Last Supper At Innis

Ether cooked (allegedly) for us on his last night at Innis.


Ether's Food


Kamal and Tong


UNO - No! I still have 2 cards! Ha!


Is That Cafe Swearing?

Day After Tomorrow ... Yesterday

Well I had to type yesterday that I liked rain. And boy - did it rain!

When I drove out from the underground parking yard beneath our office, it was 3.45 pm but felt like 10 pm at night. It was pitch dark. A huge, and I mean huge, ominous, black cloud had swirled above downtown. It was swirling. It was low. Very low.

As I drove down towards the Lakeshore on Spadina, it felt like a scene out of the movie Day After Tomorrow, when twisters hit LA. There were huge traffic jams, I was watching the clouds move to and fro over Lake Ontario, it was windy, raining intermittently. The radio dial was set to 680, where they were announcing tornado warnings with drumbeats and a dramatic background music score.

"This is Harold Hossain at 680. A tornado warning has now been issued for the area of Ajax, Pickering, Scarborough, Richmond Hill, Markham. If you are in that area you are urged to seek shelter IMMEDIATELY. If you are at your home please make your way to the basement NOW. We repeat, a TORNADO warning ..."

And all the while I was like - what - tornado - here! This is Toronto. The most frightening thing we had was a huge dump of snow (30 cm!) that made the mayor call in the army. The scariest thing to visit this city this summer was Stephen Harper. And now we are having a tornado. Or a couple of them.

I was glad to get away from the lake and onto Kingston Road. And another surprise. The signal lights were out. ALL OF THEM. ALL THE WAY HOME. And instead of treating them like all-way-stops, some clowns were treating the jam packed road as the 401.

Home Sweet Home at last.

The last time I had such a crazy drive home was the black out, two years ago, almost to the day (August 13, 2003).

Maybe I should change my Bengali song to:

"Allah megh de pani de, chaimuna to aar ..."

Thoughts On A Rainy Friday

I love when it rains in the week*. The rain reminds me of my childhood vacation days in Bangladesh. Our school vacations coincided with the summer/rainy season there, and many a callous day would be spent sitting on the front porch of my mama's house listening to the pitter-patter of the rain, without a single worry on the mind. Ah - the late 80s!

As I sat at work, programming a trending application on a Friday afternoon, my winamp playlist suddenly started to play:

'Ei meghla dine ekla, ghore thake na go mon

Kache jaabo, kobe paabo, ogo tomar nimontron ...'

and I thought, what an appropriate song for the day! It is funny how our minds develop - as a kid I would never listen to Bengali songs that my parents used to listen to, but now as a young adult, I find many of these songs have deeper meanings. No wonder they appear timeless.

"Elo Barosha je shoho ..."

* (as long as it's not a weekend and I don't have anything planned, besides, don't have to water the lawn)

A-Levels In Danger?

The Guardian has a piece on how A-Levels could be made redundant. Apparently too many people are doing well, which for some reason is bad. Me thinks they haven't met the high school system in North America yet.

I don't think I can explain to any Canadian/American high school goer what A-Levels are like. First of all, you are not in high school, you are in what is called a 'college'. You are sitting for board exams. The person who will mark your papers is unknown to you, as you are to him/her. It's not your teacher who knows you for five years and will cut you some slack (or, if you've ticked him off - give you a hard time). The markers therefore can maintain strict impartiality. You will get exactly what you deserve based on how you did your exams on that day.

I think anyone who did A-Levels can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first got their results. Once you have written the exams it is out of your hands. You may have studied the subject well, may have gotten good marks throughout the school year, but it's what you do on the day that counts. Some people say it's unfair - others say it's life.

Exams are like that.

And that result, that little piece of paper with your marks, determines your future. University admissions are conditional on the A-Level grades you achieve.

A-Levels are also widely respected. Which is why I cringe when they mention one of the pressures placed on the Brits is to issue a 'North American style diploma'! Due to my A-Level grades, I got half a year's worth of credits (3.5 out of 5) in first year of university (at UofT). They don't respect their own school system graduates that much. I have seen people here go to high school, do well, and be classic know-nothings. They have no basic knowledge of trigonometry, algebra, calculus (p1-p2 anyone?), physics (string tension), and so on. All of which were almost a given when you passed these subjects in A-Levels.

BBC's Picture Competition

The BBC has picked the 12 finalists for the first round of its picture contest. Click on the "Open (in pictures)" link to view the photographs. I like the 4rth picture of the guy raking leaves. Reminds me of Fall. I gotta do a picture like that this October.

Accidents Help Traffic?

Weird phenomenon on DVP today. There was an accident just north of York Mills on the southbound DVP today, just a fender bender between two cars. Coming off the 401, I had to navigate bumper-to-bumper for 2 minutes, and then surprise! As we passed the scene of the 'accident', the traffic was really flying! I was doing 120 km per hour in morning rush hour on the DVP - yes on the DVP - listening to 'Billoni Tera Laal Ghangra' and coming to work early.

So here's my theory. You block the traffic just north of York Mills everyday. So cars that would normally be elsewhere on DVP is stuck between 401 and DVP. But it's only few minutes, and once they pass the 'blockage' it's zoom-zoom.

Wonder how the folks coming on 404 south from Markham would think of this idea.

Is It Racism?

With the recent spike in gun violence in Toronto, where innocent bystanders are getting killed, this is what made news.

"A Toronto city councilor is floating a controversial idea on curbing gun violence in the city. Michael Thompson, who is black, says police should be allowed to "target" young black men at random as part of a crackdown on guns. Deputy police chief Keith Forde, who is also black, says chief Bill Blair would 'never, ever agree to that.' "

The most telling part of the news article was that the perpetrator of the suggestion was black, a point not missed by the Star. As if that proves anything.

This was my post on the Star's "Have Your Say" page:

"Just because he is black does not give him the right to be a racist, even if its against his own people. Police should stop people at a scene who fit the description of a suspect they are looking for when a crime is committed. Randomly stopping people of a certain race is profiling and criminal and has no place in a Canadian society. "

Touring Toronto

On Deep Space Nine


Bad Boyz


Need to educate someone on the 'zoom' function


Red and Pink, somewhere on Church St.

Ouch!

Can You Believe These Gas Prices?

Never thought gas would cross a buck per litre. When I bought my first car 5 years ago I filled up at 45c/litre.

Techno Mullah

Sharif, he of the 'Quran-in-the-server-room' fame, is in Toronto.


The self-proclaimed 'techno-mullah'


It's raining men

Toronto's Planners Should Be Fired

I wonder who issues permits for all the condos that are springing up around Toronto. They seem to be issued without any thought. Recently on a trip to Centre Island I was struck at how bad the situation is. You know the famous view of Toronto, the skyline with the Skydome (now Rogers Centre) and CN Tower? Well, the condos obstruct that view now.


Condos rise around CN Tower


Sky Dome cannot be clearly seen from the lake anymore.

Shaan's Birthday

Attended Shaan's birthday today. I got him one of those guns that shoots foam darts from a rotating barrel. And forgot to take into account that he may not be strong enough to push back the reloading clip. Of course his sisters had no such problems. Now their parents have to keep the kids from fighting over the gun. Uncle placed a fair judgement by "borrowing" the gun. When I left, he was still trying to get the bulls-eye.

Why Cricket Is No.1

This picture for me will be the photo of the match. Yes, cricket is played hard, in a competitive fashion, but at the end of the day all the competitiveness and aggression is left on the pitch.

After his team won, Flintoff did the sporting thing and went to console Lee, as well as applaud his heroics.

This is why cricket heads the list of sports in my table. Cricket teaches you all the lessons of life, of teamwork, of partnerships, of taking responsibility - moreover, it's the only sport with SPIRIT. This is why when something unfair or unsporting happens, people say, "That's not cricket".

England win epic

Sunday I again woke up around 6. That's the second day of the weekend I woke up earlier than I do during the week. The first day was for fishing. But today, for cricket? Surely, not on a Sunday, I hear you scoff.

Well, just some time before, Bonty messaged me what was probably the best message he has ever messaged to me: "Eng win by 2 wkts". That was the message I was hoping to hear from him.

Both of us had been following the Ashes in England, and communicating via MSN as the match progressed. I was on CricInfo, which seemed to have an over delay, while he was watching it on TV, so could often update me before CricInfo.

I logged on, and it had 'Warne and Lee delay England'. And I was like - oh s*** - here we go again. Thoughts went back to that Champions Trophy game, last year, as England snatched defeat from jaws of victory to Windies' last two wickets.

Yet soon the message popped up, "Warne gone." But even as I waited for that other message, the end seemed inevitable. Slowly, run by run, Australia chipped away at the target. With finally 3 remaining to be had, and all Aussie supporters on the MSN chirping away, CricInfo frozen, the refresh button looking weary, and the TV blaring out the IND - WI game to an empty audience, the Ashes came alive.

Sad About August

I am always a bit sad when August rolls in. It reminds me that summer is slowly ending. The long Canadian winter beckons on the horizon. No more BBQ, crickets, picnics, or just sitting on the patio with friends past 2 am. No more cooling off by gulping ice-cold Fruitopia from the fridge. No more summer time (getting out from work half hour early). No more driving down the highway with windows rolled down. No more deciding to talk a midnight walk on impulse with the neighbors. No more late night movies. No more.....

Whew! I got myself so down I could almost write a poem! Maybe tomorrow.

BTW It's 32 degrees C now. At 1.18 am.

No more late night blogging.

Pearson Crash Coverage Continued

More on the Pearson coverage. CNN seems to have reverted back to showing astronauts deliver boxes in space, completely disregarding the huge event from the morning news. They can cover it extensively at midnight when everyone is either sleeping or trying to, but ignores it in the morning.

BBC lets users rant here. One guy called GCM from Toronto writes:

"I live downtown and I was telling my wife that there is a smell of rubber or fuel - she said it was probably my BBQ. I heard that one of the passengers walked away from the crash and thumbed a ride on the 401! Just last month a huge ferry crashed in North Vancouver and nobody was injured either. Classic - only in Canada!"

Umm... ok. I will let you live in the dreamworld that only good things happen in Canada.

Still no fatalities. But Pearson is a mess. And knowing the inept Air Canada officials, no one is helping out the passengers, nor talking to them about the status of flights, besides giving a few foams. When I got stuck while returning last winter from abroad on Pearson, when one of their luggage delivery systems broke down, we had to wait 4 hours for our luggage, and the only official from Air Canada came down 3 hours in that time, to give out bottled mineral water! At first the announcer on the speaker system said 20 minutes, then 40, and then stopped updating us! And we landed at midnight, so had to wait till 4 AM morning for our luggage.

Was Weather A Factor?

I believe so. It was raining like crazy yesterday (on the flip side my lawn never looked greener this summer). When I was driving back from work on the DVP I could not see two cars ahead, it was that bad. Visibility was very close to zero. Every car on the highway had slowed down due to the conditions. I heard of flights diverted to other airports due to bad weather. Certainly the pilot should have asked for the same. The weather on the west end of the city (where the airport is) was worse.

Toronto Pearson Air France Crash Miracle

Just learnt of an Air France plane crash at Pearson Airport. Will be blogging about this.

What happened: An Air France plane bound for Toronto from Paris has crashed while landing in Pearson Airport. It skidded off the runway and burst into flames, but everyone on board survived. This happened near highway 401, Canada's busiest motorway.

Fatality Watch: At first they were saying 200 deaths but then learnt that there were NO fatalities, everyone got out unscratched. Then learnt that there were 301 on board and all were safe (BBC), with only 14 minor injuries. Later the number of passengers was reported on CNN to be 297.

UPDATE (8.56 pm) on CBC: The number of injuries has grown to 43. I will be surprised if the count of fatalities remains at 0 (I hope it does). The total number of passengers has gone up to 309.

News Watch: BBC's headline at this moment is "Passengers survive plane inferno". CNN has "All 309 survive fiery crash landing", while Fox says it best (I never thought I would be praising Fox) - "Miracle in Toronto". While I am sorry for the crash, Toronto seems to be the top news on every news network at the moment, and words like miracle, efficient, circumspect, early Christmas are all making the rounds.

Links: BBC, CNN, Fox, CBC.

When Did I Hear About It: I must have been one of the last Torontonians to hear about it. I was listening to 680 news at 4:01 pm (traffic report). Then I switched to my music CD all the way to the gym. Crash happened at 4:03 pm. Was in the gym till 6. While on the treadmill I did see some news on a TV about some flames beside a highway. But the audio wasn't on, and I didn't have my glasses, and I thought it was about some automobile crash on 401 and thanked my luck that I was already out of the roads. At around 8 I checked the news and got the shock of my life.

News Watch 2: As usual the Canadian news networks were pointing out how efficient the emergency crews were, how ordinary Canadians rose to help, how other passengers in other airports were not bothered by the delays. Americans were more into the 'miracle' thing, as well as talking about airport procedures in the States and what were differences with Canadians. Also, they took pains to point out where Toronto was, and where, I kid you not, Canada was relative to the US. It was left to the BBC to be the professional, giving out facts, figures. It was also funny to hear from the eye witnesses, who seemed to have different accounts of the crash (understandable). One guy said the plane bumped up and down and it was the 'worst roller coaster ever'.

UPDATE (10.39 pm): It's now getting late and it does seem there really are no fatalities, which is an excellent news. The number of injured remain at 43. Aaron Brown on CNN has an in-depth look at this news. CNN really is overkill.

A Town Like Mezba

With a little bit of time on my hands at lunch, I googled for Mezba. It's something most of us have done from time to time, googled ourselves. The results were a mix of dark humorous and interesting.

There's apparently a town called Mezba in Eritrea. Wow, that's so cool - a town named after me! Well not after me, with my luck probably after some wanted warlord, given the recent civil war history in that place. Someone even wrote a book about it! One more thing on life's todo list - visit Mezba, Eritrea!

Another result was funny in a dark way. The caption on google went like this:

"For instance, it is physically impossible for Asif to kill Mezba if Asif (assassin) and Mezba (victim) remains in different countries"

I was like wtf - (esp as one of my friends is called Asif) - anyways, here's the page.

Supercycle Watering Stand

What do you do if you are tired after a day's work in the yard and need to water the lawn? In particular you have to focus on watering a particular spot of the lawn for a concentrated amount of time, as its a 'brown' spot? You use the Supercycle Watering Stand, of course!


Supercycle to the rescue

Pros: You can go back to your BBQ.
Cons: After some time you have to move the bike to water another spot.

Coming soon: A way to use the variable Toronto water pressure to automatically turn the front wheel of the bike to and fro, enabling a sprinkler like system to water all around.
Paradox: This will create a Perpetual energy machine.


A closer look

Yard Work Ahead

Gotta do some yard work today. Weeding. Watering. Mowing. Raking. Have been really putting it off.

Will get a better picture of Dad's apple "tree". Just fooling around with a camera on hand. Too lazy to get to the yard now.


Dad's Apple Tree

Fishing Is A Cruel Sport

I say this not because we did not have much luck today. We did - caught several, most of which were thrown away, 1 keeper bass, 2 others lost (right at the moment of haul), discovery of one "aquarium" spot - so called because the just dropping the line meant you caught a fish. However the fish we were fishing for - largemouth bass - was unfortunately in short supply.

Why is fishing cruel. Consider how we put the live bait. A bunch of worms, kept in soil and stored in a small cardboard box in a freezer, is our bait. Before casting, a worm is selected and taken out, and cut into pieces (while alive) with a scissor. One of the still wriggling pieces is then attached to a hook (sorry - driven through the hook, impaling the part), before the whole arrangement is submerged into water.

Today we went one step better. Having negligible luck with our worms, we saw what the Oriental anglers next to us were doing. They were using crayfish (a cray fish is a very mini lobster, the size of your little finger). And so we bought a bunch of them (live ofcourse), and then proceeded to do the following:

A crayfish was selected. Its arms (pincers) were then cut/broken/torn off. The tail was then cut/broken. What is left of the now writhing creature is then impaled on the hook, like a stake being driven through its body, entering the soft underbelly and piercing the rigid shell on the other side. Then ofcourse it's thrown into the water to be bitten by a fish that will taken get its lip stuck to the hook and move and cause the hook to pierce through from under the skin and come out impaling the fish through its gills.

As I said, a cruel sport.

Ottawa Trip

Below the Parliament buildings


What's growing out of Rupam B.'s head?


Canada or Bangladesh?


Size doesn't worry Rupam B.


Nazneen Bhabi sure knows how to pick 'em


Fupa-fupu trying fishing Canadian style


The Catch of the Day


Lights and Sound Show - Parliament Hill


The Eternal Flame at Parliament Hill


Ottawa Night Life - It Ain't John and Richmond


The Pike - 24 hours later

It's London in 2012

On the drive to work listened live as the IOC awarded the Olympics to London for 2012. I had hoped it would be London, it's just one of the greatest cities (and a great multi-cultural one at that) of the world. What made this even better was that London beat Paris in the final round. Chirac and Blair had been having a go at each other for some time, including the most recent - a food fight! Whenever I was at London, I was struck by the history, culture and atmosphere of London. I am sure they will have a great Olympics.

Bengali Mela at Dentonia

Dentonia always beings to my mind the image of a dentist, with his painful scapel ready to drill into your mouth. Thus Dentonia park always brings to mind a scruciating slow torture image. Which is usually what these Bengali melas are. Two years ago they had a fight over a soccer match that resulted in a stabbing - no kidding! And it was because of some silly reason such as one team having one player missing or something like that.

There was one such mela today at Dentonia but unlike the previous ones this one seemed to go on well... for most part. The performances were half decent, but the stalls weren't. Most of them sold ladies' clothes only, that too outdated styles that many women had no problem buying. And if you read my gripe before about local food being overpriced, one stall was selling biryani for 9 bucks. Who in their right mind would buy biryani for 9 bucks?

I met one of the volunteers who told me the amazing story about the power supply. Apparently the power for the concert was supposed to be supplied by the city. For some reason something happened and in the end, the organizers cobbled 100 feet of electric wire and got the power from a nearby house! They plugged it into the wall socket where the stove usually goes!

Which was unfortunate because the power went out just when Ms Alamgir was warming up the crowd with her songs (the one really decent act on the show). Probably some one in the house turned on the light and the fuse blew.

This was touted as a Canada Day Bengali Mela (for whatever reason). There were actually lots of people with a bunch of Canadian flags, handing them out freely. Probably more of our sponsorship scandal money at work. Later we actually went and did something about Canada Day by watching the fireworks at Mel Lastman Square.


Say cheese before you take th--what the ****!


As with any Bengali event, there was no shortage of people.


What's the guy behind me looking at?

Rosti

Rosti is described by some as an "easy version of a Swiss potato cake". I don't know how accurate that is as I have never had Swiss potato cake, but Rosti looks a bit like this. As we were dining at Marche at the BCE Place, after watching War of the Worlds, I remarked that the food there was very European. We blabbed the usual about the ambience and the food making it pricy but justified because of the 'ambience'. Ether, being very blunt, said Rosi was just 'aloo bhorta' in French (or German, or whatever).

Later I reflected that this is why Toronto's ethnic restaurants are pricy. They take some common dish, put it in italics on the menu and it becomes exotic. Thus we have 'samosas', 'shik kebab', 'naan', 'dosa', 'tandoori' - all common back home but here an exotic expensive dish. Some dishes I understand - such as 'kotu roti' and 'shwarma' - but why is naan exotic?

I didn't put an extensive review of War of the Worlds as I noticed recently I have doing a lot of that on the blog. This blog is not just about movies. Even though I have watching a lot of them lately (this is summer after all). Suffice it to say the movie was faithful to the book, except for some 'minor' changes such as changing the locale of the story from London, UK, to some some place in USA, and the hero getting a family, as well as some other flaws. Even though I found it good, something prevents me from recommending it, and I will leave it at that.

Peterborough Fishing Mine

Went fishing to Peterborough this morning. We struck a gold mine. Any line cast seemed to come back with fish (sometimes two!). All sort of fish were caught: bass, perch, sunfish. We intended to go for carp, but later we got too tired due to the sapping heat.

Total fish count: 150 (no kidding!). I took 10 home, we gave ten each to our neighbors, and even then had lots left, which went to Fahad's uncle's friend. He loves sunfish.


Our Fishing Hole


Everyone Is Busy Catching Fish


Some Distractions Were Present As Well


150 Fish Being Kept Fresh


Packing The Haul

Paheli Is Good

Saw Paheli (starring SRK, Rani). It's good. Those who don't like Hindi movies may not like this one. It's a love story. It has emotions. It has lots of colors. And it has lots of songs. I thought the songs were a bit too much (some could have been removed for faster flow) but on the whole, if you like Indian movies, you will like Paheli.

Gone Fishing

Just got back from fishing. We tried this new place just around 20 minutes away from home. Boy was I surprised to find such a town so close to Toronto. It was a postcard-style town, with beautiful mosaic pavements, old style (18th century) houses, and the air of a bygone era. The lake (pond, rather) where we fished was very surreal. It was quiet, and lots of creatures around. Although didn't get any keepers, nevertheless a morning well-spent.


The Loons


Fahad's Batfish

Noha's Wedding

Just came back from attending Noha's wedding/reception. The usual crowd (read the-Donmills-people-who-were-once-in-UAE-but-now-mostly-in-Brampton-but-still-called-Donmills-people) attended. Atleast Jaber and others still are in North York.

The ceremony itself was a good affair. Jaber said a few quotes, while Isra recited a great poem. Babu and Mehboob (of BSA fame) sang some songs. The dinner was very good. The menu was South Asian, with some spicy tandoori chicken and a kabab (making us loosen our ties) being the best. One cannot fault Jaber's organization (meticulous) nor the food (really scrumptious). He should become a Bengali wedding planner. He even printed a schedule (or program guide, whatever it's called).

On a sidenote, it always seems a point of EXTREME importance at Bengali weddings - the food has to be good. I have attended some weddings where there is no organization to speak of, it's as boring as hell, but the food was good and no one complained. Bengalis. Go figure.

Going back to the wedding, after dinner, there were a few songs and dances. Jaber also displayed a slideshow, which showed the couples' pictures from childhood to present times. It was a nice and different touch.


The 'Just Married' car


The spread was tasty


Here's to still being single (it's Coke BTW)


Who's next?

The Koreans Are Coming

It was shaping up to be just another Friday at work. I was at my desk, coding away, while my boss was away (his kid was sick). The operational engineers were busy at their workstations. Suddenly there was a knock on our office door, before it slammed open, and a gentleman (who worked upstairs) ran in, a little short of breath.

Searching for my boss, and not finding him, he turned to me and announced:

"The Koreans Are Coming!"

The reactions from the guys was immediate and hilarious:

"So should we lock the doors?"

"Don't you mean the Russians?"

"Koreans? North or South?"

Further clarification led to the fact that a delegation from the University of Korea in Seoul was visiting University of Toronto and they wanted to see how the building controls and management operated here. In any case, they did come within a few minutes, and were a very nice (and courteous) bunch of guys, along with their interpreter. They visited for 15 minutes, asked lots of questions, took a few pictures of my coffee cup before taking our leave.

Played Some Cricket Today

Got together with some friends for cricket at North York. Was feeling very hyped-up about Bangladesh winning (a rarity). Played good cricket too. Played 2 matches. Me and Gazi were the mainstay for our team for both the games. In the first game we bowled them out for an on-par target before Gazi and I overhauled it with lots of overs to spare. In the second game we again chased. This time the target was higher, and we both batted down the order to give the others a bat. But there was a collapse and we again found ourselves together, with only one more wicket to follow. First we repaired the innings, then built it, before finally racing towards the target in a surprisingly less than tight finish.

Bangladesh beats Australia

This morning was crazy. I was following the Bangladesh game vs Australia. Around the half way stage, I had reasonable hope that Bangladesh could pull off the unthinkable. But as always, it was Bangladesh, and I must admit that I did not expect them to last beyond 180. And at 80 odd for 3 around the 27th over, a familiar pattern was beginning to repeat itself.

Then Ashraful happened. He and Bashar began to nudge the singles and take very little risks, yet keep the wickets in hand for the final dash. If that was the game plan, today it was executed to perfection. And when it finally happened, a Bangladesh victory over Australia that BBC (a bastion of anti-Bangladesh commentators) called "the pinnacle of Bangladesh achievements in one-day internationals" and Cricinfo labeled "the greatest giant-slaying of all time", I let out a medieval scream. I switched ON MY CAPS LOOK KEY TO SHOW MY EXCITEMENT ONLINE TO ALL OTHERS ON MY MSN LIST FOLLOWING THE GAME ON CRICINFO. Many of them had changed their nicks as well. 'Aus Banged', 'BD Kicks Ass(Aus)' and 'Holy Crap - BD actually beat Aus' were some of the most memorable ones.

Rony Bhaia called from Bangladesh. They are pretty excited too. Last time I was in Bangladesh, they beat India and then Zimbabwe. This time my folks are there, they beat Australia. He pointed that out to me, with some theory of us brining luck. Ofcourse the fact that the next day I was there India made 345 against Bangladesh was conveniently ignored.

At then end, though, Bangladesh cricket also owes a lot to Australians. It was Eddie Barlow, an Australian, who first set up Bangladesh cricket administration. It was the Australian cricket board's support that Bangladesh got Test status. It was their memorandum of Understanding signed with the BCB that Bangladesh got good training and infrastructure for their youth teams (under-15,19,21). It was their team's attitude during the Bangladesh tour of Australia that Bangladesh cricketers matured. Steve Waugh made his players go to the Bangladesh dressing room and talk to our cricketers, and tell them not to despair or listen to the critics. After all, Waugh knew what it was like to belong to a team that had potential but never achieved. That was Australia prior to 1987. And finally, it was Australia again, who today, was beaten, but never made an condescending comment about Bangladesh that the Pakis made.

The Interpreter Rankles

Watched The Interpreter tonight. Before going into what I don't like about the movie - a brief synopsis: Kidman is Silvia Broome, working at the UN in NYC. Sean Penn is Tobin Keller, a Secret Service agent that protects foreign dignitaries. An african dictator accused of genocide is coming to NYC to make a speech at the UN Security Council, and Kidman overhears a plot to kill him. Movie starts.

Overall, it wasn't half bad. It started well, then got right into the middle of it. Character development of the main duo was good. It had the ambience of a slow European mystery, with a cop who has personal issues (always), a victim who is not all that she appears (and blonde - always), and a bunch of criminals, the head of whom is the one the hero has to protect. All-in-all, a good mix for a good movie.

Unfortunately there are several flaws. First, the dialogue. Some of the conversations between Kidman and Penns ' characters are downright cheesy.

"Why do you guys who carry guns always act like cowboys?"

Moreover, at one stage, everyone in Africa is introduced as either black or white. They seemed to have forgotten that brown people played big roles in Africa's history as well. Gandhi of India was originally from South Africa. Many of South Africa's, Kenya's, Tanzania's movers and shakers are of Indian or South Asian origin.

Then there's the characters. Penn's assistant (his colleague/partner) is more like his secretary. She has hardly a role in the movie. *BIG SPOILER ALERT* Nicole we find out is heavily involved in African politics. She IS African. She was even a rebel. Her brother still is. What nonsense. We are supposed to believe that just because her parents were killed in an African accident, her brother and she took up arms and joined the black militia. Um.. they were white. And not just white, blondes. Fighting alongside the very people taken advantage of by whites in Africa. And they comrades accepted them! And she was the rebel leader's lover!

Many times during the movie Nicole says she joined the UN because it's the only thing she thinks works in Africa, and she wants to help. Um... hullo! You are just a lowly interpreter (in fact one person in the movie even tells her that, then everyone seems to forget she said that). What do you think she will do for the UN?

Overall, it's a 6/10 movie, and takes a long time to get to the ending. The Interpreter looks nice and the acting is terrific, but that's just on the surface. Could-have-been-but-was-not an absorbing thriller. Ultimately forgettable.

Beef is better than chicken

I can cook. I discovered that this week. I don't know how moms do it every day though. I don't mind cutting, chopping, cooking and cleaning for 1 day, and then storing it in the fridge so I have something to eat when I come back from work for the next 2 days.

1 day cooking 3 day eating.

One other thing I also discovered - beef is infinitely way easier to cook than chicken. If you overcook chicken, or add too much water, or spice, or salt, it's gone. You can eat it but you have to make a face. The ten chicken pieces I saw in the freezer I guess I will BBQ next week (read: not cook). I guess I added too much water, the chicken was very loose. And somewhat yucky.

Beef on the other hand - the longer it remains on the oven the tender it gets (my theory). Some mother somewhere is probably getting a heart attack at the sacrilegious statements I am making here.

But yesterday even I was surprised as to how good the beef I prepared was. It was spicy (very), not hard at all (bite-able), had the proper proportion of salt, and very, very tasty. Yummy. The first day when I cooked chicken I was like crap - I have to eat this slop for the next three months I am home alone, but now I have some hope. Yup -until next time.

Blo(ck)spot dot com

I sent my blog and picture link to someone in UAE.

This is what popped up on their screen.

"We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates. If you think this site should not be blocked, please visit the Feedback Form available on our website. "

Priceless.

Masala BBQ and A. Jolie Good Movie

BBQs and Nahda alumni don't go well together. Whenever we try to do a BBQ the weather plays havoc. Last time it rained. Today, it was unbearably hot, close to 40 degrees (with humidex, smog, etc.). I was taken back to the last days of high school, when we foolishly attempted to have a BBQ in the middle of Abu Dhabi summer. Atleast this time I got the BBQ started! Ofcourse being a gas grill it was way easier.

The food turned out tasty, even though the masala made the chicken very, very spicy at certain portions (that was fine though - I just had to have a bottle of water after one chicken leg). The burgers were the best, as were the sausages, fresh out of the grill and into our mouths. It being such a hot day, the juice-filled jug was well emptied. There were two Casualty Burgers though.


It burns!

Angelina Jolie sparkles in Mr and Mrs Smith. Throughout the movie, which we saw after eating (dinner and a show!), that was the only thing I could think of. It seemed some people have been made by God with a lot of time. Then again Tauhid told me some lip surgeons may have had a crack at her as well.

The movie was entertaining as a whole, though in the end it started to drag a bit before an abrupt ending, which was again funny. The jokes and action were nonstop, and its a good escapist movie.

Pulling Out A Rabbit

Last time I checked Toronto was a major concrete metropolis. Wildlife attacks are very rare, other than the occasional psycho bulldog. Which is why today I was surprised when my backyard was invaded by a pair of rabbits.


It's not always this black and white

There I was, minding my own business, just about to mow the jungle that is my backyard, when all of a sudden I saw a black something dart behind me. My first thought was that my sister's cat escaped, but then I saw a white something follow the black I knew it was no ordinary pet. It was rabbits!

My neighbor's (two houses away) kids' pets had escaped. They were so cute! But munching on my dad's apple tree was definite no-no. And so I moved in a stomping motion and made what I thought was a menacing shout. Other than the next door kid looking at me like I was practicing for some sort of Bengali opera, they had no effect. The rabbits paused, looked at me, and went back to munching. Is there an expression, cool as a rabbit?

Ofcourse the kids came to reclaim their pet. And this moment the rabbits chose to dart into the next door neighbor's yard. The game was afoot, the hunt continued. But that was to be the last I saw of those intruders.

What a hot day

It is really getting hot in Toronto. Not that I mind, I will take +40 over -40 any day - but what I hate is the smog. I have to walk in the morning from my parking spot at the university to Eaton's, and then back again in the afternoon heat, a good 20 min each way, and what gets me each time is the pollution. It really sticks to you. I also went out for a walk around lunch and within 20 minutes was starting to feel lethargic and sick.

The Unix course is coming along well. I am learning lots of new admin stuff I didn't know before. I also spoke with a colleague at work, he's going to give me a PC so I can install some flavor of Unix on it at home, just to play with.

I paid my last dues as a student to UofT today - 3 years after graduation. I got my degree framed. It's convocation this week at UofT, and they had stalls for framing the degrees that the graduates get at the ceremony. They had it when I graduated too, except that I didn't want to frame it at that time. I thought I would get it framed somewhere else later.

After three years of it sitting in an envelope at the bottom of my closet, I decided I am going to get it framed in an official UofT crest-filled frame. It cost me 86 dollars and change. Yes - I know they were ripping me off - but it's my degree and they were fleecing me for the last time. Besides, I did throw tons of money at the university for four years, so what's a few doubloons more!

Got an LCD monitor

Moving up in the world. Today the LCD monitor ordered for my workstation, a Hyundai TFT L90D+, arrived. I set it up and dumped the old big monitor at the backroom (this room is rapidly becoming our electronic garbage box).

At first the pictures and text seemed a bit blurry and out of focus, but after installing the driver and switching from the Plug and Play one, resetting the refresh rate to 75 Hz from 60, and restarting the PC, the monitor made a world of difference. And to top it all, this one has speakers attached to it as well, so if I want to show a video to the guys, I can just unplug the headset and play the media. No more rushing to Mike's workstation. And I just love the extra space on my desk.

Unfortunately I won't have time to enjoy it all this week. Starting tomorrow till Friday I will be on the UNIX Administration course at Learning Tree, near Eaton's Centre.

Lonely Reader

The Lonely Reader called today. He is my philosopher friend, who keeps in touch from time to time. He told me recently someone asked him about why his friends-who-do-evil are being promoted and he not (perceived unjustness from God). My friend told him to be grateful he was born with two legs, two arms etc. The Lonely Reader is like that. He believes in the eternal phrase from Kaal Ho Na Ho - "From your point of view what you have is very less, but from someone else's view you have been given a lot".

I ofcourse told him to tell his friend to suck up to his boss, make resumes and search for better jobs and generally to get off his lazy bum. Which is why I think the Lonely Reader and I could start up a Upodesh Kendro (for those who saw the Bangladeshi series Bohu-prihi you know what I am talking about). He is more into the spiritual and philosophical side of things, I am more into the practical.

Have you heard of the 90%-10% principle? It seems a good strategy. The link is here. Basically the gist of it is 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react.

I am also reminded of a few Islamic hadith (sayings of the last Messenger of Allah peace be upon him).

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "The best of you are those who are slow to anger and swift to cool down...Beware of anger, for it is a live coal on the heart of the descendants of Adam." - Al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1331.

In another narration it is mentioned, ‘The one who becomes angry while standing should sit down. If his anger has still not cooled down, then he should lie down’. (Ahmad, Tirmidhi).

'He who can overpower others in wrestling is not really a strong man. True strength is in that individual who can control himself at the time of anger.’ (Bukhari).

How beautiful and true are the statements of Islam - 1400 years ago.

Forlorn Saturday

I don't know why I am feeling a bit down today. Is it because I did mostly nothing on Friday and have nothing to look forward to doing today? For the last few weekends I have been either hanging out with friends or busy doing something fun. This is the first weekend in a while I was stuck at home.

Well I was busy. Folks are going away to Bangladesh for sometime. Everyone who hears this says 'Partaay!!' but what I can think of is 'Parathay - who will make them'. Guess I better familiarise myself with Shaan parathays.

The day was spent with mom showing me how to keep the house clean, water the plants, etc. My sister even showed me this brush with which to brush her cat's hair. I told her to get real - many times I don't get the time to brush my hair.

The Drunk Tamil and the Hippy Bengali had a big punch-up today. I was in the backyard BBQing tandoori chicken and missed all the fun. Both called up their crew and beat up each other. From my understanding the Drunk Tamil's gang was beaten to a pulp. But then I got the hoe-down report from the Hippy Bengali. But I can believe his story. We both discussed how Bengali friends are completely unreliable in a fight.

On another note, this must be the most pathetic blog I saw on the net.

NHL fix

What are fantasies? A girl like Gayatri Joshi. A car like Aston Martin.

Or maybe it's this. Apparently Global simulated the whole 2005 season, and ofcourse Vancouver Canucks won. What fixed this purely as a fantasy was that the Leafs beat the Flyers 4-1 in the Conference finals. The Linking Reporter (aka Behbood) reported that many people have actually downloaded the simulated videos from Global to watch it.

Maybe they can find a way to simulate alcohol and Muslims can get a simulated fix.

DVDs Needed

I bought a couple of Hindi DVDs right now, both 2-cd packs (so four movies in total). They were Kaal, Kyaa Kool Hai Hum, Veer-Zaara and Swades.

Now I know I said I thought Kaal was a crappy movie, but it was the best combo I could find with Kyaa Kool Hai Hum, which has had excellent reviews. Again, Veer-Zaara, I am not a big fan of (in fact my experience of the movie at the theatre was spoiled by a series of mishaps that belong in a comical disaster Ben Stiller movie), it had Swades, which I had wanted to watch for sometime, and I did tonight.

Swades, well, what can I say. The first half of the movie I understood exactly what Mohan (SRK) went through. I myself feel no ties with Bangladesh (having been brought up abroad) but whenever I go, I feel sorry that the country is in a mess and people like me are not doing anything. Then again, people like me if they want to help, other people in Bangladesh like the Fanatic Mullah, the Greedy Politician and the Merciless Mobster will have a different say. All of this was captured in the movie, but it was very documentary style. And I did not like the ending at all. No matter what I do, I am not going to give up material comfort for helping a village. And NASA - that was very unrealistic climax.


The DVD Rack I Got For My Birthday


My DVDs

As you can see I have to get more DVDs to fill up this rack I got for my birthday. I like it. I am so glad I didn't go out and buy those awful spiral ones I was thinking of buying.