magnificent because there was no other construction there apart from these four low town houses.
No Indus- No maderssah-No shadman residency :P We could actually see the ocean from our bikes.





And it all seems so surreal now.









:)


And then one day zeeshans family moved to Islamabad.
We didn’t stay in touch. Even though, if I remember correctly, he wrote to me once, and I must have written back.
Before leaving, zeeshan, probably as a parting gift, gave me a litre of icecream. He asked me one day what my favourite flavour was and I had told him it was the “three in one” (strawberry/vanilla/chocolate) :)
So before leaving he got me this tub (which seemed huge at the time) of ice cream.
That I kept in the freezer with a spoon and ate directly from.

I was quite touched. No one gave gifts to friends at that age.
I wonder if he saw raat jaagi on tv someday and said “hey!!its ali alam! Remember him? We used to play football together! I wonder how hes doing?”

I wonder how hes doing.

So that’s zeeshans story.

Im digressing though. Sorry.
The point was… when I write zeeshan. I remember this other kid Imran, and Jojo (who was my best friend for the next part of my life.) Who also played football with us.

So the list would be quite an enormous task. But it would be interesting I think. So many people!! Its really weird. I hope in the future they come up with some way to tap into your brain and get like a list of all those names. If they could do that then they could probably do faces as well.

Faces as we remember them.
How weird would that be!!?!

Mind boggling stuff.:)

noose

Spontaneous Poem

i haven’t written for a while.
i don’t know why.
don’t ask me why.
why?
why what?
haven’t i written
my blog
right?
write!
right.


Misbah is reading this now. How exciting.
And apparently hes been blogging for some time and I had no idea.
He writes really well. I just finished reading his bloggy but sadly I wasn’t mentioned in any post.

I should delete him from my earlier post.

Moving on.

I just wrote and then deleted this entire post.
Im very critical of my work:) someday, when im dead, you people can read all the unedited blog posts and put them up. How exciting.
Finally! Something to look forward to!

Ive been tagged on Insiya syeds blog.
She has three.
I cant keep up with one. Why would anyone have three?
In any case I found the taggy thing. (its on her “almost famous” blog)
Its seven questions.

Here are the questions:

1) Seven things that I plan to do:
2) Seven things I can do:
3) Seven things I can't do:
4) Seven things I say most often:
5) Seven people I want to tag:

Here are the answers:

1) Theres an inherent grammatical fault in this question. These 7 things that I plan to do… are they 7 things that I plan to do everyday?—like, I usually Plan to go to the bathroom. The timing has to be right, the reading material enough to keep me occupied etc. or are they 7 things that I plan to do- but won’t? – like starting to jog. Or are they 7 things that I Plan to do, architecturally speaking. Because as all architects will tell you (or atleast I will-even though im not one), The Plan is the generator. Until further clarification I refuse to waste my time answering this one.

2) I can do more than just 7. I think if you put your mind to it you can do a lot more even. Did you know that we only use 9% of our brain. Einstein used 15%!*. Am i supposed to write the top 7? Is breathing the first one? Blinking? Eating? I would say I eat pretty well.

3) There really is nothing I cant do. Except maybe write a book. But I did that too, in an earlier blog.

4) Anything, Something, Nothing, Teething, Ring-ring-do-your-Thing, Breathing and Thingymabob.

5) My mom, Jawed bhai (from the canteen), Paris Hilton, this pencil, and the fantastic 4 (minus the Thing—ive had enough of his type)

so now ive done the 5 questions tag AND the 7 questions tag.
I missed out on the 6 questions tag though. I wonder why noone tagged me?

Hmmmmmmmmmm… I just noticed that the 7questions tagging game is actually 5 questions!!!
And the 5 questions were actually 7!!!!!

That, by far, is the most interesting thing about them.


*not-real statistic that everyone quotes.

edit

.
I started this blog off with a full stop- incase you didn’t notice.
Which really means nothing.

Unlike the times I start off with a question mark, which might mean I’m confused. Or like the times I start off with an asterix, which means that I’m wearing pink today.

This is none of the above.
This is a sad post.

I just clicked on Idiots blog.
And found out that shes lost an Ayesha.
But I just read the blogs on the first page so I didn’t get to the part where she tells us who Ayesha was. I have a really bad connection here at work so I kept getting disconnected but, im really sorry.
We shall pray for your Ayesha.

Ive been listening to this new strings song on repeat all day which is possibly their best song EVER!-at least I think so.
The lyrics are really depressing but really good. Its called “yeh hai meri kahaani” or for the Miqs among us…”this is my story”
Heres a sample (with a loose translation for the Miqs)

ab naa koi paas hai
phir bhi ehsaas hai,
siyaahiyon main uljhi pari
jeenay ki aik aas hai

chubtay kaantay yaadon ke
daaman se chuntaa hoon
girti diwaaron ke aanchal mein
zindaa hoon.

[There is noone left now
yet feelings remains.
In this blackness, tangled,
lies a sliver of hope/life.

Picking these thorns of memories
from my lap,
in the shadows of these crumbling walls,
I am alive.]

That translation took about 15 minutes.
But I think I did a good job. Maybe I should become a translator.
If I was really small I could have been a pocket translator.

the presence of absence

who is this idiot?

:)
Seriously.
Who is it?
I don’t know any females who’re into sports. Except sarah nasir.

In any case- welcome to my bloggy.
Now identify yourself. Please.

Important happenings in alisworld in the past couple of months. (in no particular order)

1) I won something on a radio station. I called in and said that I knew Kanye West collaborated with Jamie Foxx on his new single Gold digger. Im pretty cool. Which is more than I can say for the DJ cos he kept pronouncing Kanye---Kane. Like candy.
In any case…I won.:) a two thousand rupee voucher from some furniture shop. I hope they have some good stuff. This, incidentally, is the same station that cheated me out of an iPod. So im not keeping my hopes up.

2) Ive gone public with painting. I paint. Sometimes. But we recently put them up in our house. And they look pretty good :) I shall soon post pics.

3) I bought a laptop. Which lives in New York. Where as I, do not.

4) I drove the car into an open manhole. I don’t know why theyre called manholes. Rarely have I seen a man in one of them.

5) Readership has gone up 1100 % !!

6) I shall start a new part-time job. At the cherry bowl. I’m the only ‘man’ cherry. A grape, if you please.

7) By end January, a new video shall be on air. That’s a resolution. Not a happening.

8) Insiya syed. You work for city fm89 ? what do you do there? Are you in charge of distributing gifts? Why didn’t I get the ipod ? What was the reason for giving it to whoever got it? I need to know. For closure.

9) I entered a competition thinking I was surely going to win an iPod.
I didn’t. (for more details on this particularly interesting happening in alisworld- refer to earlier posts)

10) The phone lines at work don’t work—therefore the lack of online activity on my part.
I shall post this now. From home.


























But I cant stop now—ive got troubles of my own.