Little decisions can save you your life….

All,

As you all know I was planning on going to Mumbai today, and I had my reservations at the Oberoi hotel, which I heard is a bare nice hotel so got my friend Mr Bilal Anwar (the supposed masterminder of the underworld) to book it for me, however I get loads of txts all night asking if im ok there was some shooting in Mumbai and im like yeh of course I am im in Goa firstly and secondly if theres a shooting whats the chances I would get hit in a city of like 15 million.

Turns out it could be quite likely I would have got hit, as my hotel was overtaken by the attackers, and now there holding some hostages and stuff, man firstly I don’t know what to do, supposedly my flight to Mumbai is still cool, but noone is answering the from the hotel and I don’t know if I should still go to Mumbai and stay at say the Hyatt there or my friend Angali who is the one who called me this morning to tell me my hotel was overtaken has kindly offered to let me and my mum stay with her and her family which is in the suberbs of Mumbai. I feel bad for imposing so maybe just stay in Goa after all I have loved it a lot, I don’t know though I don’t like usually being deterred from visiting somewhere because of such reasons…

Im feeling really blessed right now, as I only decided to stay an extra night in goa as the Golden triangle was so tiring and we liked Goa so it made sense, but Thank God, we did, because I don’t know how it would have been last night in the hotel, I can imagine it being really scarry but kinda enthralling not in a sadistic way but like I don’t know just its quite intriguing as its like everyon is watching the news and watching whats going on so to be there would be like woah…

Aneway I got to go sort out our next steps and inshallah will sort out my next steps and will let you all know for sure :P

Take care

Stormy

Wheres the line for Metrosexuality????

Hey,

Well I’m in beautiful Goa right now and man its amazing. It helps that im staying at the park hyatt but just driving around the state of Goa is unbelievable. I cant believe its part of India as it feels so free and hippyfied. I went to this flea market today that jus so happens to happen once a week on Wednesdays so I was kinda lucky to be honest but me and my mum both loved it, it was mainly full of tourists and a lot of them kinda hippy ones and it brought back uni days for me and probably the 70’s back for my mother.

Anyway about the subject of my blog, the whole metrosexual thing I believe I have spoken about it in the past where I am a self-confessed metrosexual. However even I may have gone past the line this time, ok well as you know I been getting massages in every city I travel to or at least try to, and I had 4 now in total in India. This time I thought I would splurge as its such a nice place and my mum was getting a facial so I went for some like super-duper 3-4hr session that would make me feel younger and more regunative (this desire may have come about after my much publicized ‘Quarter Life Crisis moment’) anyway so I decided to spend A LOT of money on this treatment, so like I go in and its supposed to be male on male and female on female but there was some sort of mix up lucky me I know ur thinking and it kinda was lol! So I get this pretty fit Nepali girl who tells me to go with her, and Im not used to Nepali girls, I mean theres thousands of guys in Doha that are Nepali but girls not one I met, so chit chat was a little awkward I couldn’t really start off with ohh my houseboy or security guy in my building is Nepali as I felt that was a slightly demeaning way to start a conversation, I mean think about it the only other person u know from that country is basically a servant I don’t know to…but to me its kinda rude or midly offensive.

Anyway she started off with telling me to put my feet in some hot water and then she cleansed them, and then massaged them, at this point I was kinda feelings like Eddie Murphy in ‘Coming to America’ lol anyway I wont go into the details too much but basically I got like a scrub a wrap, a massage and then a facial and there was a fruit platter at some point in the middle of all that and a shower but man it was awesome and what was quite cool is 2 became 1 as I got another girl to come in and do the facial part, who also happened to be a quite attractive nepali girl as there were no other guys available….lol so aneway the experience really was something and I don’t usually go for the whole shebang but I think from now on I will, most guys will testify that they don’t give a shit about their skin or at least their body skin maybe their face they will clean but the rest nah, and I was the same but I started to realize how its good, and I even kinda managed to find an Islamic releation though I don’t think Islam will approve about a woman doing it or maybe spending so much but noones perfect, oh and the Islamic releation is that we should all take care of our appearance and try to look good and clean as it will represent Islam and will show your taking care of Allahs creation.

So next im off to Mumbai or Bombay if ur hip yaaaar tomorrow and I will miss Goa I wont really miss any other place but Goa I love and will want to come back again for sure…

Anyway take care and inshallah will write from Bombay yaaaar!

Stormy

The Pink Effect...

Hey,

So im writing this from jaipur, it is a pretty shitty city in terms of i think a place to live but its got alot of offer in terms of culutre and its beauty. The reason i think its a shit place to live, i havent seen much stuff for people to do, like cafes and nice reasaurants the whole place baring the tourist areas seems like a proper dive!

Anyway about the tourist stuff, well its really nice, theres this palace on the water that is amazing, ill be inshallah putting pics on facebook so u can c, and the pink buildings are cool cuz its so different and a really nice contrast to the city, as i said its a bit of a shit hole otherwise so having these nice pink buildings and random bits of grand and beautiful architecture is really nice.

The last post i wrote about Akbar in my title but never went into it, well Akbar used to be one of the mogul emperors of india, and he set up base between agra and jaipur i believe in a place called fattipur sakri or something liek that, aneway its again a pretty cool place, and im reading a book right now kinda to do with Akbar, called The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie, and its a pretty cool book and since im traveling around the moggul ends i kinda can relate to some of the descriptions in the book about the places which is pretty cool as wel. I will try to review the book once im done but i only jus started abouta fifth thru the book so its unfair to judge so far but im enjoying it.

Anyway tomorw im off to Goa, which should be intresting with my mum, but i doubt its like Ibiza or Sharm el Sheikh or at least i hope not, though i not been to Sharm, if it attracts people like Bilal Anwar then you got to be sceptical of places like that.

I found a shisha place right next to the hotel that this girl in the hotel told me about man its a sick place, its on this roof top of some office building and is so nice as u look over Jaipur and theres not many tall buildings in jaipur so u can see the stars and the whole city pretty well , and i was having Paan flavoured shisha which i only ever heard of in india i dont think u can get it anywhere else but its some serious smokking material!

I spent almost the last month with my mum which i have touched on before is quite unusual for myself as i dont tend to spend much time with my parents or family that much apart from fleeting visits every few months so its been pretty weird but kinda cool as i hope it has given my mum kinda hope that i aint that bad a son as she might have thought i was or used to be lol! Some people are really close to their family and its really nice while others are quite distant which is also ok if ur happy with it but i know some people who are distant because they think its cool or something which i think is pretty gay, as ur family or at least ur parents brought u up and did all they could for u to be the person you are, yeh fine they would have made mistakes but were human and im sure ill make mistakes with my kids and inshallah they will learn to forgive me for them, but in the end the love the family has for u cant be matched, thats not to say you should do as everything your parents say no not at all, as i have said there only humans and they can make wrong decisions that u maybe shouldnt follow but know that the decisions they make for you have ur best intrests at heart...

I guess what u know im getting at is what happened earlier in the year with me, it took me time to accept what happend and i dont know if i completely have yet to be honest, because it was kinda out of my hands but life moves on and inshallah i have to move with it, and i have no resentment towards my parents or family as all they wanted was the best for me...

When people ask me what i want in my future wife, i always reply that i want someone hot well when i go traveling i always see hot girls so they cant be a prerequireste to marriage or least my only condition i obviously do have others but ill go into them another time...aneway off to bed and prepare for Goa! inshallah will write again soon

take care

Stormy

Akbars ends and the drive to Jaipur!

Hey all,

Im writing this from country inns hotel or soemthing which in the centre of jaipur, jaipur from what i seen so far is a bit of a shit hole, though has some western shops and stuff it seems it was all built TIME ago and this is one of the few decent hotels i seen in the whole place but still the delhi hotel smacked it out of all of them!

Ok so in each city im staying im getting a massage in the hotel, and the one in delhi is winning so far, you know when people say you got knots in you back due to stress well i actually had them, i dont think i ever had them before in my life, anyway the massuese got rid of most of them i think but india is really stresseful with the constant badgering (it doesnt help that im gonig to all the tourist sites i know but still! ) aneway i could have met my friends father in Delhi but it was getting late and by the time she got back to me with his details it was a choice between him and a tibetan 24year old and unfortuntly the tibetan won....anyway the one i had in Agra was really bad and just a bad experience, lets hop jaipur will be better!!

aneway i best go will write more soon inshallah

take care


Stormy

Awesome Agra 4th Wonder of the World DONE!

Hey guys,

Well im writing from the hotel called Jaypee Palace Hotel in Agra, which is a pretty old school hotel but you can tell used to be BARE nice like 10-15 years ago and now is trying to be nice in an antiquey kinda way!

Anyway today was the main reason i came to India, to see the Taj Mahal, and it was really beautiful, i mean you hear it alot and when you see it in pics you have like ohhh thats nice, but when you see it in its majesty, its massive, beautifully planned out and for me because of the Islamic influence can releate to it more so than the other wonders of the world that I have seen. Also because of the history that surounds the Taj Mahal (for those that dont know wikipedia it, but essential the king built it for his deadwife in her honour and to hold her body ) so obviously has all of us metrosexuals already instrested because of the love surrounding the building but i think even the most macho guy would appreciate what went into the building. The guide was saying back then it cost 4 billion rupes and rupes back then were BUCKS so you can imagine just how much he wasted well wasted is the wrong word but spent.

Im sure now the indian goverment is making like 4 billion ruppes every 10 years probably off it in some way or another so hes given back to his country. Anyway Agra is much more touristy than Delhi however its also alot more rural and you see alot more animals in the streets and more street people, its weird because i would have thought as so many people come here they would try to hide the poverty but they havent really done so, which is a good thing as it elevates the situation to the outside world. Tomorrow i was told the turkish primem minster is coming to see the Taj, the architect for the Taj was from turkey and has alot of turkish and persian influences so im sure that will be raised, but the reason i was mentioning it was when you get world leaders coming im surprised as most countries try to hide their poverty from other countries India acknoledges it. Lets hope inshallah over time though that the wealth in this country will be better distributed.

Anyway tomorrow im off to jaipur, so inshallah will write from there! take care

Stormy

Delhi delights

Hey hey,

Im in the indian capital and man was it crazy when we landed we had no clue me nor my mum what was going on, but man were stayingin a sick hotel thats costing me bucks to write this!lol so ill have to keep it short and sweet as i restart my blog, well the weather is really shit here! its really cloudy and had no clue when we were going to land as the pilot felt it was too foogy to land and he was right because when he eventually did it was on the shittest landings i had in my life! Me and mum though were ok as we were not mixing it with the rif-raf as i booked buisness class as its the first hols properly me and my mum had in time, so thought i would try at least to treat her.

The driving is the same as the uk ways and the same standard as Bangladesh ie a complete mess though you can turn the country has money you can also say its got some serious issues it needs to deal with first and thats just after being int he country for an hour!

Anyway i best go but inshallah will write more on the host city for the commenwealth games of 2010 and tomorrow im off for the main reason of my visit the 4th wonder in my list the Taj Mahal! come on! and i got alot of stuff that has happened over the past few months since my last entries so will inshallah be updating on that front as well!

aneway i really best go cuz it is costing me BARE! lol

aneway take care and inshallah you will here from me soon.

Stormy

Can you be selfish and selfless at the same time?

Sometimes life with throw up opportunities or rather situations at you where you have to make a decision where you think the solution that is the best for you and sometimes what’s the best solution for someone else. The next paragraph doesn’t make sense as I cant go into it but im trying to process the thoughts in my head and so just writing down for myself.



Well I had such a situation where I really wanted to act in such a way but I know only I would profit, and I acted in such a way however it opened a can of worms and then I was forced to make a series of selfless choices however they have come across as selfless and I just messed a hell of a lot of things up! I’m still involved in the situation and so I’m not able to review in hindsight which is slightly unfortunate as I could really do with being at the end of my current predicament.



I don’t understand how life can be so balanced, I mean the pains and aches of love, and yet those bad feelings are compensated by the feelings of love and hope, and I speak to people and the number of people who understand what I am going through astounds me. Its like everyone has this feeling of equilibrium that exists in life, where you feel good in one aspect of ur time or time in ur life u felt crap in an equal measure on the other. Well now im feeling the negative side, and no matter what I do I cant get out of it, I try to do good actions for others hoping that somehow I would get like ‘karma’ back or ‘reward’ but I end up messing things up.



People are telling me u know its good that ur single and I was like yeh its awesome when I first became single, but then the freedom dies and you want that love and compassion that u used to have and you realize single life sucks so bad and the people who say that are either in shitty relationships or jus manwhores or whores because they enjoy the promiscuity of being single. However those that are in loving and caring relationships will tell you otherwise and that’s what I want.



For some people relationships, love etc are all overspoken and over-priortised but I don’t understand those people, because for me it’s the most important thing, human interaction after spiritual interaction is the most important thing in this life, and that’s why to love is the most important feeling, the love you have your neighbour, friend, brother, wife, is a feeling that cannot be surpassed, im trying to ground myself as some days im super happy and some days im super sad but inshallah in time the my mood at least on the negative side will simmer!



Aneway I know this has just been a random rant and very incoherent but it was important for me to write it.



Thanks



Asif

Around the world in 18 months!

I have starting writing a post then just scrapped it a number of times over the last few weeks, I guess it’s a reflection of my feelings where I feel something then I try to rid myself of that feeling, then I feel something different or the same feeling again, im going through something I never been through before. I have broken up with a partner before, and I haven’t just broken up with someone or anything, but the girl I was thinking of marrying could be and inshallah will marry someone else. The reason for my choice of word inshallah, is that I want her to be happy and with Gods will see will be.



Its often said that if you truly love something then you will want the best for that person even if that persons future lies away from you, I used to think bollocks that’s only in fairly tales, and I still do as its so freaking hard to have such a self-less feeling, its so natural to look out for yourself and want the best for yourself, but you need to fight that urge and that desire and try to do what is better for everyone including the person you care for. I know in my heart how I feel and that’s all that should matter, someone once told me that to love and not be loved back (like a unrelenqeshed love) is like being a Shaheed (a term which has become quite famous in the west for what suicide bombers wish to be ie a martyr for God) and it really does hurt but to know that God understands the pain makes it a lot better, after all for me Islam is a way of life, and its just like go to mosque and pray then forget about it, it affects all aspects of my life and for the kinda guy I am even more so in the love and matters of the heart!



During the last few weeks I have had a lot going on in my life, I had my GMAT exam, where I got a score of 560 which isn’t the best, and I surprisingly f’ed up in the maths part, where I got like 38% ! I know ! for those who know me well, will know maths has always kinda been my strong side so to f’up in it, was shocking and the thing was during the test I knew I was f’ing up and I didn’t know what to do, I was jus like no way is this happening! Anyway by some miracle of God, the English part saved me where I got 69% and in the essay part 80% (but that doesn’t go to my score unfortunately) anyway my score is just about enough for Manchester Uni which is the place I want to go to but I still need to do a heft application form, however I think im going to re-do the test and hope inshallah to get a better score for myself and just to make the application state a bit easier.



I also been really busy planning my holidays as I have been making many personal goals in my life, and as such one of them is to see the remaining 7 wonders of the world that I haven’t seen by 1st January 2010! This has resulted in a hectic travel plan over the next 18 months, I will in addition to the 7 wonders aim to hit 30 cities in the world that I want to see, so far from now til 1st January 2009 I have planned, Madrid, Barcelona, Ibiza, Cairo, New York, Washington, Philidelphia, Boston, Mumbai, Agra, Jaipur, Delhi, Tehran and Kuala Lumpa. However this list includes cities I been to before, but I loved so wanted to re-visit, and it only includes 2 cities (Agra and Cairo) which has the wonders of the world, therefore along with the Great Wall and Petra I would have done all of the wonders that are in the eastern side of the world. The remaining 3 all in central and south America will inshallah be visited next year as I plan 2 trips, one trip to south America, and one trip to central America and west cost USA. I also want to visit Austraila at some point as well as new Zealand, however im thinking of possibly doing that as part of a honeymoon thing, or maybe I should go Africa for a honeymoon thing, I don’t know however I made this as one of my targets over the next few months to organize and inshallah plan to visit the 30 cities and see the 7 wonders by 2010!



Aneway I best go and get on with my life until next time!



Take care

A few of my gripes with the world....

All,

Due to a really good reception ive had with my blog, i have decided to continue it even if my posts will be sporadic..

So im back in sunny Doha after my holiday and i feel really refreshed. Its weird as I get so many holidays with my job, yet i havent really been on a proper holiday for 2 years since my China travels, its because i been going back to the UK every opportunity i get. Well since things changed in my life it has allowed me to explore of Gods green earth and i am loving it.

I had such an amazing time away, and i have uploaded what i thought were the best 300 or so photos out of like 2000 pictures onto facebook so check them out. I tried to capture the feel of the cities i was in, and the feel of the cities is rarely in the scenery but the people of the country that is why so many of my pictures have random people in!

A couple of things have been bothering me so much, earlier today at work, this guy who will remain anonymous takes his job SUPER seriously, which im sure on paper all companies will love, but when in reality you see the impact people like that have on other people in the company then that desire and commitment will be seen s a detriment as they push people away and don't work in an effective manner, this guy is picking on this woman who is like one of the kindest and gentlist people in the office to the brink of tears, seeing a middle aged women crying due to some punk 30 something year old guys bullying is discussing and you cant get involved because its work related and will look even worse for her, but i just hate bullying and people who take their job super serious, as i always say you work to live and not live to work.

The other thing that has been bothering me was brought up by another friend and fellow blogger who said how he left facebook because of the things he saw on that regarding his friends and that he felt let down by it, and i thought it was nonsense and that you shouldn't be so judgemental and that if people are doing stuff you don't like or don't approve on facebook then you should try speaking to them rather than turning a blind eye, however i have recently been in that situation of where i saw some stuff on someone i had alot of respect for and was shocked to find some information on someone and was quite upset or more let down by that person and not sure what to say to be honest, i havent brought it up as i don't know how to or even if its my place to bring up, but its such a bad feeling having that where your disappointed in someone and im trying not to judge and there could be numerous explanations behind things, so its best not to but its a natural human emotion that is very hard to devoid from....

Anyway other updates in my life, well alot of my friends have recently left Doha, and so I am back to the situation of where i have some random friends like from this part of my life or that but no core- nucleus like i used, however it means i can spend some more time with myself, like reading and updating stuff on my files and photos and little things that i actually love doing, so in a way i am happy, and plus i have exams coming up for my mba so i gota start nailing the work! I been reading up on like if you dont do well what happens, and that will universitys know and they do so its shit me up even more, however inshallah my revision is going well so I wont mess up!
I read this thing the other day that was quite funny and quite true, well it says how like people say its cool to travel on your own and you find yourself etc etc and im one of those people that says all that, well they go its bull, and that really your just sitting in your hotel room wondering which mate to ring back home and txt and stuff, and its so true in my case, well its not really friend but its more like a partner but when you dont have one of them then it becomes a friend lol! The best kinda traveling i think is as a couple, because you get to share the memorable moments together and you also hopefully have similar intrests and so get to see everything you want which isnt always the case with mates!

aneway i best leave now, however inshallah ill write again soon!

Asif

Part 2 of the Homelands adventure...

Ok well I prayed my Friday prayer and took about a gazillion photos which i probably will upload onto facebook.
Anyway after finishing the prayer and taking the photos i tried to find my driver, and with the help of people speaking to my driver I was able to find him, he then took me to the mount of the olives, which wasn’t anything great however the views from the top were breathtaking, where you got to see the whole city, and she the old city walls and the religious sites and tombs it was just amazing!

Then we went to the west bank and drove pretty much straight through security which i thought was a bit odd but then i realised the secuitry didn’t care who goes into the west bank just who comes from it, and its sad as their is no protection. This one guy from Bethleham was telling me that if an Isreali arab had him in his car in occupied Palestine, the isreali arab would get 6 months in prision, a fine and license taking away, he goes its worse to have a Palestine in your car than drugs, and that hit home. Then i saw the much publicised ‘Wall’ and it brought tears almost to my eyes, the messages people wrote saying like ‘you stood by while they built this’ and ‘is anyone watching what is happing’things along these lines, its so heartbraking, people often say its a prison but until you go and see you don’t realise how much, i mean some of the areas look fairly vibrant in the west bank like Bethleham but you go near the boarders and the outskirts and you see exactly what is going on, and the west bank is supposed to be semi-allied with Isreal so to imagine how bad it is in Gaza isn’t even worth mentioning. You feel so helpless and thats probably the worst feeling, it has to offer so much, you have Nazerth and Bethleham truly important sites for Islam and Cristianty and you have other areas where if opened up would be hiving with activity like Rumallah and Hebron but they don’t have that opportunity...

Then when we were leaving the west bank, we went through the security checkpoints and it was so weird seeing the solderis, you have these really young girls who look like proper jewish princess (those from Manchester will know what type im taking about) and they have these massive Guns and security vests, but then when you speak to them you get so infuriated because their just as ‘blonde’ she goes to me wheres ur visa, i go it was on a paper but they took it at the crossing, and she was like why was it on paper (its common for people to get Isreali stamps on a piece of paper as otherwise you wont be able to visit many Muslim countries with an isreali stamp) and all the security personal know the reasons why people ask for a stamp on a paper but their just being difficult. Anyway she then goes does Qatar not like isreal, whyyyy? And i go no they like but then i blagged i had to go to Saudi as well thinking thats obvious, and she goes does Saudi not like Isreal but whyyyy? And i thought u dumb b!tch i very rarely use such words but this was just a joke, and go no they don’t like and i don’t know why and she was like oh, at the end, then her general guy comes and he obviously knew and just said ok.. but its astonishing

Then i went back to my hotel which wasn’t the greatest espec for a supposed 4 star Golden Tulip hotel, its very good for those like me who just came to pray at Al Aqsa as its about a 10 mins walk and so in that sense is a perfect but in any other situation it is a joke! I had to go back anwway as my camera battery died,(like i said a gazillion photos!)
Aneway my plane has been called for Doha so will write the rest back in Doha inshallah...

ASif