My Fear of Medicine

I have never been a person who would be OK with having medicine. I think twice…umm OK thrice….before even having Panadol. I just don’t know why, as its quite the norm now to have any medicine recommended by the doctor. I was even more apprehensive after Homeopathic medicine before marriage but the expert knowledge brought in by my wife about the field of homeopathy and how it has no side-effects really did a whole lot in building a comfort zone with homeopathic medicine.

However, I am still very apprehensive about antibiotics and other medicine. I don’t like anything out of nature going into my body and me having no idea what it will do. Not to mention the long list of side-effects. They are very smart in listing the side-effects in real pharmacist terms or medical/biological names. This way it doesn’t make any sense to the person who is taking them. Thank you, that is so much more useful.

So yesterday when the doc gave me a long list of medicine to take for a recent sickness of mine, you can imagine how I would have felt. Its not easy to take 4 tablets at one go which includes an antibiotic as well. Its mental torture for someone like me as to what will all of these do by going inside me.

Its a 10-day dose so this will go on for a few days. I just hope I stay sane and normal as I do tend to lose my temper a lot more when on antibiotics….at least I like to sell that image…

Internet Transactions – Overcoming the Fear

I have never been a person who would go and buy stuff on-line. With e-commerce developing all around us and many of us bloggers using many ways to refer people to various products to be bought on-line, I thought it was a good time to write how I overcame my fear of Internet transactions.

Getting a Credit Card 

Its natural being someone with a bit of IT background to be a bit apprehensive about Credit Cards. Knowing that how easy it is to pick up a Credit Card number and (mis)use it on-line. Firstly, it’s very recent that I got my first credit card. I was recommended by a good friend of mine with similar apprehensions about the Non-Islamic concept of Credit Cards. It took a long time before we both agreed that we will not live on credit and not let interest be charged to us. Pay the bills as they come or even before the due date. We will only keep it for an emergency. That got me buying a free for life credit card. I was quick to realize the benefits of it. An ease of mind that a medical emergency will not make me go around borrowing money from anybody. To-date I keep a credit card to save me from those situations.

Making my First Transaction On-line

Ok so what if I have a credit card. I am not going to give my number away on a website which could easily be mis-used by someone else. No way. Whats the safety of it? If anybody knows me a bit, I could be the most pessimistic person in the world. I spoke to my bank and how they can protect me from such situations. I had no intentions to use it on-line, just wanted to get a feeler. There were lots of options such as spending a monthly fee for insurance of any unforeseen misuse . That didn’t go well with me. But they also told me that we could call you every time when you make a transaction to confirm. Now that sounded a little more comfortable. So every time my card is used on-line, somebody from the bank will call to confirm. Much much comfortable.

I made my first transaction for an on-line exam. A safe transaction and they did call to confirm. I am much at ease now. Then I made another transaction to get something else on-line and they didn’t call. I got worried. Next time I used my credit card at a grocery, it didn’t work. I called them to find out whats wrong. They said, we had blocked it as you made an on-line transaction. Another kind of confirmation to avoid misuse. I got back to my ease mode. They are taking care of any misuse on my card.

Most banks now also offer a limit on which they would call you, a maximum limit and anything that you can think of to make your on-line transactions safe and secure. Some banks also have a specific card only to be used for Internet Transactions. This card, you can keep at home as you cant swipe it. Low limits on these ones. No chance of someone snatching it etc.

Learning a lot more about it, I am still very careful while using my credit card on-line. You have to know where you are using it. Avoid phishing gimmicks and use your credit card on better known websites like Amazon, Ebay, etc. I don’t think its as bad as it sounds and all this coming from a person who was apprehensive about the concept in the first place, I think it says a lot about the improvement in safety & security of it as of today.

Once the apprehension is gone, you suddenly realize how much ease you are at. Buy stuff, get deals, gain bonus points. The bank & credit company gains as well. Its a detailed topic which I will write on to give you an idea as to whats the benefit to them. But it is a mutual gain, I can guarantee you.

Its all about how you use it and not get dependent on it. Don’t build credit on it, just gain a wider option for buying something you want.

Remembering friends via NICKNAMES

Ever wondered how many Nicknames we had around us when we were in university or school. I don’t know how many of the people who come read here have gone through the university level but I think the majority have or are going through it. For those who haven’t as yet, this post is something to look forward to in your lives. Nicknames are something that become easy to remember names and you also feel cool if you have a nickname. Today, I will dedicate this post to the great nicknames of people I had around me at my university or school level. Read further and enjoy,

UTP – Of course it starts with me. Sammity Sam, Robot, Jheenga, Chitta, KK, Towel, ShamsooBaba, Kawwa, Bha (Chaddi), Qazi, Kamany, Choudhary, ZeeZee, Mama, Quetta, Chacha, AslamBhai, Baba, Ghora, BaaziKabootar, Kakajani, Bambi, Dexter, Denver, Choops, Fido, Faddo, Nikka, Kami, Etchkoobi, Fadi, Commandoo, Zubbee….

Its amazing, the names we can come up with and they stay forever. You can actually forget their real names.

It becomes embarrassing for the ones like Towel for example who I actually met in a mall while he was with some international office colleagues. The poor guy blushed when I said TOWEL…how are you man? He mumbled…use my name, use my name…and honestly it took a while to remember his real name…

Another case was when I called up Jheenga at his office and it suddenly hit me during the first ring that what if hedoesnt pick up? What would I say….I want to talk to Jheenga….heheh…thank God it was him who picked up and saved the day….

I was lucky I got a sober nickname which was actually given by a teacher & friend of mine. So UTP almost sounds like a brand name…hehehe I wish…it were….I could be making enough money….to buy that Mercedes convertible I have my eyes on hehehe….but you never know…it might just become a brand name in the future…it has the ring & rhyme to it…no lack of potential here…

50 Million Dirhams

I just wanted to write that out to see how big it sounds. OK no wait…let me put it in figures. 50,000,000 AED. WHOOSH!!!!

That’s the big number of the day today. Some 25 year old Shaikh in Abu Dhabi bought a NUMBER PLATE…yes guys a NUMBER PLATE….with “1” written on it. Its a fad here, buying unique number plates. The less digits there are, the more expensive it is. 50 million dirhams!!! I just cant get over it.

Just to add, he broke the record of his cousin which was for 25 Million Dirhams spent on a number plate having the No. 5 on it a few months back. Where do they get this money to burn from? Then they raise our rents and make a bit more.

That was an Abu Dhabi record. Just a few weeks back the No.1 plate in Dubai went for 30 Million AED. I thought that was it, nobody could beat that. I was completely proved wrong. I should never estimate the buying power of Shaikhs.

Where I have written stuff like the 1 dollar story, I can still do a lot with a 50 million AED. I wonder whether if its even possible in this life. Hehehe…50,000,000 AED!!! Man…!!!

La Makan Mein Ghar – Part One

This is by far in my top list the best piece of Sufi poetry I have read or heard in my short life. Abida Parveen brings life to it with her voice. Since it is so close to my heart, I will be using each verse as a post of mine at different times in the upcoming future. Here is the first,

Hum Ko Yahan dar dar phiraya yaar nay…

La makan mein ghar banaya yaar nay…

Translation/Explanation:

This verse can be taken into both meanings as to that of love of this world in a person or spiritual love of God. I am going to keep it Sufi and talk about love of God.

It is the lover telling the world that my Love of God has made me go from door to door in search of Him. From places to places and I have spent so much time trying to find out how He is, how He looks? What He does? Talk to Him? The secret of the unseen, my curiosity. Moreover, just out of love I want to see my Love, talk to Him. Why have I not been able to find him?

The answer to that question is that He has made His home in a place where I can never go. I am not good enough or I am just not capable enough to go there. What kind of a relationship is this? He created me and then did not make me capable of finding Him. I cannot reach up there.

UTP’s Two Cents on the Thought

It is not true that God can’t be found. Its only that you have to find Him in the right places. Those who try to search for Him in this way will never find Him. Its our misunderstanding that He is at a place where we can never go. Those lucky people who are able to find God, who find the answer to the question of life….will tell you that God is more closer than we could imagine. He lives within our own presence. Our own self.