STL: Day 3, Part 4

How hot is that pic?!

Hello

I nearly forgot to mention something from Friday night (that would be Day 2, Part III). Taha had challenged me to a one-on-one game using his net at home. Being a guest, I was happy to oblige. As always, I beat him pretty easily. It's not even worth getting into the details of my 11-3 bloody massacre. In fact, I had this one S I C K dunk on him where I came down with so much force that I inadvertently broke his rim and in all likelihood his ego. Mind you, it wasn't on purpose, but here's proof of my skills:


I know, I know. I'm phenomenal. I feel bad about the rim, but that's a price you gotta pay when you "challenge" me in some hoops, Taha.

(I love having a blog where I can twist stories to my advantage without having Taha interfere...)

Onwards...

And so on Saturday morning I woke up around 10:30am thinking to myself, Crap! I've already wasted so much of the day! These guys are going to kill me! Little did I realize that 10:30am was considered the same thing as waking up at fajr time in the Lou (on a Saturday). You see, I grew up under my mom and she thinks that if you wake up at 10am or later (azubillah), your entire day has been shot. I guess some house rules don't apply in others...

Moving on: Taha was nice to me in the morning, but you could clearly tell he was annoyed when I went to go wake him up. Same thing with Hassan, too. (Neither of them responded to my 10am text of "do me," which is why I walked into T's bedroom because normally I get some sort of response to a msg like that. Hassan, on the other hand, wouldn't reply to a txt msg if it was his mother!) So T-Man got his mom to make us some phenom breakfast and we then waited to hear from Prince Hassan.

While waiting for Hassan (a process that can take a few days), Taha and I wandered about in the backyard around the fallen trees. Relegated to this form of social activity in the Lou, I resorted to the following as a means of entertaining myself:



Here I'm obviously point to the sky. Perhaps for Superman to save me. Perhaps at the fact that I was still amazed at all the stars you can see in STL from the night before. Or perhaps preparing to do a little nach-ing (that's dancing, people; Punjabi style).

And finally while on the tree, I got in touch with my inner beast in this pic. This is how I get the females, young playaz. It also undoubtedly explains why I'm still single (clue in sad violin music):



Regardless, you cannot deny the pure hotness that are these pictures. Just don't stare too long, k?

When Hassan finally graced his presence, we drove downtown to hit up the arch. I have to say that the arch is kinda cool. It's a nice piece of architectural work in an otherwise lackluster skyline. The views from the top of the arch are also nice, too. While on the way up these stairs to the arch, Hassan and I decided to run. Considering that Hassan hoops at least once a week, I thought I'd easily get beaten. Plus, he had homefield advantage, if you think about it. But, as this video proves, I won. And not by a stomach as jerk-off Taha likes to contend...!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2036212692720159649



Throughout the day, the "Does Chicago have this...," "Does Chicago have that..." banter never ended. But my boys were oh-so-cute in their love of their hood that I tried my best not to retaliate. Kids, man. No matter how fast they grow or where they end up, home will always be home sweet home.

Part 5 coming soon. Trust me, you'll want to see the upcoming video clips...

Cheers, mate

STL: Day 2, Part III

Cheerio!

Our travels to the Show Me State consisted of comparisons between Chicago and Saint Louis; such comparisons typically make me laugh but out of respect for my STL boys, I will often superficially engage myself in these arguments. As I was the one entering their territory this time, I decided to remain largely quiet out of fear of not being able to eat their mother's home cooking.

We also tried to solve riddles that Hassan posed on the way there while jammin to various hits from DMB to Dre, U2 to 2Pac, and Bryan Adams to Will Smith. The best part, though, was when Hassan wowed us with his ability to sing along to Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It and not miss a single word. I had heard the rumors as I'm sure you have. Now, to put those rumors at bay, I'm proud to give you another Imran Shakur Google Video moment: Hassan Gettin Jiggy With It:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3605219335537585349



And I'm also pleased to give you a more sentimental Prince Hassan as he serenades my camera and the hearts of many women:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6439303715577023548



Wearing his hot Gucci shades, driving his nice car, there's no doubt in my book that this is a man who is truly confident and secure with himself (mashaAllah). By the way, is anyone else here concerned that he's driving during his encore-worthy performances? I guess when you're lost in the moment like Taha and I were, it didn't matter...

Anyway, when we finally reached the suburbs of The Lou, Hassan dropped Taha and I to T's house. I got the tour of the Ghani household and reconnected with the Ghani's after a long time; especially Mr. Ghani himself who nearly pushed Taha out of the way to greet me (I love that man). So we ate AMAZING food, I had some techy moments with Hamza, and then we concluded the night by watching Rocky Balboa with Hassan and his parents. The movie started off slow, but was actually not too bad considering that this is the sixth Rocky movie. There was a lot more dialogue than action with a few really good scenes like when Rocky and his son had a heart-to-heart outside of Rocko's restaurant. The training scene was great and inspirational. I was this close (see my fingers?) from wanting to go work out...

By the time I crashed (note: I was abruptly woken up at 3am when Taha and Hamza raided my room and Taha jumped on me, then held me, then...), I already felt like I was at home and waited for what was to come on Day 3, Part IV...

Stay tuned...

Truly Madly Deeply Dooooo!!!

STL: Day 2, Part II

Hi

Since we decided that we didn't want to put up with the fog, we all agreed that in order to achieve time maximization in STL, we would have to leave really early on Friday morning in hopes of getting to STL in time for Jummah. Accordingly, the plan was to leave straight after fajr. Taha was going to ensure that was done by setting his phone alarm for 6-something...

And so, naturally, at 8:10am I woke up. I looked down to where Taha was (he slept on the floor in my room) and he gave me the West Side sign. Frick! We already lost two hours. Taha and I discussed that if we left right then and there, we would be able to make Jummah in time in Saint Louis. So I went down to Umar's bedroom where Prince Hassan slept and told him the time and that we had to go. Hassan's responses sounded more like grunts instead of the reassuring "Yeah, Pac Daddy, let's go..." He then shifted his body to the left, his back turned to me as if he was saying in subtle defiance, Great, Pac Daddy! Now get the hell outta here so I can get some sleep! I came back to my room and told Taha that I told Hassan to get ready but that it didn't look like he will anytime soon. Taha suggested that we wake up at 8:45 and I was cool with getting more sleep myself...

And so, naturally, at 11:30am I wake up in utter disbelief that it's that late. Taha, who has the ability to wake up and run a marathon right away without stretching because he's so alert when he wakes up, suggested that we leave after Jummah. So I went down to Hassan. We looked at each other and started laughing. "What happened?!" Hassan inquired. I gave him the rundown on the new agenda and so we all finally woke up and took our showers. Yes, separately, too.

Anyway, my mom did it REAL big, mashaAllah, by packing some PHENOM snacks for our road trip. We each had a parata roll with omlette inside in addition to some Doritos bags. Taha and Hassan caved in and had their rolls for breakfast just before Jummah. We then talked about how amazing our mothers are and how depressing our future wives will be when it comes to kitchen duties. Yes, DUTIES, women; as in a WIFE'S responsibility to cook great food for her man. Hassan said that he would have to send his girl to my mom for at least a 6-month internship to learn how to cook and then another 6-month internship to Taha's mom. The three of us then cried a silent cry upon discussing the fact that Taha's girl and most likely Hassan's and mine in the future will not be able to cook as well. It was utterly depressing and tragic. We men give so much and ask for so little in return; just some good home cooked food. I'll have to think about marrying a girl in Pak, now, basically so I can save the lives of three people: Taha, Hassan, and me. My mail-ordered wife from Pak will cook for the three of us as it appears as though women in Oakbrook or other random places like Plano, Texas cannot cook worth anything. Or we'll have to find some cousins of AJ's wife because ol girl can cook.

But I digress...

After getting ready, saying my salaams, praying Jummah, we left for our voyage to the Show Me State...

Cheers.

STL: Day 1, Part 1

AA

Well it's 11am here in the Lou and as I write this blog entry here in the beautiful Ghani home, you can just imagine that everyone here is still sleeping. But that's fine because I get to enjoy Taha's basement which houses a 60-something inch TV. The TV makes writing this entry rather difficult as I find myself gazing at it with loving affection much like a mother would gaze in the eyes of her newborn.

So, you should know that this STL trip has been nearly a fricken decade in the making. I've known my boy Taha for that long and during the course of that time we've often fantasized of this moment actually materializing. It's almost surreal. I'm just trying to take it all in. Seeing both Taha and the Prince (and more importantly, their families) in their element is phenom.

But the STL trip actually started in the Pac household on Thursday night...

We intended to take off Thursday night after T was done with his birthday dinner with his in-laws. But because of the immensely thick fog in Chicago and Saint Louis, we decided that we would take off Friday morning right after fajr. So that night we did what most bachelors would do on a Thursday night. We watched Dil Chata Hai; a Bollywold movie. The movie mirrored our lives as it dealt with three desi guys who discovered themselves and the meaning of love. And as we learned from the movie, love just happens. You can't control it, it just fricken happens. Much like the expression sh!t happens, well so does love according to Bollywood. So, if we draw some parallels here, we will inevitably conclude the following: Sh!t happens. Love happens. Therefore love = sh!t and sh!t = love. What a great message, huh? Okay, so maybe that's not the message the movie tried to convey, but my insight is nonetheless spot on, right?

Just kidding. So, anyway, what we did actually conclude was that Taha = Akash; the young, full-of-life, cool, jokester whose longest relationship lasts two weeks. Hassan = Sameer; the young, I-got-your-back-even-if-the-camera-fades-my-character-out, hopeless romantic with the best body and dance moves. As for me I was Sid; the young philosopher, painter, and master of words when it came to pimptastic lines like, "I haven't painted my best one as yet" when talking to a woman about which painting was my favorite and looking at her with a deliberately intense, passionate look. Well, based on that I'm sure you can make your own conclusions as to whether or not that's accurate, but you get the idea: I'm pimptastic.

The highlight of the night, however, came with The Aerial Launch Attack of Imran: In the middle of the movie, we took a small break while Hassan talked to one of his many lovers. To kill time, Taha proposed to me that we play this launching game while waiting for Hassan. The game is simple; Taha lies on the floor and bends his knees as if he's going to give someone a joola ride or do the bicycle exercise. Enter me who uses the base of Taha's feet as the launch seat. Taha then cocks his feet back to see just how far he can fling me. I doubted him and it evidently stupid for me to do so. On the first go, Taha makes me fly a good five feet, but like a graceful cat, I landed on my feet. The second go-around went a little differently, though...

Taha was convinced that he could do a better job. I didn't get enough air time, apparently, on the first launch. So on the second one, Taha bends his knees closer to his chest than ever before. He also held onto my feet. At the time before the launch, I thought to myself, Why is he grabbing my feet? How am I going to balance myself? What if I fall flat of my face? Okay, shut up and go with it, Imran... Then the launch sequence began. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...TAKE OFF!

As I was in the air, I noticed that my head was but a few inches from touching the ceiling fan. Wow, I thought, I'm pretty high. Then I thought, Hmm, if I'm this high, my feet are probably not touching the ground. That's going to be a problem because how am I going to balance my...

THUD!!!

For you history buffs, you've naturally heard of the Shot That Was Heard Around the World, right? Well, this sound was similar in that it was the Butt Hitting My Living Room Floor at 2am That Was Heard in All of Plainfield. At the sound of the thud, I feared that my massive body's impact upon the floor was going to send shockwaves throughout the land and most importantly to my mother's and Nani's bedrooms, whereupon my imminent death would soon follow upon their awakening. But, after that fear dissipated then the throbbing booty ache permeated my mind and body and I could swear I lost consciousness for 5 seconds.

It turns out that not having my feet at my disposal was in fact critical to the launch. According to Hassan, I was completely horizontal in the air. And I apparently was looking over at him with a childish, badmash smile while in the air. That smile vanished at the time of impact and I guess my eyes rolled up in pain. Despite this trauma, we started cracking up and went into pure hysteria as to what happened. If you're not following me or picturing what happened, then I've failed in describing what happened, because that launch had to be the funniest thing that happened to me in a long time.

Well, perhaps not as funny as when, about an hour later, I was in my boxers only and tackled to the ground by Taha while Hassan took pictures with his camera phone. That was equally as traumatic to me as the fall was.

That pretty much concluded the night. The next day, began the official trek to the Lou...

Alright, that's it for now. I can't sit in one position too long because my butt still hurts. Part 2 coming soon.

Cheers.

Knicks - Nuggets Brawl

The infamous New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets Brawl. Carmelo Anthony straight up punches Mardy Collins in the face. Craziness and stupidity at the same time.

Carmelo, who just recently made a fricken awesome commercial under Jordan's label, deserves his 15 day suspension. And the other players deserve their suspension, too. Carmelo deserves the most because of 1) his punch and 2) he's supposed to be a role model and leader; heck, he should get more than 15 days.

Fortunately for the Denver team, they literally have The Answer to solve the problem of Melo sitting out: The 76ers-Nuggets trade involving Allen Iverson was HUGE! This team, so long as Anthony and Iverson get along, will be sick. Philly does well, too, because they get TWO number one picks and a couple good players like Andre Miller. It'll be fun to see watch the Nuggets...

But perhaps what's even more fun to watch is my Chicago Bulls! Watching them recently beat Kobe and the LA Lakers was phenom, man. Man, it's great being a Chicago sports fan, mashaAllah. Bears, Bulls, Fire, and next season the rise of the Cubbies. Done and done.

Good times!

Audi R8 - My New Dream Car

Hi

The expression "vroom" can be defined by the following link:

http://microsites.audi.com/audir8/html/index.php


One day...

I Ain't Mad At Cha...

AA All

SubhanAllah. Imagine one of 2pac Shakur's co-thugs and co-rappers fitting the bill of Pac's lyrics "Oh, you a Muslim now?" from his well-known and poetical I Ain't Mad at Cha song.

Well, meet Napoleon from Pac's group Outlawz. This is a MUST watch...

MashaAllah, the sincerity of this brother is enticing to watch, if not inspiring. His love of Allah and respect for the Prophet (sw) and the Companions (r) permeates the room you're in while he tells the audience his background. His honesty with himself and to the people in the room is refreshing and allows you to easily identify with him. May Allah protect and increase him in success. Ameen.

Keep in mind that this is a man who rolled with 2pac. A guy who really was a gangsta. A guy who lead a life that would embody everything against Islam. Drugs. Alcohol. Guns. Killers. All that. A guy so immersed in it, that you would wonder how someone would ever come out of such a lifestyle?

I guess it would bring this to mind: La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. There is no strengh or power, save in Allah. It is He Alone that has the power to bring someone from the depths of fitna and the haraam to the noor of the path that leads to Him.

I try to remind myself something that the brother says in the video: that you should not despair of Allah's Rahma. That you shouldn't think to yourself, Man, I've done this and this, how can I ask Allah to forgive me? Doing that is to limit Allah's Power and Mercy.

It is but my wish that such Light enters my own heart and guides me a path that is swift and easy to Allah.

Allah huma salay Allah Muhammad.

Ummah Films. Hot.

Salaam

This is a pretty cool video. It's a commercial shown in Saudia Arabia/Middle East that gives a message about the evils of backbiting. Strong message.

And an equally strong message that it conveys is that Arab women are HOT! I mean, these girls add fuel to the desire of finding a hot hijabi one day...

The one thing that confuses me is this: Are they saying that all attractive women are backbiters? Or that they're nice on the outside and evil, twisted on the inside? I welcome all hot women's perspective on this, but strongly advise that you submit a picture as proof of your hotness. And your biodata. And your parent's phone number. Oh, and your annual income.

Anyway, I won't take away what the director is trying to show. The group name is Ummah Films and I suggest that you check out their website and blog. It seems like a really cool and perhaps needed initiative. InshaAllah, I hope their endeavors go well and are accepted.

Fi Aman Allah

Practical Joke at Work Gone Wrong

Hi

So, a couple nights ago I'm getting ready to leave work, right? It was about 7:30 and I was already running 30 minutes late to meet up with my boy Tariq before he heads off to India to get himself hitched. We would've probably hit up ColdStone afterwards, so you can imagine just how badly I was trying to get out of the office.

I gather all my things and do my standard do-I-have-everything check. Cell phone? Check. BlackBerry? Got it. iPod? Yes. Wallet? No doubt. Car keys? ... I said, car keys? ...

Nothing.

No big deal, I thought. It's probably lost underneath my messy stack of randomly placed confidential and critical documents scattered across my desk. I shovel through the piles and find nothing. This is odd. Then I thought, Idiot! Look in your coat pocket! But there was nothing in there.

Then I start to recall my steps to see whether or not I actually remember bringing the keys into the office. I was pretty sure that I did, so I had no choice but to walk to my car in the freezing weather and see if I possibly left it in there. I was ready to shoot myself if I did that. Knowing my own limitations, I didn't rule the possibility out. So I walk out to my car which is of course all the way at the end of the parking lot where lighting is extremely poor. Great, I'm finna get jacked up in this! Of course, I recalled that I work in posh Northbrook where the worst thing that could happen to you is that some rich guy would forcibly give you keys to his "outdated" 2006 E 500 AMG Mercedes.

So I get to my car and I can't see my keys. They weren't in the ignition. Or any of the car seats. I couldn't see it anywhere. Now I was getting a bit worried. I run back into the office. After thawing myself out, I re-trace all the steps I made that day in the office. I went to the third floor where my office is at...nothing. I went to the first floor where I met with some colleagues earlier in the day...nothing. Conferences rooms...nothing. I saw the Polish cleaning lady and talked to her (mainly by hand gestures as her English was not quite there)...nothing. Desperate, I went to the washroom...nothing (thank God!).

Fortunately, I knew I had a spare key in the car (not sure why it was in there, but Alhamdullilah!). So I called a locksmith and he came out about 30 minutes later. It was now 8:30pm and I regrettably had to cancel on Tariq. The locksmith comes out and in less than 30 seconds - no exaggeration here - he pops my car door open and takes a wire and unlocks my ride. $65 for a 30 second job. That's pretty nice...for him. I ask if he can give me a break and he tells me that this sorta job typically costs $95 at least. (I then realized that I'm in the wrong fricken industry.)

Well, I was well on my way home and at that point not too concerned about the missing keys because I was pretty tired and confused as to how my keys could've been misplaced (they were no where to be found in the car).

So, the next morning on the way in to work, I check my BlackBerry as I normally do. I get an email from one of my project assistants and it reads:

"OMG you didn't get it. [After reading that I was like, Oh hell no...] I left you a "ransom" note yesterday before I left. Your keys are under your computer. I am soooooo sorry. Please don't hate me; you were supposed to get the note. I'll make it up to you, I feel terrible.

On another note,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. SHAKER, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. [It was my bday that morning]

I deserve pay back, I'm so sorry."

I called her up when I got in and she's like, "I love you??" I joked telling her that she had better say that. She insisted on paying the bill and I tried to refuse, but she said that she'd feel like the worst person on earth if I didn't, so I took the money after she threw it on my desk (along with a snickers bar) and literally ran down to the first floor when I tried to give her the money back. She even tried locking me in by standing outside of the office door on the third floor and putting all her weight into it. I just laughed and she ran downstairs. (I think others at work were wondering what the hell was going on between us!)

Anyway, that's my story. Good times. My office mate was surprised that I was laid back about it. I figured it was all in good fun, but that the joke just never made it to me like it was supposed to (I never saw the "ransom note").

Any ideas for payback, folks?! ;)

Cheers

NFC CHAMPS & Devin Hester: Bears Win!

AA

Well, he did it again. Devin Hester ran for his third punt return TD for the season against the Vikings earlier today. The insane thing about Hester is that any other person returning that ball (yes, myself included) would have been tackled at least a couple times. He turned nothing into something and razzled and dazzled everyone...

To recall Devin's greatness, click here.

And it was much needed, too. At that point, I'm disheartened to write, Rex was not cutting it. He had thrown a couple interceptions after the Bears DEF recovered the ball. It was like every new opportunity created, Rex would end up coming short. It was painful to watch. I'm not even gonna post his numbers because it hurts too much. But, again, I'm being optimistic and hopeful that this is all a learning experience and he'll turn it around...and ASAP, too! In fact, Lovie makes the following point: "“Rex is our quarterback,” Smith said. “There’s a difference between perception and reality. Reality is we’re 10-2 right now and we just won the division with Rex at quarterback. So that’s what I go on. We’re not changing. We’re 10-2 with Rex as our quarterback.”"

Cedric Benson and Thomas Jones (the new Dynamic Duo), however, once again tore it up. Benson's TD run was phenom, mA!

Let's also not forget about Ricky Manning Jr's TD interception return for 54 yards. I mean, this Bears defense is unreal. We forced the Vikings to go through THREE quarterbacks. Brad Johnson threw four INTs. And the safety that we got actually seemed to be more like a fumble TD recovery, but it was really irrelevant at that point.

Oh, here's what Urlacher said about Devin: " “Hester’s great,” said middle linebacker Brian Urlacher. “We’ve all seen how good he is. The guy is unbelievable. I wouldn’t kick to him if I was a special teams coach. He’s amazing.” " And Urlacher says that with good reason. Courtesy of the Chicagobears.com, just check out some more stats on what Hester has done so far this year: "

Hester set a Bears record with three punt return touchdowns and tied a league mark that’s shared by nine other players—including former Bears Gale Sayers

and Cecil Turner—with four combined returns for scores. Hester’s touchdown against the Vikings Sunday was his first at Soldier Field. He has returned punts of 84 yards at Arizona and 83 yards at Green Bay for TDs and also scored on a 108-yard return of a missed field goal at the New York Giants." Alhamdullilah! :)

BTW: The Bears have officially captured the NFC North with today's win, mashaAllah. I respect Ron Turner for saying this about winning it: "“We didn’t do anything on offense today to make us feel like celebrating,” said offensive coordinator Ron Turner. “We won 10 games and the division championship and we’ll celebrate that. But we know we have to get a lot better on offense.”" We'll see Rex inshaAllah rise to the occassion...

Bear Down!

It's The Time to Disco!

Hi I've realized that the woman of my life likes to disco. And you know what? So do I! Oh hooooo! Balle balle! Preity Zinta Zindabad! Disclaimer: I do not condone the imagery of beautiful, half-naked woman. I do, however, get turned on by it. Cheers