The Pursuit of Happiness

Salaams,

Hmmm...what to write about...?

Well nothing significant has happened since my last entry but instead lots of little things...work has been plodding away with reading for the CFA course i'm doing proving to be a vacuum for any free time i have in the evenings and weekend. Alhamdulilla i started taking driving lessons so inshaAllah in a few months i'll have a car to shove in NTI's face (Loser..)...what else...? Oh yeah i've been watching quite a few films recently at the cinema.

I never used to actually go to the cinema much back in the day (i went through a 3 year period where going to the cinema was haraam too...). Plus going to the cinema can actually be quite expensive (easy £10 with snacks thrown in). Anyway, yeah so i've been going pretty much every other week now as there's a large cinmea complex near where i live.

One of the best films i recently saw was "Apocalypto" by Mel Gibson..i think most people have heard about it, but if you haven't it's about life of some Mayan people in the South American forests in the 15th century i think and how the fall of a civilisation comes from the diseases from within that civilisation. It's a bit dodge tho, and i deffinately wouldn't advise any females to watch it (quite a lot of male nudity..)

Another film which sticks in my mind is "The Pursuit of Happiness" with Will Smith in it. Will Smith is Amazing in it (as is his cute son in the film who happens to be his son in real life too) and i remember experiency this kind of hypnotic feeling of "escapism" whilst watching this film...like you have no idea where you are, what day,week, month or year it is, but you're just stuck in this room watching this movie...i suppose i'm buying into all that Hollywood drivel they sell us..lol. Anyway the film was pretty good in terms of acting but the premise of the film i thought was ridiculous; a poor homeless man who wants to be "happy" and so decides having lots of money will get him this and sets out to become a stockbroker...i mean firstly what kind of message does this send out? well a false message for starters, but i think you get what i mean about equating money with happiness. Plus other things like when Will Smith says he always wants to be there for his son because his father was never there for him...so by becoming a stockbroker and working 70hour weeks he's going to do this...? whaaaaat...?!

Pants. Some interesting things were thrown up in the film..like how in the Maerican it says something like "every man has the right to pursue his happiness"...or summat like that. It's interesting as it throws up the wholw question of purpose of life etc which from an Islamic perspective i think is still difficult to answer. I mean should we even be seeking "happiness" in this life for starters...? How can we be "happy" with all the events that go on in the world...? What does it mean to be "happy"...?

'tis too late at night for me to be thinking about these things...


Salaam.
Ps, NTI (loser) you ain't getting no drive in any car of mine.

Another Reunion

Salaam,

From 3 weeks ago (sorry it's all a bit dis-jointed..):

So this weekend was another reunion. I took Friday off and at 6 am was trundling off to Heathrow airport to pick up a friend who was flying in from the US to visit. Alhamdulilla I had met him in Qasid in Jordan where we spent a term studying together and we got on pretty well with each other. Anyway he was on his way to India for his brothers wedding so decided to stop over in the UK for two days before flying on..i kept telling him me and the other ex-Qasid guys he was coming to visit weren't worth the effort, but he insisted.

I got to the airport quite early but then found out it would be at least 45 mins before he would complete finding his bag, going through immigration etc so I was faced with a lengthy wait. Anyway as I sat near the arrivals area I ended up with quite a sight with lots of people waiting for their loved ones...a wife greeting her husband, a mother greeting her child, a son greeting his father and this scene repeated over and over again and it was quite interesting just to witness this site and to think about the stories behind each group of people's separation...one set of Indian kids who had obviously been studying abroad as they were still wearing their uniform...another man who must have been a businessman coming back to his family...and so on....Also it was interesting to see how different people greet each other with the Malaysians being the most "unique" - from my observations it seemed that they kiss anyone older than them on the hand (Sufi style..) and kiss on the forehead anyone younger than them..interesting how different people and cultures express the same emotion.

It was also pretty cool just looking at the behaviour of people and how it changes with other factors..for example looking at the travellers arriving, then approaching the meeting point with their heads frantically darting left and right with excitement, trying to see where their loved ones are and as they continue to do this but can't locate them, second by second they seem to get increasingly concerned with this showing on their face..."have they not come?" "are they delayed?" etc etc....and then that moment....buddoooom....when they see their wife/husband/child/family and then they are reunited....human behaviour and the oddities of it is a bit of an interest of mine, as you might be able to tell....lol

Anyway when he arrived I took him back to the flat and he rested for a few hours before going to Regents Park Mosque for Jum'ah and then to Edgeware road for some lunch. On the Fri we ended up going to the Millennium eye at night which was quite cool with all of London lit up and then I took him to Harrods and showed him around there and that area. Given that he had been to London already I thought there would be no point in going to all the classic tourist sites again, so instead I ended up taking him and another Qasid-er who cam down from Dewsbury to Cambridge on Sunday. I had not been back to Cambridge in over a year so I had a bit of an overflow of memories coming back to me when we got there...it was pretty eerie too as it was deserted given that we had gone during the xmas holidays. In Cam we gave them the standard tour of the colleges and then went for a punt with the amrican oohing and aaahing at all the stories behind the colleges. And then on Sun morning we were back in Heathrow and off he went to India for the wedding.

Enjoyable weekend, alhamdulilla.

Salaams

Chinese Astrology

Salaams,

Well Ahoy there mateys..how fare you...?

I know the recent BIG news was the demise of Saddam, and inshaAllah i'll write something on that but so SO busy at the moment (back in London, back at work, busy at work, started driving lessons, OMA malarky, started work for CFA exams in June **ARGRHRGRH**, and so on....)

So anyway below is something i'd kinda written before the Saddam thing happened, enjoy:

Recently i was talking to a chinese friend at work and he was saying that he would be going back home to China for the new year. So in order to show how culturally (un)aware i am i started discussing the way the chinese years work (year of the rat, pig etc etc) and it was all quite interesting stuff.

Obviously as muslims we're not really supposed to believe in all these horoscopes and astrologically based superstitions, but i ended up on this website and was reading about the year of the rat (1984 - the year i was born) and a lot of it was scarilly true...! I know, i know, a lot of the comments are so broad it could fit anyone...but i read a few other people's and they also seemed spot on....!

Anyway give it a read and see what you think.....(nb if the comments offend you, it's not my fault...!)

My - one "Rats are best known for their charm and intelligence, which often wins admiration wherever they go. Blessed with a sharp wit, they possess a marvelous sense of humor, which makes them stimulating and amusing company to have around".....Hahah...lol...i told you it was all true..! LOL

Salaam