Pay Cheque

Yesterday I got an envelop from our office Administrator. It said Monazza T on it. I was asked to sign a small piece of paper before I was given possession of the envelop.

It was my first pay cheque at iEngineering. I hadn't realized and almost a whole month had passed. From 6th December 2004 to 29th December 2004. Time really flies!

When I was given the envelop I quietly took it, saying thanks, and then put it on my table right beside my handbag. Even though I knew what was in it and how much was it, I still wanted to take a look inside.

But just as I never liked opening birthday gifts in front of the guests, I never liked peeking at the pay cheque in front of my colleagues. So I patiently waited for the lunch hour when the office becomes empty.

Finally the lunch hour came and I quickly snatched the envelop and opened it. I was happy to see the amount of money on the cheque. But to my dismay the spellings of my name were wrong. Instead of "Monazza" it said "Monnaza". Most of you who are reading this would have even missed the difference. But since its my name, I never can.

So I had to go to the gentleman in the administration and ask him to amend the mistake. Now I have a cheque with my previous name crossed with a million crosses and my correctly spelled name on it.

Now I just hope that my bank accepts it and gives me my money as I am in no mood to pay yet another visit to the admin section. ;)

A 1000 Emails in my Bulk Mail Folder

A few days ago a strange thought came to my mind and I set out on a mission to collect 1000 junk emails in my Bulk mail folder in my Yahoo mail account. Every day I had been "emptying" my Bulk mail folder a couple of times a day so I thought lets see if I don't do that for a couple of days. I was pretty sure that at most in a week or two I will be able to achieve my task. Also with a 250 MB size of the mailbox, the storage space was not going to be a problem.

But alas! My wishes didn't come true. I started collecting the spam on 16th of December 2004 and today on the 28th, after 12 days, all I have in my Bulk mail folder are 204 mails, to be exact.

I suspected myself of secretly deleting a couple of emails from there. I even suspected that somehow the spammers came to know of my "plan" and they are conspiring against me. But the suspicion is not helping.

I guess the spam filter of Yahoo is too good to be breached by a ton of spam. Maybe now I should start the same experiment with Hotmail and compare the results. :-D

Why Blog?

If I am blogging too much, does that mean that I am a talkative person and blogging is its representation in the cyber world, or that I have too much to say. Or does it merely mean that I am the only person on the face of this planet who has got infinite time to spare. ;)

Or does it mean that I am addicted to blogging, or that I am blogging just for the sake of blogging. Or that I am a freeloader and cannot get enough of things that are free in the world . ;) Or am I too impressed with the idea of blogging and want to be a part of it.

I don't know. Maybe all the reasons are correct. So tell me my fellow bloggers, why do YOU blog? :-)

Basically Microsoft is Screwed !

After three day of trying to access my Hotmail account i was very mad. I thought Hotmail was screwed and even wrote a post about it. But turns out that not the creation but the creator is screwed. :-P

I was using Internet Explorer to acces my account, as i admit that i am used to it. But then i tried Netscape when somebody suggested. And Wallah!! The Hotmail account opened in front of me as a slave kneeling in front of his master. ;-)

So i wonder where the fault is. In Hotmail, in IE, in Microsoft, or in MYSELF. ;-)

Wanted: 'Gal Pals'

It might sound strange but I am really longing to have some gal pals around. Its not that I don't have any friends (who are girls), but its just that they are far away. No girls around where I spend a big chunk of my day. Waaahhhh :'(

In my office where I have to spend a really long time there is no girl but me. The place I was at before this one had a few girls around, but they too were in the next office, sort of.

Even when I was in UK there were no girls in my class. Oh how I had wished there would be some around, but there were none. [ Well come to think of it, there were not many students around in the class let alone girls ;) ]

It's not that I can't talk to boys or they are not good at conversing but sometimes girls really need to talk to girls. ;-)

I have no idea how the boys feel in the presence of girls or to be more specific one girl. [ My deepest sympathies with them if they feel uneasy. ;-) ] But I for one can't stand being the only girl around.

Help me out you girls out there. Apply for a job in iEngineering. ;-)

PS: Boys are free to express their feelings about having a 'snooping' girl around. ;-)

Hotmail is Screwed!

Its now the third day that i am unable to access my Hotmail account. At first i thought it is some browser problem, but soon i realised that its not. First my access to Hotmail was 'sort of' blocked at home, then at my office. And now there is not a single Hotmail account of mine that i can access.

This problem is like a virus that has spread all over Pakistan. Any family member or friend i talk to (who are in Pakistan) they complain of the same problem.

Maybe Hotmail people have quarantined Pakistan. They have blocked all traffic and requests coming from Pakistan. And i wonder why. Its been about 24 hours since i wrote to their support. They also have not replied back.

Can somebody tell what the hell is going on?

Installations

Today was the 10th day on my new job. Apart from doing tiny bits of other things i have been installing software as well.

Day 1:
- Installed Yahoo Toolbar

Day 2:
- Formatted the whole system and installed WIndows 2000 Professionsl & then SP3.
- Installed Office 2000
- Installed Partition Magic
- Insatlled Adobe Acrobat
- Installed Ultimate Zip
- Installed MSN MEssenger
- Installed Norton Anti virus

Day 7:
- Installed Internet Explorer 6 with service pack

Day 8:
- Installed Visual Studio 2000
- Installed MSDN July 2002
- Installed Top STyle Pro (Trial)
- Installed Adobe Photoshop

Day 9:
- Installed Visual Studio .NET
- Installed Dreamweaver MX
- Installed Visio Professional
- Installed MS SQL Server 2000
- Installed The Regulator (a regex generator utility for .NET)

Day 10:
- Planning to install MSDN for VS .NET if i can find the CDs.

That's why every time my sister comes online (she is in Sweden) and asks me what i am doing, all i can say is 'Installations'. ;-)

The wagon door ate my foot

After two weeks of a comfortable drive to work in a taxi and burning more than 2000 rupees I finally convinced myself to try my hand at the public transport. Even though I had tried to implement that plan a couple of times before, but somehow it never reached that stage. Most of the times my timing was the cause, as I would not be able to wake up as early as planned.

But finally today I did it. Woke up really early so that I could leave for office with ample time at my hands. I even left the house on time (oh well, 10 minutes later than planned.) After that my aim was to reach the wagon stop on time, so I paced forward quickly. But I had to come to a halt for a long time when I had to cross 'the road'. That road is one of the roads going into one of the busiest crossroads in my city Rawalpindi, the Chaklala Scheme 3 Chowk.

I stood there in hope that maybe I would be able to beat the next bunch of cars. But it never happened. Well not anytime soon. Took me around 4 minutes to cross one half of the double road, and another 3 to cross the next half. Finally I was on the other side. But that was not the end. I still had to walk a couple of minutes to reach my 'stop'. And finally I reached there too, only to wait for another couple of minutes.

I was loosing minutes on every nook, corner and crossroad. Time was running out and I was about to have a panic attack when I saw a wagon with empty front seats stopping. [Front seats (the seats beside the driver) are reserved for females and can be taken over my males if the males need those. :P ] I didn't even rush towards it as I could see two empty spaces but I was the only female there.
But then I hurried a bit in fear that the wagon might leave without me.

I reached it and asked the conductor if that wagon would go to 'secretariat'. At first he didn't understand but after I asked again he said it would go to 'sectrait'. I knew instantly that that was the right wagon regardless of the fact that the conductor's pronunciation was FAR different than mine. ;)

I was just climbing in with one foot in and one still on the footrest when that "@#$%'" conductor banged the door on it. I was going to scream but didn't. Instead I gave pushed the door, pulled my foot in and gave him an angry stare. But Mr. Conductor thought it was something fun. The instant I stared at him, his pearly whites came out and didn't go in until after a while.

God I was angry. Blood gushed to my eyes. I felt like killing that 'door slammer'. Anger built up in me like an atom bomb explosion. But then as quickly as it had built up, it fizzled out. I cooled down and forgave the offense. After all he didn't do that on purpose. At least that's what I think. ;)

Boring

Boring boring
It's so boring

Staring at the PC screen
Feeling bored, wanting to screem

Done with all the tasks at hand
My eyes so full with sandman's sand

For four more hours I have to stay
By then my mind would surely decay

Somebody come, sombody help
Set me free from a cruel hell

The Worst Thing....

The worst thing that can happen when ideas are gushing into your mind and you really want to blog is to be sitting on a fully functional PC with no Internet connection. :'(

Not only this but also you know that it is totally useless typing your precious words in notepad because there is also no way to copy the data from there. Because the computer would also not have a floppy drive, a CD writer or even a functional USB port. :'(

So what can you do in such a situation? Turn to the traditional ways and pick up a pen and paper? But you also know that once you write something on a piece of paper, it will be lost forever. Why? Because nobody will be able to read it, not even your own self.

Could try typing some of the stuff and taking a printout. Right? Wrong! Because the PC doesn't have any links with the outside world, be it the Internet, a removable storage device or even a printer. :'(

I guess by the time all these 'marvelous' facts are discovered, you feel like banging the head against a big hard surface. But whether you execute this 'head banging' plan or not your mind would be as empty as a container with vacuum in it. All the lovely or exciting ideas would have fizzled out.

Angry at the cruel world, beaten and torn, you would be back to square one, thinking maybe one day you can tell this tale of torture to the world, and maybe it can be food for your blog. One day. Someday. ;)

Who invented high heels?

On Eid day I was about to wear my good old casual flat-heeled shoes when my mother suggested that I could change my shoes, for a change. I agreed as in the heart of my hearts I am a ‘girly’ girl too and do like new shoes and clothes occasionally. ;) So I took my mother’s advice and wore the new shoes instead of my oldies.

The shoes looked really nice. They were black with delicate straps. On top of it they had high heels. They seemed perfect in every way. But then I put them on and my whole perspective changed.

As long as I was sitting, all was well. But when I would stand up, it would be tough standing straight. And if I had to walk, that was a complete disaster. If anyone saw me walking in my ‘heels’ they would have thought of me as a joker giving performance. Because I wouldn’t be walking, I would be stumbling tumbling across two points. It was a total torture for the poor feet and the poor ‘me’.

At those moments I was thinking, “Who invented high heels?”. My father thinks that it is the conspiracy of men against women. I have even started believing it.

But I guess the more important question is, “Why do girls (like me) get attracted to high heels?”. I couldn’t answer my own question. Can you? :)

Clippy

I am totally free right now. I have nothing to do. I still have four more hours to stay in this office. I am thinking of ways of what to do to literally kill time, but my mind has lost its creative touch. Instead it keeps ordering my body to yawn.

One of my past times is to amuse myself from ‘Clippy’, the paper clip office assistant that is sitting on my desktop. I make it do all sorts of things (basically everything it can do). Some of its animations are really cute. But I guess by the time I finish animating it a million times it feels a bit tired too.

It is still looking at me with its curious bulging eyes inviting me to explore any new tricks that I might have missed. I guess it has become my pet and wants a pat as well. The innocent eyes keep shouting that I am here at your service; I am your humble servant. Oh and look! just when I scratched my head it did too. I think we are getting closer by the minute. Oh Clippy! What would I do without you!

But the irony is that I do not use Clippy for the purpose it was created, i.e. to provide MS Word help. I hate asking it for help. Instead I have turned it into a performer who can cheer me up whenever I am down or feeling bored in front of the computer (for instance like right now). ;-)

Now I have to work a bit so better turn off Clippy for a while, otherwise it will keep bugging me. Meanwhile why don’t you all go and make friends with your own clippies. ;-) Happy Clippying!

It's Eid

Today on 14 November 2004 is Eid day here in Pakistan. May everybody have a wonderful eid full of 'eidee' and 'sawaeeaan'.

See ya later and will talk about my Eid day. :D You can tell me about yours too.

Monazza :)

Mahi Ve

The first review I read on Atif Aslam's album Jalpari was enough to keep me away from it. The emphasis in the review was on the Punjabi tracks which were portrayed to be the worst on the album.

But I am a person who does not believe on first impressions, so I thought that I will give it a try. Downloaded a few tracks, which I had not heard before during the Gohar-Atif fights, and listened to those. I did not like them and so believed the review to be absolutely true.

And then I came to Pakistan. I was just watching IM when a song started. I was not paying much attention to it, but as it progressed I was forced to concentrate. That was one of the Punjabi tracks of ATif Aslam's album called 'Mahi Ve'. When the track finished I wished it would play once again. It was really good.

Here in the markets every other guy is humming this song. Just stand anywhere for 5 minutes in the market and you are bound to hear a guy or two trying to attract your attraction with thing.
To tell you the truth, I have also fallen in love of this song. Even though I don't understand it fully. due to my lack of understanding of the Punjabi language, I really like the music. It sounds really sweet.

[Don't take me wrong when I say the song is sweet, because I AM referring to the song and NOT Atif Aslam. ;) heheheee]

So if any of you can get your hands on the album, whether you listen to the most famous and hyped about Aadat or not, listening to 'Mahi Ve' is a must.

(I would also recommend Jal Pari and Bheegi Yadain.)

Never Knew Coffee Could Be So Bitter!

When me and my friend Mani went to Scotland, we sort of just hurried. We never actually had time to plan out important things like 'food'. Thanks to Mani she made some rice for us which would stay preserved outside the fridge for a day or two. But we still had to have breakfast.

The day we reached Edinburgh, we tried to explore as much as we could on foot. And so we did. On our way back, we took a bread from a shop for breakfast. Thinking we have taken care of the breakfast, we returned to our hostel room.

The next day Mani tried out the bread first. And to our dismay, it was stale. Hard luck I guess. So around 9 in the morning we set out, like birds after worms, looking for breakfast.

Just outside our hostel, there was a small restaurant. We went in for coffee.

Mani ordered 'Espresso'. Not knowing what I was getting into, I said I will take the same. When the waitress was bringing our cups on a tray, after seeing them, I said to myself, "What small cups they have?". But I beared with it.

And then came the moment when I took a sip from the cup. I immediately wanted to throw it out, but I didn't, in fear that I might shower Mani with all my coffee, and also the others in the restaurant might think of me as an uncivilized brat. And then I thought that even that tiny cup was like a big barrel for me.

Oh the coffee was so bitter, I couldn't stand it. I couldn't even gulp down a sip let alone finish the whole cup. Mani told me that espresso is always like that. She said that if I didn't like it, why did I order it in the first place. I told her what I am saying here, and that is I confused the name of the coffee. I was ordering espresso but I had cuppaccino in mind. Oh my precious 1.50 pounds. :'( lol

Now I have made up my mind never to order anything unless I am absolutely truly madly deeply sure that what it is. ;)

A Chat with a Taxi Driver

A few days ago when I was in the market, and not in the mood to walk, I went to a nearby standing taxi and asked the driver if it was available. He said yes after which I asked what will he charge me. To that he instantly replied that the there was a meter in the taxi so he would charge whatever the reading on it. I agreed and sat in it.

Not being used to seeing a taxi with a meter I curiously asked about it. That driver explained to me the whole scheme and all. He added that the people who are educated appreciate the metered taxis but the others do not. And he complimented me as well by saying that I looked educated too. Then he asked me about my education. I told him the details, also adding the tiny detail of me studying in UK.

After hearing that he said something which amazed me. He asked me to apply my knowledge for the betterment of the country. He added that many girls in Pakistan study a lot and then just after completing their studies they become 'house wives' and waste all the knowledge. He requested me not to waste my knowledge just like that.

When the taxi driver was saying such revolutionized things I was amazed with astonishment. I used to think that only a very fraction of people and that too the educated people think this way. They are the ones who think that girls should also play a part in the progress of the country. But when that taxi driver said such stuff I was moved to think that maybe the thoughts of the whole nation are changing and a revolution is on the way. :)

[ Getting married is never a hurdle in the way of contribution towards the progress. It is just the general practice and beliefs that make it look so bad, which is a long discussion, and might touch it some time later ;) ]

UK Traffic Vs. Pakistani Traffic

My last blog was from Hull, UK and this one is from Rawalpindi, Pakistan. So lots has changed since the last time. One thing is that I have started comparisons. Comparisons between things in Pakistan and things that I saw in UK.

One of the most interesting things to compare is the traffic.

The traffic in UK is like a row of small kids walking quietly with a finger on their lips. It is a quite & shhhhh sort of traffic, very well behaved. But in Pakistan the traffic is like hell has been let loose. Everybody wants to get ahead of the car in front, whether there is space to overtake or not. Even when the traffic signal is red, the cars keeps honking to the cars in front to 'give way'.

In UK if a car flashes its lights, it means that I am giving way to you. That way could be given to another car coming from the front or a pedestrian trying to cross the road. But here in Pakistan if you see a car flashing its lights, never dare to stay in its way. Because here the flashing lights mean 'get the hell out of the way, as I am coming'. It means 'give way to ME'.

So my advice to people traveling to different countries is to always learn the native traffic language as well as it could prove to be a life saver on the roads. ;)

Return to The Blog

Again it has been a really long time since i put anything on my blog. But it does not mean that i was not thinking of stuff to put here. So here goes 'something'. ;)

Fall From The Stairs

The first thought that will come to the minds of the people reading the title would be, "This girl doesn't even know how to spell the word 'stars'!". But the word is not 'stars' but it is actually 'stairs'.

The house, i am currently living in, has two bedrooms on the first floor. To reach there, we have a staircase. It looks more like a steep narrow pipe than a staircase. It is so narrow that i wonder how was all the furniture transferred to those bedrooms. So narrow that i sometimes fear that i might get stuck in the middle while going up. ;) The staircase is very very steep, according to my standards. Seems like, if it was a few inches steeper, it would make a right angle with the floor. ;)

When i climb up, i climb like a cat, using all four of my paws. And while coming down, i carefully plant my heels at the back of each step to have a firm grip on them. So its pretty much a big task going up and coming down the stairs.

Even today i was using my technique fully to come down. But i guess for a split second i lost my concentration and instead of pushing my heel firmly against the back i pushed it against an edge. And that was my downfall, litterally. ;)

I came sliding down the rest of the stairs, which was about 75% of them, and landed with a small 'thud' and an 'ouch' on the ground. In the dead of the night (9 pm actually) both my friends heard the sounds and came out of their rooms.

They were really concerned and worried that i might have hurt myself, but all i was doing was laugh and that too out loud. I couldn't believe what had just happened to me. It was like a scene out of a movie, but only without a real tragedy. Usually people die (in movies, that is), but i survived without even having a scratch, a bruise or a bump. ;)

So i guess it is true when they say, 'Jissay Allah rakhay, ussay kon chakhay'. (If Allah does not wish, nothing can harm a person)

See ya, Bye

When I was back home in Pakistan, I used the phrase 'Allah Hafiz' (meaning may God keep you safe) to say bye to people. When I came to UK I was a bit confused about what to say. Every time I would just stop myself from saying 'Allah Hafiz' to people. Not that I didn't want them to be kept safe by God, but it's just that they wouldn't understand what I was saying.
 
So I had to choose from one of the phrases already used here. Some would say 'see ya later', some would say just 'Bye'. But I had to mingle the two and choose the phrase 'See ya, Bye' for myself.
 
Not that I have any complaints about it, but it becomes really hilarious when I am on the phone. Whenever someone calls I say 'Hi' or 'Hello' which is fine. But when I have to say 'Bye' I act like a fool. I am so used to saying 'see ya bye' that even on the phone to people who are strangers to me I say 'see ya, bye'. I know that I am not going to see them ever, but still that's the thing which comes to my mind to say and I blurt it out. Only after putting down the receiver I realize what I had said.
 
But then I cannot undo anything. Already made a fool out of myself I remain a fool. But what I can do is laugh about it, and let the whole world laugh with me too. ;) 

Bhindi II aka The Return of The Bhindi

I talked about bhindi so much that I thought I should put everything related to it in my blog. Well the other thing is that I cooked bhindi a day or two ago. I had bought it for many days, but cooking it was actually the attempt to save it from getting rotten in the fridge. ;) [I haven't even started on my fridge bluesyet]
 
I cooked them. They looked fine. But they suffered the same dilemma as all my cookings suffer. That is the dilemma of 'too much'. Sometimes it is the salt that is too much, sometimes the red chilies are too much, some times I cook the stuff too much, and this time with the bhindi it was 'too much tomatoes'. So the food tasted more like tomatoes than bhindi. :P I had cooked some turnips a few days before that, and they suffered the same plight.
 
I really need to learn when to stop, especially with the tomatoes. ;)

Bhindi aka Ladies Fingers aka Ocra

When I was in Pakistan the English translation for 'bhindi' I knew was ladies fingers. Whenever I was told this translation I was told that since the shape of 'binds' is like ladies fingers so that's why it is given this name. I used to be fascinated by this fact always, and used to think that it has been named rightly.
 
Then I came to UK. Here nobody knew about 'ladies fingers'. I was disappointed to see that. 'How can these people not know the name of the vegetable in their own language?', I would say to myself. Then I discovered the word 'ocra' and my life was saved.
 
Then I wondered that why in the world we, in Pakistan, still call it 'ladies fingers'. But then we don't call it that. We call it 'Bhindi'. ;)

Sleepy Head

Today i woke up as usual at 10:30am. Being lazy is nothing new to me but today i have a strong spell of laziness and sleep over me. Although i am awake, i am just looking for a chance to get under my duvet for a couple of minutes to have a 'tiny' nap. ;) I guess i will do it, but its going to hurt me a bit as i have lots of stuff to do.

I am behind schedule with my disertation. :'( Its not that bad but not that good either. Anyways i will do something. But can somebody tell me how to get rid of all this sleep? ;)

See ya later.

Monazza ;) :D

How to deal with people like Nick Griffin?

Today nothing really happened in my life and i was as lazy as can be. But i saw something on the TV which made my eyes pop out. That something was the person Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party.

His comments were quoted in news which were 'Islam is a wicked vicious belief'. He also added several other comments to that.

I was so disappointed and sad about this. I was feeling angry at Mr Griffin. But at the same time i was wondering that how can we, the Muslims, portray the real picture of our faith, ISLAM. I think it is partly our fault that we don't show such a character as we should and the true essence of our religion. So people either misunderstand it or just abuse it for the sake of it.

Islam has been abused long enough. It is high time that all of the Muslims should take some action about it. By action i do not mean fighting, but intellectually tackling the problem.

I also want to thank Mr Griffin. Becasue when people like him say such things, my belief in my faith grows even stronger.

See ya all later.

Monazza :)

Burnt By Ice

Don't think that i am kidding. I litterally did get burnt by ice, or let's say by the freezer.

Actually i was putting some stuff in the freezer, when suddenly my finger got stuck to the ceiling of the fridge. I pulled it but had to exert a lot of pressure to do that. It felt that i had delibrately put some super glue on my finger to stick it there.

Anyways, when i finally got it off, it hurt a bit but i didnt notice anything. But after a while it hurt a bit more. When i saw it, it had a small burnt-like wound on it, all pink and a bit swollen.

So thats how i got 'Burnt by Ice'. ;)

First Post

Some time ago, i was quite unaware that what a 'blog' is. But slowly i have come to know of the power of the blog. I had been lazy to start one of my own. But finally today i gathered all my remaining energies to finally go to blogger.com and make myself a blog.

I don't know exactly what i will be posting here. But one thing is for sure, that it is going to be about me. :D So keep reading and i will promise to keep 'boring' you with my silly tales.

see ya all later.

Monazza ;)