LOL

These are some really funny images I have been saving for so long. I thought of putting them up here.

Books i Regretted Buying/Reading

The Hidden War

Okay, that was a judgmental error. From what I conferred from an overview of the back cover, I thought this book has accounts of a Russian soldier who was there during Soviet-Afghan War and got impressed by Afghans. I bought this book hastily thinking it will tell me more about Afghans and Talibans as this one of my favorite subjects. Turned out, this book is about a Russian soldier recollecting what hardships Soviet troops had to face in that hostile, far-away land. Now, I'm sure it would be an interesting read for someone interested in the subject but for me, probably it was the disappointment which made me put down this book to not take it up again for a long time or forever.

Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

I know what all the Twilight-haters must be thinking. How could I! :D Yes, people! I was a Twi-fan once. Guilty is charged. But i assure you I'm free from that disease now, recovered completely :D So i thought i have read all the four Twi-books, why not read this one as well. What made me curious was its name. I had read about Bree Tanner in one of the books where she was burned. From the book's name, i thought it would be something about how she stayed alive even after the fire somehow and her short life until she was found again and burnt. Instead, the book was about how she was turned into a vampire and her side of the story until her short vampire life was ended when she was burnt. It was just a ridiculous attempt by the author to cash her name and earn a little more with this book, a chapter, she says, lying in her archives. Overall, it was a uninteresting read.

The Forbidden Love

One of friend's say that I'm a feminist when we are arguing about men and women but i bought this book and liked reading Daughters of Arabia by Jean Sasson because Arab countries and Middle East are one of my favorite places and countries and cultures and not because i like to read feminist stuff (I don't because I'm not a feminist). I always want to know more about the Arab world. So the two reasons why i bought this particular book was first, i thought i will find a good love story in it, second, because i thought i might get to know more about Jordan.

Although it wasn't impressive from the start but i read it nevertheless as it is my strong belief that we shouldn't judge a book by reading only the first few pages. So i continued reading it and the story kept unfolding until there came a point where the author started getting blasphemous about how Islam does not do this and that. Though not much of a practicing Muslim, i have a strong, unshakable faith which does not allow me to tolerate blasphemy. It was at this time that i put this book down feeling disgusted, never to take up again.     

Message in a Bottle

I have one word statement for this, Same Old Same Old. Dear Mr. Sparks, an advice: it would be nice if you start writing stories which are not ALL THE SAME PROBABLY!!! The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, all are the same and I'm done reading this author. For a long time i liked watching movies based on his books but not anymore because they offer nothing new. If he were any good, i would have loved to read his other books too. The fact that it was a love story of a middle aged man and woman wasn't much help either.

So here it is. It's not like all the other so many books I've read were all exceptional, but these particular ones were a big no-no.

Protocol

I hate being stuck in the traffic.

Then again, who doesn't! It's like being stuck in the traffic is directly proportional to you getting late from work or university and/or a hot day. However, there is an exception to it.

I don't mind when I'm stuck in the traffic because the roads are closed for some minister or high ranking personnel to pass.

I don’t know why. All the traffic stopped strictly and the road is empty for a few minutes. Three security Pajero’s passes, a Honda, another security car and then you see a Mark II with black windows zooming past, another series of security cars, an ambulance and they are gone. I find the sight of that Mark II very fascinating. The protocol they get, important, authoritative, classy. I say that no matter how much of a corrupt and a lowly hypocrite is sitting in that car and no matter through what sinister means he has reached to this level (because that’s how we generally perceive our politicians to be, I’m not generalizing here), he has earned this protocol where general public is stopped from going on the same roads that Mark II has to pass.

So for a rank like that, i don't mind being the general public. I was talking about this with a friend and he said it’s because I have royal blood running through my veins and I laughed at that :-P I just think it’s fascinating somehow and fascinations doesn’t have to be reasonable :)

Lord of the Rings

Finally! I bought all three parts of Lord of the Rings. I had bought Hobbit years and years ago and I kept it that I will read it when I will have all three LTR books and I got late in buying until I could find it at some cheap rate :P My friends offered me that they can borrow the books from them but I have to own the books I read, hence I waited.

So now that I have bought it, let’s see when I will actually get to read it because I know how much of an amazing read these books will be and I also know that I will have those feelings in greater quantity which I had while watching these movies. Deep, dark, blue, depressing and having-you-bite-your-nails kinna feelings. There is also The Similirion which should be read before both of these. Let’s hope this thought doesn’t grow on me like the one that I have to read Hobbit and LTR together :P

P.S. The fact that I have a lot of unread books lying in my shelf waiting for me to read them, me buying new books quite frequently and me reading several books parallel and letting some stay unattended for long is no help :-)  

Story

Sorry if you can't read the text but this was too cute not to add in my blog

Where There is a Will!

I met an Atheist in my life for the first time in the form of a colleague. It was a shocking experience for me. It's like if you see something disturbing on television, it seems fine but happening with you is an experience you might not handle. Turning from the religion he grew up in, he had become extremely bitter, third form of bitter. He had perfect counter arguments to everything we grew up believing in. And I must say he was good in arguments, I never won. Just like the fact that shorter the circle of a faith, ready and strong their arguments will be. My unconditional belief in my religion never made me think otherwise, blasphemous things that he said.

Once I talked to him something about Quran and I was speechless when he said Quran is just a book written 1400 years ago, for the people of that time, useless in today’s world. And I was speechless because I dint have any argument to counter him. That was because of lack of proper knowledge of Quran though I have recited it all my life. I don’t remember feeling embarrassed then but I’m reading this book, Muhammad (SAW) Prophet for Our Time by Karen Armstrong, where I found a perfect argument and it made me feel this is the thing I should have known then to counter him. And here is the answer to why the 1400 year old teachings of Quran are still as helpful and applicable as that era.

The Quran is the Holy word of God. And his authority remains absolute. But Muslims know that it is not always easy to interpret. Its laws were designed for a small community, but a century after their prophet’s death, Muslims ruled a vast empire stretching from the Himalayas to Pyrenees. There circumstances were entirely different from those of the Prophet and the first Muslims and Islam had to change and adapt. The first essays in Muslim history were written to address current perplexities. How could Muslims apply the Prophet’s insights and practices to their own times? When the early biographers told the story of his life, they tried to explain some of the passages in the Quran by reproducing the historic context in which these particular revelations had come down to Muhammad. By understanding what had prompted a particular Quranic teaching, they could relate to their own situation by means of a disciplined process of analogy.  

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It is like a common sense for a Muslim to know this but it was a matter that I was dumbfounded at such a blasphemy and felt sick that my brain didn’t work enough to counter. Also the reason that he is guy who will never listen to you, no matter what!

I feel light today!

Join the Dots, Make Some Memories

Oh the time when we played this! How we waited for this time with a longing, didn't make the most out of it while we still could and all the little time we spent became sweetly painful memories.

I wait for these times to come again, only when times are even better and happier. How we had to play it silently and laugh silently. How i came to know a new rule which made sense when i thought about it. And i won, yes :-)