Ramadan Conversations

"Hey, S!" My brother's friend called out to him.

"Whassup?" My brother replied.

"Yo, why don't you come to Tim Horton's after taraweeh prayers?"

"Er," My brother answered. "Isn't it kinda late? 11.20 the prayers end."

My brother's friend looked at him for sometime.

"What are you talking about? Oh, you mean you pray the full 20? I was talking about 8 rakats. That's over at 10.30!"

"Ah," My brother commented. "Oh well, don't know. Why, what's at Tim Horton's?"

"You should come." My brother's friend winked. "It's Ramadan and it's taraweeh. ALL THE GIRLS ARE THERE!"

* * *

"Oh, my legs are paining!" My friend tells me after we exit the mosque, praying only 8 rakats of taraweeh.

"Yah, I know!" I reply, knowing how long the prayers can be.

"You know," She tells me, "I was so lost after the 2^nd rakat."

"Ha ha." I answer. "I know exactly what you mean. During the 1^st rakat I am convinced that TODAY I will concentrate on my prayers. Then, during the 2^nd rakat I start planning tomorrow's schedule, and then suddenly rebuke myself for losing concentration. During the 3^rd rakat I am thinking tomorrow I have table tennis practice at 5 and I have to do this work project. By the 6^th rakat I have reviewed all my things to do tomorrow and the rest of the week!"

My friend looks at me for sometime, and then utters in a low voice:

"Well, I meant LOST as in mesmerized. The recitation of the Quran was just so beautifully done that I was really deeply into it!"

A Hungry Man is NOT an Angry Man!

I remember reading a travel advice given by a travel show on a visit to some Muslim country. Part of the advice read (I am paraphrasing here) as follows.

Ramadan begins on such-and-such date. During Ramadan, Muslims fast (abstain from food and drink) the whole day. As a result, individuals may be snappy and irritable, therefore be polite and avoid crowds. Important projects tend to get delayed during Ramadan ...

Now I didn't read anywhere that one of the requirements of Ramadan is that a hungry man should be an angry man! I am pretty sure though - that I read in some hadith - in Ramadan, all that some Muslims will get out of their fast is hunger and thirst. So this means many will not get the spirit of Ramadan.

In Ramadan we are supposed to be nice. An extra effort, if I may. We are supposed to be a better person than we are for the rest of the year. So that would mean NOT angry and NOT irritable. Unfortunately though, I have to agree with that advice.

Living in the Arab lands, people tend to be lazier in Ramadan than the rest of the year. The already procrastinating nature receives a boost in Ramadan - with cries of Bukran and Inshallah! increasing ever. And living here in Canada, many Muslims tend to over exaggerate how hungry and thirsty they are to their non-Muslim colleagues, and slack off on their productivity, blaming Ramadan.

So this Ramadan, let us make a deal to not only be a nicer person, but also a more productive person.

And yes, I am blogging this on my break!

Obamaunty

So I was at this aunty's place for a dinner invitation. We were chatting on many things, and the topic turned to her basement tenants.

"Oh I never rent to black people." She then goes on a tirade against black people. "These people never pay their rent on time, are always on welfare, have no family structure! You rent to a single woman with a kid and soon she has millions of 'boyfriends' visiting her and they are dirty and ..."

It was quite uncomfortable. Some people at the table tried to steer the conversation somewhere else and ultimately they succeeded.

After dinner someone turned on the TV and CNN was talking about Obama.

"Oh, Obama!" The aunty starts again. "I hope he wins. He is telling the truth, and America needs someone like him now. But you know what...these... AMERICANS... they will NEVER vote for a black man, ... they are very racist!"

An Interview

There's nothing like enjoying a three week vacation with no studies to worry about. It helps though that the weather has been really, really good! August is almost always a depressing month because summer is coming to an end (and as a sign of that, the CNE is here!).

I recently got interviewed by Ghazala Khan of the Pak Spectator here.

I don't have much to add here; will return with a new series of posts on Ramadan when it gets here, however, I do want to say one thing to the journalists.

The Beijing Olympics is over!!! Please don't bother me with articles about reminiscing on the Games, or "looking back", or a "review". It's over.

The Boy Who Would'nt Shoot

I got this from a friend and I thought it was very, very sad.

So do you know who Abhinav Bindra is? He is the current World and Olympic champion in the 10 m Air Rifle event. He is also the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games.

Now how many of you know who Asif Hossain Khan is? In the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Abhinav Bindra won the silver medal. Guess who won gold? Asif Hossain Khan from Bangladesh? So where was Asif in Beijing?

On October 2, 2006, after a rough incident between police and shooting federation staff, police broke into the federation premises and assaulted several shooters including Asif. Asif and his fellow shooters were preparing for the 2006 Asian Games to be held at Doha on November 2006. An altercation occurred between a police chauffeur and a federation guard regarding the parking of a car. Following this, police came to the spot and, according to witnesses, beat "whoever they found". Police beat Asif in multiple areas and severely injured his left arm and leg.

Asif said, "We, in fact, tried to stop the brawl but police would not listen to us". He also tried to protect himself by asserting his identity and success to his attackers. However, the police appeared to intensify their violence after this revelation. He, along with four other shooters and staff, were taken to the police station and beaten again. They were later sent to court by the police. Asif was granted bail from the court and was admitted to hospital. Doctors suggested that his arm muscles were badly injured and would take time to recover. His leg was also injured seriously and doctors were uncertain of when he would be able to practice again. Asif's mental and emotional trauma was also apparent as he claimed he would give up shooting. [source]

Do you know what this parking incident was? This fight was about some police DIG's chauffeur trying to park his car at a no-parking spot. The DIG's wife was in the car, not the DIG. The fight broke between the chauffeur and some guard who insisted not to park. So, for a freaking chauffeur who so desperately needed to illegally park his car, we lost a possible gold medal in the Olympics. Here's to the army solving all of Bangladesh's problems.

Kinds of Studiers For Exams

At last all my exams are done. I can finally enjoy what’s left of the summer for the next 3 weeks.

I have realized that there really are four different kinds of studiers for exams.

There’s me – the Last Minute-r. I mean, sure there’s THREE WEEKS till the exams, great! Plenty of time. Oh, I see, only one weekend left. That’s ok. I will study on Sunday. Saturday is for having fun. Oh, I haven’t seen this episode of Star Trek. Oh GREAT… only one night left. Study. Panic. Study. Repeat.

Then there’s the Do-You-Know-ers. They will pop up every hour on MSN (after all, can’t have studies without being on MSN, right?) and say “Hey did you study the WACC equalization theory?” and you are shitting in your pants going WHAT WACC EQUALIZATION THEORY and they go “here it’s mentioned on a side note in chapter 21 subsection 14-5” and it’s marked “not on exam”. While you are fuming they will then add “oh it’s just interesting to know”.

Then there’s the “I-am-skipping-that”-ers. Basically, whenever you buzz them with “Psst.. how do you solve chap 10 qn 23” they will reply with “Oh I am skipping that”. You wonder course after course how they pass.

Finally, there’s the “I-know-a-guy”-er. For some reason, this dude ALWAYS has a collection of past papers for the last ten years of this course, sorted by difficulty and sub sorted by professor, along with answer keys. You always wonder HOW on earth he does it when NO ONE can find any past paper and his answer always is “I know a guy”. Of course then the actual exam has NOTHING in similarity to the past paper because they changed the book (yet again) or the prof, and you fume at the time you wasted. Yet the very next course once again you will go to him.

Ok, now I can have my life back.

Le Riots!

I was eating dinner and decided to watch TV. I switched it on and turned to CBC. It was during the middle of a news bulletin.

"... the police for their own safety just stood and watched while the rioters smashed store windows and set cars on fire ..."Man! I thought. This Iraq thing is getting way out of control.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that it was Montreal, Canada!

Yes, apparently there was riots last night in Montreal over the shooting of a visible minority youth by the police. Googling over the news, I found tales of people who tell of police harrassing them because they are congregating, have a nice car or are being "profiled". [The Star]Still, it was a shock to see such rioting and lawlessness on the streets of Canada. Maybe it's a French thing (I am looking at you, Paris riots). After all, it's Quebec.

Making the Case for Good

I was attending our Managing International Talent class. The topic was of Canadian businesses expanding overseas and encountering standards different to our own - which one do we use? What about ethics?

I gave the following (real) example. A famous language school teaching English in Canada has opened a branch in one of the oil rich Middle East nations. Now in Canada, when we hire someone, we don't care whether the person is black or white, male or female - we just care whether he or she can speak good English, teach it, and hold proper credentials. Not so in this country. There, it's quite common to see recruitment ads specifying ethnicity, gender etc.

In that Arab nation, almost all English language schools hire white Anglo-Saxons to teach English (even if they are Irish!) because the local students can never properly accept a brown skinned teacher (someone beneath them) teaching English.

So I asked this question to the class: Should the class also hire by color and ethnicity, because it makes good business sense?

The lecturer's reply to me was memorable.

"No matter how low the ethical standards of a country are, we cannot imagine that they will always stay that way. To do that is to undermine the basic human nature of self improvement. We have to believe that someone, somewhere, will say no, to judge a candidate by their skin colour is wrong, and so on. We have to believe that things will eventually improve in that country and they will also start to hire by competency and pretty soon everyone in that country will do that."

"In this school we teach you to be leaders. Everyone can be a follower and make money in the short term. Here, we teach you to innovate, to be leaders, to be the force of change. And so I would suggest that if you were running that school, you should hire by competency and uphold the Canadian standards, which were higher. Because - ultimately they will follow those standards, and then you would have been the leader in setting standards, not following them. There is always a business case to be made for ethics."

Kuwait and Bangladeshi Workers

Most of the Muslim Student Associations in universities in North America have a very vocal content about supporting Palestine issues. Many of them also have a strong pro-Arab camp, where they harp on supporting the Arab countries against Israel on many issues, and whenever Arabs are mistreated or discriminated against, it is painted as an "Islamic" issue. Many converts to Islam here also have an idolized view of the Arab lands.

Having lived in the Middle East before, I have a different view on these issues. Here's something I caught on the news recently.

Some time ago Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait went on strike because they had not been paid by the Kuwaiti authorities for more than 3 months. These are already dirt poor people doing menial jobs saving whatever scraps they can to help their families back in Bangladesh. So what did the Kuwaitis do?

They beat up the striking workers, locked many of them up and deported them all to Bangladesh. There were also tales of torture when those deported people reached Bangladesh.

Today, I found a letter in Kuwait Times where one resident writes "Bangladeshi cleaners, Thank you."

I would to thank all the Bangladeshi cleaners who used to collect the garbage from sunset until sunrise, to clean up the dirt and the leftovers of mine and of all residents of Kuwait. They were, in fact, doing a great job and excellent work.
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While we enjoyed the luxury of new, clean clothes every day, the dirty, yellow dirty uniform was the costume that they lived, ate and maybe even slept in.
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Salaries: Why do you work? This is not a new topic, it's an old one and a natural request. Why do any of us go to work and how many of us would work for free?

Meanwhile, now Kuwait, probably hit by the garbage on the streets, have admitted responsibility (where have we heard this before?).

I have said it before and I have said it again, the problem lies in governments of countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka making no attempt to ban their citizens from working in slavery-conditions in these countries. Blind by the lure of foreign currency and cash these workers bring, they have trampled on their welfare and rights.

Next time an Arab supporting MSA comes around to ask me for support against Israeli oppression against Palestinians, I am going to ask, "how are you any better".

Sensitivity Training For Pearson Staff

The Toronto Star is reporting that Canada Border Services Agency is putting officials through sensitivity training so they can appropriately deal with Arab and Muslim travelers.

This is of course welcome news. As a manager we personally negotiate or deal with people of other cultures all the time - and thus we take cultural sensitivity training. For example, in North America when people negotiate, the terms are usually very clear and everyone is eager to get a deal and time is a constraint. We don't mix business with pleasure. However when you negotiate with the Mexicans or Indians, they like to take their own sweet time. This is NOT a delaying tactic - they have a culture of getting to "know" the person they are dealing with and cultivating relations. Time is fluid and "there is always tomorrow" and a deal may not be very specific in the details.

Once you KNOW this, then you know this is something you can always use to your advantage. Sensitivity training never hurt anyone. Thus I find the attitude of the union representative in the article very selfish, self serving and borderline racist (no pun intended).

I do think that once they become a Canadian and they live among us, that they should pick up our ways and not have us picking up their ways.

Let alone the fact that some Arabs and Muslims may be travellers and not Canadian, so they DON'T have to "act Canadian" (whatever that means). Sensitivity training actually helps border agents do a better job.

For one, they don't waste their time on nothing cases. To quote the example in the article, many Muslim women come from cultures where they don't look an authority figure in the eye as a sign of respect. So while she is respecting you, you think she has something to hide and pull her over for scrutiny. So of course she is going to feel discriminated again, while you merely did your duty by acting on a valid suspicion (which you SHOULD do). She will them complain and an inquiry will be filed against you and you will go through the whole rigamarole at the end of which you will be found not guilty and she will be unhappy and you will be unhappy at going through the ordeal. So in the end, having that piece of cultural insight would have been good and advantageous for all concerned.

Second, WHY in God's name would you object to being paid by work for NOT doing work? We used to love those courses our offices sent us on, as that meant taking a paid break while relaxing in a course and eating free food. Me thinks the border guards doth protest too much.

[the Toronto Star]

Sharjah Does Away With "Arabic" Numbers

Um, we (the Emirate of Sharjah) are doing away with Arabic numerals because we are chasing after money and English numbers are popular with our expatriate community we want to be in line with international standards [source].



Um, but sorry, we are not really doing away with Arabic numbers you see?

Because, er, English numbers are also Arabic.

Yes! See, as long as English numbers are being used, you are also using Arabic numbers! There we go.

PS. What about it originally being "Hindu" numbers? Sshhh!

For an "explanation" read this.

Most profound comment:

Abdullah Binayaf, a Dubai resident, wrote in with a similar correction. He said: "Readers should understand why several emirates in the UAE are dropping Indian numerals from number plates. By doing so, they are actually preserving the original Arabic numerals."

Previous examples of Middle East intelligence here.

Mandatory Dark Knight Post

Since everyone seems to have seen The Dark Knight and almost every blogger has posted about it, I thought I too would follow the crowd. Following are my mental notes when I watched the movie - beware this post could contain spoilers.

the Ya-Get-Him factor

Rarely have I watched movies where I really cheer for the hero and when he finally lands a punch or two I go "Yaah!". One last movie that I can really remember was Lagaan - the Oscar nominated 19^th century cricket movie. In Lagaan, by the time the climax arrives, you are so involved with the characters that when the hero who is batting whacks the other team's bowler for a six, you are cheering for him. Here it's the same - yes we know who will win (hint: Batman) but still when Batman trips the truck with his bike and slams into the truck with the Batmobile you go "Finally!". This movie had "the Ya-Get-Him factor".

intelligent villainRarely are comic book movie villains interesting. Rarely are they intelligent. They are almost always caricatures. The Joker - he was pure evil. The way the character was portrayed - especially the pencil magic scene - it left no doubt that the villain was pure evil. He was someone who was interested in being evil purely for evil's sake. Heath Ledger portrayed the Joker with the just the right amount of eccentricity. Any more and the Joker would be laughable. Any less and the Joker would be undercooked.

set-piece actionAny "action" movie needs a few scenes that will be remembered long after the movie. In the Matrix Reloaded we had that highway chase scene. In this movie, the Batmobile chase of the truck carrying Harvey Dent and followed by Joker's crew and the subsequent Batpod scene with the truck was that for me. You can't make that in Bollywood, no way.

9.5/10

Bangladesh vs Canada

I have been reasonably lucky that Canada and Bangladesh have not faced each other much in any sports. I mean, Canada plays ice hockey and all winter related stuff, and Bangladesh is mostly into cricket and soccer.

With Canada's recent emergence in cricket, however, the meetups are becoming more frequent. In August, Bangladesh comes to Canada to participate in a T-20 tournament and will face the hosts, Canada.

So who will I support?Of course this is nothing new - in England they have something called the Tebbit test, which most British of foreign origins fail every time "their" team visits England.

I live in Canada, I work in Canada, I travel everywhere with a Canadian passport. When people ask me abroad "where are you from" I say Canada. When I say home I mean Canada.

Then why do I want the Bangladesh cricket team to win?

My more important question is - does it matter who I support? I am on record saying this to the BBC: "I supported Bangladesh as cricket means more to Bangladeshis than Canadians. If it was ice hockey, curling or skating, go Canada go!"

If you were an immigrant and it's your home country versus your country of origin, who would you support?

To All Facebook Users

Can you please NOT upload the entire contents of your picture memory card to Facebook? An album is supposed be a few select pictures ... i.e. the GOOD ones. There is no reason to upload three pictures which are exactly the same except one has a closer view of the groom's nose than other ones. Similarly, blurry, out of focus, subject being blocked, etc shouldn't be uploaded. There is no reason to have a "Niagara Trip Album 1" and then "Niagara Trip Album 2" and then till "Album X"... just one album on that should be more than enough.

Can people NOT use the wall as a place to broadcast personal messages. I recently got a mini-feed from a friend's wall-to-wall that included details of her recent breakup, her cat's problems and the other replied with how her mother-in-law hates her. Seriously people, there is something called Private Messaging.

There is a button called the "Ignore" button. You don't need to add EVERY application to your profile so that another person, who is checking out your page, has his browser crash. Grrrrrr!

Instant message on Facebook. I hate it. It's small. It's annoying. I am surfing a page, dammit. Just add me on MSN if you wanna talk.

Can you name your albums something else other than "Random"? Seriously, show a bit of creativity. And "Album That Is Too Cool To Have A Name" doesn't cut it either.

And oh, stop sending me ANY application requests.

Love Story 2050 vs. Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

I saw two Hindi movies recently. One was very good and one was very bad.

Love Story 2050

2.5/10

In spite of all the bad reviews this movie got, I still WANTED to see this movie. It's a sci-fi with time travel, you don't get those often in Hindi cinema. So I watched it.

Imagine.

It's raining outside. Hero is in the mall with hero's girlfriend. It's not that crowded and hero is holding her hand. Suddenly, looking deep into her eyes, and hero utters this romantic dialogue:

"You are like a hot dog without the sausage."

At this point you have to think, seriously, how much worse can the script get? By the end of the seriously bad movie which feels so long that you THINK it's 2050 by the time it ended - you'd know just HOW bad this movie can be.In terms of acting, only Priyanka had a great challege - she had to play two roles. Girl in love, and girl in love with red hair. The special effects are never seen before, in Bollywood that is, but standard Hollywood fare.

As for product placements, it's very amusing to know that Xbox will still be around in 2050, and their latest model would STILL be Xbox 360!

In short, please save 3 hours of your life and do NOT see this movie.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

8.5/10

Cute. Good. Adolescence love. Nice movie. Very much watchable.

The heroine looks so much like 'Liya it's uncanny.
I liked the movie - especially the funny climax.

Songs are great.

Please go see it.

Bye.

Bangladeshis or Pakistanis

I read this very interesting article on BBC about Bangladesh's "Unwanted people".

Basically these are people whose parents were Urdu-speaking Pakistanis living in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during Bangladesh's 1971 War of Independence. They all supported (West) Pakistan. Some even joined the Pakistani army in committing atrocities and genocide and war crimes.

After the war and surrender of Pakistan, these people were put in special refugee camps (mostly to protect them from the rage of normal Bangladeshis who had suffered under the occupying Pakistani army). They were waiting for the Pakistan government to take them away to live in Pakistan.

They are still waiting.

Only, now, two generations have come and gone. As per the BBC article, "Several generations, and often several families, now share the small rooms each was originally given".

Surely, many of the kids are now Bangladeshi in all but name. Yet, in the camp, loyalties to Pakistan are still practiced, whether by singing the national anthem or supporting their cricket team. Ironically, Akram Khan, a former captain of the Bangladesh cricket team (that won the ICC trophy in 1997 that started Bangladesh's rise in world cricket), is of Bihari background. So why are many in the camp still clinging to their Pakistani roots, leading to normal Bangladeshis shunning them?I thought when I would talk to former liberation fighters (my dad) or someone who was actively tortured by the Pakistani army (my uncle) - they would rant against these people. Yet, even they feel that the crime was committed by the camp dweller's parents or grandparents - the present generation should be freely allowed to be Bangladeshis, or if they don't want that, then repatriated to Pakistan.

Yet, because of the insistence of some elders in the camp to cling to a Pakistani identity, and folly of the youth in not shunning those ties, and the betrayal by successive Pakistani governments in not accepting them, these people and their children live on in a refugee camp smack right in the middle of Dhaka - not wanted nor cared for by any one.

Morgentaler and Birth Control

Dr. Henry Morgentaler is going to receive an Order of Canada.

Now I think abortion is a necessary evil. From the Islamic point of view I know some people say it's permissible before 120 days as the soul hasn't yet transferred to the foetus. After that it's allowed only if the mother is in danger.

From the secular point of view I get it that it's the women's body and her choice.

And then I read an article like this.

Honour for Morgentaler is long overdue

If you read the article than it is clear why she thinks abortion is great. If all else fails and you are 'dumb' enough to get pregnant, then it's a great method of birth control.

I thought we in the 20th century has moved on to enlightedness. Apparently I am still a barbarian.

Here's the way I look at it. If you don't want a kid don't fuck anybody. If you are in a relationship with your husband and you get pregnant - it's part of the game. Deal with it.

Quebec City - Day 3

We started the day with breakfast at Old Quebec. The magnificent Chateau Frontenac was an apt backdrop to a glorious breakfast of French toast, poached eggs and poutine.It's a pleasure to wonder around in the old town and get treated to a sight like this. The only time I had seen a harp was in an old Jack and the Beanstalk cartoon, so it was something else to see it live.

Then, we rode to this military base. There had been an explosion last April (cause still unknown and under investigation!) that reduced this working base to this.After that, it was time to leave Quebec City (which makes me rethink the title of this post). We had to drive to Tadoussac, a city 3 hours north of Quebec City. The roads were often hilly, and very foggy.

Driving a Nissan Versa with 4 people and all loaded up was a tough job on this 10% grade hilly roads!We drove on and on, until we could drive no more. The highway ended, and we had to drive up to a ferry to be carried across the channel.And then it was on to these Zodiac boats.It was all worth it, to see these magnificent animals they call whales.I realize the picture's not perfect, but I was too busy seeing to take pictures!

We saw 6 or 7 whales during our 2 hour cruise, plus dolphins and seals. The largest whale we saw was a hump back whale. It's a sight to see the whale sprouting water out of the blowhole, and then diving, with its tail sticking out of the water for that very fraction of a second, before plunging to the depths of the sea.

Tomorrow, we drive back to Toronto.

Quebec City - Day 2

Bonjour! Bonjour!

Everyone here is so polite! Random people walking up the street greet you with "Good Day" or "Good Evening" and smile at you. Must be something in the French food.Montmorency Falls is a treat. You start at the base, and take a cable car to the top, riding adjacent to the falls. At the top of the ledge is a suspension bridge that goes over the falls.For some reason, there was lot of old cars parked next to the bridge at the top (another road leads you to the top of the falls). There seemed to be some festival going on (it is Quebec's 400^th year after all).

Now it was time to visit the famous old walled city of Old Quebec.This is the famous Chateau Frontenac (Fairmont Hotel). It is a distinct landmark of Old Quebec and is still fully functional as a hotel, running for hundreds of years. We saw a whole lot of limos leave the hotel at one time - someone told us it was the Prime Minister and his entourage who had stayed to mark Quebec's founding day.Then, it was time for a horse ride.Old Quebec is beautiful. You are transported back to the 17^th century, those old narrow stone streets, the cobbled together houses, the brightly painted signs ... ah, bliss!They had some street performances (we couldn't make head or tail out of it - the French appear a very artsy type of people). The weather is really nice. Tomorrow, we do a bit more of Old Quebec before heading for a surprise.

(Photos courtesy: Max)

Quebec City - Day 1

rue and chemin refers to roads and streets.

parle vous anglais? is roughly 'do you speak English'.

Armed with that (very) rudimentary French (and perhaps a bit more) I ventured out to Quebec - la belle province - as it is known in Canada.

Maybe they should call it the Rainy Province.

Not to mention cold.And here I was, packed for summer, with Tees and shorts, having to hurry to Walmart to get a decent pair of jacket and raincoat ... and this is supposed to be summer.

We just arrived, and it's pouring like cats and dogs. It's just 6.30, and it's already dark.The above picture is of the Parliament (Quebec City is the capital of Quebec). Tomorrow's forecast is better, so let's hope I can take a few nice pictures.

(Photos courtesy: Max)