My First Online Shopping Experience in Pakistan… Yippee!!!

I got really excited when I saw this photo a friend posted on a social networking site. That’s her laptop dressed in a skin featuring SpongeBob Square Pants! Cool han?

Uzma's Laptop with SpongeBob Square Pants - a cartoon that I almost dislike, but looks really nice up on the skin! :)

But the even more exciting part is that she got it online – just going to a website, doing some clicking here and there and a man with your desired stuff rings your door bell :D

Haha, I know I sound like a 2-year-old getting excited after spotting an airplane. But honestly it is exciting when done for the first time and especially when what you get out of that experience is something more than what you were expecting.

Yes, you got it right! I tried it too. You see my laptop’s really huge – 17 inches wide! – which means there’s a lot of bare black space on its back. So, a skin sounded like a good idea. Now, on that website, browsing through the hundreds of designs, choosing only one was really difficult. Also, there was an option of creating a skin yourself which opened up infinite choices. Nevertheless, I decided to play it safe and ordered something I could never dislike – something green and refreshing.

A picture of fresh, green blade-like leafs of some plant wetted most probably by rain... Can't imagine a sight more refreshing!

So I chose the design, filled the form and confirmed my order and viola! My order was at my place in a couple of days. In fact, the delivery had come home earlier but I wasn’t there so it was sent again. All in all I appreciate the fact that what I got hardly was different from what was shown. I know it was just a skin, but still, you never know with these things. Also, the service was good. The promptness with which the website, a Pakistani one, responded to my queries was amazing.

I hope Pakistan progresses in all desirable areas and makes us prouder Pakistanis!

Will it Rain in Karachi Tomorrow?

"Maryam Beta, help me get the clothes off from the clothesline ... I just hung them but seems like its going to pour..."

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" ... and Kiran was telling me that it's going to rain but I don't think so... "

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"Hey! They were just telling in the news that a cyclone's coming our way! I hope IBA shuts down tomorrow, but that's like praying for a miracle..."

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When this part of the year - June, July and August, that is - approaches, one of the things that we look forward most to is... yes, you guessed it right, of course, Rain! 

The bundle of our actions preceding the rain are just so exciting... forecasting it, talking about it, getting excited with the very slightest of cool winds, planning to go to the beach etc... But he feeling of just letting yourself get soaked in the rain through and through has no parallel... Feels like being in some parallel universe in which only we and the madly-high-inducing-rain exist. What never ceases to inspire me and heal my soul is the beauty of such thick rain, that doesn't let you see clearly beyond a few yards and makes the buildings, people, trees and things at a distance seem like a hazy dream, such loud rain that doesn't let you properly hear your own self singing out mad and loud, such rain that makes the earth smell like heaven.

Okay, I think I should stop day dreaming, rather, blog-dreaming already now... :/

Well, today I was on the Shahrah-e-Faisal at about six in the evening and the clouds were all gathering up slowly right above us. Had those clouds followed the normal rule, they would have poured down in half an hour or so. But no, they didn't. They just kept gathering and gathering and making the scene turn from bright blue to grim gray. What? Why didn't they pour? Well, because these clouds were hovering over Karachi, a city that has some kind of repelling force against heavy, almost-about-to-pour-clouds. 

As we moved on, I showed my friend a few drizzled drops on the wind screen and said 'Barking dogs, seldom bite'. Yes, because whenever it rains in Karachi, as long as I remember, it has either happened completely unpredictably or as a continuation of an earlier rain. So, as we drove on it got darker and darker though there was an hour left for sunset.

only if I could go hiking on these clouds...

(click the photo to see an enlarged version)

As I was leaving my home for some work, my Nana had warned me about the impending doom-like cyclone that could accompany rain with it. Acting upon his advice, I grabbed my camera along with me to click away and capture the cruelly mesmerizing beauty of the clouds while enjoying the cool breeze sitting cozily at the window seat.

At the Main University Road

(click the photo to see an enlarged version)

All my way from and back to my home all that happened was the gathering of more and more and more clouds. Seemed like it would rain but it didn't and my hopeful heart asked me, 'Will it rain tomorrow?'... 

I want to go...

There are times when my life is all pink, purple, blue and red; everything glittery and glam. All my dreams turn into reality, I feel euphoric, I feel I am at the top of the world. Yet it feels something’s missing.

Then there are times I wish to find the missing thing out. I take a break out of my dreamy world. I go somewhere less plastic, somewhere more natural, somewhere I can breathe easily. Yet it feels something’s missing.

In pursuit of that something I go searching far and wide. I go to the crests and troughs, to extremes, to vacuums, to everywhere I can possibly exist. Yet it feels something’s missing.

Then I try out something I never had before. I try escaping from all that reminded me of that something in the first place. I feel euphoric again, but only for a while. The pinks and blues all turn into the blackest of blacks. All the illusions come crashing down. Something still misses.

And then my passage through delights, tours, journeys and escapades brings me where I find that something, where I can find Peace.

At my arrival there I wonder how thoughtless I had been never to have thought this place as my happy place before. There I rest in peace with no guilt of the past, no illusions of the present and no worries of the future.