23 Hours On Jinnah Express

Happy Independence Day, People! Sitting on the brand new 'Jinnah Express' (Quite approriately patriotic) .. I spent my 60th Anniversary with 1100 strangers, waiting as the ride, originally supposed to be 16 hours long went on.. and on.. and on! Then I got a pretty sweet and upbeat text message:

"60 years of being ourselves, standing on our own feet though staggering, on an independent land of ours. 60 majestic years of making history and letting them all know 'We Exist'. There are bad times.. but didn't every nation have them when they were young? We've come far, to go farther. Jashn-e-Azadi Mubarak (Happy Independence Day)"

Tough balance of optimism, wouldn't you say?

Also, had a friend send me this article, with Kurt and I standing on the roof in complete independence spirit on top of our roof exactly one year ago! S-weet! (Author says that the source of the pic is unknown!)

Anyway, before other news, here's a question: What do you do when you have 200 rupees and a car without gas?

Answer: You buy a magazine. :)

The other day, being quite broke, I walked randomly into a bookstore and found the latest copy of NGOWorld. Now, I'm not a big fan, but you can imagine that the page below had me lose all common rationale and pick it up! Go AP!!! Definitely worth the mile I had to push the car home! Khee khee!

Other updates:

• Aatir's party at Gymkhana was a blast! I don't think Farhan thinks so, though, since he left his car keys inside his running car!
• Barbeque on 'The Roof' Again! Man, I missed this place! (Pics soon!)
  

Headed to Turkey tomorrow night. Looking forward to a fun summer. Sadly, when I come back to Lahore, after, I realize that most of who I know in the city would have left... Saad and I intend to spend a quiet reflective evening on the banks of the River Ravi contemplating the sadness (while hopefully I'll be thinking - Wow! IC and Jordan was fun! And Yes, The Queen IS as hot as on TV!).

Science 101

This post is dedicated to the two extremely important people in my life - Scud, my IBM ThinkPad, and My Baby, the Nokia 6610i. Both of them have been with me longer than most relationships and have stood by me through the good, the bad and the ugly. Soon they will be put to rest with a lot of pride. I salute you, my dear gadgets.



So, What does a 'graduated' MCP do after his term?
Well, nothing!

That remains a rather popular response. And I can tell you it wasn't too far from the reality on ground for me. They say that the feeling of having an urge to 'construct' and to 'destroy' are physiologically identical. The chemicals that are released are the same. So while the feeling of constructing a better world remained, while a clear portal for doing so didn't, I ended up channeling them elsewhere. What you see below is a perfectly healthy cell phone with a sick battery. It's my first cell phone and I absolutely adore it. Finding it by accident the other day was extremely pleasure-inducing.
But the battery was all swollen. Looked ready to explode. So I did what any rational individual under these circumstances would do: I took it apart with my trusty Swiss Army Knife (Thanks, Aksh!).


Anyway, so given all of that, it's quite a relief to know that things are becoming action-packed again!

With a week left to me flying to Istanbul, the work is coming in. Helping AI research, design and deliver sessions for an IC is actually going to keep me VERY busy for the next few days. Additionally, I need to finish a book within 4 days that needs to be returned ("Winning" by Jack Welch. Highly Recommended). Also saying farewells to a number of super-close friends this week, while doing the blueprints of my Xmas U.S. trip to see em. Pile onto that bank issues, and car fixing, it feels like pre-national-conference time again..! (Na, that WAS better! :) ).

Stay in the loop. Fun times ahead.

Revival

"A big post due from my end, but will have to wait till I'm back next weekend." - Blogpost dated May 28, 2007

I'm pretty apologetic to everyone that sent me countless number of reminders (Latest one by Amy! *hugs*) but I think the person that's missed the blog most has been me! (Now THAT's an expression that I thought would never emit from me!)

A lot's happened since the last post and to be perfectly honest, I'm not quite sure I will be able to remember and capture everything. Of course, I don't quite want this to be a super-boring post either, so I'm gonna try to be brief. Brief, mind you, I learnt the hard way, isn't one of my strengths!

First things first, what am I up to?
I'm sitting on a desktop PC (yes, it's been a while!) in my parent's room in Lahore (yes, they're now in Lahore) and having spent a day playing monopoly and checking out the new Wii at Saad's place, I'm waiting for a friend's skype call. That's it.

It appears life after an MCP term in AIESEC is exactly how people around me had described it: inactive! For the first couple of weeks after moving out of the Mansion and coming to Lahore, I didn't think I would be able to survive. I felt like every moment I spent reading a random book, 'walling' a random person on facebook, driving around randomly, hanging out with friends for nothing better than a random reason, was a moment that I could have been out there, changing the world! :) Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not smug - but I did feel that in some way, just when I'd gotten quite decent at the job, I was done with it! haha! I guess a lot of people share that feeling!

Speaking of feelings (told you I have a problem with brief!), the last 2 months were marked by a plethora of bittersweet emotions. It really got me as I watched Joanna pack up her room into her lil bagpack, and walked away the very same way she'd come a year ago - this time with a lot more friends. It was at that point that I first got the feeling that I wasn't as cold and deprived of emotion as I'd always been proud of being, and this time around, it was okay! I guess the year fundamentally did change me. (GRR! And I thought I was better than to be transformed in a mere year!) - To your advantage and in the benefit of staying on-track, I'm going to limit the outbreak of teary eyed words to this paragraph!

Important (mostly cool!) stuff happened in this period:

• The New MC!!! These guys were the bomb. They literally got off their plane/train/sports car, and stormed into the office ! Now, I'm fairly enthusiastic but these fellas made me look like a meditating monk with their zeal! (for pictorial evidence, check out my album on facebook)
• Interns and internationals all around - I tell you the year's been worth it!
• I got selected to facilitate at IC 2007 in Turkey! This is HUGE! And it's my 3rd consecutive IC! Tell you that's a big deal when you've only been in AIESEC for 3 years! But I'm reallly looking forward to that experience. Should be kickass to catch up with old friends and work with the awesome team!! Will also get to see the Pak delegation getting it on as full members!
• Catching up in London - The Cadbury Schweppes Assessment Centre was like a reunion and an insane experience. The CS people were awesome! Totally worth it! And alllll that chocolateeee ! My! Also got a chance to watch Pirates III (NOT worth it!) and hang out with Batool at Trafalgar square.
• Getting my Turkish Visa within 5 hours - For a Change!
• Planning vacation with my swiss friend in Jordan! - Will also get to hang a bit with my Pakistani and Ukrainian (Both now claiming to be Jordanians! WallaH!) friends!
• Going through Visa troubles with Jordan - Good ol times! Except this time around, even the embassy people are clueless about it! Turns out not many Pakis travel to their country. But Oks and Saba have been absolute darlings and they're on top of it!
• 90% of my friends leaving :(( to the US/UK for Grad School
• Kirmani Leaving! :(
• Archer Moving out to the floor below :(
• A new cell phone (For those going 'FINALLLLY', I still love my old phone VERY much!)
• FireStarters Handover - My team and I wrapped it up and got discharged - Too many feelings, and it felt right to be moving on. Missed Jo!
• Being in Islamabad on the not-nice day - I'd been told to stay off the messy parts of town since things were getting tense that day, but hey, I DO consider myself a low-level superhero you know!

Of course, other signifant things happened too. Such as Mehran's 13K jacket, and my car giving me trouble, but I'll save that for another day!

And before my momentum fizzles out, I'm going to wrap up. Always better to burn out than to fade away, they say! But for people that have been reading this space over the months, I guess there's going to be a fundamental change in content. There IS going to be a Little LESS AIESEC in there *pat pat*. But hopefully things will not get too boring as I embark upon a really fun summer ahead followed by starting work somewhere in the world with Cadbury Schweppes (Oh, did I not mention - I got selecteD! :) ).

Heading for the future is just another stage of the AIESEC Experience, and I'm sure as hell it's going to be as engaging, hectic and fun as every other!