Monday, February 06, 2006

The Quartet Meme

I have been tagged by Aisha. At first, I was amused by the tagging amongst bloggers. It would be that I would be one of the last to be tagged. It brought back memories of picking the team while in grade 6. My school was full of football (soccer) nuts, while I was a cricket guy, so I was evidently one of the last ones to be picked for the team. Every year, the PE teacher would tower over us, choose his two favourites, and they would pick their friends, then the good players, and finally us. The team for the year. It was a lesson in nepotism. The good thing about the football team was that no one wanted to be goalie. So I would choose that option, lazing around near the goalposts, while berating the defenders (the goal was always their fault). The happy ending: It was grade 6 finals (between team A and B). It went to the tie-breaking penalty kicks. Our team scored. Then it was the turn of their forward, Fadel. I remember the guy. Even in grade 6 the Egyptian was six feet tall. As soon as he kicked I instinctively ducked and put my hands to my face to protect myself. To the outside world, it appeared that I had cleverly dropped low and punched the ball away. We won, and I was never the last person to be picked again.

So now I have been tagged. Here goes.

Four Jobs I've Had in My Life
  • Chef (hey - just because it's the campus cafe doesn't mean any less!)
  • Editor, the UTSC college newspaper. Oh, it was a thrilling time, with the scandals of student politics and writing editorials about the faulty vending machines. Grrrr. I got to interview Jean Chretien's Chief of Staff!
  • Teaching Assistant - an excellent job. This would be my chief motivation for doing Ph.D - to teach! And I got tons of funny stories of discovering plagiarism - for another day perhaps.
  • Web Developer.

    Four Places I'’ve Lived define 'live'
  • Dhaka, Bangladesh.
  • Abu Dhabi, UAE.
  • Ottawa, Canada.
  • Toronto, Canada.

    Four TV Shows I Love To Watch only four?
  • The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
  • The Simpsons.
  • The National, CBC.
  • Royal Canadian Air Farce, CBC.

    Four Places I Have Been On Vacation Does Saudi count as 'vacation'?
  • England.
  • Thailand.
  • USA.
  • Bahrain.

    Four Authors I Read
  • Dan Brown
  • John Grisham.
  • Issac Assimov.
  • Agatha Christie.

    Four Animals I Find Fascinating
  • Peacock (beauty and vanity).
  • Dolphins (intelligence).
  • Cichlids (my super-territorial aquarium fishes).
  • Bees (the whole colony thing).

    Now for the tags. I am supposed to tag some other bloggers. However, like the football team, most others I know have already been pickedtagged. Others don't blog frequently or don't like the tagging game. So, perhaps, Isheeta, Arnab, maybe you can pick up the slack? Change the questions around if they are too personal. And oh Rashed, yes I can see your IP so I know you are reading this, Tag! Update either one of your blogs dude.

    Tags:
  • 9 comments:

    Aisha said...

    Yay for doing it. See you took some creative liscence with the headings:) Good for you.

    Fahd Mirza said...

    tagging seems to me childish.

    No offense or pun intended to anyone. :)

    Anonymous said...

    This made a nice read, Mezba.

    Hasan Mubarak said...

    You worked as a Chef!

    What kind of cooking you do??

    mezba said...

    The school cafe had 3 sections called the Grill (fast food - burgers, fries and similar - should be called the Grease), then it had a health food section (forgot what it was called, frequented by mostly Hindu students who were vegeterians and Muslim students who were forced to be), and finally it had a coffee/snacks section. We moonlighted between all three. The healthfood section was kinda neat coz you could cook seafood fried rice, rotissery chicken, jerk chicken, pasta and ofcourse make salads. We were all called chefs, and wore those big white hats.

    Dil-E-Nadaan said...

    I was always the last to be picked for teams in middle school too. Bad memories!

    Masti-boy said...

    did you spit as chef?

    mezba said...

    Masti: Ah, you are back.

    Nermeen: up, school - some bad memories. University - aha!

    Isheeta: more than me, I think my friends took advantage of my job as 'chef'. They would come to the cafe only when I was on duty, so they would get larger portions.

    Nabeel said...

    hmm @ web developer .. you have your portfolio up?