Author: thisduck

eid aayi, mera yaar ni aaya

I checked and the last time I had a “Ramadan Mubarak” post was in late 2003, and the last time I had an “Eid Mubarak” post was in early 2004. I don’t think I’ve blogged about anything of a religious nature at all. This doesn’t particularly indicate anything other than the fact that at some point I decided not to blog about days marking religious events. At some level it did feel empty. Like a convenient “Happy Birthday”, something that is easy to do/say but doesn’t really mean anything beyond a passage in time. Something that you do because it is time to do it, like clockwork. A chime to mark an event and nothing more.

I don’t think it ever occurred to me what exactly it was that we were celebrating on Eid. Growing up (in Riyadh, Saudi) Eid was little more than a money collecting convention. “Eidy” we called it as we stuck our hands out and if we stood in the right light you could see the shine off our new cloths and shoes. Later we’d gather and count to see who’d amounted the highest tally, a competition of sorts. All things considering, since money was the prize we were all winners. Eid was like a massive prolonged iftar party; tons of food and tons of drinks. Year after year this is was we “celebrated”: money, clothes and food (isn’t this what most event celebrations amount to?).

When we landed ourselves in Toronto there was less of that, simply because we barely knew anyone here. We had grown past the “eidy” collecting stage but the new clothes kept coming, they still do =). Eventually we did get to know folk around and the number of iftar “parties” increased and Eid was effectively the same celebration, minus the eidy.

Sure you meet and hug people, whoptidoo. But what does it all mean? A community gathers to mark a religious day. That’s nice and dandy, but so what? Why should it matter? Why should it matter?

As cheesy as it sounds I was actually looking forward to Ramadan this year. Last year Ramadan was awful for me, I made it awful. The years before that weren’t exactly all that fantastic either, they weren’t disasters or anything, but come on. This year, however, was different for me. In either case, I think there must be a great personal purpose/meaning behind why you fast. Whatever that meaning is for you, it must exist. Jo bhi ho, dil se ho. ““O you who believe, fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, so that you may attain taqwa. (2:183)”. (This is something else that I haven’t done in the blog forever, quote from the Quran). But yes, purpose and meaning.

Then it starts to make sense. Eid is a celebration of the month of fasting done towards that personal purpose and meaning. Though it’s done in a community I think that the celebration must come from within, it must be personal. Even if there was no community and you were alone, that celebration should still be there. It should be there to celebrate your purpose and your meaning. Without that personal meaning it’s just a playground of toys, clothes and food.

Even though I feel that abstaining from food is probably the easiest part of Ramadan (at least for me), I think it is a great accomplishment. An accomplishment that calls for celebration in its own way.

Now I will not say that I’m sad to see Ramadan go (how cheesy would that be? like, seriously. “look at me, I’m so good a Muslim I’m sad to see Ramadan go.” ummm, you can still keep fasting you know?). Hah, I really shouldn’t be saying that bit in the brackets should I? Who am I to judge? Everyone should do/feel as little or as much as their heart/mind indicates. I don’t feel comfortable feeling “sad” on the passage of this month. I am not that “good” a person. I accept the ending of this month as a fact. It will come again, and if it doesn’t there’s always the next month, the next day, the next hour or the next minute. You do what you can.

I pray that this month was fulfilling for you and that you came closer to realising your meaning and achieving your purpose and that this meaning and purpose continue for you through out the year. I pray that Allah accept our fast.

Eid Mubarak.

dil se

I’ve been meaning to do this type of post forever (since I brought the blog back). But for one reason or the other (or no reason at all), I kept not doing it. And it’s appropriate that I start with Dil Se. Back in the day when Dil Se songs came out, I was in the process of collecting songs and listening to them (like any normal song listener person). But once I heard the Dil Se songs I stopped collecting more songs. I didn’t collect any new songs for the longest time. I remember friends asking me in high school, “Hey Adnan, what are you listening to now?”. “Dil Se”, I’d say. This was normal, because at that time those songs were new. Then months later, I was asked the same question, I gave the same answer. About even a year later, when they’d ask, I’d still say, “Dil Se”.

Generally in an album it’d be easy for me to list the songs I like most in order. This is difficult here.

E Ajbani – audio – video

I think the slow rhythmic approach to this song captures me the most. The constant drum beats in the background.

tu to nahin hai, lekin teri muskurahat hai
chehra kahin nahin hai, par teri aahatein hai
tu hai kahaan kahaan hai?
tera nishaan kahaan hai?
mera jahaan kahaan hai?
main adhoora… tu adhoori… ji rahi hai

Satrangi Re – audio – video

I think this song is very unique in that it embodies the whole essence of the movie in it. I think the video of the song is out of this world, it’s fascinating. It’s shot around sand, snow, fire, water, with strong elements of wind. Shahrukh is constantly wearing black (except the ending) while Manisha is wearing cloths of all sorts of colours. Then at the end of the song they’re both wearing white. And in the background you hear, “mujhe maut ki gaud mein sone de, teri ruh mein jism duboone de”. This essentially is the whole movie.

koi nur hai tu kyun dur hai tu
jab paas hai tu ehsaas hai tu
koi khwaab hai ya parchaai hai
satrangi re satrangi re

Chaiyya Chaiyya – audio – video

This song is shot on top of a train. Need I say more?
Fabulous lyrics! The beats mimicking the motions of a train, just brilliant!

yaar misaale os chale
paaon ke tale phirdoos chale
kabhi daal daal, kabhi paat paat
main hawaa pe dhoondho uske nishaan

–

main uske roop ka sehdai
woh dhup chaau sa harjai
woh shokh hai rang badalta hai
main rang roop ka saudai
</em>

Dil Se Re – audio – video

dil to aakhir dil hai na
meethi si mushkil hai na

–

dil hai to phir dard hoga
dard hai to dil bhi hoga
mausam guzarte rehte hai
dil se dil se dil se re
</em>

Thayya Thayya – audio

I love the way he says:

aaja sajna, aaja sajna
nai te mein mar gaiya

reference check

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while. This is a reference check form that the co-worker who referred me to this job filled out.

Note: I didn’t know he had this in him. I think he was being too kind. I was hired.

1. How long have you professionally known him/her?
Over 3 years.

2. What was the working relationship?
We worked together at [Old company name].

3. What were his/her duties/responsibilities?
In charge of keeping up the right ratio of ethnic stereotypes and magic tricks.

4. How would you describe his/her personality?
Suicidal.

5. How does he/she interact with others?
Usually makes fun of them.

6. How would you evaluate his/her communication skills?
Never talked to him. He refused to look at me.

7. How would you rate his/her technical skills? Why?
Doesn’t really know too much, but great at pretending.

8. Has he/she ever put in a situation where he/she had to deal with change? If so, how did he/she handle it?
He was asked to build a page once and had a nervous breakdown. He almost went postal at the office.

9. Was he/she able to meet deadlines?
He doesn’t really know what deadlines are. No one trusted him enough to actually give him any work.

10. Was he/she ever promoted?
Demoted 3 times. He also cleans the toilets now.

11. How would you describe his/her ability to set goals and priorities?
Not that great. His main goal in life is to meet Barney.

12. Can you comment on his/her ability to solve problems?
Very good. He is the 3 time Sudoku champion.

13. What sort of work do you think best suits his/her abilities?
Professional shoemaker.

14. If you were in the position to rehire him/her, would you?
Absolutely. You always need someone at the office to make fun off.

15. What are his/her overall strengths?
One of the best I have ever seen at demoralizing and making fun of people.

16. What are his/her weaknesses?
Too many to list at this point. I’ll start a blog.

17. If you were to advise his/her new boss, what advice would you give regarding him/her?
Don’t piss him off….

captain obvious

I’ve said this before, if you state the obvious, chances are you have presented yourself as the most clever person in the group. If everyone is thinking it (and it’s a good idea) but everyone thinks it’s obvious and no one says it, then well… you’ve lost a good idea. So it’s okay, go ahead and say the obvious, go ahead be unoriginal. Say the obvious, and everyone will agree with you and you’ll be credited with the idea (if that’s what you want) because you simply spoke up.

Now I’d like to get into specifics at work. However, there’s a slight difference from what I presented above. There are times when I think the idea is obvious (because in my mind it is obvious) but other folk don’t see it that way. This has happened at the new workplace quite a bit. Because in my natural flow of saying what is obvious, I sometimes happen to say things that are obvious to me but not to everyone else. This makes me seem more intelligent than I actually am. It’s outright deception.

I look at something, and I will say, “Hmmm… this seems not right (polite way of saying it’s wrong). How about we do it this other way.” Initially there will be resistance, this is expected. But after some thought and deliberation people will realize why it’s better. In fact they’ll issue this smile that indicates they’ve been introduced to a whole new way of thinking. It’s not a half-hearted, “yeah that sounds like a good idea”. It’s a, “OMFG, that’s bluddy brilliant!”. Yes, I deduce this all from a smile.

Sometimes there won’t even be any resistance.
I say, “I think we should do it this way.”
Cue smiles.
“That’s actually a great idea!”.

But in my mind it’s just the way I’d do it. Why else would I do it any other way? It just seems so natural. It might be experience in dealing with these type of things, and that experience quickly collects in my mind and tells me the “natural” way. Of course, the readings I do also help. But I haven’t tried most of what I’ve read. I just “feel” that it will work.

When I see something that isn’t done quite “right”, I can’t help not say anything. I must speak out. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Main Architect (notice the upper case) person or the junior developer. If I see something that doesn’t “feel” right to me, they’ll hear it. It really is nothing personal. I don’t dislike you, unless you’re incompetent. I can’t stand incompetence. Don’t be a pretender, go do something else instead. At least be honest, admit your incompetence. Okay, back to what I was saying. It’s not personal, please don’t take it personally. But some people do take it personally, this bothers me. They’ll defend their work even if it’s wrong. Grow up and get over yourself. Admit your mistake and move on. No harm, no foul. Thank you.

Of course this applies to me too. I’ve deleted/restarted/ditched plenty of my own ideas because I’ve realized that I was plain wrong. This is probably why I know that you’re wrong, because I’ve been wrong myself.

In any case, I was pulled into a meeting where a 3rd party software vendor was describing how we could integrate their software into our websites. I took a look at the integration code that was in their powerpoint presentation.

I resisted the urge, I really did.

But then I raised my hand and said, “Wouldn’t be a lot simpler if you used hashes? And that would automatically allow you to provide X, Y and Z functionality without much extra work!!”.

The technical person on their end thought about it for a second or two. “Yes, that’s a good idea. Actually it’s a great idea”. I could see the smile forming on his face. As if he was introduced to a whole new way of seeing the problem (and he was). The pains he’s had to go through to implement his own solution were showing. He sits down, a few more seconds pass. It’s still on his mind, “That would make things a lot easier”.

“Yeah, come on guys, why wouldn’t you think of this in the first place? Now you’ve released your API to so many of your customers. It’d be hard to change it and get them to implment it.”

“Yes, but we could still try it. Why don’t you send us an email, maybe we could implement it for you?”, the tech lead says.

“Also, please attach your resume to that email. We’re always looking for clever people.”, says one of their tech/business people.

I think I laughed inside a little. Did they just offer me an interview in a meeting where we were purchasing their software? Hah!

At least my experiences here (current workplace) have been better in that regard, here people will eventually admit to good/obvious idea, even if we can’t implement it due to whatever constraints. Where I worked before, I just got mad stares and weird looks, I felt I was insane.

Point is, tell people when they’ve done something wrong or complicated. Even if it seems like the obvious thing to say. They don’t know any better.