Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Kareem Salama-Generous Peace

This fool throws wet stones at me insists on attempts
to break my nerves
But I hate to respond to the anger and freed the fuel in
those ugly words

They ask me why I say nothing at all like I don't have
any self respect
I say gentleman I'm like incense the more you burn me
the more I'm fragrant

And I don't feel the need to act violently
And I don't feel desire to fan the fire
You can say what you want about me
But I lace the lines of these times
with generous peace

There's a thin line between virtue and fea and
it's funny how they appear
Both demanding restraint and control and it's enough
that I know it's clear

That I'm not scared of you I'm scared of me and I live
by controlling my fool
Cause you're a fool enough for the both of us but
I still try to find the good in you

And I don't feel the need to act violently
And I don't feel desire to fan the fire
You can say what you want about me
But I lace the lines of these times
with generous peace

I know its hard to listen to the words you just can't stand
It's gonna take more than a fist to enlighten an ignorant man

And don't you see how we fear the patient eyes of a lion
And don't you see ow twe fear those lions in their silence

And I don't feel the need to act violently
And I don't feel desire to fan the fire
You can say what you want about me
But I lace the lines of these times
with generous peace

Lyrics and Song by Kareem Salama - This Life of Mine

Friday, June 26, 2009

Alhamdullillah I have extremely busy in the last couple of days..not work wise but i have a few projects going on. I also met a few interning students at MERCY and found out or rather realized that my opinions and the world-views that I have...have been limited in spite of me thinking of them being extremely broad views. #

Oh and by the way International Relations is definitely one of my future career choices now after having heard about it first hand from the Interning students.

By the way Arab food is pleasingly different from North-Indian food.

Project no. 1

Get a Salam Cafe type thingy on Malaysian tv - discussions are underway with YMP and friends to work that out

Project no. 2

Anyone who knows me knows how I love to travel and I will be going back to India inshAllah next week for a brief fortnightly visit inshAllah with the family.

Project no. 3

Find a non-research oriented job- having trouble with this one, apparently I have discovered after much "research" that I am not a guy who loves sitting in the lab day after day-Althrough it does mean a lot of FB time.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

I believe I have discovered the most important barrier to learning...embarrassment. I mean think about it we learn the most when we are young and are toddlers and kids. However once we hit the age of puberty we become extra-conscious of ourselves.

Most teenagers just want to blend in and I believe this carries on into our adulthood years as well. In university when our lecturer used to ask us if we had any questions most of my class would look at the floor or at each other our eyes daring the other to ask, something...anything. I remember this was normally the case in our boring classes we would all search for questions and then start a conversation with the lecturer about things totally unrelated (but interesting) to the subject.

Anyway coming back to what I was saying about the whole learning and embarrassment thingy it just goes to show that Life is all one wants it to be.
If we can take the initiative and then the positive side of things we can learn so much. I have learnt a lot from watching my nephews and niece grow up (mashAllah). When babies learn how to walk they try and try till they get it and I am going to apply this babosophy(yes I coined it just now) to my life.

I have a dream and if God wills I will live to see it fulfilled by His grace and Mercy.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Travelling by LRT is not my favorite way to travel. It so happens that today I chose to travel using the LRT early in the morning. Now to those of you who have never used the LRT early in the morning count your blessings. What happens is that Men and Women literally throw themselves into the carriages. I kid you not!

Here is what today at 7am in the morning: I was happily standing at the door and dreaming of the blue blue sky…when from absolutely nowhere a man(small in size) decided to disturb my dreams. Now the train is full-it is pretty obvious for everyone to see but still why should anyone give up a chance. When anyone sees even a small crack of space in between the backsides and frontsides of people they stick one foot there and press themselves against anyone and everything that stand in their way.

What happens next is a combination of skill and experience (obtained I assume from doing this on a regular basis) which involves holding one’s breath and again pressing one’s body against any and everything that gets in one’s way until the LRT doors slide shut. This is then followed by everyone around that individual heaving huge sighs of relief as then the well experienced individual presses against the closed doors of the LRT leaving a few atoms of space for everyone to breathe in.
All of this is fine as long as no-one coughs/sneezes.

However if someone who has been holding in a sneeze for an extremely long time decides that he/she’s nose and chest simply cannot bear the torture anymore and they then decide to let it go resulting in a huge ACHOO!!! The surrounding individual turn and look around at that poor helpless soul and stare for extremely short periods of time but I guess to the individual it must seem like eternity. Also with the H1N1 virus around the world it doesn’t help the case of the hapless sneeze driven individual.

I am dreading the journey back!