By the edge of La Manche

On my second day in France, Mag and I left for a roadtrip to Normandy. Starting in this town, Etretat, we snaked our way through the coastal regions while visiting places such as the American Cemetery of World War II, the Canadian Cemetery, a few small towns along the way and returned to Paris a few days later.

Etretat is a picturesque town boasting beautiful shops, a cafe every few steps and a striking coastline surrounded by rolling hills. As my first stop in Normandy, it set me up for a trip filled with beautiful sights and treasures lurking around every corner.

ps: Just in case you are wondering, La Manche is the French term for the English Channel, which seperates England from mainland Europe.

So.. Huzeifah, are you ticklish?

What did I say, lights up like a million light bulbs.

Ok, story time. Huzeifa loves automobiles (especially his dad's motorcycle). To him, they are Boom Boom! Huzeifah, what do do you want to do? Boom Boom! whenever he sees his mother getting ready, putting her burqah on.. its cause for mass aprtment wide celebrations, with Huzeifah running circles (Tawaf) shouting at the top of his lungs.. Boom Boom Boom Boom!!!

Huzeifah had the pleasure of going on Umrah when he was still a small baby, and when he came back everyone started calling him Haji (usually a term for people who have performed Hajj, but in this case an exception was made for a 6 month old baby)... so his name to himself is Haji. Hence, celebrations about Boom Boom! go as thus, " Haji Boom Boom!!! Haji Boom Boom!!"... as in haji's going on a "boom boom".

He's damn cute I tell you. I wanted to kidnap him and put him on the BIG Boom Boom at the airport (which would knock his socks off) and bring him to Qatar with me. But we're too much alike you know, it would have never worked. Sigh.

HAJI BOOM BOOM !!!!

Dragonfly

Photoshopped by me. :-)

I wrote about this dragonfly about a month ago, on my other blog:

"On a different note, I saw a dragonfly in our apartment building yesterday; colourful, full of life and prone to resting after buzzing around. I had my camera on me, so I whipped it out - of course, that was when my batteries gave out. I ran into my house, grabbed charged-up batteries and walked out to take some more pics. The dragonfly was not on my floor anymore. I pressed the elevator call button and waited to see if perhaps it had made its way into the elevator, the doors clicked open, nothing. Then, just as the doors slowly closed again, I saw it. Smashed, cleanly on the elevator's tiled floor. It looked like it had been sitting still when someone just decided to stomp on it. People suck sometimes."

Dated Feb 16/2006

Galaxy Bounce -- steppin' up the game.

Many thanx and enuff props to my boi, Eye. He's been pomising me a picture for so long, and yesterday it finally arrived in my email box, inconspicuously wrapped but seriously sickening. I am astounded, this looks awesome. Thank you, Eye!

World War III

Every drop is for sale.
Every drop is scarce.
Everyone needs it,
Everyone will fight for it.

"Cash rules everything around me..
Move!" --- Mos Def

beyond raging waves

Two hours west of Karachi, after passing some polluted and downtrodden areas, you will come across the most serene, the most beautiful strip of coastline you have ever seen. Far from the perfection of Bahamas or Bali, these beaches look like unattended perfection- forming a beautiful and uncharcteristic outline to a country subjugated by its poverty, its noise and its pollution. Far from the hustle and bustle of Pakistan's largest city, you will find yourself on a beach near Hawks Bay, just staring off into the sea, aborbing its calmness which seems a million light years away from anything you have breathed in months.

A few weeks later, your friend Natalie will photoshop the picture for you and you'll wonder if you should print it and have it framed.

Ahhh.. you do love me!!

A BIG Thank You to Anjum for pointing out thats he had left some comments but they had not kshown up here because I had a moderated setting on my comments section. well, that moderation issue is now solved and suffice to say, go crazy.

I've responded to all your comments now, go back and check.

and Thank you.

The young and the old.

Thats my youngest cousin Huzeifah, he's two and a half years old and is the youngest grandson in our family. The older guy, well thats me. I'm 24, and I'm the oldest grandson in the family. I love this child, bright as the stars, he has a face that lights up a million lightbulbs when he smiles. You'll be seeing him again, thats for sure.

Meet Behzad and Zaerdil

This is Behzad. He hails from the Jhelum region of Pakistan and works in Doha as a tandoorwala. Behzad's been at this job for 14 years. It might not seem so from his demeanour, but it is actually 2 am in Doha at this time and Behzad started work less than two hours ago.


A tandoor is a traditional oven from the Middle East and South East Asian regions that serves to cook breador roti. In modern times, it is run by gas, but there was a time when coal or wood lined these extremely hotovens and cooked tandoor ki rotis for hungry passers-by. Behzad starts work this late at night in preparation for his morning customers who leave for work right after Fajr prayers at 5 am. Mostly workers, his customers work far away from the main city and so, take their daily bread with them when they go to work. Behzad told me that he has about four hours of work ahead of him after which he cleans up before going to bed around 8 am.

This is Zaerdil. 34 years old, Zaerdil hails from the Sialkot region and has been in Doha for nine years. He works with Behzad every night too. Together, they work alone at night all night only to sell all their rotis as soon as Fajr ends.

Here Zaerdil kneads pre-prepared into a flat circle before passing it along to Behzad who actually cooks the rotis.

The oven is extremely hot. This camera got a little unsettled for a few minutes when I held it above the oven.In Pakistan, and even here, on hot days of the summer, these men work with their shirts off, the heat is unbearable for those of us not used to it. Imagine a fire equal to about ten elements being turned on at the same time, and being encased inside a stone cave- that is the basic construction of a tandoor.

Behzad takes the dough, flattens it some more, places it on the pillow and then sticks it onto the stone wallof the oven, after a few minutes, he has a piping hot roti come out - crisp or tender depending on how long he cooks it.

You can find tandoors in every major residential area here. Actually, you can smell them from afar. The smell of freshly cooked bread wafts around the neighbourhood and many a times, smells compete for your attention. The most popular and the best tandoors are easily recognised, they gather huge crowds at lunch and dinner not to mention close to dawn too.

These guys work hard for pennies in comparison to what they put in. This is hard work, a normal man at thisjob for the first time would feel too much discomfort to even learn anything much less excel at it. Yet, this is what these men do. They support families back home, working night shifts here.

edges the colour of rust

a self-portrait

House # 37 on on Shara-e-Rumi

Poignant how this door tells as many stories as one line of Rumi's poems.

Snapping footprints along a Parisian side street

Magali and me, walking in Paris on a beautiful evening in October. I miss you girl, and now that I'm gone, I'm sure you miss me taking hundreds of pictures of you in a day. :P

Photoshop work done by my very talented friend, Natalie.

An afternoon walk in Paris

Overlooking the River Siene from one of the many bridges in Paris. (Oct 27, 2005)

beauty in the oddest of places

The red pill leads down here...

"...This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.... Remember, all I'm offering is the truth, nothing more...."
--- Morpheus