I Was Right

The Oscar night has passed and we all know the winners. As predicted all the main BAFTA winners took home the Oscar too except Sean Penn.

Sean Penn won for Milk which is based on a true story of California's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk. He has also won an Oscar for Mystic River. I have watched both of them, Milk only recently .. and even though Mickey Rourke (for The Wrestler)was the favourite, having won the BAFTA and Golden Globe, I knew Sean would win.

I would recommend everyone to watch it ... And NO I'M NOT GAY!!

Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

I witnessed something the other day which is a perfect example of the title.

There are two phases of our project. Phase I and Phase II. Both are totally separate from each other and no one from this phase has any relation with the other phase. There is this Indian guy who is QA/QC Engineer in Binladin for Phase II. He visits our office almost daily. Our office seats site managers for both Phases.

So this guy came to see someone from Phase II. He did not find him, but he found one of our site engineers from Phase II in the office of Phase I Site Manager (Nael Narouz). He went in and sat on Nael's seat rather awkwardly. "Krich" sound of something breaking. The back of the chair was towards the PC and there was a USB plugged in.

"Oh I'm soooo sorry.. I did'nt see the USB" ... "Ekhrib Baitak ... This wasn't my flash ... what am i going to tell him" The arabic part means ... tera satsyanas ho

Then they tried to make it work ... pluggin in and removing repeatedly .. nothin' it wasn't detected ... it was a disaster already ... when, that clumsy dude hit a cup of coffee and spilled it all over the table with important paperwork on it ...

His face went red and Nael's too but for different reasons !! Nael became mad ... he started throwing all the papers on the floor like crazy. and I .. I couldn't stop laughing ... while they were trying to soak up the coffee with tissues ...

I told the guy to leave.. he was reassuring that he will bring a new flash drive ... I said " Leave now before u fumble something else" ... "How much worse can it get?" ... "You could kill someone!!"

Taliban of Saudi Arabia

I met a friend yesterday after a month or so... I dont see a lot of him as his job requires him to travel to different cities ... Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Unaizah, Jizan and QASEEM.

When I asked him about his last trip to Qaseem, his first words to me were "I must have commited a big sin in my life .. thats why i was sent to Qaseem". Here's his story...

He is an RTU Commissioning Engineer and obviously it requires a lot of physical work and mental stress.. so at the end of the day he relaxes himself by "chic hunting".

First let me make it clear what "chic hunting" means here ... it just means to see a woman's head uncovered and to appreciate her curves that is if u find one ... thats all ... So the first day after work he went out for his sacred duty ... and what he finds ... first of all there werent many to look at ... among those who were in the market not a single woman's face was uncovered .... the only "skin" he saw was the thin line of uncovered eyes.

Then one day, he was driving around with a little music playing ... and Mutawas (religious police) stopped him and started searching his car ... he was told that Sound Systems weren't allowed ... he didnt have one as it was a company car.

Then one evening he tried to enter Geant Shopping Centre ... and he was denied entrance .. In Jeddah, singles arent allowed only on Fridays "Families Only" day. But in his case it was a normal working day.

Anyway, he is very relieved to return to Jeddah and now he is posted to the same project where I am.

Qaseem is known for its Radicalism.. Most of the Imams here are from this area ... and u r sure if an Imam is Qaseemi he will make long Duas against US and Israel not only in Friday prayers but also normal days in Fajr and Maghrib prayers ... just like they did during these recent Israel aggressions ... I am not against the Duas ... just to give u a clear picture..

Coldplay - Life in Technicolor ii

I watched this music video the other day ... u gotto see this ... the song is great and the video makes it even better ..



I loved Coldplay's Viva La Vida ... which was recommended by an ardent music lover, and my dear friend Talha ... in fact that's how I came to know of this band.