backward masking music

Backw

Funkies: the group.

Okay so I don't admit that I'm a totall nerd as I appear to be ( look at the length of that post man. this guy oughta be a goggle-wearing geek). I have my other side, and that's not the dark one, mind it! Ha! I mean I also like chilling out and believe it or not, my pals admire my dance a lot ( Dunno if they really mean it or just want me moving my silly ass like a gone-mad weirdo...) A few months back, probably in April, the Coke company visited our school and had set up a stall. Boys were going in wearing a costume provided by them and dancing inside a closed area with their desired song, witha n artificial background. We also decided to show our talent and got a video ourselelf's. I decided to take only a (Ray-ban looking) sunglaseses while others (Wattoo, Muaaz and Ans dressed up as they willed). We are " Wattoo, ME, Ans and Muaaz" from left to right. Here is the video:

Exams Stress...

My final examinations finally found me staggering with the weight of all the studies in mid May. The preparations had begun a month prior to the exams and my birthday unfortunately happened to be during this most-cursed-by-any-student period. Anyways, I took a day off on 5th May to enjoy the blissful feast and the chocolate cake with my family. I often muse that why do we celebrate a birthday? On each of our birthday one year is deducted from our lives and one year has been lived by us. We should be sorrowful that we are growing older and closer to our death day by day. Ask if growing older is fun from an agedly person and he’ll surely tell you no…

So as the month of April was drawing to an end and had proved to be a good one, they gave us the date-sheet and syllabus for our final exams. All the novels and the other magazine-reading was immediately abandoned. Although even during the exams I sneaked out some time from the nerve wrecking process for preparing for an exam to go to the bathroom accompanied by an issue of Dawn’s magazine “Images”. Kept reading it for about 15 minutes before returning to the painstaking task of studying. (Not for a class test, in which’s case we need not study at all, but for the exams.) The two weeks between 25th May to 3rd June were the weeks I was determined to study as my entire summer vacations depended upon the finals’ result.

Straight As: Scene on hai!
More than one B: Grounded!

It was on our third last exam that our co-ordinater Madam Subhani announced in our class that the remaining two papers (Geography and Arts) were being post poned due to some terrorist threats. A huge uproar of amusement went up as the students began to celebrate---in the middle of our mid year exams. And in the process the poor pupils to whom the “Booties” were not proving to be helpful found an opportunity to exchange “an answer for an answer”. Haha.

But upon thinking a bit further, later on, I perceive that this delay of exams is something we shouldn’t be happy about. We are not free although the summer vacations have started. Whenever I’m surfing the net or reading out Deception Point by Dan Brown, I feel kinda guilty that I am not studying for Geo. Although I’ve got plenty of time, I can’t even go out of the city in case the school announces the exams date which has a few days to go.

Anyways the summer vacations have begun and the Fun (not Batman!) has begun too. As I’ve already read Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, I’m currently reading, as I mentioned earlier , Deception point. This will leave me with only Digital Fortress after which I’ll be waiting for the much anticipated follow-up of Da Vinci Code—“The Lost Symbol”
On the other hand I tried to weaken the Great Wall Of China-esque determination of my Mom of not letting me go out to DHA for the movies like “Terminater: Salvation” “Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen” “ G I Joe” and other releases in Pakistan to follow in other months of the summer vacations. My cousin Musab will be coming soon to Lahore and I hope we have a great time as we always do whenever we are together, like traffic and weather.

A Trip To Puppets…

(I wrote this post on 3/28/09. Because of some exams and other things which kept me busy, I couldn't post this at time.)

I shiver as I type this post as the weather today is really cold, with showers of constant rain. Lahore has been having a pretty good weather lately…

Last weekend I visited the “Museum of Puppetry” here in Lahore (I dunno the exact location) and there was also a free-entry puppet show arranged for all. I really enjoyed the Italian show “Poochilaila & Teresa”. When the next one started, me along with my elder bro. and cousin got out to feed our grumbling stomachs. We weren’t in a mood of going back to a bit dreary puppet scene ( I saw one uncle dozing off in a deep slumber!! Haha..) and headed towards the main door of the “Museum of Puppetry”. Inside, I sauntered through the museum looking and admiring the different types of puppets fetched from far away places like Holland, Iran, Uzbekistan, India and so on…

I think this was a very good puppet show which was a, as I told, free entry puppet show because many poor children who couldn’t afford to buy a ticket to a puppet show were also watching them along with the rich students who were on a trip there. This showed a type of equality among all human beings as they laughed and enjoyed together in a jovial mood…

My Aunt also gave me an idea of writing a novel on a boy trapped inside that museum, all night and the puppets coming to life… scary haan? (Unlike "Night at the Museum"! haha) Good idea, isn’t it? I just finished the novel “Angels & Demons” by Dan Brown and started “The Prince & The Pauper”, a classic novel by Mark Twain. He, Mark Twain, is proving to be a real master and I also got many other novels written by him like “ A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court” and “Tom Sawyer”. I will also buy Huckleberry Finn his master piece…

My cousin took many snaps of the puppets with his mobile camera. Here is the batch…

Bob Dylan(I assume) and the fair lady...

The classical dancer...

The freakin god...

The enlightened one with the plump goddess...

The ol' Sorcerer...

"Two's a company"

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow…

…and that fellow is none other than me. I know it’s the title of a novel written by one of my favorite humorists Jerome Kalpi Jerome but I can’t help it, can I? Because I am also an idle fellow with idle thoughts. Once again I find my 13 years old self in my small bedroom ( what else size can you expect from a room in a 5 Marla’s house?) The usual traffic on the road is rolls on as I type this post.

It’s a glorious night. The moon has sunk and left Mother Earth alone with the stars. It seems that as we, the children of the Mother Earth are in a deep slumber in the darkest hour of the night, Earth had been talking to the stars about the long forgotten legends in voices too deep and vast for us, the small creatures to listen, let alone understand…

It would be a sin to start talking about things like movies straight away after mentioning such sacred things as Earth, Stars and Moon. And what do you see in all these things? What is the force behind all this? Who is the creator of these things? The Divine Voice itself seems to speak in everything present on Earth. The rustling of the leaves, the howls of the wind, the murmur of the troubled lakes water…

Despite all the rush of the traffic on the roads my little house seems to sit, unaware of all the frays and conflicts of the city and snooze and nod away...

Watchmen ™, a movie by the visionary director of the film 300 is out and I’m the only one unlucky enough to watch it. Looks like a really good movie. My cousin Musab will be coming over to my place near 21st and I’ll be a bit busy kicking it with him. Maybe we can watch it together in cinema but the problem is that due to Lahore’s bad reputation cause of terrorism wouldn’t let our parents go to a cinema. I’m really interested in Dan Brown so that’s the reason why I’m also waiting impatiently for the release of a movie based on his novel “Angels & Demons” this summer. I’m also reading this novel currently. Read half of it in 3 holidays. I was saving some money to buy “Race to Witch Mountain” too. Other awaited movies are “Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen”.

“Marjaani” a song from the Bollywood movie “Billu Barber” is playing on my MP3. I’m really awed by the stupid lyrics of this song although the music is great. “Ro Ro kai Raaton ko, Aankhain bhii Kaali Kiin…” Now can anybody tell me can the eyes go black because of crying?! They can become white, which is also a bit too “over” to believe…

Manchester United were beat 4-1 by Liverpool which kept me alive, or else I would have been bored to death. Really enjoyed the match and it was very good seeing that red card go up! (poor Vidic) And it was also very satisfying watching Arsenal return to their brilliant form by beating Blackburn 4-0. And I am also waiting for Arsenal VS Chelsea semi final. And there’s another dilemma too. Champions League’s Final is going to be held on 27th of May and the negative point is I HAVE AN EXAM THAT DAY!!! Last year I managed to watch the final as my parents weren’t at home! (Plz don’t tell them this!)

Okay so now that it keeps getting darker and darker and the clock is still ticking the time away, I’ll better finish this post here and pick up my novel instead. Another post pending…

The Sri Lankan Team Attacks…

(No No! Team doesn’t attack! It had been attacked I mean!)

My nerve wrecking formal assessments are over and I’m finally free. It was this stressing hell of exams that had kept me away from many things, especially my dear blog J. I am listening to my new favorite song “Lag Jaa Galaai” by Lata. It’s so melodious! Okay so I’ll be trying to be less poetic in this post as the mood or the surroundings of mine are not suitable. No fused lights and typing under a lamp light or rain etc. Infact a 100 watt bulb is shining into my bare eyes, dazzling me. So I’ll start off straight by cursing the Sri Lankan Cricket team’s attackers.

In my school today my last exams went very well and got 24 in Urdu and 25 in Science out of twenty five. In the break time some parents were taking the students to their homes. Some people said that there was a bomb blast in Liberty. Then I understood that that (Is two thats right? Appear to be peculiar though…) why we were given the papers in the third and fourth lesson instead of fifth and sixth as parents might had insisted to take their children away. Terrorism is in Liberty and the children are being imagined by the parents to be kidnapped or bombed to pieces in schools! Or do they think the terrorists are tracking down everyone who had bought tickets for the match (including the very-much-concerned-and-worried parents) and killing them?! God knows…

My elder brother came to pick me up from the school. He was talking to me about some kind of an attack on Sri Lankan team. When I reached home The news were telling the same tales but in a serious way unlike my brother ( “Murli Dhahran ki taang ko goalie lagii hai woh kehtaa hai mujhai tau naeen taang chahiiyeh” and “Sri Lanka ka aek player mar gayaa hai who kehtai hain hamaara player tau pentees ‘35’ Saau ka thaa”). Bwaa haa haa! My brother just read out a very funny message he just received: “Breaking News : Pakistan cricket stadiums are now available for marriage lawns. For booking please contact MLB (Marriage Lawn Board) former known as PCB”

I was amazed by watching the footage of the two terrorists roaming around freely on the roads. It seemed that they were trained terrorists and were under someone’s protection from among the government as they weren’t afraid at all! Some people I heard were saying that the Government had done this to divert the public’s attention from PML-N Nawaaz brothers’ issue and to impost fear into people. That can be true. And in somewhere deep in my heart I have the feeling that that (2 Thats for the second time!) Mr. Ten Percent, Mr. Smiling-Face Zardari is after all this. The terrorists kept on firing for about 15 minutes and yet no police arrived. Why? And when the so “your majesty” police did arrive they were unaible to attain the hand prints! WHY?! All of this is because Government wanted this to happen and is defending the culprits. Their faces can be clearly seen in the footage. They should must be captured and punished along with all the forces after this incident. Congrats India and Australia for refusing our invitation.

I was listening to the bus driver’s interview on Geo News. He was saying that at first a white car overtook their bus in which all the team was and started shooting from the front. The players got down in the walking narrow corridor to take cover from the bullets sailing over their heads. Someone launched a “Mini Rocket” or whatever it is called. It fortunately hit the road and missed the bus. The grenade was thrown towards the bus but it missed the bus too! Lucky were they as it seems impossible to escape such a planned killing attempt. The driver which I think was really brave finally got to the Gadaffi Stadium securely.

And then somebody kills 5 people through firing in Queta. They are all psychos I think. If a terrorist attack is happening upon a team then what is the cause of these killing people? Now-a-days killing people has become a way to protest, you know…

And so this is the condition of our country. Not even the sports are acceptable by these terrorists or Government’s trained people. LAMENTABLE. That’s what our country’s situation is. God, bless us with your mercy as we are surely the ones who need it desperately. Here is a picture of the two out of nine terrorists attacking and shooting at the buses.

Do Not Try This At Home!

My brother is in A Levels, LACAS, Burki Road. The day before he came home and told me something I did not believe. He said that the boys in his school were doing a trick in which a person was fainted for a while. And it was very simple too. When I asked him how it was done he was reluctant to tell me. When I kept on insisting, he told it to me after making me promise that I wouldn’t try it on anybody. He told me that first a person sat down and breathed heavily for a while. Then he had to stand, hands spread out as though he was to fly. Then a person standing at his back would have his hands locked around his chest and would lift him. After a moment you feel like you are soaring and then you have fainted for some time. When you are fully conscious again you couldn’t remember anything that was going on after that arm spreading step. Many of the students were beaten up too by the other boys while he had fainted and when he would fully recover he hadn’t had any idea what was going on or what had happened to him. The trick done on my brother Ali Abbas Lali was fortunately a mild one. He told me that when he held our breath and the other boy lifted us. Our lungs were compressed and the heart was unable to pump blood to the brain. This caused the brain to become numb and a person was unconscious for some time. This can also harm a person permanently and can cause even death!!! If the blood isn’t pumped to the brain for a little longer it would stop functioning and a person can die!!! So I repeat that DO NOT TRY THIS ON ANYONE!

This is a small clip of what they did to my brother. Thank God he exhaled and the trick wasn't a complete one.

A Letter Bringing All the Troubles and Dilemmas on one Page.

(This is a letter I recently wrote to our school principal)

Respected Class Teacher,

If you show this letter to Miss Reeba or Sir Khalid it is expected that you don’t consider this letter to be not from one particular person. It reflects the views of all the class VII sections, especially VII-C from whom this letter is from. It is expected that you take steps towards our requests and don’t just ignore…

There are number of issues we would be informing you about. They are as follow:

• There is a soccer club for children on Wednesdays. Our sports sir seems to act too seriously about our training and speaks very sternly but one thing we don’t understand is that if our club is taking football so seriously why aren’t we having any matches with other schools’ young teams? Why aren’t we participating in any soccer tournaments let alone arrange them? We just go to the field and play half an hour just like other games periods. Then what is so special about soccer club? We don’t even have a kit!

• The second issue on which I’ll be talking about is the library books. There are many books in our junior library but one thing that most irritates me is that not all, let alone half of the books from one book series is available. For example of

“A Series of Unfortunate Events”. Only three books of this series are available, all the first ones, in 1^stndrd sequence. When I’d read the three of them I couldn’t locate the others in the library. Library teacher informed only these were available. Just as the series had become interesting I hadn’t got the other books. Same is the case with “Artemis Fowl” series which are available on Liberty Books near G One market. Darren Shan’s horror stories’ series are there to mention too. These are a the series to name a few…This term would soon be over and we’d be gone to the senior branch in class 8^th but this Improvement would be a great thing for the upcoming generations.

• The third issue is of Mathematics’ teacher. Our previous sir, Sir Aftab Ahmed Saddiqui used to teach us until Miss Huma Ehsan had some problem in her throat (as I was told…) and sir were the replacement for her for Maths classes for seniors. Meanwhile Miss Munazza Ghafuur is teaching us Maths and is very good at it. I am not saying that Sir Aftab was not a good teacher but miss Munazza’s way and method of teaching is really comprehensive and she can handle the class a lot better than sir Aftab. We would like you to let miss Munazza stay here for the rest of the term even if miss Huma recovers (which we all pray she would soon, Insha-Allah) Please…

These are all the points typed by the Class Representative, Usama Mumtaz Lali and reflect the views of each and every 7 grader specially VII-C. We hope you consider them.

With all due respect,

Worried and troubled grade 7s voice,

Usama Mumtaz Lali.

And It Keeps Pouring while I brood over life…

Here I sit in my bedroom thinking of far and wide things no one would think of in such an enjoyable weather. Rain we say it is. Rattling against my window the rain seems to be whispering of many ancient forgotten tales. Sometimes fury takes the better of it and there it is the blood chilling thunder. A couple of hours ago the light faded and the dark reigned power. The ghostly shadows of the trees chased away the last of the rear guards of the sun and evil covered the earth with its large dark wings spread over the dreaded world. The stars shine as I tap these buttons in the sky as the lights from the windows of the phantom palace…Mujh Say Pehlii Si Muhabbat is playing on my MP3 and I could think of nothing to write except feelings, which might seem senseless to you but not for me. My cousin said once “Nothing is sadder than a pile of unread books.” I myself want to read various books, infact hundreds by my favorite authors but don’t have ample time you see. “Three Men In a Boat” I’m reading nowadays. Witty, clever and hilarious it is. With exams starting on 25th of February this is the only thing that can cheer me up, as they say “A book is a man’s best friend” and surely it is in this case too….
“So much to read so little read!”

Young World, DAWN newspaper’s weekly magazine for children was the one thing out of dozens (Gunners, Facebook, Some authors…) which had got me hooked up for several months. And see they stopped publishing it about a fortnight ago. Just like that. Easy for them and what they say is this: “We knew that our young readers liked to read the magazine online so we have decided to update it online weekly and you can just read it there!” HELL! Now I was planning to hook up with US magazine of Jang. I’ve emailed a poem and let’s see if it’s published.
Lahore’s International Book Fair 2009 is going to be arranged at Gaddafi Stadium. It’s surely going to be a very good book fair. More than 10000 (maybe one more zero!) books they claim are in stock. Wanted to go and fetch some books even some grossly overpriced one but what I got from my parents? A straight refusal. Dad is building a new house and has a lot of business to attend. I wanted to get some Jerome K. Jerome books along with some other Wodehouse ones (have to gift them to someone who may be reading this article…) on his birthday. I’ll find a way out of this misery. They say “..light at the end of the tunnel” but who knows it may be the incoming train?

Heart of Punjab they call it, the city of Lahore. But as sit here in the dark gloomy room with only a lamp on my table (The Tube light is fused) I think of it as a heart of a dead person or a person who no longer cares for the world. They say it is really beautiful and many Plazas are their offering everything under the sun. No driver I have and as my brother has to drive, my parents avoid taking him for not-so-important things. So the only roads I seem to remember well are the one leading to my school…
I don’t have any interest in politics but thought I’d share this with you.

“I’m walkin’ down the line my feet’ll be a-flyin’ To tell you about my troubled mind.”

Bob Dylan, 1963 It was shoes, not feet, that went a-flying at a press conference in Baghdad’s Green Zone last week, courtesy of a journalist who had decided it would make more sense to hurl answers rather than questions at George W. Bush. Although the man standing beside him (I don’t really know who he was. I told you I’m “nonpolitical”) offered a hand as a shield It was of no use. Although the Goody Two shoes didn’t come in contact with Bush physically, it really was an insult. And see now the same happens to that Chinese president (or was he Japanese?). Everyday bomb blasts are becoming the cause of “boredom”. The man took one of his first deadliest attempts to use his scientific knowledge to destroy himself in the Hiroshima. He succeeded… Where is this all going to end?

The clock strikes 12 and I’m jerked back into the world out of the distant kingdom of dreams. I really like thinking to myself and this time just typed it down. I’ll just say here that “Nothing is good or bad in life. The only thing which makes the difference is our thinking point of view.” So just think positively and look on the brighter side of everything and so should I…