these past crazy couple of days

here goes...

Sept 13th, '06 (Wednesday): get frantic phone call from mum, in the middle of the day, while at work: i need to go home immediately. she comes to pick me up and we head towards the 'other' doc for a 'second opinion'. it takes us roughly around six hours of waiting to actually see him, during which we made a trip to Deja vu for lunch and home for a quick shower. i call ustaad and cancel class. a couple of minutes before going in, i get a phone call from k.uncle giving me wicked little tips on how to 'deal with it' ;) doc looks concerned and prescribes more tests.

Sept 14th, '06 (Thursday): get to doc's prescribed radiologist promptly at 9am. i am 'scanned' by her assistant (doctors) and told to drink more water. mum, out of motherly love and anxiousness in getting a perfect scan makes me drink three bottles of water on top of the one bottle i had already drunk prior to coming for the scan. that makes it 8 glasses of water in all. pretty soon, i'm walking around, humming some songs, licking my finger and rubbing my nose with it (according to mum, it was gauranteed to work)... all in my efforts to 'hold it in'. there is no sign of the radiologist coming in anytime soon. at 11.20am i break down into tears and cause a panic amongst the rest of the (assistant) doctors there. they scan, tell me my bladder is extra full (no shit?!) let me pee. the radiologist arrives at 11.30 am and tells me the level of water in bladder is 'just right'. if i hadn't been soo relieved at being able to 'let it out' i would have wacked her on the head. i mean, honestly, you've kept a room full of bladder-full women waiting for over two to three hours just cause you couldn't make it on time... grrr...

show scan results to doc who's at lady butterfly hospital (thats not the real name of the hospital, but that's how i remember it) he prescribes more tests. mum makes me get the tests taken foran.

at 6.30pm i rush from work to the World Music Magazine office where we discuss the next cover and other 'developments'. i thank god that this magazine is bi-monthly, the schedule isn't as crazy as that of the other publications i work with. plus, they serve some pretty good chai :)

08:10pm finds me rushing home, taking a shower and getting ready for yet another award function. this time, i dress in something i'm comfortable in: a grey khaddi type shalwar kemeez. my only accessory are my earings.

09:00pm i arrive at PC where the P@SHA ICT Awards (P@SHA-P@kistan Software Houses Association) were just about finishing. having heard about her a lot but seeing her in person for the first time, Jehan Ara turned out to be an amazing speaker, very comfortable and with a cute sense of humour and persona. one thing my assistant editor could not get over was that there were goldfish on the table hehehe...

the event turned out to be very different from the regular entertainment award function in that people around me were dressed formally, but they weren't overdressed. and neighter were their attitudes, expressions or the 'vibes' that they sent out. most importantly, no one was screaming 'look at me!' (if you know what i mean). the awards were simple and were handed out in a very simple way. the jokes that were cracked with a bit of comments thrown in here and there somehow gave the awards, the people giving and recieving them, a more personal touch. it was a refreshing and welcome change. with the running around i'd been doing this week, i felt oddly at peace and in observe-mode rather then in 'you have to listen to everything i say no matter what' mode.

spied the person i was to spend time with, sitting behind a camera ;) no he wasn't working it, the camera happened to be 'placed' right in front of him. got a much needed hug (i didn't tell him that) from both him and nuzhat aunty and ended up spending watching my first ever (yes, shame on me for never having seen them before) Black Fish performance with them. ended up meeting a fellow blogger, Faisal Khan as well :) i dont think details are neccessary here. the conversations were pleasant, the company was comforting (thank u for making me feel very loved without trying to hard or being too 'blatant' about it), the show was good... i dont know why i didn't do this earlier.

call me cheap, but what i love about these conferences and awards are the freebies that are handed out. adding to my collection of promotional t-shirts and bags are the grey and turquoise P@SHA t-shirt and bag (by far the best promotional bag ever! pretty sturdy too!), a pretty alright-cool note book, mobile phone bag and a paper weight in the shape of an organge bean bag ;)

Sept 15th,'06 (Friday): rush out of work at 6.50pm and don my made-for-TMA outfit, hastily clip hair and apply make up, get driver to rush to the venue and pray that i dont arrive 10 min late and be locked out. i was in no mood of sweet talking any guard into letting me in. i get to the place 5 min before the gates were supposed to close, rush through the red carpet where there are almost no people and only camera men and find an 'official' not letting me into the auditorium. i blurt out that i'm on friggin time and that i need to get in and he doesn't. i hear someone curse behind me and i turn out to find an acquaintance-first-writer for competitor publication-second person standing beside me. it turns out the reason why there was no one on the red carpet wasn't because everyone was all packed up in the auditorium, it was caus no one had arrived till then. and the were still doing sound checks in the auditorium which is why i wasn't being let it.

ten min later, the people start to arrive and i begin to see lots of familiar faces. i spied an old school-mate, A.S. who's currently a film-making student and assisting in documentary being shot who had arrived with his teacher. who turned out to be pretty interesting as well. ended up sitting with acquaintance-journalist + her tv-producer bf (who is also an acquaintance first) with A.S. on my other side. true to my lil fetish, we get our promised freebies (one large poster, CD with the movie's soundtrack in it and a paparazzi size booklet of Botal Gali which turned out to be quite good and very informative).

and a certain someone sitting accross the auditorium looked super nice. nicer then i've ever seen him before. and he knows it. exchanged several sms-es till the movie was about to start. if i could, i'd have taken a photo and uploaded it. he looked that nice.

i'm not going to write about the movie Botal Gali much because i have to review it. and i'd rather my energy be spent on the article rather then on the blog. i will say however that it is a good movie and worth watching. done really well, with very well scripted dialogues and well-researched. bas, i'm not going to say anymore. wait for it to hit theatres and do watch. favorite character: Babu

in between i got an sms from mum updating me about my health-related future. for those who do know, because i'm not going to state it blatantly on blogger, it's anytime after October 2nd.

A.S. turned out to be good company to watch the movie with and we exchanged our point of views. i love catching up with old acquaintances-friends and it's even better if you have something to work on. besides the creative-work-buzz, when you meet people you can easily communicate with, collaborating with them on any project becomes even more exciting. you feel like you're on your way to discovering how to make fire (if you know what i mean). and that is what watching this movie was like. A.S. and i discussed our individual future projects and potential collaborations et cetra.

we didn't stick around for the dinner and post-dinner chat, i was in no mood of 'mingling' and he had to be somewhere. his car was parked near the restaurant where i had to be and he walked me to it. saying 'good bye' didn't seem like the end of the evening at all, it the effects of being able to communicate (intellectually) without saying too much lingered on with it.

Sept 16th,'06 (Saturday): now that it's near magazine closing time for Spider, i simply have to finish all of my work and hand it in today. plus, the sooner i do that, the sooner i get to work on my 'other' assignments and i cant wait! the buzz is coming back! :)