A different shower

Imam al-Shafi'i writes at the beginning of his Treatise (Risala) - "Praise be to God, Who, whenever He is thanked for one of his blessings, provides another blessing which in turn obliges one to thank Him again!"

Learning of the outing - If you give cub/boy-scouts with a place to start a fire and chairs around it, and a long stick each, they can spend hours just watching their stick catch fire. And once they have parked themselves, there are very few things that can distract them away from the allure of dry sticks flickering across the fire. Alhamdullilah that food had to be cooked for by themselves, and there was a strict rule about cleaning up. A few of them had never been close to a gas stove before, and a few did not know that dishes could be cleaned outside of a dishwasher!!! But then there is always a first time, and they were quite appreciative of this fact. Hopefully they follow it up at their homes, and realize the good work that their parents put in.

Due to a strange twist, the three elders, get the small tent and the boys get the other two big tents. Surprisingly the boys were on time for all the events and even found stuff at the Geronimo camp that we had not noticed before. Apples from the tree were absolutely delicious!!! (supposedly blackberry picking season comes around in Oct-Nov. Seems like a good time for another outing.)

Wind in the Willows - The temperature drops to 40 in the night and the wind starts howling through the woods. Awesome!!! Add the stars in the sky, at which you could stare at forever. And imagine doing wudoo with the water that exists. Just so many things that you can be thankful for.

Its all topsy turvy

Countless attempts to prioritize blogging over mundane tasks over the period of the last 604,800 seconds met with a futile end. On one part you are happy that one organization gets the funds they wanted (and layoff their intern). On the other you are reminded of a mom, who has two jobs – in the day she teaches at a school and at night works at a Call-Center. Surprising that I don’t get the rude ones and don’t do myself a favor by slapping myself. You are happy at Roger Federer winning the USOPEN and also lolling in front of the TV recounting your abilities as a couch-potato (and your ability to convince people to become one). A new pragma opens the world of scripting even further, dousing you with enough enthusiasm to burn the midnight oil, all in the pursuit of achieving balance between commitments as an employee and a volunteer and a student. And yet in the midst of all developments, the social aspect of stigmas, of heart-aches, of collective grief, all join hands in synchronizing harmony with something that makes us feel human. You try to comfort the loss of a friend; still dabble your way with limited vocabulary when you have to comfort your parents, but will be tongue-tied when you have to comfort your grandmother. SubhanAllah!!

 

Off to Payson to live in the wild with the wild like the wild i.e. with a few boy scouts.

 

.................................

 (~._.~)  T1

 _( Y )_  

()_~*~_()

 (_)-(_) 

 

 

The dilemma in India

Singing Vande Mataram is now an election issue; Forcing people to sing it is now a sign of patriotism. This is the sorry state of affairs that has cropped up in India, and again who are not patriotic - without doubt point the fingers to the muslims!!! South India categorically rejects hindi as a national language, and will have no qualms in skipping vande mataram in schools. But no dont look over there - point those fingers on superficial patriotism definitions.

C's last post obviously reflects on the double standards faced in the media. Sania Mirza is like any other teen in india from the middle/upper-middle class. I (with the wee bit of knowldge) love to talk to my contemporaries in the socio-family network, about the absolute simplest of things in Islam such as namaaz. Many of them will be defensive behind the statement - "But Islam is a moderate religion". Ask them what is meant by Islam, you get a vague explanation extending into pages but nothing noteworthy. Ask them about 'moderate', and be prepared to listen to ideas that contradict the teachings of islam. And, I am supposed to accept the answer from the likes of Ms Mirza!!! These same people have a very good understanding when it comes to inter-religion dialogue - eg namaste to elders, happy new year atleast 5 times a year, cricket on gandhi jayanti etc - and thats a proud trademark of Indians. So how does learning about islam and standing for whats wrong (eg ladies tennis skirt), suddenly break this trademark?

Indian Express is running this series of articles on muslims in India. Obvious coverage is given to exploitation of triple talaq in the low-income class, fatwa-giving-mullahs and how substituting arabic (Allah) for persian (Khuda) is a matter of grave concern. It feels the same way as reporting on muslims in USA - dont ask the intellectuals or the educated class, bias the article on the exploiting and exploited ones and portray that as Islam.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/12036.html
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/12102.html

Roti [v], Kapda [v], Makaan[X]

For all those who are staying by themselves and have to pay the rent every month - start saving more. The rents in Tempe, Chandler area have gone up by approx $70-$90 -- and that is on a 12 month lease!!! It is again quite unfortunate that interest rates have sky-rocketed and now even the rents. I know keeping away from interest is the best, but this is just to pose the situation that we find ourselves in. They are not even offering Move-In Specials.

Whats happening

For the last two months (i guess) there have been articles in the Muslim Voice, either lamenting about the sorry state of affairs of the Mulsim cemetery or the experience of some individual when he wished to finish the final rites.

As a volunteer we tried our best to beautify it, but in the light of the two articles, beautification is the minor issue. I know for a fact that when I was distributing flyers, in the summer sun after jummah, this individual comes up and tells me that it is way too early to come for volunteering - this was 6:30 am in summer on a Sunday. There were many more catch-22 situations that demanded that I only act as the quiet messenger.

But the recent issue, has Br. John Atik's experience, and this seems rather disturbing. He is lamenting about the issue of having less hands and his fear of the grave collapsing. Less hands!!!! how? why?

Extreme Origami

The picture at the side is an Origami creation!!!! This dude with background in lasers and stuff at caltech etc., creates this computer program for Origami. It results in the need of a better (read as thinner and more flexible) paper and so he starts doing that!!!!

Good article on the world of origami and the japanese prodigy who is currently number 1 in the world along with this dude.

On a side note, blogger was inviting people to test out their new blogger that has tags to classify your post among other improvements.

Calculations for Ramadaan

Position of the Fiqh Council of North America

According to the calculation criteria for determining the Islamic Lunar dates adopted by the Fiqh Council of North America, following are the dates for Ramadan and Eidul Fitr for the year 1427.

Ramadan 1427 - First of Fasting September 23, 2006
Eidul Fitr 1427 - First of Shawwal October 23, 2006

For more - visit this link . I am sure many will have conflicting opinions about this method ..

Battling Murphy

Out of town trips are cool. Especially in this heat.

Whatever the trip holds in store, when I return back on terrible tuesday, there is a seemingly unending battle in store with Murphy. A late flight prevents a good sleep, an early morning meeting ridicules my idea of giving up coffee, things beyond control only pepper up the pent up frustration. And then my laptop decides to ignore my requests to log in. Gee, thats a big huge problem. In the process found another file in the wonderful windows system that causes such interesting phenomenon, and now want to try it on an unwitting bakra. :)

All thanks to RSat,(P&V)Gupta and (N&J)Vora for guiding me around town, while I missed exits and tried alternate routes, and blamed the CA road signs for all the mess. Chaat and Paan and bhel-puri rock. Khajoor paan is another thing that has me hooked.

If you are having a bad day...

http://stage6.divx.com/members/17146/videos/1059

The sequel to Matt Harding's original "Dancing" from 2005, which gained wide Internet popularity. Matt's first video of him dancing around the world was so inspiring that he actually got sponsorship to go on a second trip. Hence, this new 2006 video.

Masjid Omar is looking for donors

An extended prayer room, new tile work and little book shop (urdu and english). Yeah Masjid Omar is getting renovated and a facelift. Did I ever mention the 15+ trees that were planted this summer, and are still green. And to top it a carpet selection was held tonight after isha. Many people opted for a red carpet with little spots - and also gave their opinion on the tilework that should go towards that-area-where-imam-prays. Now donations are needed for the carpet. Spread the word.

two hours with mali

Out of nowhere, at 10:30 am, mali messages me about being in a chandler conference room, meeting another local engineer. Mali obviously hasn't change one bit since we last met in June 2004. A bit relaxed but the usual self. Unfortunately for mali, the lunch break started only at 12:40pm and till that time I was already stuffed with lasun sev. Yet had a jolly lunch talking about everyone from Jmeeel pai and Brother and everyone else.

yeah - whatever

YouTube Revolution

Normally I would prefer Google above everything else, but google video is still beta whereas youtube is not. till the time google comes out, i am going gaga over youtube. Yes there were videos of our own community brothers dancing to chaiya chaiyya (thanks RN), but there is more stuff besides this fun stuff as well.

There are many videos from bbc, reuters, india etc that have either not been shown due to political influences or are just too bold (translate violent-hateful-but-true). Whatever they may be, video hosting services are suddenly - for me - better than watching reruns on the tv. You cannot see cricket and football highlights on the tv but besides this as well there is stuff that piques your interest.

The only problem that i face with videos is that i cannot see that in my car while i am driving unlike lectures/readingbooks etc. It gives rise to a severe paucity of time to do anything else in and out of the house.

Currently what has piqued my interest is this 6 part BBC documentary dealing with the gensis and history of two movements that we today find on a collision course - the "Islamist" and the American Neo-conservatives. Extremely absorbing (and worth forwarding/spreading).

Part I (a) Baby It's Cold Outside
Part I (b) Baby It's Cold Outside
Part II (a) The Phantom Victory
Part III (a) The Shadows In The Cave
Part III (b) The Shadows In The Cave

Poetry

Sahl ibn 'Abdullah said,
"The sign of the love of Allah is love of the Qur'an.
The sign of love of the Qur'an is love of the Prophet.
The sign of love of the Prophet is love of the Sunna.
The sign of love of the Sunna is love of the Next World.
The sign of love of the Next World is hatred for this world.
The sign of hatred for this world is that you do not store up any of it except for provision and what you need to arrive safely in the Next World." 

Too beautiful to skip it and not share it with others. It does not come as a surprise but those who are able to convey their ideas in the best of manners are those who are well conversant with poetry and literature. I had even read somewhere that the appreciation of the Quran 
also lies in its rhythmic flow - but dont quote me about this.

Another link to keep myself busy while driving - http://www.masbayarea.org/multiMedia.asp .

Crazier flying regulations

FAA Considering Passenger Ban

George Galloway on Sky news

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69WPZe_zYFo

George Galloway on Sky news - aka fox sister network.

embedding it on my blog causes big badwidth bottleneck, as i experienced in india. Sorry for that

chugging along

[5] The traffic in Pune just keeps getting worse. To add mirchi to it, the roads are in a pathetic state. It rains as much in countries like singapore etc etc, but the roads in pune are the only ones that depict the intensity of rainfall.
[4] Take 300 pencils and make them stand lengthwise as close to each other as possible. Place them on an undulating surface and coat them with glass- What do you get?? ---- viola you have HongKong. Nice place to see what USA could not achieve in terms of public transportation and other businesses.
[3] Geravli has changed majorly from the last time I visited it. The optical telescope is now operational, and this was probably the last guided tour i will ever get. The scenery outside is still the same and--- I will posts pictures soon.
[2] C&D&KRV&R rock. D was upset about my comments on india and i apologise for it. Unfortunately Bangalore traffic was as bad as Pune and I could not squeeze in a trip to N or Poons. Family was even better when it comes to pulling my leg. Congrats to Rif and Dr. P - great wedding for a great cousin and all the greatness that comes with the great cousins around her.
[1] Welcome to A1. I had to relinquish some of my control to A1 and as ppl would like to say - she is my better half. Lots of bouncing around regarding multiple issues, but alhamdulillah that atleast somethings worked and subhanallah for the things that can only improve. Current visa interview appointments only make things difficult but inshallah we will have to work it out.

PS - posted while i am stranded in hongkong due to the effect of typhoon in hongkong, rains in mumbai causing incremental delays.

stop and go

"Science tells me God must exist. My mind tells me I will never understand God. My Heart tells me I am never meant to."

M2BPL

wot saved sunday

Whoever thinks about moving it a notch up should see Roger Federer. Amazing game in which he broke Nadal 3 times in the first set, kept up with Nadal for the next two sets and then Moved one gear up in the 4th.

Zidane wins the Golden Ball as the best player of the World Cup!! Watching matches in a group always beats watching it solo - i.e. if you can take it as a sport.

and sometime sunday, some team called italy played their usual boring defensive game to only win the cup via penalty kicks - terrible!

Story sent in to me

Father : I want you to marry a girl of my choice
Son : "I will choose my own bride!"
Father: "But the girl is Bill Gates's daughter."
Son : "Well, in that case...ok"

Next Father approaches Bill Gates.

Father: "I have a husband for your daughter."
Bill Gates: "But my daughter is too young to marry!"
Father: "But this young man is a vice-president of the World Bank."
Bill Gates: "Ah, in that case...ok"

Finally Father goes to see the president of the World Bank.

Father: "I have a young man to be recommended as a vice-president."
President: "But I already have more vice- presidents than I need!"
Father: "But this young man is Bill Gates's son-in-law."
President: "Ah, in that case...ok"

This is how business is done!!
Moral: Even If you have nothing, You can get Anything.
But your attitude should be positive.

---

Do you Yahoo!?
Next-gen email? Have it all with the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.

---

Sneak preview the all-new Yahoo.com. It's not radically different. Just radically better.

close to lake tahoe

nice lake.

i know bombay is like this right now, hope things clear up

40 to 110 in 3.5 days

1. Fireworks at Tempe Lake are overwhelmed by nature's thunderstorms :)
   
2. The Log Cabin at King's beach at Lake Tahoe gets 10/10 for lunch and icecream. Family setup, super different menu, super duper icecream. - taste laajawaab.
3. Superman has improved but still lacks baty and spidey. Sounded so much better at Imax
4. Be Prepared when you want to camp at 40 F 50 metres from a lake. It is going to be veree cold and the tent is naat a bade of roses. dont crib dont come.
   
5. go France!!!
   

Imagine the jhatka of leaving at 69F and arriving at 110F

Brazil lost its france time

Brazil lost its france time now

flurry of post 2 - Mumbai kare pareshaan

A nice rebuttal to a story rocking desiland. mumbai gets labelled as the rudest city - oh sorry diplomatically correct - mumbai is the least polite city.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/7117.html

You can search online for how polite is defined in three questions:
[1] does anyone help you if your file falls down?
[2] does anyone hold the door for you?
[3] does the shopkeeper says thank you?

After living here, the quesitons should be:
[1] have you said hi to your neighbor even once and asked if they were doing ok? (what i have a neighbor?!!)
[2] do you even smile/wish the minimum-wage-worker working for your hoa? (ooh we dont know what their criminal profile maybe)

Talk about smiles plastered for occasions with internal revulsion for doing that action. See all the newspaper photos with chamkeelay batteesi.

flurry of post 1

I need feedback if this link is credible.

PepsiCoke

Basic argument is whether they contain alcohol - to cause intoxication !?!?!!?

I can automatically see someone posting that sodas are harmful and how they are cleansing themselves by sticking to lemonade.

Brazil fans Unite

For all the brazil fans
http://www.minimalsworld.net/BrazilName/brazilian.shtml

Mine was Tanwaldo or Shaisco (depending upon a few permutations and combinations)

altoid mango sours

Br. Anas has started a weekly halaqa at everyone's favorite masjid aka masjod Omar :) on Saturday. And good part is that you get the sawaab of on umrah while listening to islamic talk. Open to all the sleepy heads who make excuses. What better time than Fajr time!!!

americans against natural light

Yes and this is not in response to blog police patrolling across the blogs. To balance the facts that had me off-balance, came a pleasant surprise from the graduating batch of 1995 from St Vincent. Correspondence with around 20 old-timers kept me occupied and excited. So excited was I that I even completed Godfather from chapter 7 onwards. (Actually C's reassurance that the movie had only started at that point had more to me watching it). But it was nice to see so many folks around in the states and seems that i can do a amrika-yatra without needing any hotel bookings!! One of them was living in tempe and i came to know about him after he had left.

So people will ask how was gfather - if you have three hours at your disposal you can have elaborate shaadis, slow movements and character developments.

worst of all, i was so excited that i watched nacho libre and man it was painful. i will rate this movie only after anger management as one of the worst "comedies". T2 enjoyed it - why because of the Eagle scene. all hava went phusssssss.

the broken nail

Keeping a blog means that you have to overcome all the distressing facts that effect your life, just so that you dont get a ticket from the blog update police. Some facts are distressing and you cannot go publishing them on public spaces- in short too personal to discuss here.

Two weeks ago my top three teams for FIFA WC 2006 were

1. Brazil,
2. Holland
   
3. USA

Two weeks are a long time and if you see fat ronaldo kicking in the air then you know that Brazil will be kicked out soon. Ronaldo is a great, but if he is not fit, he should be on the bench. And however much i dislike the other two teams, my current analysis is

1. holland
2. Argentina
3. Germany

Also enjoying the fact that my DVR went online JIT and over that coming home for lunch to watch the first half of the lunch games!!

WhyIslam Dawah Workshop

Islamic Circle of North America [ICNA] presents

DAWAH WORKSHOP I
And
Introduction to the renowned
Why Islam Project
at
ICC TEMPE MASJID MEETING ROOM
On 17th of June 2006 starting at
10:00AM to 1:00PM
Please come and join us to find out how you can help !
Lunch will be served. Baby sitting available.
Registration will start at 9:30AM at the lobby of ICC Tempe Masjid, 131 E 6th St Tempe, AZ 85281, for directions and map to ICC, please visit http://www.tempemasjid.com/Directions.htm

cars

If you ever laughed on Asterix and Obelix, then this movie is for you. There is plenty of humor and directed at everything related to cars - for example, about the hummer shivers at the prospect of off-roading!! Excellent imagination and remember to look at the entire screen rather than only who is talking. There are so many things pointed out around the screen. Its good to see that a mexican employee is now a part of american movies!! its fun to listen the mexican shout "peet stop". Plenty of other jokes but surely something that anyone who has driven around the usa will find amusing. Since the same highway concept is rolling into India with traditional dhabas losing their business, I am sure that it will connect to people there as well.

Brad Paisley - Find yourself - at the end of the movie is reflective.

And wait till the very final credit rolls over - you should see "rendered using Intel". Fulto paisa vasool

opinionated

One Iraq story is dominating the headlines today. Comments aside, I was surprised by this news anchor trying to coerce an answer from a father that lost his son. Its as if he held the interview with a prepared mindset that this father will be everything that he wants his show to have. I am astonished that an inteviewer is out there to collect answers that he wants rather than to accept what his interviewee wants to say.

It reminds me awfully of the case in Outfoxxed where O reilly is wants an answer but that son stood up to what he felt correct and did not bow to Oreilly.

finally

If any computer assembly takes more than 1 hour from the time you have everything ready to the time you start using it, then that product needs major overhaul. This is my opinion (obviously this is on my blog). However knowledgeable or dumb i am, sustaining an interest in getting something done is stretched if things dont start working in the first hour.

So how did I reach that conclusion? For the last five evenings I have been trying to bring up my pc cum pvr for the upcoming world cup. Its basically using an ATI motherboard with a Hauppauge PVR. This PVR works seamlessly, fabulously, pleasantly on my Intel motherboard but put it on the ATI and it took me all of 10-12 hours just to figure out stuff on it. By some wire extensions I could finally connect it to the internet and grab some "updates" that made life simpler for me, but i would not be surprised if more people came across such setup problems.

I have nothing against ATI - they have some good technology way beyond Intel. But if I wanted simple seamless integration, I would go for Intel processor on an Intel motherboard anyday. Obvious critics would point out that high end gaming systems are mostly not Intel. But the fact is I am not a PC gamer, and neither a wannabe gamer. So my recommendation is Intel. And to silence my critics, independent reviews are available online under keywords conroe, and broadwater. find for yourself and be amazed. 40% improvement over the competition is noteworthy.

Now Let the World Cup begin - Braazeel la la

anyone know what this is

Took it from my flight to LA

procrastination

So after the big hiatus, it does not count whether my last story should be continued or not. gist of the remaining story is that naheed, my ex-1182-mate, also turns out to be second cousin on dadi's side- and I know of this after two years of staying with him. Subhanallah. yes, yes all the usual suspects will point to the fact that boys dont share information and blah blah blah etc (which is unfortunately not true), the fact is that he mentioned a different dehaat and so we never went beyond that while we were there.

Blame it on procrastination that I could not publish this story earlier - but i am still floating around on an imaginary cloud still trying to fathom the fact that naheed is no more mr enthu but boleto bhai.

Also blame it on procraastination that i could not write about an impromptu decision to go to disneyland and cursing the exit signs of the piece of crap called Cali. But an impromptu decision is an impromptu one and brings with it a piece of excitement - excitement such as leaving your belt and hairbrush behind etc etc. Right now they have plenty of mickey mice and i dont know why that is the happiest place on the planet. i was happy because i got my share of cotton candy.

Just trying from cellphone

Just trying from cellphone

daayein haath ka til

Scene: N's wedding in LA (with Jb)
Time: Around after Nikaah
Background: Just as the regular socializing MC, MS (n's relative), T1, S(n's cousin) are getting to know each other.

MC - you are from gujarat?
MS - yes
T1 - I am 1/3 gujju
MS - where did you do your undergrad from?
MC - Nirma, in Ahmedabad
T1 - (that place) in Pune
T1 - where was yours from?
MS - VVM, vidyanagar
T1 - that place that has a muslim principal?
MS - yes, why?
T1 - oh he is family.
MS - Really!!!!!
T1 - yes why?
MS - he is my dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mr AMS - right?
T1 - REALLY!!! that means you are my second cousin on dada's side!!!!!
MS - YOU ARE AWS's son!!!!!
click - click - click - kodak moment

(continue talking about cousins in USA and so on)

Subhanallah!!! Takbir Allahuakbar.

to be contd.

Summer vacations

you know summer vacations have started when you hear loud screams of joy from teenagers on the streets and in their cars, as if they have conquered the whole world... those pesky teenagers!!!!

But there is nothing like school where they give you two months to rewind and chill and relax and play all day. Everyone feels really happy that they have completed school but the irony is that school is where the fun lies.

Anyway, this is probably the last post C and D will read on mainland usa before starting around 1/2 the world in 24 hours!! Bon voyage.

to do nothing

The best solution for insomnia is to watch godfather. Whoever wants to say whatever about convergence of individuality and role playing and all bloated jargon, my take on this movie is that it is extremely dry boring. On a positive front, I have reached scene 7 (out of 23) before falling asleep. The best part of the movie is the theme music, and probably that is why i get suckered into watching it.

Movies should be like Munnabhai mbbs - where you challenged to fall asleep. I finally got around to watching it (before switching to fogdather). Yeah yeah many of you will be sighing a relief that i finally saw this and there is still some hope left for me in the movie watching field. And since you are already reading this - let me tell you the alternative ending in the Da vinci movie - (tom hanks is killed by the albino in the end). The rest of the movie is a page -per -page from this novel.

But DaVinci movie also places a unique dilemma upon me. This movie has a conspiracy theory attached to the Christianity structure but is not denigrating to Jesus (PBUH). Did Jesus (PBUH) have a wife? or is that an assumption or the first step into fiction? Is it wrong to assume something like this islamically?

driving arizona

First i noticed that i was doing it. I am driving in the rightmost lane; the driver in front of me wishes to take a right turn. Instead of slowing down, my first reaction is to look in the rear vierw mirror to see if anyone is behind me, in the left lane and immediately swerve into it. Then I tried that with a stationary bus and after that decided that slowing down was the best for me. Now when I am taking a right turn myself I like to look in the rearview mirror myself and it is so strange to see other people behind me trying to swerve into the left lane using the procedure mentioned above.

P.S. - Yes this is a crappy post and I wish to keep it that way.

Life as a mail-in rebate

MIR are an amazing way to cheat people with false prices. The best one I have ever seen is the case where I bought some stuff for which the mail in rebate had to go out after 2 months but before three months from purchase date. So now it is not merely simple to say that i come home and send the MIR asap. MIR (as we know it) surely sounds like some martketing grad student had nothing to do.

But there is one rebate that you are assured of and you dont even have to mail it in!! Its our good deeds in our life-time that will act as a rebate on that final day. Guess that what keeps us going.

thoughts from leadership

Its amazing how whenever a leader is appointed to his position he has all these ideas to do all these things and all these changes that are to be brought about..... And when their term gets over, they still talk about all the ideas that they still have and as if they have not performed their duty etc.

One thing that I learnt from the managing committee that I was a part of for the last year was simple - concentrate on the one thing that is important for your group. Fulfill your duty to achieve that objective and feel happy about completing it at the end of the year. Ideas will always be popping out and the best place to brainstorm their potential is over an informal setting. People are more open about things.

mid week contd

Frankly I do not know how the last got posted. Too late in the night with the head swinging to other tunes!!

Carrying on, this republican guy and democratic guy are arguing about gas prices and ethanol etc etc. Mr R guy quotes that reilly guy from fox mentioning that Brazil is the best example where 100% of cars run on ethanol and they dont have oil dependence. Now this was too much bluff for me, and I asked him to search online for an equivalent report. I personally could never find a report like that and he did not get one to show us either so tat just solidifies the overdepedence of people on TV. Brings back to mind of an ex-colleague who mentioned that only stupid people gain their knowledge from TV.

mid-week

The news article mentioned that Fox, al Jazeera and BBC are the most trusted source of news!! As mush as I hate Fox for their ultra-rightist view , Al Jazeera is not an angel either. It has fed off the distrust that Fox generated. So that leaves BBC - and we have seen last year or the year before that where they fired the editor on grounds that he was not honest in his reporting. So ultimately who are we trusting? Simple answer google-news :)

this discussion actually resulted among friends over lunchtime. It was strange to hear that people move out of AZ because it is republican and others had left democrat states to be with fellow republicans. Wow !! no such brand loyalty among indians!! Simple rule - follow where the heart goes - or even better your job!! Even strange would be if indians applied this rule in India - with only 30 states, only 30 parties can be accomodated.

Summer of 2006

Time to say alvida to the many friends and community members who will be leaving town, state and country. Two of them are already imagining their seats on BA, another is ready to ship a CRV. Another is already driving. Add to them the two families that have already left. Sniff Sniff.

mopeddding in usa

The price of gas has started pinching my pocket a lot and hence to counter that i have started closing myself in within the walls of my room for longer periods of time. What I am trying to actually imply is that I am sleeping a lot, more importantly cleaning my room, and lastly catching up on a lot of PS2.

But meeting up with a couple of bros who sell mopeds, I thought I had the solution to tackle the gas prices. Add moped-pooling and it is a sone-pe-suhaaga situation. However safe driving like the one that Miracles101 reported, exists in India, and the americans in their massive SUVs are still dangerous on the road. I know that these mopeds cannot be driven on the freeways as I will be sucked into the 18 wheelers. But keeping this thought aside, what actually convinced me from not buying a moped was the second accident I witnessed in as many months. Only today's accident was terrible. The intersection was the one that I visit everyday and was actually heading towards it. One person was killed after being rescued from his vehicle and the other person was lying on the pavement. One diligent police officer was running the rescue operations and common people were out there redirecting traffic away. The Car soon burst into flames - and frankly till that moment i beleived that happened only in Hollywood movies. The Black smoke and fire was eye opening. We were shooed off from the scene as soon as the fire personnel arrived. I guess i can leave all the moped riding for India in the upcoming months.

What exacerbated this, was my chat with another fajr-brother who survived one such crash (Alhamdulillah) but is handicapped in many aspects.

Each time such an incident happens I am taken aback and am reflecting back about all the things that may not be in accordance with what I believe in and wonder if this was the eye-opener that I need to stick more firmly with my beliefs. May Allah protect me on these streets of USA.

we are veree innovative

how do you politely ignore someone who is giving out flyers for a noble task within the community?

I have seen many tactics, such as staring down to the ground and walk as if you are searching for something that you dropped earlier. Or talk with friends and ignore you, as if they want to devote all their attention to the friend. But this Friday, I saw a newer one - Take one shoe in each hand, and walk confidently out. If the guy distributing the flyers offers you one, then just raise both hands signalling an inability to carry anymore. Subhanallah!!!

but on a positive note - ICC did an amazing job to lead,clean and beautify the cemetary. Thanks to all the people from the community that showed up. Inshallah it will soon be an oasis in the desert.

Zizou for President!!!!

Axel F with Crazy frog

Cannot help but notice

Been in the business for some time and quite frankly have run out of good topics to post on many occasions. but looking at some newcomers, it surprises me that most of them are posting philosophical thoughts or stuff that has deep meaning or posting rhetorical queries. If that is the life that you all live then you all belong in the himalayas contemplating life. If that is not the life that you live, then your queries belong to google answers or yahoo questions....

Dang, i just answered some of those rhetorical questions... and i am posting one myself :)

bee veree scared

Invasion of privacy by a company we all use.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/04/microsoft_expands_antipiracy_p.html

In short, it is time each one of us installs ZoneAlarm on our computers to see which programs are accessing the internet without our knowledge. And please shut the "automatic download and install" option and rather keep an "automatic notify for availability of updates"

just to keep busy

Actually there were two questions zipping in the head -
[1] Dawah inside the community or outside the community?
I feel there is a big human analysis that can be used to describe this situation (PHD material) - Dint get a decent childhood and hence is inclination towards "inside" the community and other such philosophical jargon just to say that this person needs to be corrected.

[2] why are the workers in whole food/organic stores all tattooed and pierced with long unkept hair or prmoting gothic cultures?

keeping busy

No human analysis, no geeky stuff addition, no more good stories.
just
[1] Arsenal
[2] Phoenix Suns - Playoff was awesome!! Now only professional football and professional wrestling left to be seen live.
[3] New Boss (at work)
[4] A good Quran competition.

Nice story

A new family in town comes to a masjid for a halaqa hoping to meet atleast one new person. They come early, pray, sit through the halaqa and then wait and then leave. They are slightly disappointed and wonder if they were white americans they would have had someone receive them with a smiling face, or if they were recent reverts then people would have been more inviting. They wonder if there was some other masjid that probably has more to offer.

One thing that I like about Toastmasters is that every officer that holds a position has one important job - Greet Guests with a smiling face and invite them to speak about their opinion on the meeting. There are many more things that we can learn positively from the toastmaster handbook. But this stands out - Greet Guests and give a voice to their face.

The above story was first evident in L.A. Basic assumption was that the community there was huge and hence no one really bothered. Dr. Hassan Hathout actually in one of his khutbahs had pointed out the growing indifference that we had created to the person beside us. We did not even shake hands with them after prayer, let alone know his name. He had enforced a strict reminder for that khutbah that we shake hands and introduce ourselves to the two people beside you. That had helped. I never thought I would need to refer to something like this again.

An american muslim identity exists mostly on paper (as yet); the above story was enacted on two different desi families who had visited ICC over the last month, but somehow the brownies dawah factor was missing.

May Allah give us the ability to be better (dawah givers -sorry dont know the correct words).

we bow to thee oh workaholic

ACM Programming contest

Visit the link please for the winners.

What surprises me is that Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology is ranked higher that Caltech and all the IITs that participated. Sharif University, Iran is above BUET.

Wot say !!!

Scream time

Angel Sweets - on dobson and chandler has great Mango icecream and pineapple and many more. Slightly better than the think coldstone stuff.

Bahama (something) on Elliot and Rural has some 42 flavors for shaved ice and i recommend cream with it.

Over an out - not using my brains too much right now.

Not important

Our local Imam, went to great extent to explain how the Salaf showed their love for Muhammad (Peace Be upon him). However he did not take a definite stance towards the celebration that results on his birthday. So I want to share the Link that vehemently exhorts us not to introduce innovations in Islam.

The main point from this article is:
With regard to celebrating the day on which the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was born, it should be noted that he (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not tell us to celebrate this day, and he himself (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not celebrate it, nor did his companions (may Allaah be pleased with them). They loved the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) far more than we do, yet despite that they did not celebrate this day. Hence we do not celebrate this day, in obedience to the command of Allaah Who has commanded us to follow the commands of His Prophet. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And whatsoever the Messenger (Muhammad) gives you, take it; and whatsoever he forbids you, abstain (from it)” [al-Hashr 59:7]

This is the reason why I do not believe that the Naqshbandiya Foundation is correct. In my opinion they have isolated this artificial day of importance as an annual event to talk about/celebrate this sole subject. I would be really glad if they could organize another one of their lectures on some other days.

I also would like to hear opinions of oppposition if anyone has any.

One Nation

Dragging myself on some days to the office, I come across one bumper sticker that gets my mood up - ONE NATION UNDER EDUCATED.

I never really bothered to spend further time, since it was the election season, and what-the-heck the politicians will do anything to get them votes.

But in the last two days the One Nation Under my skin is haunting me- one nation under survelliance, one nation under therapy, one nation under DEBT.

Though there is one thing that is not under - One Nation Over-Weight

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking and ridiculing - Are these the same? The first time I landed in America, i was taken aback with the fascination/dependence of america on paper. I was ridiculing the consumption of paper in this society. Forgetting the restroom, paper flyers/coupons, records, paper trail, packaging etc etc. Over time carnivorous animals were taking center stage and no matter what mr T-rex did, he was always the villian. A lion was only on the prowl, and would kill every thing in sight. Alligators, crocodiles, snakes all were out there ready to pounce on you and so on. Then came deluge of videos that wanted to make me thin. Frankly if i became any thinner, I should invest in some wings. There is not a single video out there that helps you gain weight to a reasonable level to make me healthier. Why is it that only all the fat people of this world should become healthier? Ok the word 'fat' may not be diplomatically correct, but since i am not taking names that should be fine. Gee, i am sure that each of you reading the blog thinks that i am calling you fat. :D!!!

Ok I forgot the part of critical thinking in all the side topics. Laters when I recall that.

BTW Wrestle Mania this week :)

guess what?!!?

Through the course of the week, my last post somehow got plagiarized and appears on BK's blog as the latest post - no harm done and I will go back to one of the current debates.

the British came to India, and started to instigate one kingdom against another. Soon no kingdom had a right to govern themselves and in the following wars nearly all of India was taken over. Then indians were recruited into the army to serve the British. Then there was a period where Hindus and Muslims (supposedly) did not trust each other. Indians were rising against the british and were labeled terrorists and were sentenced to be hanged.

Ask any 7th or 8th standard student and he will tell you the rest.

Substitute british with american forces, india with iraq, the local communities etc etc , and suddenly history is not old anymore!! And they are reporting that a civil war is raging. Isnt this just feeding off american history where Americans from the north were in war with the americans from the south - and the entire battle was limited only to a small portion of the usa. go figure!!

Halal Lamb at Outback

Good day!  Here is some information about our Halal lamb:

Good Day,

Lamb served in all of the domestic Outback locations in the United States is
imported from New Zealand. The lamb has received its Certification of Halal
Accreditation from The Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand.

Customers who desire Halal preparation should ask that the lamb be prepared in
separate sauté pan instead of on the grill in order to make sure there is in
cross contamination from other products. Please understand that the
preparation time for the lamb in the sauté pan will be longer than if it were
prepared on the grill. Also, please ask that the steamed vegetables be
prepared without the "seasoned butter", which contains a bit of bacon in the
seasoning.

The steaks and chicken used at Outback are not Halal.

Please remember to order your lamb WITHOUT the cabernet sauce.

We have gotten a number of emails on Halal lamb in the past weeks, and are
trying to get this information out to our field ASAP.

Thank you
Michelle Robinson
Outback Steakhouse Inc.
Purchasing/ R & D/ Communications

Passion and Possessive

Passion is when your love for something is infectious and brings more people to love the same. Possessiveness is when your love prevents people for loving the same.

So for example my lego modules were free for anyone to try and play with them. I would love to give more information about, history, etc etc and could see someone else get inspired and try that for himself. Possessiveness is where everyone else could see them, but if they crossed the line and asked me about where i got those unique parts from, that was it!!!. Ok this is an imaginary example - my bhanjaa has perused my collection sufficiently well that I cannot find some things. A better example would be - Br. Thomas in general is quite passionate about Shareeah, Islam, Dawah and that radiance is evident in his talk.

Back on this topic, passion and possessiveness are two aspects that are very evident in a persons speech. The words and emotions match perfectly for each quality. With passion, there will be hope that the world is big enough for all of us and more is merrier. With possessiveness, customer service is lacking.

Now passion and possessiveness are not limted to individuals but are equally applied to groups. These groups can be managing groups aka the organising committee aka the 'elders'. In passion the managing group takes responsibility for carrying out the main event but at the same time encourages others (sometimes forcefully) to be a part of the event. With passion comes the understanding to include more people at all points of the program, but to be ready to fall back on the core managing group if things do not work out right. Under possessiveness the same group does not even look out for external assistance. The assistance may be lying under their noses but they refuse to sniff it.

This post started off with one method to address a coterie that develops over time, that is not flexible enough to extend its outreach, with the problem lying in the substitution of passion for possessiveness.

Is possessiveness bad? No, it is needed at many times where the job/situation demands that.

Mappila Songs

Courtesy Sandgroper and his in-house mallu expert!!! Thanks

Mappila Songs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Mappilapaattu)

Mappila Paattukal or Mappila Songs are folklore Muslim devotional songs in the Malayalam language. These are sung by Muslims (Mappilas) of Malabar.
The first Gramaphone record in Malayalam Language was a Mappila song. In 1925, Gul Mohammed, father of celebrity artist KG Sathar recorded his voice in Gramaphone. Even though millions of Mappila songs were released thereafter on records, only few of them are considered as authentic Mappila Songs.
Mappila songs are composed in colloquial Malayalam and are sung in a distinctive tune. They are composed in a mixture of Malayalam and Arabic and have a special charm of their own. They deal with diverse themes such as religion, love, satire, heroism, etc.
Prominent Mappila Singers:
Azeez Thayineri
Moyinkutty Vaidyar
Eranholi Moosa
Kannur Sharif
MA Gafoor
Rehna

Gist of the story - Nasheeds Mappila bhai bhai

Silly musings of an overworked mind

The last injury I received was a deep gash across my palm. In traditional palmistry, the parabolic line circling the thumb is supposed to indicate the life span for that individual. So the wound got me wondering about the effects it may have on my life span, had it cut the same. Since astrology is haraam in Islam, I gave palmistry an innocent until proven guilty treatment. To make palmistry innocent, I dropped in the assumption that the very pointed end was my last day, i.e. today. So now solving for the wonderful y=ax^2, you could find the point of intersection of that gash with your lifeline. Only problem then is that you died at that point - so what am I doing now??? Seems to remind me awfully of the heisenberg uncertainity principle, where you did not know whether the electron was inside or outside the container. I never understood that principle at all, and had studied raman effect (as the option question). So that killed further progress on this interesting problem.

Why did I remember the equation of the parabola - blame the ASU student I had coached last semester.

N.B to add theoretical physics to my list of after-retirement-activities?

A link from slashdot.

http://www.1001inventions.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.viewSection&intSectionID=309

 

I know there are tons of other stuff that was invented and discovered in different regions of our lovely planet, but currently I need to help everyone into looking at positives.

 

bandarwaah!!

Good movie, too bad he had to die in the end due to the inherent destructive nature of humans (and the inability of humans to understand sign language.. reminds me of the quote from Ice Age where humans did not speak..).

And all those creatures on that island, it was like a big hotch potch from jurassic park, eight legged freaks, etc etc.

Best of all- it is never too cold up there on the empire state bldg.

But good entertainment value!!!

Paani Paani re

Finally rain is here!!!! Alhamdulillah

baadalon ka roop lekar, barse halke halke

dhagala lagli ..... , paani themb themb...

Anyhow slippery streets so take care.

M&Ms

Shockingly all the vending machines at my office do not carry any normal M&Ms any more. boo hoo hoo. They have replaced it with Hersheys little kisses !!! eeek hersheys chocoloates for m&ms - no way. Went one storey up and down to check all the available vending machines - same result everywhere.


I miss cadbury gems...

bandarwa

What a movie!! The option was between a big monkey or a small monkey. Small monkey sort of got selected. guess that "G" rating had to do something with it. Picture all sub 7 year olds with parents and guardians watching this movie. Head nodding along. Surprisingly only one kid let out his wailing siren but others did not follow. oh and the movie - extremely ideal for kids.

What was I doing there? No it was not a glorified version of baby sitting just a man to man time with mama-bhanjaa, while parents had some house-cleaning to complete.

MIx and SS and lots of biryani completed the weekend bash. Bechaara waiter - MIx had him cornered for sometime before we stepped in to help him out. Also read some random newspaper at Basha (NewTimes I think) while waiting for those two to arrive. SubhanAllah Sr Deedra was on the cover and her story had lots to learn from.

No work over the weekend!!! yes just did not feel like it and was just craving for some peaceful time in solitude. SubhanAllah. dont worry this wont be the normal trend and am just waiting for Monday madness to start.

Ek minute mein seedha karde gi

C i believe you will not tell this to D......

peace tv

and yes i am trying to find if Peace TV is avaliable in the states in any form (TV, internet). any help will be greatly appreciated. Peace TV officially started broadcasting in India, so now there are two channels (Qtv) on standard cable. Takbir Allahuakbar. Takbir Allahuakbar.

T1 does not have a life

can anyone argue against it?

No T1 is joking he is not busy

On return from Utah, there is a water leakage in my bedroom, and water has collected into the globe under the fan. Damp start to short week.

Then there were 6!!! So now 6 managers are tracking my subgroup's progress. What this means is that goose and gander thing. Pehle khoon aur uspar namak, the cross team help is leaving for the next 4 weeks, so i have to train a new member. We do have a major costly deadline arriving in the 3-5 week timeframe that is going to suck our time worse than a makhichoos.

The two sick friends, May Allah heal them soon and give them relief.

Is that really what kept T1 busy

Ok dont have my own photos yet, but soon Inshallah.

And then A-bhai was in townthroughout the week, and I got to eat some stuff that doesnot get cooked always. But then also had to buy some stuff for beboo, and make that 'red' line that T2 was more recently talking about.

Then happy birthday to bhanjaa. BBQ at our regular spot on a thursday night, when everyone around us wants to exercise adn play tennis, whereas our khandaan is laid back waiting for the meat to be grilled and filling the air with this oh so delicious aroma from all the desi marination. Yummmmeeee , juicy steaks and ginger chicken. We could not get to the stuffed cornish hens, i wonder why? bhanjaa dear went off to sleep before blowing the candles, so we had the cake without the wax.

What is T1 busy with?

This blog is fast losing its ratings. So people say!! and probably it is true. I myself have started coming less often to it. ok bad joke and hope no one laughed at it.

So to say the least, one cannot enjoy a vacation and find that we have guests from home. Add some birthdays, a Cubs meeting that I personally did not want, and then the MAS conference. And yes did I forget two sick people and the 4 work-week semifinal lap.

And finally a blog whose ratings are falling (only 22 hits per day last week)

But on the brighter side, Utah was beautiful. The snow was refreshing. The water was sweet (but not as sweet as yosemite). The gorges were beautiful. The hotel was cozy. The drive was awesome. The exercise was lively. The cider was oooh so yummy. The canyon was cold and windy and snowy. And the company was fantabulous. Oh sorry before this blog loses its ratings - this was at Zion National Park.

(to be contd)

hotzone on yahoo

Found this link and did not have time to go through it. What I read kept me interested.

 

http://hotzone.yahoo.com/

 

More later.

Surely you're joking mr feynmann

Book review: I have quoted this author before in my blog, becauase of the sole fact that he brings out some sort of culture among scientists and is able to communicate his ideas to the layman.

This book is a must have for every engineering student and moreso for anyone who is interested in science. If you have been a brat sometime in your life, then these are stories of the brat called as Richard Feynmann.

So who was Dr. Feynmann - he was a prof at Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in theoretical physics and a Noble prize winner at the age of 48!!!! Now thats too mahaan. He died in 1987. There is much more to him and google him if you want to know more.

This book is by far a very inspirational book that helps you question your surrounding, that speaks about his little achievements and (some that are not islamically right). But if you can look beyond that, you can imagine a noble prize winner playing drums in the streets of Brazil, with people who probably have not been to college. there is this story of where he gives math tricks which he used to divide faster that a japanese with his abacus. It just encourages you to retain the brat within yourself.

And to wrap it up the last paragraph -
So I have just one wish for you - the good luck to be somewhere where you are free to maintain the kind of integrity I have described, and where you do not feel forced by a need to maintain your position in the organisation, or financial support, or so on, to lose your integrity. May you have that freedom.

weekend joke

Very close to being added to my wishlist....

decathlon blues

i had signed up to be a super quiz judge at the decathlon for high school students. That was two months ago. two days ago two managers two levels above me invited me to a taskforce meeting to identify my road blocks and to accelerate my work. my previous post was my answer to them.

But since i had agreed to be a judge, i did not want to back out. So there I was expecting a quiz setting like in India, only to be on the opposite side this time around. But the format here is different and a little boring. Probably the topic of European Renaissance is not of my liking. I was just staring at questions like "which of the following is probably the greatest works of Mr X (italiano)?" and even better were the options that were provided [a] augustive IX [b] van percy V [c] T XV [d] Superbowl XL [e] unpronouncible III.

Whatever, it seems that the students were versed in that so good for them. But since this was a decathlon, I think the students were already stressed out everywhere else. It was nice to know about the various schools around town, and the rivalry that exists.

Our quizzes in india are more like the bbc mastermind (but that is a single person event). My old friend Hirak still has a quiz club at umich. Mine failed terribly while in undergrad, so i have not tried resurrecting that as yet. But this is also a shoutout to Arun K, Aditya K, Hirak P, Niranjan with whom we had solid experiences in our school life.

insomniacs

I dont know about the sun, but I saw a moon yesterday night!!!

Happy New Year

Its so surprising that my chinese colleague in Penang wishes me Happy New Year and I am the least bit aware that its 1427 Hijri !!! Time I start seeing the moon, since I am not noticing the sun.

pune tumchya saatthi

My Home: I stay somewhere to the right of the red bldg - dont want you to know the exact location else you can complain to my parents :)

My School: It is that big green patch and the "cross" shaped area beside it. 140 years old and still going on. Link . (Around that there are like 5-7 mosques).

My College: Personally i felt that they were money leeches - so wont elaborate further. Its disgusting to know why I was not valedictorian (But I am glad that UD was the chosen one). But their architecture was really good.

Report on Blankets/woolens distribution drive in Delhi

Just promoting my old organisation AID. Also using it to inspire myself.
---------------------------------------------------------
We had collected woolens / funds for blankets for distribution to the people affected by cold wave in Delhi. It was heartening to see a good response at such a short notice which enabled us to help those suffering due to severe cold wave gripping Delhi. Total collections were close to Rs.37,000 and with lots of in-kind woolens donations. The companies which participated in the drive : ST microelectronics (Rs.31,000 + woolens), IndusLogic (Woolens/Old blankets), Atrenta (Rs.5640 + woolens/blankets); HCL (woolens/blankets) Besides, there were some individual donations. Mayank pursued the drive at his end; in HCL. In ST, collection was facilitated by Arvinder, Archi, Ashish Korde, Ankita Arora & me. In IndusLogic, Alpana took the lead. In Atrenta, Shammi & Debamitro helped in the collections.

Hats off to the volunteers who went during the night for distribution.They include Arvinder, Anju Drolia (& her husband), Gunjan (& his mother), Prabhjot, Sanjeev Batra (& his wife), Ripudaman, Suman, Ratan & myself.

We are also indebted to our donors and well-wishers without whom we couldn't make this happen.

The volunteers went for distribution typically after midnight to ensure that only the really needy people benefit from this drive. Blankets were distributed to those homeless people who were asleep without any blanket/with just a thin sheet/torn blanket. The in-kind donations were sent to Goonj (another NGO we partnered with during Tsunami) for effective distribution.

The areas where the blankets were distributed include :- Nizamuddin, Nizamuddin Railway Station, Kirti Nagar, Patel Road, Naraina, Moti Nagar, Vishnu Garden, Tagore Garden, Mayapuri, Pusa Road, Pahar Ganj, Shanker Road, Saket, Nehru Place, Vasant Kunj, Vasant Vihar, Kalkaji , Sarita Vihar , Jasola, Shahdara, ISBT, Ghaziabad (near Vaishali & more),Noida
(Sector 3 & more)

Please note that above list only includes the areas where blankets were distributed. The list of total areas covered is quite comprehensive. We've few blankets left which we will distribute by Wednesday.

I also wish to allay the concerns of people who felt that the cold is receding and so distribution of blankets may not be useful. The fact is that we might feel warm sitting in sweaters and cozy blankets in our homes, but for those who sleep on cold,bare earth without a sweater -the winter is still very harsh. Our volunteers have seen people shivering and unable to sleep because of extreme cold & wind. If we caught cold while distributing for couple of hours, just imagine a person who stays in cold round-the-clock for the entire winter!

Regards,
(On behalf of AID Delhi Funds/Blankets/Woolens Collection/Distribution Team)

-----------------------------------------------------------

Be the change you want to see in the world. - Gandhi
-----------------------------------------------------------

2 more reasons why i like Google

[1] They can stand up to extortionists such as BellSouth and Verizon
[2] They realise the implications for complying to DoJ's wide open descriptions.

tyrst with destiny

So another MAS conference is coming up and soon there will be a flurry of emails flying around and then everyone will make excuses that they are so beeezy doing evereeeeething for the event that homework has gone in the thrash. But this story is not about bashing anyone up, so all those who felt that coming should leave.

This is about leadership and the resulting losses that come from it. The job of a leader is to complete his responsibilities, manage the duties to his deputies and the most important one is to inculcate new leaders. In many situations that I have witnessed, the leader just does the first two and neglects the third. I feel every leader should spend time to identify who can succeed him. For ex. in a committee, the treasurer identifies a prospective candidate, the secretary does that and so on. Take the indian cricket team, in which once Md. Azharudding departed, was facing a leadership vacuum.

Now comes the part of identifying people to lead. Most natural choice - look at home. But as with everything dont be so narrowminded. Also look out for your friends that need that break. Or that person who sits quietly at the back of the MSA halaqa. Get them involved. Dont put the blame that if he wants to do it he will come forward... baloooney. Ask. Some of us had the advantage that our parents were the builders of the community and that environment was made available to you. Most dont.

I have seen atleast one MSA collapse because of an effective leader, and another build up all from the hardwork of one leader who took the third part very seriously. The first I will not mention, but the second is the current MSA national vice president.

Return of the Roomy

So while we have one muslim being honored by the city of Tempe, I have the unofficial ignominy of being the most negative person. At this point I wanted to go online and find my negativity rating on some site but well... I have to pack up my stuff. I guess I am lucky to have such good people around me that help me always reflect on things that need improvement. Good that muharram is coming close, i can add being positive to the list of new year resolutions. Wait Chinese new year is close too. Probably i will add it there and then it wont be such a compelling resolution. anyways new year resolutions are made to be broken.....

MC and MS sent out mayday signals today. they are now counting their last days in the kitchen, before getting two extra helping hands each. Trrooop Salute karega --- trooop salute.

NS competed and finished the rock and roll 1/2 marathon. So in honor the flag will be hoisted at twice the mast. Quite inspirational to see someone improve so much in two years. Sort of draws me into getting back at the stuff I did in my younger days. too bad I gave that up to become a workaholic :)

Ok logging off. have to pick up my roomy, bambaii se aaya mera dost......dost ko...

and finally I need to go back to my previous entry "Truly enlightened people dont seek to be others- rather they seek to be superior to their former selves"

Untitled- unfiled

Normally I wanted to complete my other incomplete posts, but think that to be safe in town, let me say sorry to RN and BK. Since BK was running most of the show on the bkrn blog, I thought it would be nice to have RN posting something more on the other one. Unfortunately a suggestion resulted in supaari for my head. Actually double supaari. So before RN pulls the strings and wreaks havoc with BK (and dont know who else), this is the only apolegetic photo that i have.

Anda Bhurrjee

Book Review: The Monk who sold his Ferrari.
A very insightful book on how a workaholic gave up his millions to return to a simple life. So first thing before any of you jump and say - workholic =t1 let me say that t1 != millionaire. So this was not a story about me.

When you read the book, you think about all the aspects that Islam emphasizes us to do, but in the course of our regular lives, these things are just sent to the back burner. For example - Do you take time out for yourself in a day to exercise and to read. Yes I have this blogistan where everyone sits reading. but the author explicitly mentions - read a book that influences you. And read it DAILY. now is that mentioned in our sunnah somewhere?

How often is it that when we are told to give it our best, our mind gets distracted. I put in 10 hours at my job, but I also am distracted by the internet. Wouldn't it be better if i concentrated those 8 hours instead? This book talks about the Heart of a Rose. It asks you to stare at the rose starting at 5 minutes a day till you can concentrate on the rose for 20 minutes. Thinking of nothing else but the rose. Now where is that Ikhlas when we want it 5 times daily.

Then it talks about developing good habits and overcoming negativity. I actually tried one thing over Ramadan about developing a habit, and seriously if you do it for 21 days, it will change you. I wonder if nights of Qadr come after aprox 20 days for a purpose.

Chapter 9 is awesome and without a doubt why i will recommend this book.

Now I saw qualities of some people I know that were mentioned in this book:
"True life change is spontaneous - change happens from the time you decide from the deepest core of your being that you will raise your life to the highest level."
"Truly enlightened people dont seek to be others- rather they seek to be superior to their former selves"
"the quality of your life will come down to the quality of your contributions. A little bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you the roses!!!!"

So this was surely a good bargain at Rs 175 ~$4.

a bigger business

Goats in New York City?

That's right ... thousands of West Texas-raised goats and lambs go to theEast Coast every year to supply a growing ethnic population. The largestshipment will take place this week.

Most of the sheep and goats sold in San Angelo every year are purchased andshipped to New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania markets where they areslaughtered and eaten in celebration of ethnic religious holidays, saidBenny Cox, sheep sales manager for Producers Livestock Auction.

Cox said the firm's first sale of 2006 is the only one before the Muslim''Holiday of Sacrifice.'' He said for the last eight years, Muslim buyershave attended the sale and purchased animals for their customers. The buyersprefer young goats, he said.''

It takes 35 hours to truck the goats to the East Coast, and the Muslimcustomers require that the animals arrive alive. Being fresh is a bigfactor, so the goats are slaughtered on arrival with the head remaining onthe carcass,'' Cox said......

''The goat industry in the United States is one of the fastest-growingsegments in American agriculture,'' said Robert Swize, executive director ofthe American Boer Goat Association.(MORE)login: whocares(AT)Idont.com pwd: wassup

It remoins me of that article where modest clothing was finding an ever increasing market :))

king julian

See this guy dance with the volume muted. It was too funny to see this guy move.

For the explorative ones watch Turtles Can Fly. It deals with mines and an iraqi child that is affected by it.

Else watch SteamBoy....

weird links

Have you searched your full name in google? its a nice exercise that keeps you busy when you have the time.
Unfortunately, with the way google has expanded its search, lately the last few links that pop up are not exactly sites that are recommended. So i have all these links that refer to my publications, the last one contributes to a fall. T2 once you are done dealing with naseeb why dont u take this up with the google guys. you prob can then spend your summer in Palo Alto, CA!!!!

mixture

USC lost !!!! yay ..... all my 1182 folks i dont share your grief!!!

SS is back from india. last one to his house dont expect anything!!

intersting tidbit

If you come to the masjid and dont have time to pray Tahiyattul masjid and the necessary sunnah, you can combine the niyat to do both of them at the same time.

Also namaz was prohibited at the time of the sunrise, midday, and sunset because the pagans would worship the sun at that time. Also the rising and setting of the sun is between the horns of the devil.

Rocket Science

Now why cant some people learn!!
Before anyone else posts the funniest photos from yday, I already got my share of laughs from my sis, and now nothing else matters!!! :)

M&B - start

New series of mamoo-bhanjaa activities aka M&B.

Bhanjaa gets a 6 pound ball, the railings are pulled up and bhanjaa drops his first bowling ball onto the lane at 3:17pm (+/- a few seconds). And guess what he gets 9 down on his first try. Mamo gets a 10 pounder, the railings are still up and mama drops the ball for the umpteenth time and all that he manages are 6 pins... oh well, things can only improve from that point onwards...

10 days of DhulHijjah

http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=349

Another thing that i am trying to find is if Eid-us-Zoha is on the 10 day of Dhul Hijjah or on the day after Arafaah?
It does matter since the populous muslim countries celebrate it on the 10th day, but the mixture of usa have the above confusion.