“My Name is Khan” with Javed Chaudhary

Yesterday Alvi came over to London. He was going to see his cousin in a nearby town, and decided to stop by London to see me. He arrived around 5:30 in evening, and the first thing he said after salam-dua was “Yaar pehle chal ke khana khate hen” . So we headed towards Tayyab’s. Tayyab’s is a nice place to eat in London. Its owned by a Pakistani, and has been rated as one of London’s top restuarants for somtime now. Their food is always delicious, although Sheikh sb has some differences here

Khair, we ate, and ate a little more than we normally do. Adding to those were those big glasses, as you see in Punjab, of sweet Lassi. By the time we walked out, we were hardly walking. We had a little long walk to reach back to train-station, which was quite helping in getting us back to shape.

We still had a lot of time at our hands. One of the bad things about London is that everything closes at 6 PM, except bars and night clubs off-course. So there aren’t many places to go after dark. Having nothing else to do, we decided to watch a movie, only to find out that Avatar is fully booked at IMAX 3D cinema. We searched around, and found another cinema playing the same, which had some places available. So we headed towards the cinema, only to find out in the middle of the journey that the Tube-line going that way is suspended for the weekend, for maintenance. This is the second bad thing about London.

Now what? We searched again, and found My Name is Khan screening at the Cineworld near to my house. We both agreed to go for it, so we did.

As the intermission started, I saw a couple of guys going out, and looked at Alvi, who was already looking my way. Yaar ye Javed Chaudhary nahin he?  Lagta to wohi he. Chal ke dekhen? Chal aa jaa.

As we walked out, towards the corridor, those guys were standing there. It was Mr. Chaudhary. But still, to be on the safe side , we re-confirmed with him. He was here to attend some conference and was hanging out with friends. We introduced oursleves, and had a light chit-chat. Alvi was too eager to ask his opinion on Imran Khan , and I had to convince him, thats this is probably not the right time to ask this question. We invited him for dinner, and he politely refused.

We finished the remaining movie, along with our drinks, and headed straight home for cuppa tea.

Catching up …

Its been a while I have written something here. I dont know why but I feel similar to this.

Its not that nothing has happening around, infact a lot of significant things happened in the last month, but sometimes … you just dont feel like doing it. I dont know why.

There were some bad news, including the heinous attack at my Alma Mater. And the bad news has not gone yet, it rather continues … Every other day some part of the homeland is crying.

Then there were some good news as well;

• Butt sb was blessed with a baby boy. May Allah bless and protect your family.
• MUF got married, taking the lead in expatriates. Congrats bro.
• Oooops, did I miss Hammad? Infact Hammad took the lead, and MUF followed
• Fadi got engaged. Yup finally he’s got a dedicated server

And

• Ammar came to the UK.
• I have finished 3 seasons of Ugly Betty.
• And did I tell you I have joined Social Comittee at my workplace Yup, social comittee once – social comittee forever Although it has me as the only member yet, but I am already working on our first project.
• I have moved into a new (shared) house.
• And some other things as well …

Thats quite a lot, isn’t it?

So … yes! life is going on …

PS: And I remember Umair suggesting me to start something else as well, apart from this blog, and I was thinking  I am unable to keep up with the existing one still but I am thinking on your idea, and lets hope we get something rolling ….

Hum phir chacha ban gaye – 2

Allah has blessed Umair with a baby girl a couple of weeks back. He sent over the pics of the cute doll. She is adorable masha’Allah.

Umair, may Allah  bless your princess and your family.

Good Bye Bristol

It was the month of July, I guess, when I arrived here. Everything was a stranger. MUF was the only person I knew. I still remember getting out and looking around like a curious child. The times when I would miss my trains and get late for interviews, drop my phone into the hollow ceilings and all that stuff. I would always remember

MUF, I am grateful to you. You were my mentor. I have never lived on my own, without family. So for me, it was all new. You taught me everything … and then things got going slowly and gradually.

I made some new friends here, and discovered some old friends as well. I learned some lessons here, and re-called some previously learned lessons as well.

I saw life a bit closely; not much, but a little more than I did before. And its different.

I experienced how you can be lonely in the middle of a crowd, and how to make a gathering when you have nobody around.

I learned how to cry and how to laugh, when you are alone.

I realized what family means to your life. I saw what is it in a language. I discovered different prospectives of looking at the same thing.

This chapter of my life has been quite interesting. There has been a lot to it. Thanks MUF, thanks Bristol, and thanks everybody who has contributed to my  life.

…

Anyway … time to say good bye … I will miss you all.

One more down

Its Umair this time. I think its been more than a couple of weeks now since he got married. And as expected Umair took bhabhi along to Deosai Plains in the first week of wedding; my heartiest sympathies with the lady. I don’t know if she is the trekking kind of, if she is, fortunate for her, if she is not, hard luck maa’m.

We, me n MUF, called Umair a couple of days back, and he was quite angry. Although the reason he mentioned was “Ab yaad aaya he“, but who knows

As I mentioned sometime back, most of my friends have either got married, or are getting married soon. In the start we used to sympathize with the ones actually involved, and would sometime laugh on them, look poor guy. But tables are turning now, and things are happening the other way around

Khair …

Heartiest congratulations Umair. Good luck. May Allah bless your family.

The Inevitable

Faisal Amin was not a good friend of mine, but just a friend. We never spent more than 20 minutes together, with one exception, when we spent the whole day together when we went to attend a workshop, and on that day too he was so excited, after hearing from his manager about him being announced as Employee of the Year, that he had very less time to spare with anybody along with. So we neither talked much that day even. During these short interaction-intervals, we never talked life, we never talked business and we once talked office-work. Then what we talked? Well we talked jokes, we talked politics, we talked university, we talked industry, we talked jobs and we talked people.

He was always in a hurry, as if something is waiting to be completed (by him). Throwing words at you, at the speed of a Jet Fighter, he would either pass by, or wait for your words staring at you straight in the eyes. He had a little more energy than what he could handle. This extra energy always kept him on his toes. So was evident in his work. So much hard work, and never tired. And still willing to continue with that.

He passed away this Friday, while saving the life of his pal, who was drowning. He didn’t know how to swim, but he jumped in. He couldn’t stop himself from doing so. And as a result, drowned himself too. He was such a friend. Not caring for his life, if someone else’s is at stack. Few are people like him.

It was such a shock when I got the news, that I was motionless for a while. Stunned. How could this happen? But then, its the Lord, who can make any & everything happen. And then its us, who see this happening around us, and still not learn. We understand that we are not sure if we gonna wake up in the morning when we sleep, or if we gonna sleep in our bed tonight when we wake up for the day, and still we do not submit.  Aaaah. Silly us.

May Allah bless you my dear friend, I am sad at your death. I still remember your smiling face which still shakes the image my eyes saw today. Your face makes it difficult for me to believe that you are no more amongst us. May you always continue to smile this way, in your new journey as well.

Aameen !!!

Hum (phir) chacha ban gaye

This post is a little late, as I have been a little occupied in the last two weeks, and couldn’t take time to write something. Aamir (butt sb) has been blessed with a baby girl on January 03, 2008.

Many many congrats Butt sb.

And as it has brought a new joy in butt sb’s life, it just added one more thing to worry about in mine Butt sb just got one more step ahead. I mean the first step was when he got married. And now, with the birth of a child; he is two steps ahead.  And he has been kind enough to continuously remind me of this fact

Although I think, on friends’ end, Momina will be my 6th or 7th bhateeji (the count include bhateejas as well), but she has happened to be a vital one because I see her father daily, and that too for almost 8-9 hours. And it daily reminds me to ask amman to reduce the complexity of her search algorithm. Coz its execution time is getting longer

Anyway, Butt sb may Allah bless your baby, and may He protect her from all the bads, and may He shower upon her all the goods. Aameen.

Lets pray & hope for the good