first ten days of Dhul Hijja

We are in the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah. Many Muslims are gathered in the holy city of Makka to perform Hajj during this time. Unfortunately, many of us are not among the Hujjaj. Yet Allah SWT in His infinite mercy, has given us an opportunity to share some of their rewards by making the first ten days of this month, more virtuous than other days. This is so that we can increase our good deeds and try to wipe away our sins. According to the scholars, these ten days are the ten best days of the year and the 9th Dhul Hijja, the day of Arafat is one of the best day of the year.

We should all try to exploit those golden days. Some of the recommended actions for these days are:
1. Praying Tahajjud Prayer
2. Fasting, especially in the ninth, the day of Arafat.
3. Saying Takbeer, Tahlil, Tasbeeh and Tahmid.
4. Making a sacrifice following the tradition of our father Ibrahim (a) seeking Allah's pleasure.
5. Repenting from our sins
6. Doing other good deeds, such as reading Qur'an, remembering Allah, honoring parents, and others.
7. Last but not least, making doa; especially on the day of Arafat, which is one of the best days to make doa.

May Allah give us all Tawfique to take advantage of these blessed days.

they say its friendship day today

to my friends
-------------

once we dreamed of a perfect world, only to realize later that there is no utopia
then we dreamed of a bright future, only to find out that future also becomes present one day
today we dream of happiness, may be tomorrow we will discover that that too is an illusion
BUT
we have always dreamed of love, and still do. let us know, my dear friends, love is eternal. the flame of love will never falter.

love will keep us alive. love will keep our dreams alive.
love will keep our friendship alive.

long live our friendship
long live our struggle through life
long live our sweet and sour memories
and most importantly
long live our dreams and our love.
love for ourselves. love for our friendship. love for the Creator who gave us this friendship.

i love you all

www.couchsurfing.com

its one of those late nights again. seems like blogging is keeping me up late.

couch surfing is about traveling, meeting ppl and sharing cultures. been a member for a while, but its only recently that i got active. two weeks back i hosted captain Tomasz (the captain part added by one of his friend) from Poland. with a guitar in his hand, a tent in the packback and some euros in his pocket, he is out on a year long trip around part of the world. at 21, he has already traveled quite a few places and knows a lot of things about ppl and life. this time around, starting from Norway, he plans to travel to finland, russia and then all over asia (including bangladesh) till august next year, when he has to return home to attend his sisters wedding. couch surfing, hitchhiking and camping all the way. hats off to his spirit and desire for adventure.
after he left i found myself questioning me whether i would be able to that. even when it comes to things that mattered much to me, things that i believed in, things i say i would do anything for; let alone travels.

a week after that i had an austrian girl surfing with me. she is a doctor who will soon start her specialization. medicine studies here is not at all similar to that in bangladesh. after school, they study six years to become a doctor, which is nothing but the title. then just to be a GP they need another 4 years of further studies (internship is in parts throughout the study years). otocho amader deshe mutamuti medicaler corridor diye bar koyek hata chola korle, ar khade apron o golai stethoscope julalei daktar hoya jai. manushe jibon niye chinimini khelte o amader pathure hridoye bajena!!
but what surprised me most is their trust. how much a girl traveling all alone have trust to spend a night at a completely stranger's place? some may say these europeans dont really care about physical relations, but i dont buy that. i think no matter what, most women are concerned about it to certain extent.

how much would i trust a bangladeshi stranger in bangladehsh? or a muslim stranger??

its me again

thats the usual me. absent for a long time, once again.
wats happened in all this while???

well, first of all i (sort of you can say) recovering from a long negative peak in my efforts at trying to be who i am. the thing is i am sort of lost as to what it really means to be who you are. i wont really say confused. its that i more or less know what it is (theoretically speaking), but trying to put that into perspective of everyday life as a practicing and God fearing Muslim (alhamdulillah).

there is a hadith stating that our heart is like a white sheet to begin with. as time goes on, and we start sinning, black dots appear on this sheet one by one, until one day no traces of the original while remains. by definition, Islam is the deen-fitrah (the natural life style), which means being who you are should really go hand in hand with being a Muslim. but by now my heart is pretty black (may God help me) and which sort of made things complicated.

thats one good reason. but i guess there are more. i thing that i can think of the society i come from. back home you are born with a pack of expectations. become successful in life (ans success means being an engineer or doctor or such - and get a white collar job), get a beautiful wife and bla bla bla. i have been living abroad on and off for some time now, and i have come across many people who are really following their heart when it comes to doing something with their life. so i am sort of caught between two boats..... of course the "financial safety net factor" has a big role to play, but then again - where there is a will, there is a way.

life isnt really meant to be "and they are living happily forever ..." - and there is no fun to it. so i have no complaints.

the quest for survival goes on, and he laughs best who laughs last. i have my fingers crossed.

[photo credit: my dear friend shabbir ahmed the chemist]

inertia

inertia. i was first introduced to this term of physics in high school back in the mid nintys. it applies to object's reluctance to change from their current state.

this is a term that very much describes a lot about me. i hav a high inertia, especially when it comes to climbing out of those lows that everyone falls into (which in my case more often than not). ever since returning home mid last year, i have more or less been doing nothing meaningful. just laying back and letting time fly me away. guess its like wat happens when u suddenly find urself wit loads of money, and are totally at wit's end on wat to do with it.

it took me great few months to realize this. not lets see how long it takes me to make it happen.

i realize...

its finally over. alhmadulillah. now i can append msc.ee to my name :)

someone once said - 'there is nothing called genius. its 99% hard work and 1% luck'. couldnt agree more. realized it the hard way.

just pray i do not forget to make use of the lesson learned.

business = busy-ness?

weeks away to closing another chapter of my life. these last few days is supposed to be busy. damn busy. but i dont feel pressured and am acting nothing short of a free bird last couple of days.

wonder what awaits ahead?

btw, is business = busy-ness?

[image: The Eye of Surrealist Time by Salvador Dali, 1971]

of fools and failures

fool is not he who fails,
but he who fails to learn from his failures.

sometimes you need to go back one step to take a leap forward.

just when i thought i had hit the end

life had been sort of a total mess for the last few weeks or so. personally i have just been through a storm, with way too much of worrying and way too many dilemmas. its true i myself invited some of it, but mind is such a thing, you cant just select wats popping up!
the tons of to dos over this period made things yet more unhandle-able.
add to that bangladesh's on-off superb showing in the ongoing cricket world cup (cricket is the second religion in sub-continent), and the much happening local political scene (of which i am an avid follower), news of which is much much more important and interesting than the matlab simulations or C++ coding.

well, now i am putting an all out effort to get back on track and successfully manage the scores of academic 'to dos' thats have piled higher and deeper over the weeks.

your prayers are much appreciated.

my first paper

9th march was the notification date for a paper we had submitted to a conference. it was our first try at any reputatble international conference, and so we were awaiting the news with excitement.
we did hear from them with a day in hand. but unfortunately the result is REJECTION!!!.

well, not that i (and i guess the rest) have much to grudge about. after all, failure is the key to success. and most importantly we learnt something in the process ...

snow, snow, snow

after 30 hours of non stop snowing... (it didnt stop there)


lets make a ...



... snowman



and the snow war that followed ...




every single one got snowed all over

just do it

this is the story of aisha, an old friend of mine.

one fine day she decided she would join the club and don that hijab. 'that was an easy decision', said she, 'but when? - was the million dollar question.' any change as big putting that hijab on is always a mammoth task, and much more so living in the west.

'wat would ppl say?', 'how would my parents take it?', 'in this islamophobic era, wouldnt i hv to face lots of difficulties?', 'what if situation forces me to take it off again?'... these were some of the question bugging her from day one. and the sole reasons behind putting off its materializing to tomorrow.

then one day, a friend suggested - 'dont worry my dear. you may take that big leap at once and start wearing it for good; or take it one step at a time wearing it occassionally (to the juma or to local muslim community programs) at first. whatever it is, just do it. go ahead and take that first step... and everything else will fall in place.'

---

more or less, all of us face this sort of dillemas in life. things we want to do, but just cant get ourselves to do it thinking abt all the what ifs and what nots.

well ... go ahead and just do it. take that first step and everything else will fall in place.

and that goes to you too, mr. procastinX !!!

as life goes on

life(1:end) = MATLAB;

.......

and today Imad vai turns 31. years do fly, huh! he is one of the most amazing man i have personally known; and of his many rare qualities i am most touched by his selfless helping of others, simplicity and devoted patience. (his wife, our dearest
Ailin vabi, is no less... and i do hope to come to that some other time)

(p.s. imad vai, if by any chance you are reading this, its not flattering!! and happy birthday once again)