Fits like a glove

I’m going home,
Back to the place where I belong,
And where your love has always been enough for me.
I’m not running from.
No, I think you got me all wrong.
I don’t regret this life I chose for me.
But these places and these faces are getting old
So I’m going home.
Well I’m going home.

When I listened to this song for the very first time, I was like dude- this song is meant for you! The timing was perfect and it precisely depicted my sentiments at that instant in time. What’s even more astonishing is that today, only after a week from when I first heard the song, I got the much anticipated news from the Project Manager that I’d be heading back to Pakistan start of June. Yaaaaaaay!

Those who’d like to download the original or acoustic version of “Home” by Daughtry, go here and search!

Talk about idiosyncratic feelings!

Its 2 a.m. in the morning and I’m lying awake with heightened imagination and I need to flush this queer oddness out of my system. Although I never go to bed early but something feels seriously out of place today. And to be utterly honest, I’ve been experiencing this for over two weeks now. Restless. Delirious. I reckon if this is because I was forced to move to a single bedroom suite since Abid left. Before him, Bilal was sharing the two bedroom suite with me. The former (in time) wasn’t the best company I’d say but at least I didn’t have to cope with this isolation. Maybe (as much as I hate to admit it to myself) I’m finally home-sick! There! I’ve said it.

It’s astounding how small things, trivial incidents that you wouldn’t recollect under normal circumstances, come back to haunt you at such times, like I can recall waiting for the bus and walking all the way from the bus stop to home, strolling down to the video shop to rent out a much awaited movie, phone calls that’d come to an abrupt end after a row, still others that seemed to go on forever, not worrying about what the following day at work has in store for me and all those other tiny bits and pieces that the days in Lahore were comprised of….bizarre! I tell ya. And fuck- can you imagine? The hotel phone and internet went out on me in this appalling situation! It seems I won’t be able to call home, her or any friends, which by the way I desperately wanted to. Anyway, I must go to bed now. After all, another exciting day (yeah right!) lies ahead!

-Please ignore this post if it appears to be distraught or melancholic, sounds melodramatic or doesn’t make any darn sense at all.

This post was composed offline using Windows Live Writer (it totally rocks!).

"City of Brotherly Love"

I’ve been trying to write this piece regarding our excursion to Philadelphia last weekend ever since I got back but never got around to doing it, owing to the immense workload, hectic schedule and the fact that I had to take a colleague (Abid) for shopping because he had to fly back to Pakistan on Friday (though I ended up spending more than he did….haha).

Pennsylvania is known as “Keystone State” due to its historical significance and Philadelphia (meaning “City of Brotherly Love”, in Greek) is located at its eastern border. I’d rather avoid going into the detail of how Philadelphia played a pivotal role in shaping up the American history. Suffice to say, Philadelphia is sometimes also referred to as “America’s Birthplace”.

Last week I had a sudden inclination towards breaking out of the monotonous routine, leaving all the cares and worries of work behind, and therefore came up with a plan to visit one of the surrounding states. I had already visited Connecticut (Hartford), Massachusetts (Boston) and New York; Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania were the only options left. Washington was ruled out because of the severe weather forecast and a decision was reached by mutual consent to give Philadelphia, PA a try. So, my colleagues and I spent the night looking for places to go to, figuring out the driving directions and left our abode around 2 p.m. the following day. I was driving as usual. Driving is a thrilling experience for me, be it short distance or long, and I just love doing it! Anyway, on our way, we had to take Route 206 which dissects Princeton (yes, that’s where Princeton University is), and driving through Princeton I earnestly wished that I had been living there instead of Parsippany, NJ. The calm, serene, soothing landscape, lush green lawns, small-sized lakes and the meadows almost made me leap into a trance-like state. Nayyara Noor’s ghazals playing in the car and the cigarette that I was smoking somehow intoxicated me and I missed home and my girlfriend intensely.

We reached Philadelphia downtown in 2 and 1/2 hours. Our first stop was Franklin Bridge and although all the bridges look alike to me, be it Brooklyn Bridge or any other, I took some photographs which turned out to be rather nice.

We then moved to City Hall and Market Street. Market Street was more of a small scale Chinatown. Chinese shops and restaurants lined both sides of the street. Devouring the aroma of Chinese food escaping one of the restaurants I remembered how badly I longed to have it. We strolled between 8th and 12th streets for a while and then decided to go towards the next destination of our carefully planned trip. I cannot recall the name of the place we went to but I do remember that we saw the Independence Hall and a small church walking around the streets and squares.

By that time, everyone was starving and Kobabeesh (a desi restaurant on 42nd street) was where we went next. It was evident from the awards displayed on the walls that Kobabeesh had been ranked as the “Best take-out of the City” in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 (I wasn’t aware of this when I picked it). I didn’t require any proofs after feasting on the scrumptious Nihari, Reshmi Kababs, Chicken Haleem and Chicken Qourma we had ordered.

Next, we reached Continental Midtown, which Tausif had picked out assuming it was a dance club. It turned out to be a major disappointment initially when we got to know that it is in fact a restaurant with just a bar on the 3rd floor. We went to the bar anyway. Later, things started happening for me when I asked for a light from one of the two girls smoking on the terrace. Introductions were made and then we went on ranting about everything and nothing, touching and teasing for over an hour. I exchanged numbers with Christine and Jennifer, hugged and bade farewell. An hour well spent!

At 1:00 a.m., it was time to go home and the downpour had started just like it had been predicted. We ran all the way from 18th street to 15th street, where we had parked the car due to unavailability of parking space on 18th street and hence this pleasant trip came to an end as we hit the road. The journey back to New Jersey proved to be uneventful.

A gadget to kill for

I’m awestruck by the technological advent whenever I come across any of the most recent gadgets/gizmos but never to a point that I can’t wait to lay my hands on one. Apple iPhone is a first! It is all set to be released on June 11, 2007 in US with Cingular as the service provider and I’m hoping that I’d be able to put $499 (for the 4GB model) together by that time, which I probably would be, but there are a few things that I need to ascertain before ordering it, “Can I purchase an unlocked version of iPhone so that it can be used with any service provider around the globe?” or “Is there some way to get it unlocked?”. I don’t want it to be a total waste if it cannot be unlocked because eventually I would be going back to Pakistan. Besides, the affinity that I’d unavoidably develop for this sweet gadget once I have it would make it harder for me to part from it. Haha. Enough said about my personal sentiments towards Apple iPhone. Lets add some “meat” to this post.

In Apple CEO Steve Jobs words from the “Keynote Speech at Macworld Conference & Expo 2007″:

“Well today, we’re introducing three revolutionary new products. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary new mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator. An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator…. these are not three separate devices! We are calling it iPhone!”

Allow me to elaborate some of the amazing features embedded in this unique device which set it apart from smartphones (for the rest you can watch live streaming of the Keynote Speech available at the link above or, I would recommend, YouTube):

Multi-Touch

This ground-breaking technology enables you to control the device using not just one finger but two or more, with accuracy and you don’t have to worry about unintended touches because the screen is pressure sensitive. Point and touch an icon on the 3.5-inch screen and voila! Touch and flick/swipe up, down or sideways across the screen with your finger and you can scroll through a list of contacts, songs, playlists images, and albums. Navigation doesn’t get any friendlier than this, believe me! An on-screen keyboard is a real treat which pops up as soon as you start composing an e-mail or SMS and you can type with two fingers.

“The Pinch” and “Double Tap”

“The pinch” is one of my personal favorites. Watch a live demo of this feature to witness the real thing. You can zoom into and out of an image with the use of two fingers. Open an image and place two fingers joined together on the screen. Move the fingers apart while touching the screen to zoom in. Move them back close together and you can zoom out.

“Double tap” comes into play when viewing images and browsing internet sites. Enlarge webpages by tapping twice on the screen.

3 Advanced Sensors

Proximity Sensor: When you bring the iPhone close to you ear, it turns off the display to conserve battery power and the touch screen so that no action is performed if your ear or face rubs against the display.
Ambient Light Sensor: This sensor adjusts the display brightness depending on the light conditions around the iPhone.
Accelerometer: By far the most sophisticated, this sensor determines whether you are in landscape or portrait mode and adjusts the contents of the display accordingly. For instance, if you’re viewing an image that was originally taken in landscape mode while holding the iPhone in its normal upright position, all you have to do is rotate the iPhone by 180° and you have the image in landscape mode. Incredible! Same could be done for videos and webpages.

Visual Voicemail

I won’t be able to avail this feature in Pakistan but the idea behind it is revolutionary. Ever wondered if you could go directly to a voice mail that interests you the most without navigating through all of them sequentially? Now, you can! Cingular and Apple have been working in collaboration to make this possible and now you can actually view the recent voice messages and listen to them selectively. Amazing, right?

Multiple SMS conversations and Google Maps

I bet those of you who’ve used Google Gmail, know exactly what conversations are and how they make our e-mails manageable. Apple has employed the same approach for SMS in iPhone. Separate SMS conversations where you have a chain of messages in each conversation for each contact is bound to make it simpler to keep track of things.
Google Maps made available as a standalone application in iPhone is a great move in itself. Live GPS is being expected to be provided to get driving directions but nothing has been announced in this regard so far.

Other standard features include WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, Quad-band GSM, e-mail support for POP3 and IMAP servers, Safari web browser, picture manager, Widgets, 2 mega-pixel camera, digital music and video player, 4GB and 8GB flash memory, iTunes synchronization and more.

In the end, I would just like to say that I hadn’t come across something so fascinating in a long time and Apple has certainly lived up to its reputation for innovative ideas and lovely gadgets.

P.S. The iPod feature was left out of this post intentionally. Visit Apple iPhone webpage if you are interested.

The Beginning!

For the past couple of weeks I’ve kept thinking about starting blogging. I’d say its about time. I’m getting the feeling that this would be a nice place to jot down the experiences I’ve had so far, to reminisce and to share interesting discoveries whether they’re work-related, technology-oriented or social in nature. Another way of doing this would be keeping a journal but its just not my kinda thing plus its sorta girly, wouldn’t you agree? I’m a slacker, I spend most of the time on my laptop and couldn’t think of a more effective way to express my thoughts. Oh and in case you’re wondering what the Weblog title means, follow this link:

A Pensieve? What’s that?