just breathe

i'm thinking its time to resurrect this blog.

and i will come back to blog more.

for now just having decided feels good.

postponed

haloo good people.
ur all good because despite my irregular blogging, you keep coming back!
Love you for that!
khiar, there’s been a change in plans. I had a trip to India all planned out for June. but that’s been postponed now. The visa took too long, and now Kay and V cant get their internships extended. So there’s no point in going on such a rushed trip, bear the hot humid weather, and possibly the rains...when we can go in Jan and have a great time, with nice pleasant weather and more time! Because at this point kay could only spare two weeks...we'd planned for longer.
we've got lots of sympathetic people saying they could have gotten us the visa in shorter time...we ourselves could have done the same...what with enough contacts between the three of us...but we'd initiated the plan through a teacher, who also travels to India frequently on work purposes. So courtesy required us to let him handle the process.
*sigh!*
lol...khair, the more I think about it, the better January sounds now.
I do hate hot humid weather.
Now all im praying is that nothing comes up this winter.
Winters in Pakistan, or possibly in desi society always connote wedding/engagement seasons.
Someone always ends up getting engaged in winter. Even if you didn’t see it coming, it happens.
you could be happily single, and the next thing you know u or a close friend are getting engaged in winter, or possibly being rushed into a beautiful winter wedding!
Its great weather, everyone’s back from vacations, and the next winter is a year away, so people usually rush into things, just to make it.
And somehow, God, I think, also likes winters.
He convinces’ couples to get engaged...or parents to get their kids engaged or married…right when winter is around the corner. So by the time everything’s ready…its winter.
So I’m taking this delay as God’s will. I believe everything happens for a reason, and some good will come out of it.
I suppose we were being stubborn by going, despite all the delays and issues…and putting it off till Jan sounds better the more I think about it.
So I suppose its back to documenting old trip…Inshallah till January…hopefully kay and I will remain unengaged or married till then .lol.

Random fact: im so badly hooked on Indian music. Anything (of course except for the really low quality stuff).
I even like that himesh dudes songs. Even though all his music sounds the same...it works. And I don’t think people should really crib about his music...it’s his time!
And nothing can get in the way when god's decided 'its ur time to shine'!
I love sonu nigam's voice, and that sunidhi chick...in fact all of it...I even love abhishek bachan's rap song!

Rabbi shergill was in Pakistan recently, and my boss's friend was one of the organizers... (I think).he was telling my boss how rabbi's new album has a song called "Karachi ki larki"..or is it "kurri Karachi dee"..
In any case, rumor has it that rabbi's in love with a girl in Karachi. One sided! Obviously media related, because he met her when he was here for a concert or something...so she's someone he dealt with.
Ok so im being intentionally vague. I know who she is, her name, and where she works...how...because I made my boss find out. I told him that as a female, I would not be able to sleep at night till I knew everything regarding this.
*but imagine, the ego boost this girl must get. Just thinking about it. Regardless of the fact that she doesn’t reciprocate. Or does she...no one told me this part. lol.*

khair...in my last post a blogger commented on letting us meet his cousin(who is a starlet), when we go to Mumbai! I of course rushed to his blog, because OBVIOUSLY I wanted more info.
But he's being vague!
theek hai...koi baat nahin...I can wait...but once we're there...dude u bring her out of the shadows!!
:D
thanks though!

Ok another confession...I sometimes get hooked onto Indian soaps! It’s not my fault. Everyday I have to give some quality time to my grandmother. So usually this time coincides with her soap times. And u know, u watch casually and then just when the woman smilingly opens the door, she goes pale and says
"TUMMMMM!!!!"
And the episode ends there!
And ur sitting there thinking WTF...who could it have been...why'd the episode end there...F@#$-ing hell, ill have to watch the next episode to see who it was...
And you sit to watch the next episode the next day...
And the recap happens, and the whole scene unfolds again...and the woman says
"TUMMMM"
And the play starts...
And she suddenly breaks into a smile and says...
"Oh, sakku bai, TUM"
WTFFFFF!!!
All that drama, just cause the maid showed up!
aaaaaaaargh!
Now u'd think that I’d learn!
But I don’t!
I fall for it every time!
Everyday, I would sit with my grandmother and watch a play called "larki anjani si".
This soap about an 18yr old girl, who gets pregnant accidentally. Artificially inseminated.
Ufff the evenings I spent just waiting for the handsome older man to find out she’s the girl he’s looking for…but NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
It never happened, and now my loser cable guy has gone and stopped running SONY TV.
And my families too lazy to do something about it…so I don’t know if ANANYA and NIKHIL met or not!
And have ANGAD and KRIPPA gotten over their differences!
And oh so many more dysfunctional couples I need to keep track of. lol!

Khair, ive recovered.
ive just missed too many episodes to even try and keep track!
Toh jaan chutti!
And I think granny’s doing better too. She’d get too worked up about all the ‘coincidences’ in the soaps.
“Dammit she left her cell phone in the car. And “whats his names’ trying to call her. Damn her, did she have to forget it nowww????”

“Why can’t they close the door when they have a private conversation dammit!!!? Of course the mother in law will hear it!!”

“They’ll never make it…his evil wife will get their before them, even though they got a six hour head start! It’s all a conspiracy to get my blood pressure soaring!”

“Stupid jerk turned away just when she was walking by!!! Now he’ll never know she’s the mother of his unborn child!”

Oh and have you ever spoken at home the way these people in the soaps talk.everything revolves around illegitimate children and abortions.
I would die of embarrassment if my father-in-law said something like the ones in the soaps say.
“thora araam kar lo bahu…tumhari koke mein bacha hai”
(Aaaaaaaaarghh…shamefull old man, like she doesn’t know that already!!!)
And none of the girls can have arranged marriages, because they’ve already gotten pregnant off their boyfriends!
Boy friends, who refuse to marry them now.
And every woman has at least three admirers.
They’ve been married twice over, but there’s still someone who wants to marry her, because he knows that inside she is pure and innocent!
Here in real life…finding ONE is a lifetime job! And once ur married…sorry, ur fait is sealed.
So I don’t know how KASHISH does it!
Lol!
Ok…im done ranting about my previous TV addictions!
U’ll all be glad to know, im over it!
It’s back to American sitcoms, and American idol!
Oh yes, as a parting statement, ill also admit, that I regularly watched Indian idol…
And sandeep was better than karuniya!!
Ha!
Till next time…

india chalo!

Ok people, I realize ive been a very very bad girl about updating this blog!
Its just that there’s so much I have to try to remember…ive forgotten nothing…but trying to put in the form of a post is really difficult.
Plus I suppose ive been busy conspiring and planning my second trip to India…this time longer…more focused, and a chance to spend time in the one place where we stayed the shortest period…BOMBEY!
A short update on what ive been upto...not detaisl, but a brief update. details ill give when I have the visa stamped on my passport(the one detail that’ll confirm everything.)
Ok so kAy, I and V are going to India for a month. We’d been planning it for while…and I remember when I sat for my job interview I informed my to-be boss about it.
He remained quite. We both knew that id have to resign to go. I wanted to go SOOOO badly! And I wanted this job too!
So I kept quite about it.
A few weeks later, when id settled more into the job and managed to make a better friend out of my boss, I brought it up again.
And he agreed that one does not get such chances often, and since it was a learning experience, it might benefit the agency upon my return. Told me to not lose hope.
I’m just going to add here that my boss is THE COOLEST!!!
I randomly let it slip that we were having accommodation issues. He said he had lots of contacts in India, and he’d see about it.
The result…we now have three great options…in fact they’ve decided they’ll just share us. and everyone who’s heard of us coming is all set to show us around.
So that’s exciting.
And now we just have to apply for the visa…soon.
INSHALLAH, it’ll happen.
kAy: listen, im going to beg sir to add GOA to our visa list…
khizzy: true, if we tell people we went to India for a month and didn’t visit GOA they’ll spit on us.lol!
so here I am, apologizing for not posting regularly…and promising to try…and also promising to blog regularly when there…I didn’t have blog last time. This time I do…so you guy’s will know exactly what we’re up to!
kAy and I have also planned on making a scrap book. There’s no replacement for good old fashions scrapbooks! Collecting and pasting everything that you feel has significance!
And yes…in true khizzy fashion…pictures will be posted too!
So bye now. And I promise ill post more often! Till I go, ill still post about my last trip, and in between update you on out summer plans!

PRAY FOR USSSSSS!

ok as promised im back!
i knew i had to start blogging here again, but i kept puuting it off...but yesterday i recieved a random sms from a close friend which read "khizzy ur india blog is hilarious.i'm dying!"
saddu i knw ur dying...its cuz u were there when all this was happening!lol.

khair...we arrived in ahmedabad early the next morning after a long train ride.the minute we stepped off the 'men in red' swarmed towards us as we helplessly held on tightly to our hand baggage.
we piled onto the bus and as we waited we heard the sound of a 'mandir ki ghanti' and bhajans somewhere close by...upon searching we realized that the sound was coming from right next to the parking lot.lol.in the lot actually was a little (blink and ull miss it) mandir with im not sure which god in it, and next to it was an old fashioned tape recorder playing bhajans...and a man in front singing along with his hands joined in front of him!
"then who's ringing the bell?" we wondered.
then to our amazement we saw this motor engine which was running an aoutomatic ghanti attached to the roof!
lol...priceless!
luggage loaded...we were off...
when we arrived at the 'hotel riviera' , they were'nt ready for us!
*dont know why considering we'd made reservations before cming to india.maybe they didnt believe we'd come.lol.*
khair...they took one look at our cranky, sleeepy, and hungry faces and went into action mode!
in no time...we were made comfortable...in their party room.lol.
yes...they had laid out lots of matresses on the floor...and on one side breakfast.
all of us collapsed on the matresses(sleepily cursing them for not being ready).
the breakfast despite trying to be polite we couldnt eat!
idlis' and sambhars and waras with coconut chutni and the lot is not breakfast we're accustomed to.so we went hungry!
finally rooms were ready for us!
whisper, smily,mao and i always roomed together, since it was four to a room.
fat-brat threw her pune wala tantrum again...and this time to maintain peace i moved in with rj and babyface!(which btw wasnt bad...they are infact hilarious and i got all the dirt on everyone.heehee!)
that afternoon we went shopping to buy saris...and on the way back got lost!
yes again!
our group decided that we wanted to go to this jewelry place our alumni member had told us about and following her directions from the sari market we ended up in this meat market!
lol...yes, us five dressed pretty and touristy walked endlessly and so much we ended up on the other side of where ever we had to go and finally had to hail a rikshaw...sorry auto.
got back to the hotel and swore each other to secrecy.
did ALOTTAAAAAA shopping...
and that night we went to see Swades!
one of the coolest movies ever!Shahrukh Khan ROCKS!
went to sleep happy!
(day 2 of ahmedabad in next post!)

disclaimer

ok people, i realize i havent been the most regular blogger here.
i started this blog, because i wanted to document one of the best trips ive ever had.
to do this justice i need to do alot of flashbacking and thining, trying to remember exactly where and when wat happened.
and quite honestly, i dont have time for it for the next month and a half.
im graduating this semester, its the end, im working on my thesis.so no time to do all that thinking.
i am however quite regular on 'the cloud'
because thats everyday blogging, random stuff, that happens everyday, or comes to my mind.
its also my escape when work gets to me, and in some ways its keeping me sane.
hopefully, come december i will become regular here too.i promise.lol!
thank u!
khizzy

mcdonalds meal TO GO!

Ok so its time to go to ahmedabad!
everyones all packed and ready to go.we have the 5 pajeros. Should be enough haina?
But no. We forget that there are only four boys, one male teacher and 29 females. Hmmm...One huge suitcase, carry-on and handbag for each female.
If u cant picture it, its alot!
khair...the drivers did their best to squeeze us, our luggage and themselves into the cars, long enough to make it to the train station.
Tight squeeze...we ended up sitting in the oddest positions, on top of each other holding luggage back and off our heads with our arms. At one point i felt an itch on my leg and no amount of scratching would relieve it, to which mao said,
"Sweetie, it might help if you scratched ur own leg!"
Crap!
Finally we get to the station and an ocean of coolies surrounds us. We’d been warned to keep an eye out for pickpockets and luggage thieves! So we all stood around our luggage like commandos until the coolie fees were being negotiated.
Wow we had a lot of luggage.
khair...we stood there while passers by stares at us and whispered to each other,and i kept catching the "psssst pssst pssst pakistani psssst pssst"
parts!lol!
Its amazing how without us wearing signs that say we're Pakistanis, and the fact that we do to an extent look the same, we could still be recognized.
Ok...coolie fees decided, every group was assigned a coolie and told to keep an eye on him too.
As my group walked, we spotted a McDonalds. Now I’ll add here that my group was the most organized and easy to work with. We were always ready before everyone, and never created issues. We thought practically and made sure we were prepared for everything.
'Whisper’ who looooves McDonalds remembered that we'd be getting no food on the train, and that she refused to live on ruffles lays and coke. So we pitched in money and bought meals for the six of us.
As we boarded the train, and with 15minutes to departure, one of the other girls spotted our food, and exclaimed about what a smart thing it was for us to do that.
So she then proceeded to collect money from everyone else and along with one of the boys, an alumni, and 2 other girls, went off to buy food.
Note: it takes a long time for such a big order to be ready.
We felt the first nudge of the train. Crap!
"Someone do a head count!" yelled one of the boys!
The McDonalds buying committee were still at the McDonalds stall.
The train began to move. All of us gave out a unanimous scream.
"Wait! Everyone’s not on!"
The food group turned around just in time to see the train start to move.
Without a second thought, leaving 2000rs worth of food behind, they ran for the train.
The McDonalds staff, god bless them, ever so ethical, grabbed the food and ran after them!
Food group_"STOP THE TRAIN! WAIT FOR USSSSS!"
McDonalds staff_"MA'AMS UR FOOOOODDDDDDD!"
It was a typical scene from a movie, and if ur getting a funny picture in ur head of three females and a guy running like mad after a train with three McDonalds staff members running after them with food, ur on the right track!
And just as 'pacha' managed to gain some feet ahead of the girls, from one of the train doors, (in full SRK mode from dilwale dulhaniya le jainge), a man popped out and reached out for 'pacha'.
'pacha' despite hating SRK, and his 'unrealistic' films, lol, reached out his hand too...hoping to grab the man's hand...and just as their hands touched, 'pacha' tripped and fell on his face!
So then u had a train full of worried sick and many crying Pakistanis, a station with four very 'shit scared' Pakistanis, and three very efficient Macdonald staff members!lol!
khair...the alumni remembered that on her class trip to India, they had missed the train too, and then took my friends and got a cab to the next station, where they boarded the train to the sound of loud cheering and applause!
*With the food of course!