A few days ago, Shahzeb shared a link on Facebook about “Foxy Shahzadi”, a 1974 Beetle, which has been decorated with truck-art and is currently being driven from Islamabad to Paris by a French Dr. Vincent Loos. Dr. Loos wishes to portray a better image of Pakistan, and believes that Pakistan is not all about terrorism. I, with many others, agree.

Here is the Beetle’s story on The Guardian, and here is the earlier coverage by Dawn. And if you would like to follow the Foxy Shahzadi’s journey (named “Art on Wheels tour”), here is its blog. (The above photograph was taken by Dawn’s Tanveer Shahzad.)

By the way, Shahzeb, get back to blogging, will ya?

25 random things about me

In other news, I have been tagged by Falsa to write down 25 random things about me.

I have done similar tags in the past, so this time I am going to repeat some of them. Here goes.

1. I get thirsty after brushing my teeth.
2. My favourite season is autumn.
3. I had my first computer when I was in the 8th grade (about 13 years ago). Abbu ji had bought it for us siblings so that we could “learn computing”. It used to run Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and also had a fax modem with a bitrate of 14.4 kbit/s. I never used that modem. (Yeah, I missed out.)
4. My first gaming console was Atari 2600 Jr., and my favourite game back then was Moon Patrol. (I now wish, though, that I had played this version, instead of this.)
5. I can roll my tongue.
6. While writing with a pen, I don’t like to place its cap on its butt. I either keep the cap in my other hand, or put it somewhere nearby.
7. Responsibilities scare me.
8. I have labelled each step of the staircase in my home as either a “right-foot-step” or a “left-foot step” (in my mind, of course), and I rarely put my left foot on a right-foot-step, and vice versa.
9. I read Slashdot.
10. I used to play a lot with dinky cars in my childhood.
11. I feel uncomfortable to sleep in pitch black darkness.
12. I am a morning bird.
13. I love typography. Sadly, I am not as good at it as I would like to be.
14. I like collecting title soundtracks of all those TV shows that NTM used to syndicate.
15. I have never worn a sherwani. (When I previously mentioned it, No One told me not to worry and assured me that “[my] time will come”.)
16. I like running. I used to run even on extremely cold mornings in good old days. I hope I’ll be able to resume it.
17. I have been wearing spectacles since I was 11 years old.
18. I was once addicted to Tetris.
19. My first email address was on Hotmail. I soon switched to Net@ddress and kept using it until they cancelled their free subscriptions.
20. I love reading dedications, prefaces, and acknowledgments in books.
21. When I was a child, I used to have a fear of sitting in a movie theater. My parents tell me that I had developed this phobia after watching King Kong in the cinema. (They don’t remember which King Kong movie it was.)
22. I am a fan of Tintin.
23. I had once written a detective novel that was so pathetic that I never showed it to anyone except my siblings.
24. I have been using the same mobile phone for the last 4 years. No, I don’t have any emotional affiliation with it.
25. I like fog.

From Google with Love

Like everybody else from Blogistan, I have also had my share of amusing keywords and phrases that people enter in Google and then land on my blog. Here are the highlights from the past 7 days:

• pics of beautiful cows in mandi
• very beautifull qurbani bakra
• adult imran series
• its boring time now what should i do pakistan
• studies on time wasters
• What to say at an awards ceremony
• ESSAY ON LOVEMY CONTORY IN URDU
• need shehzore on rent
• what is meant by name aabi
• nd when u find yourself lying helpless in her arms u knoww u really loved a woman

As I said in an old post, keep searching.

So, yeah, it’s a tag. Passed to me by Falsa. And even though she didn’t tag anyone in particular in her post, she left a comment here and told me that she had tagged me and that I “better do it”. Many of you have already asked me to update (I am sorry, by the way — I just don’t feel like writing anything these days *sighs*), and this tag finally gives me something to write. (Yes, I know, I didn’t write anything on this Independence Day, which has always been giving me something to write about for the last 6 years.)

Here we go then. 7 things that make my life worth living.

1. My family, and my friends. They cheer me up when I need them, but they also keep me in check. I know I can count on them.
2. Saturday evenings. One of my most favourite times of the week. I mean, how cool is knowing, after enjoying a whole day off, that you have the next day off as well?
3. View from my home’s roof. Seriously. Have a look yourself.
4. My computer. Okay, that’s a pretty nerdy thing to say. But I really am grateful for my computer. And for technology, in general.
5. Cooking my food. Disclaimer: I am a bad cook. And I can’t do anything in the kitchen except fry/boil an egg, boil a challi/bhutta, and use the microwave oven. But still, it feels good to cook the food you’re about to eat.
6. The ability to laugh. I don’t know how I would have lived if I hadn’t known how to laugh.
7. The ability to think. Okay, I might have lived without knowing how to think (because I sometimes think too. damn. much.), but it sure is good to be able to think and sort things out. Well, most of the things.

I tag everyone.

Rules are below. They are the reason I am answering this tag.

Tagging/Linking others is entirely optional. You don’t have to sound needy and pathetic at all at anyone else’s blog to beg them to come visit your blog and respond to your blog (God, I’m vicious).

The tag expires after a period of 24 hours.

Tag as many people you like. Don’t tag them if you don’t want to. Don’t mention me if you don’t want to. Mention me if you want to. Heck it’s YOUR blog.

If you don’t see yourself as tagged by someone that’s pointless. This tag is universal. Everyone’s invited.

And no more rules. Introduce a little anarchy.

Fun, eh?

Here we go then.

Three things which you pride yourself upon

1. Ability to listen
2. Habit of sleeping early
3. Duality

Three things you hate about yourself

‘Hate’ would be a strong word. Let’s make it ‘dislike’.

1. Lack of self discipline
2. Indifference towards some certain things
3. Duality

Three things that you can’t let go of

1. Some old t-shirts
2. A couple of dreams
3. Duality!

Three things that you love to eat

1. Apples!
2. French fries
3. Russian salad

Three things you cannot possibly eat in a million years

Anything that is not halal. More than three things, actually.

Three songs you could sing to the rest of the world

1. Aitebar – by Vital Signs
2. Hallelujah – (covered) by Arooj Aftab
3. Mujh Say Pehli Si Muhabbat – by Noor Jehan

Three movies you would show if you had your way around Film Festivals

1. 3:10 To Yuma
2. A Few Good Men
3. Batman Begins

I tag everyone. Include the questions from the previous Three tag as well. Go crazy!

Here’s what the tag is all about…

The McCains own 13 cars, eight homes and have access to a corporate jet. If you were as insanely rich as them, where would your eight homes be and why?

The only rule is: The homes must be within the borders of the country you live in, so as to utterly emulate the McCains.

When you’re done, tag 8 people, so that they may join in the self-indulgence, forgetting about the crappy property market and the equivalent of The End of Pompeii on Wall-Street. You could spend your time hammering your doors and windows shut in preparation for the Apocalypse, but this meme is so much more fun!

Just for the record, I don’t know a thing about McCain (except that he is an old guy and running for the president in today’s US Elections), and certainly nothing about the McCains. Okay, so they are rich — as in, really rich — and own all these things mentioned above (with a lot of other things too, I am sure). Cool. Good for them.

But now I have to think like a McCain and build eight houses all over Pakistan. Frankly, I would just prefer to build a large farmhouse somewhere in the suburbs of Islamabad and spend the rest of my money doing something interesting. Like creating a Batsuit for myself and then jumping off the cliff from Pir Sohawa to glide all over Islamabad. (No, I won’t become a vigilante because Pakistan has no place for vigilantism. A “Batman” in the streets of Pakistan will be stoned to death by child vagabonds.)

Anyway, on to the tag then…

Islamabad

Yep. This one is simple. I’d like to have a home in Islamabad. Why? Because I love this city. Period.

Karachi

And not just anywhere in Karachi, but near the coast of Arabian Sea. Preferably with huge glass windows. With curtains, of course.

Gwadar

Again, near the coast. Again, with huge glass windows. And now that I think of it, I’ll have the following couplet written in complete Nastaliq glory and have it displayed near the entrances of both the Karachi and Gwadar Glass Houses:

لے سانس بھی آہستہ کہ نازک ہے بہت کام
آفاق کی اس کارگہِ شیشہ گری کا

(I think I am getting carried away.)

Chitral

Pick an ice-covered mountain in the Hindu Kush range near Chitral and I’ll have a home there. Something like the cozy building where Bruce Wayne is trained by Henri Ducard in Batman Begins. (Yes, I know, this post contains too many Batman references. I am a fan.) And I’ll also have a helipad nearby, even if I have to cut down and flatten a mountain for constructing it. I am insanely rich in this post, remember?

Suburbs of Islamabad

A farmhouse. A huge farmhouse.

Bahawalpur

I like the feel of this city, even though I have only seen it in pictures and videos. Having a navvab‘s palace like home in Bahwalpur will be fun.

Quetta

Remember Dhuwan? That super-hit PTV serial about a bunch of guys kicking some serious criminal butt? It was shot in Quetta, and I have always wanted to visit this city. True, nowadays, it’s a “sensitive” area and all that jazz, but I would still like a home there. Specially if it’s like the one owned by Salman, Dhuwan‘s super villain.

Recreational vehicle

Yep. A recreational vehicle. Technically, it’s not a place in Pakistan, but that’s what makes it interesting: I can drive it to anywhere. Anywhere on land, that is. Of course, it would be custom-made to be able to tolerate harsh circumstances during desert safaris in Cholistan or Thar, or while exploring archaeological sites like Taxila or Mohenjo-daro.

Your turn now

And now the part of passing this tag to others. I tag Aamir, Absar, Farooq, Ghazal, Karachiwali, Mahwash, Sana, and UTP.

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you all to the Brilliante Blog Awards Ceremony.

I have never hosted any awards ceremony before, so I have no idea what to say. A few words on the awards history, maybe?

But first, please allow me some room for narcissism. (Yes, yet again — it’s a hat trick now.) You see, a blogger can host a Brilliante Blog Awards ceremony only if s/he has received one. Mahwash, of Assorted Mundanities, has very graciously awarded me with the said award. Here’s her announcement:

Saadat, for the topsy turvy and a very cool template.

Considering that her blog posts make a lot more sense than mine ever do, I am very, very honoured. Thank you, Mahwash.

Also, it will be unfair not to thank the talented photographer, Esther Groen. She probably doesn’t even know that an apples picture that she took (and then generously gave away as royalty free stock) has become almost the identity of this ulta seedha corner.

Coming back to the awards ceremony and its history then, here are the rules:

1. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogosphere.
2. When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.
3. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.
4. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliante Weblog.’
5. Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).
6. And then we pass it on!

Here we go then, ladies and gentlemen. The Brilliante Blog Award goes to (in alphabetical order):

• A, for candid accounts of her life and thoughts.
• Abbas, for his peculiar brand of sarcastic humour.
• Ayesha, for her courage and efforts for creating awareness about thalassemia.
• Hani, for his goofily funny and simplistic Dingle Days comics.
• Hina, for her simple, yet beautiful, narratives.
• Knicq, for his magnificent command over words.
• Umema, for her smile inducing posts (and for finally learning how to use an Urdu dictionary!)

An enthusiastic round of applause for all of them!

Also, I wish I could include more names (and the rules do say that I can) in the above list. I couldn’t, because some of those names have already deleted their blogs, some have enabled password-protection, and some… well I just didn’t want to leave anyone out and make you read a huge list, so I forced myself to listing just seven bloggers. (It’s just like passing the tag, you don’t want to miss anyone!) Still, I appreciate each and every one of them, because they have always been sources of inspiration and learning for a dunce like me.

All right then, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming and attending the award ceremony. Take care of yourselves and enjoy the refreshments!

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Some might agree, others might not. I just thought that quoting Shakespeare in the start would be a good way of answering this tag passed to me by Dinky Mind.

I mentioned at the end of the previous post (which was a response to another tag) that this one has a better potential for narcissism. Now that I am typing these lines, I am wondering how loud a trumpet one can blow while describing one’s nicknames. Specially if the list of nicknames is really short.

Let’s see then:

• Saadi (سعدی). That’s kinda the default nickname for anyone who has the roots of his or her name in ‘Saad’. Sometimes, for me, Saadi is often suffixed with other things, like Saadi baba (not BABA, but baba. My Nana ji used to call me Saadi baba, and my parents still do occasionally); Saadi bhai (most commonly used by my younger siblings and cousins); and Saadi kay bachay (used by people when I am being annoying).
• Man. Another default nickname used by my closest friends, but more frequently used by my elder brother.
• Chief/Chiefi. Azam calls me that. He also called me “Bennet” for some time after watching the first season of Heroes.
• Manto (منٹو). Yes, Manto. This was my nickname in the second year of FSc when, after studying a short story written by Saadat Hasan Manto in our Urdu textbook, my classfellows started calling me that. And no, this had nothing to do with my writing abilities (which were pretty pathetic back then, and haven’t improved much anyway).
• Buddy boy/Motu. Gifts from Aapi!

And that’s it. Told you it was a short list.

But… it doesn’t mean that I am stopping here. While posting and reading comments at Dinky Mind’s original tag-post, I just thought that maybe I could add all those mispronunciations of my name as well to the list of nicknames. Listening to distorted versions of my name used to annoy me once, then it started amusing me, and now I just sigh and keep on repeating my name until the other person gets it right.

• Saadaat (سادات). The most common mispronunciation of my name, specially if the mispronouncer (is that a word?) is reading it from its English form. New teachers specially used to pronounce my name this way during the roll call.
• Sadiq (صادق). This one is popular among shop attendants. They ask my name while filling out a receipt and then write down Sadiq. I even posted a receipt here on Ulta Seedha, and I again challenge everyone to try and find a “Saadat sahab” written on that piece of paper.
• Saad. Some people find it convenient to shorten my name like this. Maybe I need to put more emphasis on the “at” part of my name.
• Sajid (ساجد)/Sajad (ساجَد). I have no idea how they come up with these. Specially “Sajad”.
• Shahadat (شہادت). This one happened in the 1st Dawn Lifestyles exhibition, where a so-called talent hunt was organized on one of the stalls, and an enthusiastic compere was inviting people on the stage for some singing. I told him my name in that proper, ‘ain-conscious tone, and he in turn screamed into the mike, “Wow! Shahadat!” Luckily for me, he calmed down (though somewhat disappointingly) when I spelled my name in Urdu alphabets for him.

Unlike others, I don’t have any nickname(s) that I wish to keep secret. I guess I have been lucky to have harmless nicknames.

And, yes, feel free to tag yourselves!

In fact, this is first of the two tags I have received in this week. This tag was passed to me by No One. Dinky sister, your tag is coming in the next post.

I had stated somewhere in an old tag (this one, to be precise) that some tags give a superb opportunity for being narcissistic. This tag is one of them; it asks to write down 8 peculiar/random things about me. Now before you proceed, let me warn you: my definition of peculiar/random may differ from yours (just like my definition of weird in the aforementioned tag was not weird at all for some readers).

Anyway, so here we go.

1. I have never worn a sherwani.
2. When I was a child, I used to have a fear of sitting in a movie theater. My parents tell me that I developed this phobia after watching King Kong in the cinema. (They don’t remember which King Kong movie it was.)
3. I sometimes think I had a great potential for being ambidextrous, though that potential is almost gone now. I am right-handed, but on the rare occasions when I play cricket, I bat left-handed while bowl with my right hand. Also, in my ayyam-e-javani when I used to practise sanshou, my left side kick was always stronger than my right one. One could argue that that was because I could balance my body on my right leg better than I could do on my left leg. Still, being able to use both hands and legs with equal efficiency would have been  quite fun.
4. I had once memorised the whole screenplay of A Few Good Men. I still remember my most favourite parts.
5. I have been using the same mobile phone for the last 3 years. No, I don’t have any emotional affiliation with it.
6. I feel uncomfortable to sleep in pitch black darkness.
7. I haven’t driven a motorbike since we moved to Islamabad in 2004, and I miss it. The only time in these four years when I drove a motorbike was last year when a classfellow was feeling too sick to drive his Honda CD 70.
8. Excluding Pagalon Ki Anjuman and Laash Gaati Rahi, I have read and currently own all novels in Ibn-e-Safi‘s Imran Series. (The Wikipedia articles I have linked to need some serious editing, but I thought to link to them anyway.)

Feel free to tag yourselves. (Yes, I know, it’s pretty mean to be narcissistic and then not explicitly give any of you a chance for it. But tagging others have always been a hard part for me. Also, there’s another tag post coming up shortly — which has a much better potential for narcissism — so you might want to tag yourself with that one if not with this one.)

Here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I personally think that the original author of this tag has a pretty intimate relationship with the numbers 3 and 5 (and probably 6 as well, since 1 + 2 + 3 = 6), but if I were him (or her), I would have spread the tag as going to page no. 123, finding the 4th sentence, and then posting the next 5 sentences, because this seems more harmonious with regular counting.

Anyway, after my useless commentary, let’s move on to the tag.

The nearest book that I can pick is a dictionary, which is out. Second nearest are two books: one is about digital image processing, and the second is Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi’s Zarguzasht (زرگزشت). The choice is simple!

And here are the three sentences:

حُجرے کے سامنے اسی کھدبداتی دَلدَل میں دس بارہ لڑکے اور مینڈک مثالِ صورتِ خورشید “اِدھر ڈوبے اُدھر نکلے، اُدھر ڈوبے اِدھر نکلے”۔ لڑکوں کے بے تحاشا بڑھے ہوئے پیٹ نیلے کانچ کی طرح چمک رہے تھے۔ ایک لڑکا پاجامہ پہنے ہوئے تھا، لیکن قمیص ندارد، باقی ماندہ لڑکوں کی نِیم برہنگی کی ترتیب اس کے بر عکس تھی۔

Update: Since A asked me to go ahead with Digital Image Processing as well, here are three sentences from the famous Gonzalez & Woods:

Sampling this function into 256 equally spaced discrete values produced the desired specified histogram. The transformation function G(z) obtained from this histogram using Eq. (3.3-14) is labeled transformation (1) in Fig. 3.22(b). Similarly, the inverse transformation G^-1(s) from Eq.(3.3-16) [obtained using the iterative technique discussed in connection with Eq. (3.3-17)] is labeled transformation (2) in Fig. 3.22(b).

And now for the hardest part. I tag:

1. A
2. Beautiful Stranger
3. Bhaijan
4. Saad
5. Take this spot if you wish

The interesting thing about tags is that sometimes they provide you with a very good excuse for being narcissistic. Probably that’s one of the reasons why I regret not answering a couple of them in the past. (My humble apologies for that.) Other reasons for not answering them include procrastination and, well, procrastination. This tag, however, may or may not fall in the category of narcissism. After all, how self-loving one can be while describing seven weird things about oneself?

So, as tagged by No One, here are seven weird things about me. (At least, these are what I think that are weird. Feel free to disagree.)

1. I feel thirsty after brushing my teeth.
2. I have some t-shirts in my wardrobe that I bought with great enthusiasm, but I have never worn them.
3. I have labelled each step of the staircase in my home as either a “right-foot-step” or a “left-foot step” (in my mind, of course), and I rarely put my left foot on a right-foot-step, and vice versa.
4. I have a tendency to get confused when I see a “pull” or “push” sign on doors.
5. I like to eat dishes “derived” from meat (like kofta, kabab, etc.) but I don’t like to eat meat in its “unaltered” form (like a simple korma.) Chicken is an exception, and so is goat’s liver — yes, Eid just passed!
6. While writing with a pen, I don’t like to place its cap on its butt. I either keep the cap in my other hand, or put it somewhere nearby.
7. I can roll my tongue!

I tag Stray Angel.

For procrastinating bloggers (like yours truly, for instance), a tag does come up as a blessing. For more explanation, follow the link to Bhaijan’s blog and read the starting lines. They very well describe my own situation too.

Three things that scare me

1. Bad news
2. Responsibilities
3. Myself

Three people who make me laugh

1. Bros
2. Friends
3. Children

Three things I love

1. Sipping hot cappuccino while watching the sunset on a winter evening
2. Fantasizing
3. Watching random people in a public place. (No, I don’t stalk them afterwards.)

Three things I hate

1. Helplessness
2. When people assume something on their own that I did not say or imply
3. Bollywood

Three things I don’t understand

1. Finance
2. Politics
3. Myself

Three things on my desk

I don’t have a “proper” desk. Will my computer table do?

1. Used Internet prepaid cards
2. Few coins of Rs. 1, 2, and 5.
3. Loads and loads of work.

Three things I am doing right now

1. Eating kaajus
2. Listening to Akon’s Lonely
3. Thinking of how I can make answers to this tag more interesting

Three things I want to do before I die

1. Tour the world
2. Become a better person
3. Do something really, really good, and thus contribute, however little, to the society

Three things I can do

1. Procrastinate. I am a champ.
2. Twirl a pen in circles repeatedly using my index and middle fingers. Pretty cool, actually!
3. Run. Fast.

Three things you should listen to

1. Birds chirping in the morning
2. Your inner self
3. Me

Three things I’d like to learn

1. How to say ‘no’
2. Talking sensibly
3. Self control

Three favourite foods

1. Apples!
2. French Fries
3. Russian Salad

Three beverages I drink regularly

1. Water
2. Milk
3. Fruit juices

Three TV shows I watched/books I read as a child

1. Dhuwan — the amazing PTV serial
2. Ishtiaq Ahmad novels. Abbu ji publicly blame them for my spectacles.
3. NTM’s 7 pm cartoons shows (Thundercats… ho!)

Three people I would like to tag

Apologies if you’ve already been tagged…

1. Saad
2. Untamed Desires
3. Xill-e-Ilahi