Archive for January, 2007
they plutoed my appreciation…
in its 17th annual words of the year thingamajig, the american dialect society announced the term “plutoed” as its word of the year for 2006. the term is basically used in a sense of devaluation or demotion. if we had a pakistani dialect society, my term for the century would be “shat up”; the rendition [...]
Filed under: desi, desi-ism, office cribs, ramble | 16 Comments
said a waiter long ago when asked why the union head was making such a fuss about the quantity of meat in his biryani. the words, while poetic, do not fully reflect the emotion, the meaning, the depth of feeling behind them. they had to be heard. its the tone that conveys meaning, not the [...]
Filed under: office cribs, the sweet stench of life | 9 Comments
bank al falah’s theme for 2007’s diary and calendar is awesome. they’ve picked some of faiz’s choicest couplets and loaded them on for each month with some desi artistry in the background. i can’t resist posting the followin two ashaar from the month of may.
agar sharar hai to bharkey, jo phool hai to khilay
tarah tarah ki [...]
Filed under: poetry, the sweet stench of life | 16 Comments
of desires and perfidious fate
when i was a kid to be tagged was to become the chaser, not a very useful thing for someone who always preferred the middle distance race to the sprints. but like the huroof-e-illat that break all rules in arabic grammar the implications of being tagged have morphed into something decidedly more tame; what we [...]
Filed under: tagged by somebloggerelse | 8 Comments
when i was in high school and the mysteries of the universe still had some interest for me, i once read an article on tachyons. these things, apparently, are the only things in the universe which travel at sppeds faster than light but their existence has not been proven.
you, constant reader, might be surprised to [...]
Filed under: the sweet stench of life | 11 Comments
the importance of being. period.
i don’t normally do this, but i got tagged by a very regular visitor, mona. so here goes. five supposedly wierd facts about me.
i chew ice. lots of it. i pile up the cubes till the glass or mug or beaker or whatever is full and then fill in the gaps with sickly sweet pakola [...]
Filed under: confessions, tagged by somebloggerelse | 23 Comments
stud-nee and her dad’s kulfi
and so i finally ate my first kulfi in sixteen years. bleah. can’t stand the stuff. but what do you do when you’re served the damn thing by a sixty something, white bearded, bald dulhan ka baap on the stage while you’re sitting next to the groom? you eat it, thats what you do. it [...]
Filed under: picture, the sweet stench of life | 28 Comments
yes, i notice footwear. sometimes people find it odd, coming as it is from the guy who polishes his shoes every other year.
and yes, i enjoy the sight of pretty little feet pushed forward on the floor, coy yet unabashed, in a striking contrast to the ankle-length dull-emerald shalwar. they appeal to the inner aesthetic, [...]
Filed under: the sweet stench of life | 14 Comments
question: why do i always end up wearing khaadi kurtas with heavily starched white shalwars on eid day?
answer: with the tree trunks i’ve got, a chureedar pyjama (even if i were to consider it) is so not an option.
what was most bugging about this eid – and mind you several things were, from the unprecedented [...]
Filed under: poetry, the sweet stench of life | 10 Comments
