Professor Sid

I've been thinking of what to whine about for the past two days... actually there is so much to whine about that i couldn't really decide what is more important. But because i almost bump into a weirdo 'rickshawala' every day i thought why not dedicate my post to them... In the past 3 years one thing I've gathered from my constant interaction with these Rickshawala's is that the more 'bechara' they seem the more 'khabees' they are. I mean you signal down the 'budha baba' thin king he's the right person to travel with because he's old and fragile looking thus he won't bargain much. Also since he's older than your grandfather he's going to be a nice paternal travel mate not to forget he constantly refers to you as 'beta' before you sit in his rickshaw.But right after he drops you the 'budha baba' suddenly becomes the bad man and fights you for his money (btw you've already decided on an amount bef...

I’m not the only one who’s gone thru this phase of feeling sleepy at the office. Late night parties on week days, unwanted – super glued guests at home the previous night, Classic Movie on HBO, and sometimes simply lying awake at night can leave you sleepy the next morning. No matter how many cups of tea or coffee you drain down the eyes want to close (Reminds me of that Tom & Jerry Cartoon). What can one do then? I once googled ‘how to stay awake in the office’ but got no satisfactory result  L . Like I said the tea coffee doesn’t really help, it helps for a moment but as soon as I’m back in front of the monitor the eyes start drooping. Especially if I’m doing some really tedious, one of my more recent innovation in dealing with sleepiness is walking and talking, yeah I know! I go take a walk and then talk with people have lengthy conversations preferably intellectual conversations (though they are really hard to come by). That does to an extend shakes up the brain cells...

Truly, for every Karachite food is the ultimate love, from fancy fine dining restaurants to road side café’s and the unhygienic,  yet on several occasions absolutely delicious food from ‘thelas’ or the Food handcarts; everything is popular! When you go on the internet and search for places to eat, you’ll get a zillion lavish restaurant names that deliver food to you from around the world. So even if you live here in Karachi, you’ll still get; Irani Kebabs, Lebanese Shawarmas, Japanese Sushi, Thai Noodles, Chinese Manchurians, Rajisthani Thalis, and what not! But that’s not what we talk about here today. Today we explore the food that you get for real cheap, and food that’s really yummy and really filling, the only downside is the hygiene. But if you have the guts and a great immune system then there’s nothing to fear just stop you car next to a ‘Thela wala’ and eat all the ‘bun kebab’s’ or ‘gol gappays’ you want. Winter in Karachi brings the desire to have warm and spicy th...

I finally landed in Islamabad, safe! The doors to the aircraft opened and my excitement grew, the temperature outside was low (don’t remember what it was) but lower than what I had left in Karachi, and Karachi was a 24-25. I enjoyed the first touch of cold as I walked down the stairs (yeah our International Airport in Islamabad still doesn’t have chutes). Waited down for a free bus to come pick us up and take us to the main building. The bus ride was fun, it gave me a chance to notice all the people that were traveling. Families returning to their homes, newly married couples heading out to Murree for their honeymoons, business people, etc, all fun to look at an analyze. It took us some good time to collect our luggage. And finally check out of the airport. All the while we waited I was updating my nearies and dearies with sms updates. Messages like ‘I’ve landed!’, ‘it’s not so cold’, ‘and our luggage is here’ ‘we’re getting in the cab’ were being shared with 6 people simultaneousl...

Planning a trip for vacations in secret can be a lot of fun; convinced in the summers of 2012 by my Besties Rabia and Sarah that I should accompany them to Lahore on their official trip to LUMS in December. However, I had doubts about that, for one I wasn’t sure that the office would allow three people to take off together. Anyway with super planning and cunning scheming we planned to make our trips look coincidental rather than planned. The whole plan was that I’d take my annual leave of 15 days, head out to Islamabad spend a week with my cousin and then travel to Lahore with her and join Rabia and Sarah who would come directly to Lahore a week after the start of my holidays. The fun of the trip was when we all had a secret that we were dying to share with everyone and yet we had to keep our faces straight. Rabia and my (true karachites by tolerance) concern during the trip was how are we going to live thru the winters of Islamabad. To brace against that, we decided to go for sh...