PurpleHaze-AfterGrass

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A good restaurant is an island

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[purplehaze-aftergrass]

Be afraid of the man who is able to find the right reasons for doing wrong

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Sailing in the river.. That's not me.. You can go either with the flow or against it.. I sail in the ocean.. Sometimes the ocean is calm.. I sail in any direction I like.. Or I leave the helm and just lay there.. Or float with the waves.. Then somtimes there's a storm at the ocean and I control my ship not letting it sink.. When I get tired I leave the helm and hope for the big waves to guide me ashore.. Someday I'll let the water run over me or it'll force me down and engulf me..

[purplehaze-aftergrass]

To feel the grass you have to tread off the road..

[purplehaze-aftergrass]

Social Inequalities

An international social gathering can be a formal seminar, a conference or an informal dinner, a party. During such a gathering, we like to mingle and gossip with people from all countries ranging from East to West, people black or white speaking different languages than us and so on. But, as the time goes on, we realize that in the end we feel comfortable with people who are mostly like us. We feel comfort in each other’s race, cultural background and language once we know that it’s akin to ours. As such, without even noticing, little groups are formed and everyone is happy with it. These groups may be diverse enough as to include different countries even continents, but still there is something (something which should not be there) that holds each one of them together.

As much as we want to buddy up with everyone, knowingly or unknowingly we might have a tiny notion of a stereotypical image of a specific person from a specific race and religion, speaking a specific language. I believe this is what prevents us to socialize with people different than us, in full fervor as was deserved and as we might have wanted. Of course, I’m not implying that this is the only reason or, this is the only outcome of such a gathering as there are so many nondiscriminatory people out there free of all conventions. But, the fact is that it is still an important issue that needs to be addressed.

Now, a person having a lifestyle in agreement to ours is bound to get our attention. In such a case, we feel relaxed with them irrespective of the huge diversities among ourselves, which is great! But such circumstances are not common. Mostly, our lifestyle has a lot to do with the region of the world we live in, our background, our religion, beliefs, and even the language we speak. So the point is, having a similar lifestyle, as much as it should be the basis of mutual contentment between two individuals, it should be not! Because, it is pretty much, a shallow basis of understanding between the two.

All these thoughts bring us to the crux; what is the natural formula that is bound to blind us from all these differences and bring us together in perfect harmony. May be despite of all these differences, if we have coinciding ideologies and share a similar meaning to life and its general outlook, we will for an instant, just forget the person from the outside and try to explore what is hidden inside them. That will surely help us to get rid of the differences we might have felt initially. But, in the end it will also depend a lot on the type of gathering we are in. For example, going into a deep conversation during a formal conference may get us new friends with whom we shared nothing whatsoever previously (like cultural background and language etc.). On the other hand, such a conversation during a random party may just get us labeled eccentric.

Thus, this important subtle issue needs to be given more attention and contemplation from everyone and based on collective studies and agreement we can try to interpret it and find positive working aspects.

[purplehaze-aftergrass]

Hope is not for those who do not believe.. Believe in what their eyes cannot see..

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I wear my own shoes only when I'm alone

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If you can do it.. you should do it! If you can't do it.. you should try to do it!

[purplehaze-aftergrass]

O for a song..

Who doesn't love watching National Geographic Adventure; I mean that TV channel is just remarkable! Once, I was watching this show “Making Tracks” by a Kiwi guy who hangs around the world, discovering music by local people from a randomly chosen place. People who are an emerging/young talent in their respective regions, or may be more! The region was Lebanon this time and specifically Beirut. The Kiwi lad had some guys and girls, including a blind Egyptian Oud player Mustafa Said, a talented Lebanese musician Zeid Hamdan, an Arab rapper RGB and two female Lebanese singers Wings, working together to cover this song “Brother” by a Kiwi band named Smashproof. The result was exquisite! As much as I was enjoying the song being played on the show at the end, I was also getting concerned to get this song as soon as possible.

Thus started a long journey including one almost sleepless night, to acquire this song. I was easily directed by Google to the iTunes link of the song but again I don’t remember the last time I bought music. So that was simply out of question at the moment. I searched and I searched but I could not find it. I just couldn’t find it! Nowhere on the mp3 websites, nowhere in the torrent world, nowhere on the World Wide Web! The duration of this search journey I foretold was not limited to the search for this song only of course. For, I found an interesting website with a lot of info about Lebanese underground music. I downloaded much of the music from these Lebanese guys and girls who made that song. Such talent they have got over there as I loved and still love all that music I downloaded that night. But that's another story!

So coming back to the song and given that I can be a real pain in the butt to myself due to my stubbornness, I was going to get this baby one way or another. I kept looking and on the very same website about Lebanese underground music, I found something interesting. The email address of the main guy, the lead vocalist in the song, Zeid Hamdan! I emailed him about the song half-hearted, as one cannot be sure about the forsaken email addresses and websites not updated. With a joy I saw the bold letters on the top of my inbox when the reply came... very fast! I had nicely introduced myself and told him how much I liked this work by him and his friends. He gave a very encouraging reply which really made me happy. In that reply was also the iTunes link of the song; the very same link I had found without any difficulty. Brother Zeid told me that he recorded the song but he never got the final mastered version. I guess he told me that because I specifically asked for the MP3 file from him. I know but I was desperate. Anyway, I thanked him for replying and I told him how much exciting it was to talk to someone from TV. I even told him that most young people of these present times do not buy music, in response to the iTunes link I was given. He responded by saying how proud he is to be the first artist whose music Saad from Pakistan will buy (talking particularly about iTunes here, as I used to own some physical music stuff all paid for). We bade farewell to one another with the warmest wishes and he seemed like a really nice guy. 

But one thing was sure now! If the guy who made the song didn't have it with him, no one was to have it except the beloved iTunes. So it was an easy decision to get it from iTunes now and abandon the long search cause.

The momentarily joy I had from talking with Zeid was over soon, when I realized the new problems at hand. I did not have an iTunes account or a credit card at that time. I made the iTunes account but I did not have a credit card still. One of my buddies had a credit card but he did not have the iTunes account. I asked for his credit card info to which he honestly refused, because he knows what goes around on the Internet and how if I don’t have some software installed on my computer, can get him bankrupt. Of course I believe him, because he knows and I don’t. So I didn't press the matter, rather had him made an iTunes account for himself. He had the credit card and also the iTunes account now! Quickly I gave him the link and even more quickly he replied that this song is only available on the US iTunes Store. I cursed a lot and he cursed as well and we both cursed Apple for this insolence. Why didn't they have that song available in Pakistani iTunes Store, I will never know. But what I did know at that time was that I had a university junior of mine studying in US on exchange. I thanked my buddy for going through a lot of trouble for me. I even asked him to get me something else from iTunes since he had an account now and I didn't have my song. What he said in reply, which I was expecting beforehand from him didn't disappoint my good guessing skills. It shouldn't be quoted here as well due to its explicitness. It did disappoint me a little though. Not that it was how the way it was, but that I didn't get anything out of him after spending so much of his time and my precious time as well.

Getting back to the business, I messaged my junior on Facebook that how’s everything and came straight to the point. The junior was and is a good friend but I’ll still use the word junior as I can order him and expect him to obey. Such is the case in my undergrad university if you get in even a year before some others. They have to and they do obey the seniors! Happily it happened in my case as well. Sitting thousands of miles away from him, I ordered my junior to make iTunes account with his US address. He abided! I was getting excited by each passing second that the moment will be soon when I’ll have it in my pocket finally. Yet another setback! He couldn't buy the song! For some reason his credit card was not buying that song! I ordered him in strict words this time to give me his credit card and iTunes account info which he gave without a question, and then I tried myself. Lo! He was right! It just wasn't working. Here I was dejected now and ready to forsake all hope, when suddenly junior replied with all his cool that he’ll get one of his American friends to do it. Rhinestone eyes here for me! I told him that how good a lad he is and how lucky I am to have him and all. 

Sigh! Only if he knew what I had been going through to get my hands on the song but he knew not! Everyday I had to realize him about the pain I was going through and everyday he would tell me that this particular day, the American guy will come to his place. The guy did come. Not once, but many a times! And they did meet! But my important concern was not theirs of course as they were stoning each other to death meanwhile, and we all know that nobody cares for such mere matters when grass is being served. I did respect that, but I was getting really tired now. I just wanted my song!

Hence, came a day almost a month after I first listened to it on TV, after going through what I think no man ever did for just a song.. I finally got it! I got the song! The elation was not as much as I expected it to be. Either it was due to the frustration I went through because of it, or due to the fact that my junior labeled it as something not worth all the trouble, because he found the song nothing but mediocre. No son! I don’t care about your opinion was what I thought to myself. I told him that his job was to get me the song which he had done finally and I was really thankful for that. I told him that he’s a good junior.

I took a deep breath. I converted the M4A file to MP3. I listened to the song and learned my lesson to let go sometimes.

[purplehaze-aftergrass]

WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST HUMAN MEMORY?

Trying to get something from the iron stand but couldn't get it 'cause I was too small to reach the top of a regular iron stand.