Pictures from conferences

I apologise for not putting this up earlier, since I promised many of you out there that I will post the pictures on my blog. Here they are:

Click here for National Leadership Development Seminar [NLDS 2006] in Singapore. [About 300 photos]

And click here for Heroes Conference 2006 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [About 1000 photos]

Now, I realise these may be quite a lot of photographs, all in random order, so I will make another selection [phew!] of the best pictures and upload them alongwith my reports - so sorry I still haven't completed them.

Also, I got to know at 10 pm last night that today is our Eid day, so wish all of you Eid Mubarak - whether you celebrate Eid or not! =D

Tonight is new year's eve as well, so Happy New Year everyone! Siloso will be pumping tonight! See you there...

Cheers!

Just a stupid video we made at NLDS 2006 Singapore... [Wan Xin dared me to do this.]



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDW6W9JzrY

Christmas Spirit

Of Bus/Train Travels

Whenever you travel by bus or train, and you have normal seats, the worst thing that can happen is the person sitting right in front of you wants to recline his/her seat and is too nice about it, and the person sitting behind you is a bitch/bastard who just won't let you recline. So you could be stuck in the worst position ever, with a 90 degrees back support and no space for your legs - I'm seriously considering to get them chopped off.

But then, the best thing that can happen is you find lots of empty seats, like I did. You can choose two seats or even three to lie down and have a nice nap. Unless of course your legs get in the passage-way and people keep waking you up just to pass by. Damnit.

Needless to say, I had a pretty decent train ride all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. Especially if you consider I only paid 21 RM for my ticket, which is around 10 Singaporean Dollars - taxi fare for coming back to NUS from a club after 12. Actually it usually costs more than that since the midnight rates are high and the meter runs really fast.

But then again, we left at 10 pm and arrived around 9 am - so it took a good 11 hours, which is much more than the time it took for us to get to Kuala Lumpur by bus - a maximum of four and a half hours.

From Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Energy levels are running low, but the learning process is going on. Currently we're talking about inspiring greatness and turning our passions into purpose. Just now I had to do some self-reflection and rounded up the top 3 passions of my life. These are:

1. Career
2. Money-making
3. Music

These passions all point to the ultimate goal of my life, which, for me, is family. My ultimate goal is family. I know music has nothing to do with everything else, but it's something I feel about passionately. And I can follow all three passions through @.

Like for NLDS, I hope to be writing more about the Heroes Conference and what I'm learning from it once I'm done with it. Today's the formal dinner and tomorrow's the last day. I'll be going back to Singapore on the day after tomorrow [18th Dec], but no sure-shot plans yet. Will be staying a night around the KL Central area.

NLDS 2006 is over...

I talked and listened. I made notes and mindmaps. I loved and was loved. I learnt about different cultures. And I learnt a hell lot more. But it's all over now... I will miss everyone I met and cherish the memories forever. Hopefully I will meet these wonderful people again. All in all, a kickass conference! Thank you everyone who made it possible. I hope to write in detail about what we did in NLDS soon.

I am preparing to leave for the Heroes Conference in Kuala Lumpur tonight. It starts tomorrow and I'll be back by the 18th. I'll have a truckload of pictures to upload by then. Will figure out a way to do that once I'm back. Those aching for pictures - hold your horses!

First come Singaporeans

Singapore PM Lee made another pronouncement with the general message being, "Citizens will always come first. Foreigners staying here will be screwed over in the longer run." No, that's not exactly what he said, but that's what he means, doesn't he? [ST Dec 4, 2006, Singaporeans 'always come first', By Zakir Hussain]

Singaporeans are skeptical of such a claim - they don't see much difference in the current treatment of Singaporeans and foreigners. Their response could be: "Isn't that how priority should be given - locals, PRs and then foreigners? There's no need to even make such an announcement - it's understood." Well that's true for most of the Western world, and I think Singaporeans should be happy if appropriate changes are made soon.

But us foreigners can't be too happy about such a grand announcement, now can we? They already have foreign students by the hook - 10% higher tuition fees, easy loans and a work bond. Pakistanis who came here this year expecting to receive the NUS Undergraduate Scholarship found out they finished giving it away this year when NUS became semi-privatised. Does this mean the situation will get worse?

Looks like they want us to be stuck here paying high interest rates on high tuition fee loans [it's all about the 'brain gain']. There's a voice inside my head that says, "Get out, get out! Get out as soon as you can! Finish your degree; finish your bond. AND.GET.OUT."

Mentation

These days I have been considering to do a lot of things...

Most current is the Heroes Conference [14th-17th Dec] in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It's a costly undertaking unless I get sponsorships, and so far I haven't had much luck. They've already sent an invitation letter from Malaysia addressed to a Mr. Nabeel 'Kahlib' - my last name is actually Khalid. I will also need to get a visa for Malaysia and I don't know how long that would take. And I'm pressed for time since I am already a delegate for NLDS 2006 in Singapore [9th-14th Dec].

Another consideration is completing a Minor in Information Systems/Technology. It goes well with my major - Communications and New Media Technologies, and I have already completed a module that does not contribute to my major; rather contributes to this minor. Five more modules in this same stream, and I will have completed an easy minor in the next five semesters. The main issue with this is that I don't like programming, and one of the essential modules teaches me programming in Java - I know Java is not easy. But then, it's an additional skill that could benefit my career by enhancing my CV and giving me an edge. I have to decide by 12th Dec.

Yet another substantial consideration is working in a mediocre job which doesn't pay much. I haven't gotten any of the comparatively high-end jobs I applied for [mostly because I'm not Singaporean and don't speak Mandarin], and something is definitely better than nothing. I've already decided to stay in Singapore during the December vacation, and some extra money to contribute towards my expenses would cause no harm. By mediocre jobs I mean the kinds that pay 4 dollars an hour, at places like Burger King. Not my dream job - but then again I don't have much choice. I hope they have some market research to do at Frost and Sullivan - now that's a decent job and pays well enough too.

Heck, I haven't been this indecisive since - ever!

Unions & Intersections

I like to think my relationships with all the people I know are like those annoying Venn diagrams found in Set Theory. (Not saying here that my relationships are annoying; well, at least most of them aren't.) There are numerous overlappings that occur between most people, and it's the area common that defines the closeness of a relationship. That is why when you engage in a conversation with an absolute stranger, topics such as 'music' or 'movies' are the way to go, since you are bound to run into an overlapping - an Intersection, and raise your relationship's closeness levels a degree or two. Still it's possible to have relationships where the borders merely touch the outlines of each other's Venn diagrams (those people who always say "Hi" to you each time you pass by them, but never stop to have a conversation).


But it's not just the common part that strengthens relationships. My oldest friend, MA, has a personality which could be said to be the complete opposite of mine. From music interests, likes, dislikes to the types of activities we engage in, it's hard to find something that is common between MA and me. In cases such as these I guess it's not about the overlappings, rather going beyond those overlappings and delving into the non-overlapping part and appreciating and recognising it. Such relationships take time, just as my friendship with MA goes beyond 18 years now, which is ample time to explore whatever is not shared in the Intersection to form a Union.

So it can be said that relationships are either - to use the correct Mathematical terms in Set Theory - Intersections or Unions. But this classification becomes obscure if you consider those relationships where the other person is married or married-ish. You might have become accustomed to the nature of the Intersection or the Union with such a person, but once he or she enters this new realm, all the commonnesses and/or uncommonnesses have to take into consideration this new entrant's Venn diagram. All the rules don't apply here, and at least for me, this is unexplored, and even dangeorous territory.

The sine wave, Lahori Winter & NLDS

Is it better to live your life half-asleep, floating peaceful, on the calm water surface? Or to stir things up - stir them hard, and look whatever's lying on the ocean floor; float up, find the fisherman?

To be honest, I would prefer smooth sailing all the way, but that's not always possible now, is it? (Lately I have noticed half my statements, my remarks - at least the online ones - end up with a question mark at the end. Am I boy wonder or mister inquisitive? It's probably a little bit of both.)

Coming back to the topic of life, I often say life is like a sine wave. There are elations and there are depressions. Ups and downs. So if one moment you feel like you're on top of the world, you can expect to fall down pretty soon. And if you feel down, there is a definite bit of that silver lining.

I know a number of people who claim their lives are smooth sailing - I just translate that as them having smaller differences between their sine waves' maximum and minimum points. It is certainly a good state to be in, and most people hope to reach such a stage, but the sad part is, they never know it once they reach it. There's a boy whose mother just died and he is at his minimum-most point, and there's another boy who thinks he's at his minimum point because he just had a fight with his girlfriend.

So what state am I in right now? Frankly speaking, I don't know. I'd like to think I'm at my maximum point where I am done with my exams - and they went alright - I'm glad I'm through with them and can party all the heck I want; but I'd also like to think I'm at my minimum point, where all my friends go home to enjoy their vacations while I am stuck here looking for a job or an internship with no luck so far whatsoever.

They say Lahore hasn't been this cold in five years, and although I'm not a winter-loving kind of a person, I still like the concept that God made four seasons for us, and that winter falls at the end of each year. Plus the fact that wearing a sweater under all my shirts in winter makes people give me compliments like "hey, you've gained weight!" or "now that's a handsome boy". During summer it's always "don't you eat anything?" or "have you lost more weight?" or "oh, you look so skinny". Yeah, it sucks being an ectomorph for a guy. Too bad Singapore has summer throughout the year.

Another cool thing about winter is just sitting there, wrapped up in a Razai [a warmer blanket], watching movies and eating dry fruits. And running up to the heater to barbeque our hands and asses everytime we enter the house. Not to mention the beautiful Lahori fog... Driving at 20 kilometres an hour, hazard lights on, all cars moving in a line - the only time that happens in Lahore. And then a brave driver would dare to overtake all the cars and everyone would start following that car just to pick up speed not caring the leading car might crash into something. It doesn't snow in Lahore (thank God) but the fog is beautiful and oh-so-romantic. It's such a pity I'll miss it.

So much for floating peaceful, half-asleep in a Razai, I guess I'm in for floating up and finding the fisherman! The AIESEC Singapore National Leadership Development conference [NLDS] 2006 is right around the corner, and I admit I'm a little excited about it.

There are professionals coming from Singapore Management University, CSR Asia, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, DHL, etcetera to talk to us and give advice, and there's a whole line of activities lined up for all the delegates. The slogan for NLDS is "Extend your wings, expand your horizons" and the logo is a big wing, or the extension of our wings, representing the step we should take to get out of our comfort zone in order to learn and experience growth as future leaders. I know the word 'National' in NLDS only refers to a single city being Singapore, but there are people coming in from India, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and also Nigeria, so it's quite an international conference in terms of the turnout. NLDS is happening this Saturday onwards, and goes on for four days, so I guess I'll be making more posts on the conference later (and with pictures!).

Last day of the exam marathon

Purity Test

I've got a New Media final exam in 11 hours and all I can do is take this twisted test. I spent more than an hour answering the 500 questions so I thought I might as well add this here. So much for not blogging till my exams are over [I've already posted twice, so it's no big deal, right?]. Just 3 more exams to go!

Anatomy of a System

"Art is the beautiful way of doing things.
Science is the effective way of doing things.
Business is the economic way of doing things."
- Elbert Hubbard, U.S. author

Two seasons?

Two seasons? Two whole seasons of South Park? In just two days? Just two days before all the finals?

Where did my exam spirit go?

YIH Study Room sessions, the Reading Room sessions, the insane amount of caffeine in my blood, all those cup noodles to save time, my previous blog post - the promises I made to myself - what about all that?

Enough is enough. Eric, Kenny, Kyle, Stan and Chef:
Screw you guys, I'm going home. (Or a study room.)

14 steps to Nirvana

This is indeed the most challenging time of the semester. In order to keep from going round and round in circles doing the same things over and over again just to avoid work, I have decided to do the following with immediate effect:

1. Stop blogging. [A relief?]
2. Stop orkutting. [Yes, the poondi did me good after having to look at chaptiz all day, but it must be done too.]
3. Stop checking email 50 times a day.
4. Stop 'trying' to clean or organise my room.
5. Stop cooking. [Haven't cooked my food in 2 weeks and all the potatoes are growing eyes already.]
6. Stop MSN Messenger. [Can I really do it? Can I?]
7. Stop talking to people just to socialise.
8. Stop staying in my room.
9. Untune and pack my guitar and throw away the plectrums.
10. Keep a sleep diary to avoid PSS. [Perpetual Sleep Syndrome. I've been sleeping more than 10 hours a day - don't know if it's Singaporean weather or my defense mechanism against studying.]
11. Disconnect my desktop. [Fate did that for me already.]
12. Start spending time at the study areas in libraries and elsewhere.
13. STOP MAKING PLANS AND ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING.
14. And oh! Start studying!

So dear well-wishers, wish me luck for my exams. Those of you who pray, please pray for my success. And those of you who also have exams coming up, stop wasting time and go study - good luck to you all. This will hopefully be my last post before the 2nd of December - the day of my last exam [count-down timer on top right here]. On second of December there's also a party in NTU, and I'll probably post after I'm back from there. Oh Nirvana! Come as you are!

@ LC NUS gathering 4th Nov'06

Headline: Ben, our dear fellow exchange student from Germany who has been very active here, is going back early December. There goes a good part of LC NUS's cultural diversity. =(

And this was the last LC gathering in NUS this semester. Lots to do and look forward to next semester. Great words of advice from our senior @ers [David explained to us how "neuro-linguistic programming" or NLP works as an approach to enhance personal development and could help us in our mugging exercises as exams come up].

After we were done with the 'official' business of the gathering, most people just hung around to socialise, until a small group [of only guys] left to watch a movie and grab a meal. Of course we stuck around to take a few pictures with beloved Benjamin Görges before we let them go.

The shillyshally business

Have you ever encountered procrastination?
And if you did, how did you deal with it?

This I asked my good friend AN, who is a number of years younger to me and taking her A level exams currently. But she's brainy and efficient, or at least I think she is.

Her advice:
Tell yourself you're going to continue procrastinating for another 5 minutes [or 10]; set the time and countdown to it. And then focus on your work, all the while reminding yourself of what life will be like after you're done with your work.

I believed it to be good advice, so I thought of the things I had to do: [1]collect material I want to present for my political science presentation on "post-feminism"; [2]create the slides for my part of another presentation I have to do on the Yellow Ribbon Project for my New Media class; [3]edit some images for my group-members in the New Media class who don't know how to use Photoshop; [4]print-out a 100 survey forms to distribute tomorrow during our @LC gathering; [5]clean my room, which means not just dusting and sweeping, but also organising all my stuff so that I can find anything I want during my exam-prep; [6]make a sleep diary, food diary and an activity log for today and the past two days; [7]and finally, connect my desktop computer and see if it works.

And then my mind began to wonder about all the OTHER things I had to do; for instance, finish five, big, fat books for my finals. Or the designing and printing of posters for the NUS Student Recruitment Drive for the AIESEC Outgoing Exchange thing. And finding a job for the December vacation - who's gonna do that!

What if the work is never-ending?

To this, AN said, "No work is never-ending; and if it is, you're at the wrong place."

Spellbound for a few minutes, I realised this is what university life is all about: never-ending work. So I did what I do best: I procrastinated some more until I ran out of excuses to avoid work and came to making this entry on my blog, which serves me yet another excuse. I guess I'll just wander in this virtual world to find someone else to speak to, until I'm fairly sleepy and I go to sleep.

"Good luck with life!" AN wished me as she signed off.

Of versatility...

PGPR - What pathetic architecture my residence has! I left the window open just one day for only two hours, went to Clementi and it started to pour heavily! I came back to find smoke coming out of my beloved desktop computer, and a smile on the electrician's face as he saw the smoke because his problem was solved - he figured out why my neighbour complained of no light. My room's floor was soaked with rain water that had poured in. Didn't the architecturers and engineers realise it rains often in Singapore? 'Em stupid idiots!

Waterlessness - How long should I wait for all plugs, sockets and circuits accompanying my computer to dry up before I can try turning it on?

Meticulousness - Having a clean room is not hard. Having everything arranged and organised meticulously is a pain! Which is why all my stuff is lying on my bed in random fashion and I am sleeping on a mat on the floor. [For me, meticulousness and clean-living complement each other; singly incomplete without both conditions being met.]

Caffeine - It's contained in every chocolate product, and all teas, coffees, and coke, pepsi, mountain dew, and even Milky Bar and Sunkist orange! Living without caffeine for four whole days is pure torture! [I am a volunteer for this caffeine study, where they ask us to caffeine-fast four days before one day of the week when they give us a controlled caffeine dose and make us do reaction-time tests and stuff.] Never knew I was so addicted to caffeine. How will I ever mug for exams?

Cold - I didn't know there was a difference between the common cold and flu, aka influenza. Apparently they're both different kinds of viruses. So if I say I have a bad cold, that's not the same as saying I have a terrible flu. I've been wrong all my life. Hell, I deserve a bad cold.

Ketchup - Singaporean fast food chains are stupid to give sachets rather than provide bottles of ketchup. Imagine the amount of ketchup left inside the hundreds and thousands of sachets thrown away everyday...

Reading - Everything outside the curriculum is interesting to read - even if that means reading through the transcript of a documentary on Google.

Versatility - The picture of my entire room on a bed! Basically, this post.

Digital Divide Web-site Uploaded

After spending nearly 7 hours on this web-site trying to fix it's numerous glitches, I have given up. [Tada!] But the web-site is almost complete, and I've been able to paste the hard-work of my group-mates [and myself] on the numerous web pages. I must mention this project is worth 30% of our grade, so it's a big deal for us.

The research on the topic [Digital Divide] is quite informative for the unaware, so if you're interested you might want to go through that too. The web-site design is totally my work, A-Z, so I don't mind if you click on the image above to check it out, and give me some feedback.

The issues with the pages [so far] are:
1. The top bar with the title "The Digital Divide" and the placement of background images. [A major issue with most web pages.]
2. Placement of the pie chart on the Survey Analysis page. [Changes when viewed in different browsers - I tried IE and Mozilla.]
3. On the Reasons page, the footnotes that link [1] and [2] are not working properly. They're reversed, which means you go down to the footnotes, click on [1] and you're back to the top; and I can't figure out why. Neither can I understand how to fix that - my html is very out-dated.
4. I haven't even TRIED using different screen resolutions. I imagine that to be another blow-up.
5. Only two pages WITHOUT issues: the Introduction, and the Appendices pages.[Hurrah!]

A testimonial...

This is a tribute to the man who birthed the man that birthed me: my grandfather. In a series of heart attacks reckoned as other chest pains, Dada-Abbu [paternal grandfather] passed away yesterday at Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Lahore. It is a sad and unexpected demise of someone so close at heart (but so many miles away). When I got the news, it took me a while to digest the fact that he was really gone; for good. I regret I will not be able to attend the funeral that will be held today and I feel stupid and cheated for coming all the way to Singapore to "enhance my career", so far away from home, when I can't even make it to the Namaz-e-Janaza (funeral-prayer) of someone I love.

There is no doubt of the complex relationship I had with my grandfather, but I always felt close to him somehow. He often used to complain that I do not spend time with him and that he will be gone some day... I used to argue over this, giving excuses. I guess the time has finally come, and I didn't spend enough time with him.

He had an interior decoration shop in the famous Liberty market of Lahore by the name of "Bajwas", where he used to go everyday whether in sickness or in health. My friends [and friends' parents especially] used to go up to him when purchasing lamps from the shop [what it's famous for] to ask him for a discount by mentioning they're related to me, and he always used to give them great discounts. I regret passing-by the Liberty market area so many times in a day with hardly ever stopping for a few minutes to say hi to him. But I did visit him a couple of times before coming to Singapore this July, and that's the last time I met him.

Inna Lilahee Wa Inna Ilaehee Rajeoon. "We belong to Allah, and it is to Him that we are returning." (2:155-56) May God bestow His blessings on Dada-Abbu and his entire family, and give us patience to absorb this loss.

Student of the 21st century

"Student of the 21st century!", my mother exclaimed after I explained to her in detail about my experience using a computer notebook to take notes. I told her it didn't feel too out-of-the-ordinary here, since everyone uses it. Of course, back in Pakistan a person bringing a laptop to class was deemed as a show-off, since most people don't have one.


Here's a picture of a Singaporean girl in my lecture using her notebook in class - she's NOT taking notes. Rather, she is watching streaming videos from YouTube.com. (The picture quality is quite bad but if you look closely she's wearing her headphones to listen to the audio.)

Can someone explain to me why she came all the way for lecture? She's not listening to the lecturer. She might as well have stayed home. Might I add here, she's not the only one who doesn't pay attention in class. A number of students in my lectures are either chatting with their friends through an instant messenger or sms, or they're browsing the Internet for stuff irrelevant to class, or just sleeping.

So what is it that the information revolution is bringing with compact computers and wireless networks? Better ways of fooling your parents into thinking you're studying? Manual note-taking was so much better. [Not to mention 'doodling'!]

Of Black Eyed Peas, Insects & @OGX

I often say "slow and steady wins the race", and today was no exception as far as being slow is concerned. I survived the first 4 hours after waking up by drinking Milo - was too lazy to cook, and there was nothing else to eat. I have been having cravings to have lobia [Black Eyed Peas] with roti [called Chapati in Singapore and South India]. So after much procrastination I ventured into 'cooking project Sunday'. Usually I like to cook as much as I can on weekends so that I spend time eating rather than cooking on weekdays.

Lobia takes 4 hours to make. Roti involves hard work. [You knead the dough, clean the marble surface, use a rolling pin to flatten the dough, make sure it doesn't stick and get spoilt, then cook it on a tawa. Cooking on metal plates rather than burners is a challenge in itself.] An added challenge in making lobia today was the fact that the black eyed peas my mother had sent me from Pakistan more than two months ago had become infested with insects. Tiny and brown, pea-sucking, thin and long insects. I practically checked each grain testing if it was hollow, or had a hole - and many times I came across holes through which I could actually see these insects lodged inside the lobia-grain/pea. I stood there for an hour choosing and selecting which peas to throw out while they were soaked in water. Some insects would float on to the top, others [more healthy ones] would just sink down and get lost amid the pea-grains. It was a frustrating job, but on the plus side my aim for throwing stuff in the waste-bin has improved three-fold. At the end of the entire excercise I just shut out the 'doubts' section of my brain, and told myself the extra protein from the insects would only do me good - I need to gain weight! Also, lobia needs to cook in boiling water anyway, so 100 degrees Centigrade would be enough to kill the germs.

The meal I had afterwards was my treat for the day, since the mind-numbing session with Mayas regarding @OGX [AIESEC Outgoing Exchange] SNRD [Student Nominee Recruitment Drive] drained all the energy I had to do anything else. I've signed up as the Organising Committee President [OCP] for SNRD in NUS and let me be honest here, it's a lot of work and responsibility. But I'm lucky I have great team-members, and I hope that makes my job easier. There are three teams, one each from NUS, NTU and SMU, and they're all headed by Mayas [extreme left in the picture below]. We're all going to help AIESEC attract people from our universities to go on internships anywhere in the world! So we need to work on a very specific timeline; getting our research done, segmenting the internships available and identifying our target students. And then of course there would be marketing and advertising for our talks that require us to get hold of good speakers, book venues etc.


Sitting there talking about what we'd be doing over the next 3-4 months really freaked me out because I had to think about my finals which are just a month away now. I didn't even know what dates they were. So I cheated during the meeting and got my finals' datesheet together. Turns out, as it does in such circumstances, that it's the worst type of datesheet ever! I don't have two exams on the same day, thank goodness no! But this is pretty bad too: I have my first one on Tuesday 28th Nov', next one on Wednesday, then Thursday, Friday and the last one on Saturday. Five days in a row! I can bet Nescafe and Redbull, BOTH will report hiking share values once the week is through! I need to get my act together... Don't want to lose this race. Slow but steady always wins! It has to.

Violence in Singapore Mosque

It is indeed hilarious when some people are more sensitive about issues most people wouldn't care about. Like one of my friends, HH, gets very aggressive if you try to crack gay jokes on him. Or when some guys are very secretive about their usage of 'feminine' products - curl relaxants, for instance. Or how some feel complexed or 'unmanly' about not having enough facial hair. And how some women go on and on about their weight issues.

But sometimes it is not hilarious, rather downright serious. Last friday, my friend AR was breaking fast at a mosque near the NUS campus and he felt more thirsty than hungry, so he decided to have a drink [Bandung] to break his fast. It may be noted here, that it is a custom among most Muslims to break fast with either a date or water, since that is our Prophet's [P.B.U.H.] tradition as it has been passed down over centuries. As AR got up to have the drink, a Malay-Singaporean man stood up and told him to "break fast first!". AR tried explaining to him that he had already broken it and just wanted to have a drink. AR's response was returned with a glass bowl full of hot porridge being thrown in his face with such sheer force that it broke as it hit!

Luckily for AR, he didn't suffer from any serious injury and keeping in the spirit of the holy month of Ramadan, he controlled his rage. He left the mosque immediately. Then he called the Police, which claims to have an 8-minute response time in the NUS area, but arrived 45 minutes later in this case. A policeman and woman got out of the car and started interrogating AR in a manner that made him feel like he was the criminal instead. He felt a vibe of racism since both the inquirers were Malay-Singaporeans. AR explained the incident to them exactly as it had occurred and they got similar accounts confirming the episode from bystanders in the mosque.

Eyeing AR's friends who had accompanied him, the Policeman asked him, "Why you bring so many friends, you want to do riot haa?" They didn't listen to a word from AR's friends and dismissed all of them, while they continued to converse with other spectators in Malay language. As it turned out, the offender was also a major donator to the mosque, which further changed the attitude of the Police. After much speculation, the Police presented AR with two options: sue the offender, or drop the case. It seemed the Police were not interested in taking any stringent action to justify the physical assault against AR.

It was also unclear as to what the offender was sensitive too; maybe he didn't believe a fast could be broken with a silent prayer; or with Bandung rather than a date or a glass of water. Or maybe he just didn't appreciate foreigners coming and eating for free from the money he had donated to the mosque. [AR has enough money to break fasts by himself - he just prefers going to the mosque because the reward is higher for praying at the mosque.] Some say the man was just being racist. Racism can never be hilarious.

AR told the Police he wanted to sue, but in addition said he wanted protection, feeling rather out-numbered by the Malay-Singaporean majority. To this one of the Police-persons said, "Forgive and forget lah!", and added that they could not be liable for AR's protection. He was advised by them that he would be better off dropping the case.

Seeing that the Police were not interested in taking an action against the offender, and partly pertaining to the fact that AR had been visiting this mosque since more than two years, and also after apologies from the Imam himself, AR did the only thing a sensible guy would have done in his shoes: he dropped the case.

AR didn't feel it was a personal issue; "It could have happened to anyone at that time. Breaking a glass bowl at my face could have injured me to any severity. Allah saved me at that time." He had a point there, what if next time someone has a similar outburst and another person is injured violably. It has been suggested to AR that a formal complaint be registered with Majlis Islam Singapura and the Pakistan High Commission.

One of AR's well-wishers said, "Had this happened to an American or a Brit their embassies would be all over the Police by now."

Personally, I am intrigued by the whole episode. How is it that one person can feel the right to impose his views on another? The holy month of Ramadan is about patience; about tolerance; about having control over your desires and your anger. But still I would never tolerate it if a random person tries to 'correct' my beliefs. Beliefs are personal, and the actions that originate from those beliefs are as personal. My oldest friend is a Shiya Muslim and our actions in the way we say our prayers vary greatly, but neither of us have ever tried to impose our views on each other. If a person you know since 18 years doesn't have the right to advocate his beliefs, how can a complete stranger have the right to enforce his views? That too, I might add, in such a violent manner.

All in all, many Pakistanis feel let down by the Singapore Police Force. It seems that in Singapore, any person can approach you, smash a glass object in your face, and get away with it. Most of the Pakistanis do realise though, that their impression of Malay-Singaporeans as friendly and easy-going people is not going to change because of the action of just one individual in the Malay community.

Another conclusion that can be drawn from this incident is that Singapore is mostly neutral to all religions, yes, but when it comes to conflicts within the same religion's sects, you can expect some form of discrimination against the minority.

Fact: Islam has two major schools of thought or denominations - Shiyas and Sunnis. Sunnis are further divided into four sects, of which Shafi and Hanafi are two. Most South Asians follow the Hanafi tradition, while the Shafi tradition is followed mostly in Southeast Asian countries.

Friday Ramblings...

Friday was a good day in many ways. I woke up after 8 hours of sleep around 3:30 am. I started off with a shower. I prayed extra because it was a special night for us Muslims. I had a hearty Sehri [Masar and half a loaf of bread] to close my fast. I fasted. I completed the proposal for my IT project - the web site I need to make. I also held a meeting with my group members. I attended a tutorial. I called my friend who wants me to be his guarantor for a laptop loan, but he was asleep and didn't pick up. So I gave him 4-5 short missed calls so that when he woke up he'd think I tried my level best to wake him up. Heh!

Then I put a date in my pocket and left for Little India. I had to break fast in the bus - so I used the date. I smiled at the "No food, No drinks, $500 fine" sign as I had it. A Chinese lady and some Singaporean school-girls stared at me intently as I mumbled something [a prayer to break my fast] and put the date in my mouth. Perhaps they were expecting the bus to blow up as I did that. What else do people expect of bearded Muslims in most first-world, culturally diverse countries? Then I had peas+corn+minced-meat [Mutter Keema] with Chapati [what WE call Roti] for Aftari at AB Mohammad Restaurant when I reached Little India.

One lesson I learned today - know your exits from MRT stations. I got out of the wrong exit and had to walk a good 25 minutes to get to the ABM Restaurant near Mustapha Center.

Then I went to Mustapha Center for my monthly grocery shopping. Got tissue papers, a glass bowl, atta [wheat flour], Alpen breakfast cereal with extra sugar added, Weetabix, Irani dates, Nescafe 3in1 coffee sachets, roti pratas, canola oil, full-fat Farmhouse milk, apple juice, 4 litres of ready-to-drink Milo, tomatoes, lady fingers, and ginger. People would look at my trolley and then look behind me, as if looking for someone. Some would look at my forehead, perhaps looking for a red mark of wedlock. I don't know. I've never liked shopping alone. Those people's looks made me feel like I'm a miserable old bachelor who has gotten too used to being alone. I'm not. I don't mean not a bachelor - that I am and I'm content with that. What I mean is, who would want to be considered miserable? And I'm used to the fact that I look old. The first time someone called me 'uncle' was when I was only 13, and the person who said that was 17 himself. Sad?

Anyway, I expect my supplies to last me at least 3 weeks. When I got back Omer was waiting to play snooker, so we went to the KE VII Hall's Cue Sports room. It was a good game. I was 'in the zone'. But alas! The Cue Sports room had to be closed down at 12.

There was a stall from Sheares Hall at the entrance of PGPR and they were selling a variety of food. I ordered an excuse for a waffle, which arrived 30 minutes later, but I was so hungry I gobbled it all up within minutes. Aren't waffles supposed to be crispy and crunchy? Definitely not soft and dripping.

When I got to my room my MSN messenger stopped working after some time of chatting with HB, so well, here I am, bored as hell. Maybe I'll delete this entry when I wake up tomorrow. Who wants to know what I did all day anyway? I guess why I'm writing about it is solely because I think I achieved a lot of things today; that I did most of the things I set to do at the beginning of the day. I hardly have any days in a week when I actually get to do that! Now I've planned to clean my room this weekend, so let's see how long I can procrastinate on that; and on studying as well!

Ruminations in French

I think there's nothing that brings me greater pleasure than seeing something I've written being translated into another language. [Even if it is done by a computer!]

Check this blog out in French.

(Also available in Dutch)

My Love for Angelina...

"I like girls soft and voluptuous - the opposite of what I want in a man."

[Angelina Jolie]

I fell for her the first time I saw her as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. I had to see that movie at least 10 times to get over it. Then I saw her as Lisa, in Girl Interrupted. She even won an Academy Award for that movie [apart from three Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards]. And then she went to Islamabad as a Goodwill UN Ambassador while I was in Lahore, 5 hours away. One of my mother's colleagues was working with her at the time and she didn't know my obsession with Jolie [or should I say Pitt? :S]. If she'd known she could've given me a chance to meet her! I pulled out half my hair when I realised that.

Here I made a short movie by uploading some of my favourite wallpapers to slide.com from her modelling days [before she became an actress in 1993] - some pictures are more recent though.

Love you Angelina, always.

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

*Blink*Blink* Day Over!

Today has been one of those university days for me when you realise you have taken up too many activities, and all the dates and deadlines are starting to jar. I was working on part of a group research paper on the Yellow Ribbon Project till 4 am. Without being able to complete it due to my somnolence, I did my Sehri and went to sleep for hardly four hours. After attending four hours of New Media lectures, I rushed to Jurong East for my medical checkup. They did this test where you have to blow really hard into a pipe a few times, and that triggered my asthma [the test is called spirometery]. As I was getting my check-up done, I was missing an important group meeting for my other research paper [on Digital Divide]. I fear they will refer me to the instructor as a "free-rider" case. Let's hope not.

When I arrived in NUS, I rushed to the IT Co-op to get my laptop's beeping sound fixed. Turns out, the microphone was unmuted, and that was all. Now it's 18:10; I need to break my fast [Aftari] at 19:00, then reach Lavender for my Snooker training, which is a good one hour of travelling. And Cluster Leaders have to do roll call for the fire-drill at PGPR today - thankfully my Resident Assistant was kind enough to allow me to skip that.

So I'm swamped. Not to mention I have to submit my parts for both the research papers when I get back to NUS, which would be around 23:00 [One group member has actually given me a deadline for submission to her at 23:59!]. And there goes another day when I hardly remembering blinking...

AIESEC Days Deepavali Get-together

This blog is turning out to be more of a photo-blog than a web-log! It may take a while for the page to load, so please be patient. It may take longer for dial-up users.

Yesterday was the @Days Deepavali gathering, where we not just had good Indian food, but learnt several Indian dances and witnessed a brilliant skit too that introduced us to the Indian culture. MediaCorp Radio was also present there and the reporter interviewed David and another @er.

The skit introduced us to the typical Bollywood love story theme, where a foreigner becomes infatuated with one of the local Indian girls dancing [above] on his visit to India and decides to marry her. To impress her he learns various terms and dances ["totaa aajao!"]. The audience joined in to learn the dances as well. And then there was the construction of the marriage dresses and an explanation of what usually happens next. The skit was wonderfully done and I guess people would have enjoyed it more if the air-conditioners were working properly. But hey, we were in Little India to experience Indian culture, so it did make sense.

We had a Deepavali challenge after dinner and the best dress competition [which David, the organiser, awarded himself because the audience wouldn't let anyone else have it - and among girls I think Melissa won]. Everyone was handed forms with a bunch of questions to ask people around Little India. We were scheduled to see the parade next, but I followed the DHL trainees to a pub. I got to know some very unique people there. [I hope I can remember at least half their names! Sorry if I forget.] We left the pub just in time to witness the parade, which was overwhelmed with Indians - we could hardly see what was going on. So we moved on to our final destination - Brewerkz, at Riverside Point in Clarke Quay, where everyone just chilled, mingled with each other, and those who drink had beer.

All in all, I had a fantastic time yesterday. I've tried to upload most of the pictures I took yesterday, so check them out and cherish the memories! =D

@OGX National Training at SMU

Yesterday @OGX Singapore got together at SMU for National Training and Organizing Committee [OC] allocation. I was late so I missed everyone's introduction =( and on top of it I had to do a 1 minute Bhangra dance, much to the delight of everyone else.

The entire @OGX Singapore team [save for Phoebe, who was taking the picture]

Preparation Seminar OC [Ohhh! Everyone's so serious lah!]

The Student Nominee Recruitment Drive OC - coolest OC of all [hehehe!]

Another serious bunch of people; quite appropriately so - the Student Review Board OC

And these people are just MAD! [The Make-A-Difference OC]

Paraskevidekatriaphobes beware!

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is a phobia, as the name suggests, or fear of Friday the 13th. It’s a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, which is fear of the number "13". So if you are the type who thinks a black cat crossing the street in front of you is bad luck, you better watch out today, Friday, the 13th of October 2006, because this my friend, is doomsday for you.

Out of a 6800 figure on the About.com website I referred to, 56% people claim they are not fearful of this day, while 17% may not even go to work today, especially in the United States. The website has dedicated four pages to the history of Friday the 13th, which proves that in today's age of media hype and fiction-turned-fact [or vice versa], people can believe and be affected by almost anything.

But I'm curious to know, what is the real reason for people to fear this day? For me, it’s just another Friday, and Fridays - both in Christianity and Islam - are considered significant days.

In Islam, the Friday prayer for Muslims all around the world is deemed the most important prayer of the week - so much so that if a Muslim misses more than three Friday prayers consecutively, he or she is considered out of the realm of Islam. A person who dies on a Friday is considered to be among the favorites of God, more so if the Friday falls in the holy month of Ramadan. It could be noted here that the Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] died on the last Friday of Ramadan, 632 AD.

Then for Christians there is Good Friday - the day Christ was crucified. The Tower of Babel was built by all humans unitedly to reach the heavens but it could not be completed because God stopped their efforts by giving people different languages; so they could not communicate to collaborate and their work was halted, on a Friday. The Temple of Solomon was also destroyed on a Friday. Also, according to Christian lore, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit on a Friday.

Both Hindus and Vikings reportedly have/had a myth in which 12 gods were invited to a gathering and Loki, the god of mischief, crashed the party and incited a riot. Tradition in both cultures holds that 13 people at a dinner party is bad luck and will end the death of all the party-goers. Coincidently, the Last Supper in Christian tradition hosted 13 people out of which one betrayed the Christ, which resulted in the crucifixion.

It was the same date as today - Friday, the 13th of October, but the year 1307, when King Philip IV of France had the Knights Templar rounded up for torture and execution. As Dan Brown has mentioned in Da Vinci Code, the Knights Templar were an order of warriors within the Roman Catholic Church to combat Islam in the centuries after the Christian Crusades. They branded together to protect Christian travelers visiting Jerusalem. [So Dan Brown was mixing fact with fiction? Hmm...]

The ancient Egyptians believed that life unfolds in 12 stages, the 13th one being death. I don't see how "death" and "bad luck" could be co-related, since my belief, along with many others, is that life after death is the eternal life - the ultimate journey. The Egyptians themselves longed for this spiritual transformation that was death, thus 13 was not an unlucky number in their culture at least.

There's the tale of the ship, "H.M.S. Friday" that set sail on a Friday: "They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday, and was never seen or heard from again."

In addition to the legendary significance of Fridays, the sixth day of the week also was execution day in ancient Rome and later Hangman's Day in Britain, according to the About.com website.

It is said that the Moon has always been associated with feminity, which is why the number of lunar months equals the number of menstrual cycles in a year; the number being 13.

Well I must say after all this speculation, I am not deterred in thinking that this Friday the 13th would be any different from my last year's so-called unlucky day: Friday, May 13th - I did not encounter any more bad luck than I usually do on a normal day. You might ask, "What are all these facts and figures you mentioned above, cosmic coincidences?" Well, I can't be too sure, but I think it is up to each and every individual to decide on his or her own whether all these events are collectively negative or positive - some may view death as being unbidden whereas others may see it as the end of an unbidden life. Maybe this day brings me bad luck too - after all, Fridays are holy days when I should go to the mosque and pray, and at the same time Friday nights are party nights - they lead on to the much-yearned-for weekends.

However, one thing is certain - I will not let my life be affected by this or any other "Friday the 13th" tremor. But if my wedding date falls on the 13th and coincides with the sixth day of the week, I'll reschedule, just to be on the safe side.

Sources:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_13th
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel

Aiman's birthday today

This is my youngest sister who has just turned 9 today. She's so crazy and funny and I miss her SO much! Maha [10yrs] on the other hand is the sensitive and sensible one, and not a day goes by when I don't think of her. Took these pictures while we were video-chatting a couple of days ago. HAPPY BIRTHDAY 'MUNN! I love you and miss you both so much!

Maha [in the background] and Aiman both got these cute haircuts recently. They look like twins sometimes. They must be on their way home from school right now. Its days like these when I wish I could be back in Pakistan. Miss you mairay babies!

Milo for energy

The name Milo comes from the famous Greek athlete "Milon" of Croton known for his legendary strength. It fits perfectly because Milo is high in energy content too [1760kJ/100g].

I love Milo. On any given day I will have at least half a litre. In fact, most people love Milo in this part of the world. [Malaysia consumes 90% of worldwide consumption of Milo! It is so popular in Malaysia that at any given time, almost all families will have 1 tin of Milo, and it is almost unbelievable to have any restaurants that don't sell Milo drinks.]

The other day I needed to get some tomatoes from Georgie's Mart when I bumped into my friend Omer on the way, also headed in the same direction. There I saw those 1 litre packs of milo and instantly grabbed two of them. And then Omer asked, "Can you see Magnolia's chocolate milk anywhere?"

"Dude, you have Milo right in front of you, why would you be looking for Magnolia! It sucks, I've tried it."

To that, he said, "No, its not bad. Milo is unhealthy, yaar. It's made from powdered milk." He was making a major assumption there: powdered milk is unhealthy.

I tried to explain to him what powdered milk is: It is just dry milk powder made by removing the water from regular pasteurized milk. We continued arguing, but by the time we got to the cashier, the topic changed.

Is Milo really unhealthy compared to other chocolate drinks? Here's a link that aims to show that apart from a slight variance in taste, powdered milk and fluid milk are nutritionally the same:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1608/is_2_18/ai_105518172

[Note: Whenever I speak of health or healthiness - it is mostly in terms of gaining weight - not losing it.]

Smile; take a break

Sometimes you just need to find something that makes you Smile then take a moment and think of the good things in your life.

Tea Joy October

Tea Joy is a Chinese tea cafe near Bugis where alumni from AIESEC [or "@"] and current @ers in Singapore come together on the first Friday of every month. This tradition has been carrying forward since 1997. Here are a few pictures from yesterday's Tea Joy session with @. We all had varieties of Chinese tea and @ers got to know @alumni...

Imran being smooth with the "Singaporean" girls
[one born in Hong Kong, the other in Singapore and the third one in China - all brought up in Singapore]

David invites everyone to the AIESEC days Deepavali event

My legs won't fit!

Some busy listening; others posing for the camera

Mingling with Nadir, alumni and founder of AIESEC in SMU

My caricature...

I saw these Hari Raya Puasa [Choti Eid Mubarak] cards at the science faculty, so after my class there today I decided to go and get some to send home, and this guy on the stall there was making reasonable caricatures. It was hard to get a queue number, but I don't think the wait was worth it. People still think it looks a lot like me. I don't know.