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 ...

Borders of Shariah

Our project is in the closing stages ... Professors, students, administration staff etc have already started settling in ... the Campus area has been handed over to the proponent ... only some residential buildings are remaining ....

For those of you who dont know, "project" refers to King Abdullah University of Sciences and Technology (KAUST), a multi million dollar project near Jeddah .. at the shore of the Red Sea ...

Its a well known fact that Saudi Arabia is the only country, where strict Shariah Laws are applied ... the shops close during prayers, women have to wear hijab when in public, they are not allowed to drive (I dont know if its according to Shariah or not), the punishment for adultery or involvement in narcotics, in any way , is ultimately .. death.

But lets focus on the women and hijab part ... these rules do not apply inside the premises of KAUST ... and did I mention that it is the first co-ed institution in the Kingdom ... women can drive ... dress as they like ... it's a funny spectacle when a girl goes out for her morning jog in her shorts ... and the workers leave their work .. all gawking at her ...

Getting back to the subject .... this royal decree of "freedom" has created unrest in the clerical faction ... one of the clerics who openly opposed against co-ed has been relieved of his duties ...

I, like many others believe that soon a time will come when Saudia will be as open as (why go far) ... say UAE and this is just the beginning ...

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!!"

Bitch of a Commute !!!

The title says it all! ...... Today while returning from work a thought hit me "I have been traveling a lot since i got employed" .... after a few moments of pondering and with the help of my mobile calculator I realized, I have traveled the same distance (in the last 8.5 months) as the length of the Equator.

Yeah, thats right ..... but "Equator" is not supposed to raise your eyebrows.... as most of us have covered this distance by now..... point to be noted is.... the period of 8.5 months. You can see for yourself:

a.) Its 100 km from Jeddah to Thuwal (the project site). I have referred to this fact in both my posts.

b.) We have one day as a weekend.

c.) I started this project work in April. Take out two weeks of Eid Holidays which were officially only 4 days in total, 2 days each.

Do the Math!

and btw the equator measures 40,075 km.