Communication Skills

"Communication Skills" ... Lets just say I have none of it ... be it a one-one conversation or one-many ...

Mr Shahid was our English teacher in 9th and 10th grade ... I was his favourite student ...upon his insistence I participated in a speech competition ... it was the first time I was taking part in any extra curricular activity . I had been up on the stage many times but not as a speaker .... Surprisingly, I started well without any hesitation but soon my memory got the good of me ... after a 5 sec pause the audience (which mostly consisted of ill-mannered final year students waiting for you to make the smallest mistake) started clapping .... I remembered the next sentence and completed without any further hitch ...

1st semester in university... there was a subject called Communication Skills ... I was dreading it already ... One day our instructor (jinhain pyar say goofy kehtay thay) distributed us into groups and gave each one a topic and 15 minutes to prepare for a brief monologue .... my turn came. Again ... in the middle, I screwed up .. a long pause ... which felt like ages ... it was so bad that on a scale of 1 to 3 I had to be scored -1 ... it was awful ...

These were examples of one-many communication ... I suck at one-one communication too .... You know when people argue even when they are not sure .... I dont do that ... I dont even argue when I am right ... Just yesterday, a colleague showed me an email which contained this picture of the Buggati Veyron-16 

I explained that 1001 refers to the hp NOT the top speed .. but he was adamant ... " I have seen a video in which this car races with an aircraft " he said. " I have seen it too ... but it does not come even close to 1000 kph ... its highest speed is 407 kph " was my reply .... " No No No you must be mistaken its around 930 something ... " .... "Really? (sarcasm)... " and I left ...

... and the list goes on

Chalta Phirta Bank

During my university life, which was not that long ago, I used to lend money to whoever needed my help ... from large sums to small amounts ... my debtors included hostelites, class fellows, batch mates etc ... Matlab meray dar say koi khali hath nahe jata tha :)

The reasons varied from fee payment, project, fuel, tires, NERC etc.. But the transaction I vividly remember is with a friend (not so much :S) who needed some money for a cousin's wedding ... I believed him and gave him the money ... which he promised to return as soon as he is back ... then the rumours started pouring in ... one of them was that he borrowed a handsome amount from his uncle and then got rid of his sim card to avoid any kind of contact with him .... this guy was the most notorious monetarily .... drowned in fines and debts ... WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THIS BEFORE !!

Although I was having this fear of ...... I tried to take things calmly .... requesting repeatedly .... he had a new excuse in store for me daily .... I have to give him 10/10 for his superb convincing skills and acting ... once he proposed to give me his cell phone (I should have taken it) ... then one morning I went to his door and started banging the door to get him off his sleeping ass and demanded the money right away ... he got up .. took the keys to a borrowed bike and said Come On ...

We went to the nearby bank .... to make the story short ... I didnt get the money but was convinced ... the exams started ... I went to him for I thought would be my last demand ... That SOB skipped his last paper and left .... that day I promised not to lend anyone any money ...

I came here to Jeddah ... got a job .... made friends with the co-workers .... especially with this Indian guy .... before going to vacation he asked for 1000 SR ... He had been so nice to me and his reasons seemed genuine so I lent him the money ... he came back a little late and found out that he had been terminated due to his over stay .... Oh Crap ... He was out of job and the next expected salary was cancelled due to his termination ..... Why Me ??!!

You dont need to be dragged into the pathetic story (I think I already have ) .. all you need to know is that he paid me in two long and painful installments ...

Tere Bin

I was coming to work today in a friend's car and he was playing all of Atif's songs ... Tere Bin , Ham Kis Gali Ja Rahay Hain etc. and instantly I remembered a memorable trip we had in our University.

We planned to go to some Water Sport Park which was outside Karachi and Uzair said he knew the route very well. We rented a car on a Sunday morning and everyone was ready in no time. Awais and Ubaid were on Ubaid's bike.

The trip was long and with "Ham Kis Gali Ja Rahain Hain" playing it seemed longer. We had an incident with the Tullas where the driver did not have licence ... but our Navy cards saved the day ....

We kept driving and Uzair kept saying "Just a little bit more ... I know the place like the back of my hand" and after driving like this for at least 2 hours we reached a place where the urdu alphabets were not used ... ok i am being too dramatic ... it was Sindhi but it was weird ... we had reached Thatta ... damn you Syed Uzair Rafat!!

Anyway we decided to eat something .... what could we get to satisy our hunger without wasting much time .. fruit, biscuits and stuff ... there for the first time in my life I saw fake money being used .. ON US! ... ok .. after filling ourselves drive back to that Mystery Land ....

Half way back we found that Park ... and someone had pointed out that this is it but Uzair ....
But we were glad that we finally made it ... Little did we know what was in store for us ..... we got down ... got ready... "The Park is closed till April" were the first words of the guard ...

All in all .. a great trip and I have Atif Aslam to thank for making it so memorable.