This morning was a little sloggy for me as I had slept late last night. All was as per daily routine. I left for work early and today unknowingly, I started for office immediately after turning the engine-on. I had no idea what was in store for me ahead.

So, here I was heading towards 40th St. to go to my office. I was waiting for my turn to head on to the road from the side road. I started hearing screams of a cat or a kitten (I didn’t know what it was until then). By the time I reached the next signal, the cries became stronger and consistent (as I assume the engine was getting warmer by the second).

So, I pulled up at the nearest spot after the crossing and decided to check out on a hunch that a cat’s caught in my car.

And, true to the hunch, I found a kitten crouched on top of the engine (covered by insulation). I was dumbfounded at first. I must admit.

After recovering my consciousness, the immediate thought generated by my brain was to pickup the kitten and set it on the ground near by and go on to office like nothing happened. Acting on this impulse, I tried to grab the kitty and was scratched in the process when li’l kitty did not agree with my plans at all! Instead, it just gave me the scratch and jumped inside the engine, settling in some unseen corner and crying again.

I immediately looked around for someone to help me in dealing with this situation but couldn’t find anyone. No animal rescuers here in Saudi Arabia yet! So, the next best option available to me was to somehow drive back to the nearest service station/workshop or go back home and get the security guard at the building to help me out. So, I drove back. Very, very slowly… Mindful of the fact that the kitty was screaming and the engine would get hotter as the minutes flew by.

It took me about half an hour to reach back home, which would normally take just over 5 minutes give or take some.

After reaching home, things started happening pretty fast. The guard (called Haaris here in arabic), promptly came to the car and began devising ways to pull the kitty out of the hiding place. And soon enough, he managed to bring it out.

And, the ordeal for the kitty was finally over (and don’t forget me too!). We, then, dropped the kitten at a far off garbage dump.

Then, I dropped the guard at home and went off to the office.

Take a look at the pictures of the kitten being rescued at my photo blog…

Well, it seems these are difficult times upon us. What with the bloodbath on wallstreet creating ripples all over the world! I mean no one expected companies like Lehman Brothers and Merill Lynch to close their shutters. While AIG was lucky enough to get a federal bailout package, the other companies didn’t exactly find a savior anywhere.

And the wondrous thing is that all this happened while I was away… from my blog. Heaven know what’s up next. Dollar is getting stronger, Indian Rupee has reached new lows (lowest level in 2 years) and oil seems to be going down but is not yet out!

Hurrican Ike has struck but didn’t cause as much damage as was being speculated. Ah… Speculation. That is a small word that explains a lot of things this world has suffered ever since the start of this year. If you do not suffer from STML (short-term memory loss, for the uninformed) then you might be able to recall that it was this speculation on wall street (a sentiment that was mirrored elsewhere) that caused the rise in oil prices to record highs of US$ 147 (the prices have since come down to the US$ 90 range).

I mean I couldn’t believe myself when I heard that gold (yes, the yellowie metal) was touching new highs and had almost doubled as well owing to a weak dollar at a time when I was planning to stock on it for my wedding. Of course, gold prices have also dropped ever since.

Maybe things are getting back to normal. Slowly, I guess, but surely. But then, maybe this is the beginning of a recession which may stay for a year or so. I really don’t know.

It’s time to save that extra dollar and put it away for the forthcoming rainy day. Though, To Almighty God, I pray to keep that rainy day… away, away, away.

786

What does this number denote to you? Well, for us Indians, this is a number considered to be an auspicious and lucky one.

Now, before you come to any conclusions, I would like to give you a brief idea of where this number came from. This number is in fact a numerical calculation of the following line:

“Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Rahim” which means: “In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful”

It is actually with this line that muslims in India have derived this number: 786.

In our great nation, you will find not just the muslims but also people from other religions who respect, use and actually benefit from this very number: 786.

Cars, bikes, trucks and Holy God! if a house is numbered with just 786 or ending with it, it is worth a lot of money.

It is a blessing for us. So from now on, remember if you see any Indian acting respectfully or vying with one another to get something with this number on it, you know where you read about it.

Today, i am feeling really tired and lethargic. Not from today, but since yesterday evening. Although, I had a light allergy-cum-cold like condition, I was going about my work as usual (albeit with a little less energy). Now, since yesterday, the effect of the cold-allergy has started to pull me down. Even while I went for my daily jog in the evening yesterday, I could hardly complete rounds without feeling totally exhausted. I did cut short my jogging session due to this.

Today is a little worse than yesterday. I woke up feeling knocked out. I couldn’t even keep my eyes open properly. I did go to work but couldn’t really do anything there. I tried, though. But, then I also couldn’t get in touch with my fiancee which resulted in me infuriating her!

Now, as the day bids goodbye, I have a lot of things to take care of. My jogging schedule is out of the question. I called and tried to pacify my fiancee (and finally succeeded) and then tried talking with my father.

Now, I am trying to find a way to fight the cold that is bogging me down. See you tomorrow.

In the past couple of months since I returned from India, I have been bored. Bored, bored and bored. That’s all I have been doing all this while. Work is different. I know that it should keep me occupied but it does not. I tried to keep myself occupied but without any luck.

I had been preparing hard to get married possibly by the end of this year, but that is hardly a possibility now that my Mother-In-Law is purposely delaying the marriage without saying so.

On the professional front, my demand for a car is still in the bureaucratic process of getting through. If you have no idea what that means, you are not alone. I have applied for a car from the company for more than a month now and I haven’t heard from the high-ups yet. So, it’s still wait & wait more for me.

On the personal front, I have been busy with my daily routine of going home from office taking a little rest and then head off to jogging. Apart from that I haven’t been able to go to malls or hyper markets just because everything is far off and the nearest I get to a bus is about 2 kms from my home.

So, I stay at home. And, I get bored too. Wonder what happens next?

Like Aamir Khan is saying for Samsung: Next is What?

Well, I have finally managed to change the sponsorship of my work visa over to my new employer, Mirnah Technology Systems from my previous company (which I am not going to name here) and have received my resident permit today.

It’s been a really tiring process which I passed off by being patient in my approach. It was really exhausting for me but Alhamdolillah (Thanks to Allah), I have done it.

I thank my well wishers for their great support in this time. I am looking forward to my vacation and marriage later this year.

Finally, things are coming back together. So what even if they are coming in steps. It’s a great headache when you see things coming on like this with a website and blog that has grown bigger than I ever expected it to be!

I am happy that I took the decision to move to GoDaddy.com. They are giving me more options than my last host. I can atleast ensure that my blog and website do not go down again.

I hope you people will come back as the things are coming back into place. You can expect more now than ever before due to the increased things I’ve got on my mind!

I expect to give you more in the days to come.

My blog was down due to a memory allocation error that was being generated from my ISP’s meagre allocation of 8MB to all the accounts. I tried to fix it the same day that I came to know about it but was unable to do so!

Anyway, when I failed to get anything out, I went to GoDaddy.com and took up a hosting account with them. Interestingly another incident found its place in my diary of wacky happenings.

I took a Linux hosting package for an year and then went on to pay by my credit card. When I was in the process of paying them while my payment was being processed that is, my DSL went down. I thought the transaction was not completed so I went ahead and purchased the same product (of hosting) another time. This time when I clicked on ‘process payment’ for my credit card, it went through successfully and then I was taken to the products that I had with me on my account (apart from the domains I have at their place), I saw I had two hosting packages.

But wait. I purchased only one package? Or two? Actually the first transaction had gone through and I didn’t see a confirmation page as the connection was lost before I could see it.

So, I applied for a refund by cancelling the product from my account. When I got a reply from their customer care executive, I was a little surprised. I had written to them with the reason for buying by pure accident the same product two times. The executive’s reply was that he had applied for a refund on my behalf and that it was not confirmed if I would get refund or not. this was at the sole discretion if the Sales/Purchase team or whatever.
Anyway, after much hassle, they did refund me with the payment. It will take them about 5-7 business days to put the money back on my credit card.
Oh woe is me!
Well, my trouble finally seem to be over as I shift my blog (and my whole site) to GoDaddy. It was really tough since I had a big blog (by now) and shifting the mySQL thing to another server was a big headache.
Anyway, life seems to be back on track. In the coming days, the site will be back to it’s full functionality. Inshallah.
Till then Chow!

Now, all of you are probably aware of the fact that Mr. Rajnikant is a god for people down under (not Australia silly… just our very own South of India). Well, here’s a clip, featuring Rajnikant in action, posted on Youtube that the poster claims rapes the laws of physics… Ha ha haa…

It’s quite a good clip. Whatever it does is for you to decide.

Gary Kirsten (visit his profile on Cricinfo) has agreed to coach India. Good news. Well let’s hope he brings more enthusiasm into our team and leads the boys for a good period of time. India is without a coach since Greg Chappell stepped down. Although we do have a bowling coach in Venkatesh Prasad and a fielding coach in Robin Singh, India is still without a coach.

Well, my opinion is that India has improved while they were playing without one! I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but the media is at peace with the current situation (although the situation isn’t that good) where our team’s without a coach and has lost as well as won several matches. This time we didn’t get to hear the usual bashing from the media regarding the team’s performance.

Yes. This is the truth. Gary may be a very good player and turn out to be another Bob Woolmer (read: a great coach) for India (Inshallah), but the truth is that the media has got it’s knives ready. As soon as we land in Australia for the tour, all the media will be focusing on the series since by then India will be with a coach. And if, God Forbid, we loose, then you will see nice headlines in the newspapers telling you that it was all Gary’s fault.

As for the bowling coach and the fielding coach, I don’t know what to say. India’s fielding hasn’t been that good as far as I can think of. Bowling has improved but not what you would have expected say from a specialist bowling coach like Prasad.

Let’s hope for the best in the end, I guess. After all that’s what we all have been doing since long. Haven’t we guys and gals?