Ode to my little boy!

My little bundle of joy Rohail. You light up my life. The way you smile and laugh and all the little things that make you, you. The more I see other kids the more I realize how blessed I am to have you as my little boy.

You're already making me proud and achieving so much in life. And I know no matter what you do in your life, you will always make me proud. The first time i saw you I didn't know what I was feeling but now I know what it was. It was extreme joy and pride.

You were and still are and always will be beautiful to me. The way you like to play with cars all the time and everywhere. The way you like to clean the table if there's something on it. The way you want to clean the floor if there's a piece of string and pick it up to go and throw in the bin.

You're only 2 years and almost 7 months but you have achieved so much. The way you like to dance to songs. The way you like to sing in the morning after waking up. The way you like us to sing twinkle twinkle when going to sleep and pretend to sleep with a blanket on.

The way you smile and call me daddy. It makes my day to see you smile. The way you tell me about your day when i pick you up from school. I miss you so much.

You're my little bundle of joy and mean the world to me. God has blessed me with someone who I'll cherish forever and I hope I always tell you that.

I write this blog today dedicated to you my son. And hope someday you read this in the future and remember me.

Freedom...or not

An Islamic centre being built a few blocks from where the 9/11 attacks took place is in the news a lot these days. A large proportion of Americans are against this….am I surprised no….am I annoyed yes. It is quite sad and is also quite unreal that the people and the country and supports freedom and is the leader of the free world are actually making a big deal out of this. Religious freedom has been part of what America stands for and now this is being trampled. It is also quite funny to know that there are a few mosques around that area already…but this one has made the news and has become such an issue that the President is also forced to comment on this. I do have to admit that through the years, I don’t know if it’s the media or the government, it’s always been the case to demonise and then victimise people of the same race/religion who the US is fighting its wars with. This is just the turn of the Muslims. I remember during the Second World War, people of Japanese descent were being rounded up and put in camps just because of who they were and not because of what they had done. Reminds me of the cold war period, when communists were being rounded up regardless of who they were and what they had done.. There are examples like this throughout history and not only in the US.

If we have evolved to a state that we preach that freedom is the best thing everyone should have. Why do we then discriminate like this? Is it because we really don’t have freedom in the first place? I mean freedom in some things and not others?

It always gets muddy when people start saying things like, ‘It’s freedom of speech, let’s show these kids getting murdered on TV’, ‘It’s freedom of speech, let’s show the white supremists of this world, some Nazi favoured material’, ‘It’s freedom of speech, let’s all draw the prophet of your religion’. Where does common sense and respect come in to all of this? Why don’t we understand that there are certain things in this world that shouldn’t be done because of compassion, dignity, respect for others? Isn’t this the first instinct and value we should all teach others and practice?

Shouldn’t we think that if a particular group of people are sensitive about something, we should show some respect?

Sadly, there are a lot of nut cases in this world who would exploit this. Terrorists are the best example of this. What they are looking for is making a statement and an audience. They know that even though they are a small number, they can still instil fear into a lot of people just by posting something on the internet or even mailing it to a news channel, which will show the video because they want to make money. And unfortunately, they succeed and the rest of the people who haven’t done anything have to bear the brunt of the hatred and victimisation against them.

Also, there are people in this world that would do exactly what is sensitive to other people. It reminds me of a bully in school, who would say something hurtful to another kid and even though it’s trivial and nothing, he would keep saying it JUST because the other kid is getting annoyed by it.

I guess this is just us being human? I certainly would hope not.

On another note, I saw a video today of two kids mindlessly being beaten by a mob in Pakistan while people and police stood by and watched, eventually killing them. After watching it I really thought to myself why I even watched it as I felt sick to my stomach and felt a lot of feelings, which ranged from anger, rage, pity and sadness. Why did I click on the video which I knew was going to bother me? I think I’ve written about this before, but I just can’t understand why we as humans would be curious to have a look at something, which we know is going to bother us. I gave the example of slowing down to look at a traffic accident, everyone does it and so do I…

I don’t think I have the words to say to show my anger and sadness on the video itself. It’s just another example of human stupidity, madness and barbarism. No matter what those two brothers did, they didn’t deserve to die like this. May God bless their souls! And give the people who did this what they deserve….

Favorite Quotes

I had thought about putting up some of my favourite quotes in a list for some time. Below is a short list of the ones I like, in no particular order.

Favourite quotes

1. Happiness is only real when shared – Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild
2. War is a drug – Chris Hedges, The Hurt Locker
3. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer – Sun-Tzu
4. If anything can go wrong, it will – Murphy’s Law
5. I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that won’t work – Thomas Edison
6. I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse – Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), The Godfather
7. My mama always said: “Life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get” – Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), Forrest Gump
8. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist – Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), The Usual Suspects (1995)

Ok, I loved the movie Fight Club, I loved it more because of the amazing dialog. Below is a list of some of the quotes (among others) that I loved from this movie, again in no particular order.

Fight Club quotes:

1. This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.
2. Man, I see in the fight club the smartest and strongest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God Damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war…our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d be millionaires and movie gods and rock starts. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very…very pissed off.
3. It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.
4. You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the singing, all dancing crap of the world
5. Listen up maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.
6. The things you own end up owning you.
7. I ran, I ran until my muscles burned and my veins pumped battery acid. Then I ran some more
8. Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing. Like the first monkey shot into space.
9. Everywhere I travel in my life. Single serving sugar, single serving cream, single pat of butter. The microwave cordon blue kit. Shampoo conditioner combos, sample packed mouthwash, tiny bars of soap. The people I meet on each flight? They’re single serving friends.
10. I can’t get married, I’m a thirty year old boy
11. Like so many others, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct

Top 10 Movies 2009

It’s been a long time coming but I thought I’d wait a little bit this year so that I’ve seen the movies I want to see for 2009. This year more so than a lot of years, was great for Science Fiction, there were a few really good ones and me being the Sci Fi fan, have included them in the list below. Of course this is just my opinion and other people would have different views. Some of the movies that didn’t make it to the list but were good enough to catch my attention are below as honourable mentions, in no particular order.

Honourable mentions:

Sherlock Holmes, Angels and Demons, Coraline, The Soloist, Terminator Salvation, Drag me to Hell, In the Loop, Paranormal Activity, A Serious Man, A Single Man, The Blind Side, Invictus and The Lovely Bones.

10. Watchmen

This proved to be an alternative to the ‘normal’ comic books inspired movies. Although the comic book itself is also quite abstract, the movie was done very well and pulled it off in the end. The visuals are good, the story is good, all in all this is a solid movie and is number 10 in 2009

9. Avatar

No movie list is complete without this movie for 2009. The visuals are exceptional and the entire feel of the movie is fantastic. I wasn’t quite impressed with the story as it followed a very similar story line as compared to a lot of movies. It does make up for the lack of a good story by blowing you away in the visuals.

8. Moon

Sam Rockwell is one of my favourite actors and he’s done amazingly in this movie. It’s an amazing movie about life in the future and how corporate interests can exploit people. It’s also a treat to see how loneliness can envelope a person isolated from everyone else in the world.

7. The Informant

Hilarious! I didn’t know the story of Mark Whitaker but found this movie to be really funny, more so that this is based on a true story. This is definitely one of the best comedies of the year.

6. District 9

Aliens living in a slum in Johannesburg, South Africa? Man! This movie was so different from all Sci fi movies out there. Don’t know much about the actors but they’ve done amazingly. I loved the way they showed the movie like a documentary but not quite a full documentary. The visual effects blend in with reality seamlessly and you never even think once about them. Complete contrast to Avatar where everything looks beautiful but you know in the back of your mind that this is not real…you don’t think like this in District 9.

5. Inglorious Basterds

This is probably one of the only World War 2 movies where you don’t know what is going to happen at the end. It’s quite violent but also really funny at the same time. The actors have done amazingly in the movie, especially Christopher Waltz and Brad Pitt. Simple yet brutal and one of the best of 2009.

4. Up

Pixar never fails to impress me. They come up with the best animated movies year after year. The most impressive part is that there are so many studios trying to make animated movies these days but Pixar movies still hold their own and will do so in the future. This movie is simple but also complex at the same time. Fantastic movie and definitely an outside chance for the big prize at the Oscars

3. Up in the Air

George Clooney shows us that in addition to being a heart throb, he can also act. Again, a very simple story line but has hidden implications and lessons for everyone. Loved the story, loved the acting, and loved everything about the movie.

2. The Hurt Locker

This was definitely out of the blue. I had no idea I was going to watch a movie this good. The life of a bomb disposal unit in present day Iraq can be a little hazardous. I loved the way this started with the words ‘War is a drug’. All known actors die very soon in the movie and it’s the unknown stars that carry it forward and how well they do so. Definitely a big favourite in my book for the big prize this year!

1. Star Trek

Being a true and hopeless Trekkie, I could not get past Star Trek. This movie, in my opinion has just kick started the Trek franchise. The actors are all young and story line is just fantastic. Whatever J.J Abrams touches turns into gold these days and this is no exception. The movie never lets go of the momentum and is just a no holds barred rollercoaster ride. I cannot wait for the sequel!!