I AM The Universe: Random Thoughts

Five years ago, about this time of the year (or maybe a few weeks past), I was in my A Levels, applying to different Universities, both in Pakistan, and abroad. Three of us from our batch were exceptionally ambitious. We applied for the Oxford scholarship, the Cambridge scholarship, and any other scholarship we could hear about. We didn’t get any. Two of us went on to apply to foreign Universities together, getting letters of recommendation, and since we didn’t have a counsellor at school – talking to people about how to answer the questions on the applications. My golden target was UWaterloo, and I had spent a lot of effort on the application. My chances looked good, considering my grades, activities and recommendations. But at the last minute, something happened, and I decided not to send my application in. My friend did, and he was granted admission to the University.

He came back a few weeks back, and joined a financial firm here in Abu Dhabi. We were supposed to go out to dinner the night following his flight in. So I invited him home first, to catch up with old times. After all, we had hardly spoken in five years due to busy schedules and the difference in time zones. It was really nice to sit and talk, and discover how we had both changed during this time. It was especially fun because the times we had had together back in high school were the best that I can remember.

So, he came in the door, we hugged, exchanged comments on each others weight, and other social niceties before we set out being mean to each other (just like old times! ). He sat down in the lounge, and I went into the kitchen to get him something. I took out two bottles of chilled malt from the fridge, went to the lounge and offered him one. His eyes bulged – understandably, because well, those bottles are shaped a bit like the ones that they use to package alcoholic beverages.

Friend: YEH kya hai?
Me: No no no no!! Not what you think, this is just malt!
Friend: Haan, wohi kahuun, keh bhai ke saath rehte huay yeh kaisay!
Me: To meri sharafat pe shak hai kya tujhe!?
Friend (after half a moments pause): Chal na!!

That was a big blow to the ego

I made it. I made it four months in this place without losing my head. Well, not all of it anyway. That’s one third of a year. Probably half a percent of an average lifespan. Tiny period of time, isn’t it? Sometimes it has felt too long, and at times it felt like it all went past too quickly. All in a good way! I have had an amazing experience of life these four months!

Anyway, I decided to draw up a list of things that keep me torn between to two awesome cities of Karachi and Abu Dhabi.

Things I miss about Karachi:

1. Home. Family. Tons of friends! Kaku! (My 4-year-old bhateeja) And his singing too!
2. Seeing someone, or picking up the phone and spontaneously saying Assalam-o-Alaikum, or Allah Hafiz when leaving or hanging up.
3. Getting a call at 7 in the evening Husseinabad chal raha hai? Or Chal yar makhni kha ke aatay hein!
4. My car! I really miss my car!
5. The city never sleeps! Really, you can go out at 3 in the morning and the city will be alive!
6. Halva puuri. Oh how I miss the hygienic and healthy, non-fattening oils that those guys use And that glass of lassi afterwards. The occasional kachoriyan! Oh damn it, I miss ALL spicy foods you get in Karachi!

Things I like about Abu Dhabi:

1. I have the freedom to use my phone in public, without having a gun poked in my back.
2. No loadshedding!
3.  No fear of tullas when you’re out late at night.
4. My job.
5. Everybody here from the sub-continent is ready to treat you as family. We don’t usually do that sort of thing back home
6. Cheap broadband!
7. Safety and quality of life here is amazing. You have access to all the modernities you could expect, yet the mosque is never more than a five-minute walk from wherever you are.
8. Speaking of mosques, the Azaan is centralized, which means, that you can actually answer the Azaan without being interrupted by another one in a different mosque in the middle of it.
9. If you’ve got friends here, there’s some really fun stuff you can do – safaris, water parks, clean beaches, nice performance restaurants.

It’s hard to say which place I’d rather be

I got this forwarded text yesterday:

Aik gadha doosray gadhay se: Yaar maalik khanay ko kam deta hai, aur kaam bohot karata hai.

Duusra gadha: To tu bhaag kyun nahi jaata?

Gadha: Yaar bhaag to jaaun, laikin yahan 2 years ka experience le luun to careen ban jaayega!

Bhabi came to Abu Dhabi about a week back. Which primarily meant that I’d get to eat home-made food instead of take-out

But what was more awesome was that everyone from back home sent my favorite foods for me Ammi sent muuli ki bhujiya and gajar ka halva. My sister sent her specialty spaghetti, my other bhabi sent brain masala and pateesa This means that continuing losing weight has become a lot more difficult But hey, it’s worth spending a few more hours a week at the gym!

Aamanna was so mad that he’d been out here for over a decade and I’ve just been here three months, and I’m getting stuff from Karachi Well, if he wants that, he should’ve been the youngest in the family

- Unrelated -

I just recalled this one thing I wrote a few months back.

I just got to thinking, that everything in my life has been going right for the past few months. Everything. And I’m brooding over the one thing that went wrong? That is so ungrateful!

Allaa’humma lak’al hamd wa laka shuk’r