Rainbow in Islamabad, originally uploaded by MobeenAnsari.

the prettiest thing that I’ve seen this season :)

Allah-u-Akbar, originally uploaded by [ I ].

Happiness at the new day
Eyes open from slumber
Bodies made of memories
Of cool sad evenings

Strange medley of feelings
I am light as a bird
In spacious dreams of stone
Serene yet reserved smile
On my face

In the dark’s absurdity
Among snatches of dream
Silence in the dread
We weary of everything
We weary of thinking
Of thinking!

–End of June

With the arrival of winters comes the arrival of the “much awaited” wedding season. People get married, people dance, the dulha-dulhan connections are made, relatives get to make new clothes, hotels and marriage halls welcome people with open arms. Loads of food also happens get thrown away (this is another blog post in itself). But although the “important” factors of weddings have already been mentioned, certain “little” things never really catch our eye. Take the “kum kumas” for instance. They illuminate houses so people walking from far can say ” oye, aithay koi shadi horee hei?”. But like I said, they are categorized into “minor expenses”. Today I happened to talk to one kum kumay walay bhai as he was putting up the lights on our house (the landlords son is getting married). And as EASY as it may SEEM. It took him 3 1/2 hours to get the job done. And in that meanwhile, I got to see for myself how these people make a living. It’s hard sitting in the dark with a torch in your hand in the chilly winter getting lights to work.

(Irfan bhai at work)

Meet Irfan bhai. He’s been doing this for the past 3 years before which he was employed in a company which had a lot of contract work at the Parliament house. He pretty much had an opinion on everything. The army, Musharraf, Zardari, Khanay walay log, corrupt police walay, corrupt judge, the weather, movies, religion. It was a treat talking to this person. I always stress on the fact that if we want to “evaluate” democracy we need to go down the heirarchy, not up it. We need to look at the common man, not the minister of finance or the minister of pretty much nothing (the pace at which ministers are being recruited, we might have one for pretty much nothing soon). This guy, he was actually happy with the rozi he made, though it IS natural human nature to want more, but here is something that made me smile he said:-

“ameer insaan kay paas paisay hotay hein, itnay ilaaj karata hei, phir bhee takleef mein hota hei, ghareeb insaan mar to jaldi jata hei kiyun jee?”

It was interesting, and the end product was amazing. This guy knew what he was doing. Street smart person did everything from connecting circuits to alternating the current to making proper connections. Things that we used to study in physics. 

(Exhibit A)

My point in writing this was firstly to appreciate the hard work these people do, and secondly to promote Irfan bhai. His shops in Peshawar more, so if you guys want some Kum kumification done at your place, look him up. He left, and I don’t know if i’ll see him for quite some time now but before he left he asked me :-

“Bhai decoration fit hei na?”

Such simplicity. very inspiring =)

On dry leaves.

Isn’t it pretty :D

Courtesy: Daily Times

Its the second time that I went to pizza hut this week. The first time I was financing my self and the second time it was a treat so couldn’t miss the opportunity! :P
Well anyway a lot of people turn out at pizzahut when they start their all U can eat deal in Ramadan. Don’t know why but a lot of people seem to think they can eat more than the usual( at least I managed to eat a large size pizza alone each time but I don’t think everyone can manage that). But since the time they have started this deal each time I have seen a decrease in the quality of the pizza meaning a bigger crust, lesser amounts of toppings and an ever lesser amounts of meat in the toppings. To counter this, although it was rear earlier but now I see a mountain of crust on each table each time I go there. Everyone eats the center with the toppings and leave the side portions of the pizza.Well I think pizza hut deserves this as the quality of their pizza significantly decreases!

On the other hand they don’t even serve the pizza at the aftar time! Probably at least 10 minutes must have passed when they brought out the first pizza at the F-10 branch and don’t know about now but it took about 30 minutes the last time I went there in the previous Ramadan. They keep on filling the glasses and you can take as much salad as you want so you fill up your tummies and thus eat lesser amounts of pizza! :P This is a conspiracy hatched high in the upper ranks of the pizza hut administration! :P And after all this even when you have made mountains of pizza hut crust they probably still earn quite a lot of profit! When ever I go there I try to neutralize that profit as much as possible, so go to pizza hut and eat all U can eat! :P

Image credits: Ifti

With weather like this … I want Pakoray =))

Its raining up on Margallas …

Anyone else? =D

The on-going drizzle is making me ravenous for …

PAKORAY!!!

The best part about winters in here is the munching of roasted peanuts when light is gone, heaters blazing full and the chill’s increasing outside :-)

Ain’t aye??

Let the heat come in :-)

Theater-goers need not to get enthralled. Not another stage performance from Sharabeel’s house or Butt’s team.

IESCO takes the lead this time. Islamabad’s stay-lit-up attitude is brought down by her highness (IESCO is SHE). For past few days, unscheduled (run-time approach is taken) Power Outage is the talk of town.

The note says something else on IESCO’s website (well who really updates such info on websites in Pakistan?); reality tells a different tale. We should look forward to 4-8 hours of power outage in a 24-hr day.

By the way: It rained a lot in Summers, NO?

Image Courtesy: Lahore Metroblog

With many foreign missions residing in Islamabad and diplomats roaming around, Christmas feels at home in here. Just give a visit to Kohsar in F-6/3 and you’ll find yourself surrounded by merry christmas signs, red-clad Santas and interesting christmas trees.

If you’ve to select some interesting jingle bells for your home or want to give a nice xmas presnt to a friend – Kohsar’s your destination.

I even found a Santa broom hanging around ;-)

Jump to the complete post for more pics :>
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