Being Grateful - Being Thankful

We all are so used to complaining.. We are always ready to complain about the smallest issue we have. And we do not see anything wrong with that..

I used to be like that as well maybe I still have this in me to some level. But whenever I used to complain to one of my very good friends. I used to get the response "Awwab, you are always complaining!" You need to look at the positives, at the good things etc. etc. I mean over a period of time, i learnt from my friend how to be Thankful and Grateful and stop complaining. I was listening to an audio yesterday in which the speaker said, If you have the time to complain then you are not Grateful enough to all the good things that God has provided you. Even if you have some small problems, compared to all the good things you have, then you need to be patient on them and keep yourself busy with Thanking God and being Grateful for the good things you have.

I went into the flashback mode thinking of my good friend. And I myself feel I am different now compared to what I was 2-3 years back. So next time you see me complaining then remind me: "Awwab! You are always Complaining!" It was only yesterday I realized the Positive change my friend had brought in me... Thank u soo much!!! But we are all humans and I am sure I might still be complaining about some things some times.. Have to practice and get over that Inshaa allaah.

Important Thing First

Recently I was talking to an very experienced Petroleum Engineer, he is originally from India. I really liked working with him on some task, because I learnt a lot from him in the brief 2 meetings we have had. He has a lot of experience working in India in the Oil sector. Has a lot of education.He seems to be an honest person, has the willingness to do the things in the best way possible. I like proactive people willing to work to improve things. I dont like the people who just do the regular work in traditional pattern. Who dont care and dont add any value by whatever they do and dont think of their responsibility when they are working for the company.



I was speaking to him and asked him about some work and he taught me a lesson. He said I do the Important Thing First. Because if you are done with the important things and some emergency comes with your family or any other thing, since you have already completed your important work, you can attend to the emergency without the worry of pending important work. Since Emergency does not come with an Advance Notice. But if you keep it pending, then you will have an issue if you have to leave office for an Emergency. Or if you have to work on some other Urgent and Important Unplanned task at work, what is known as Fire-Fighting. You will not delay your important regular work.



I have also read a lot about this point in Self Development sites and topics of not to Procrastinate!!



So always remember if there is any important thing to be done now, Do it Now!!! Dont keep it Pending!!

The Egyptian Barber

I have been in Kuwait for over 4 years now Alhamduliillaah!!! All this time I was staying the area known as Fahaheel. It has a market so usually people from closeby areas like Mangaf, Abu Halifa, Mahboula etc. have to come here for many of their needs. As this was one of the closest residential area to the Oil District of Ahmadi where I work. As well as it has a lot of positives like a lot of Desi's. So anywhere you go you can speak in Hindi in most of the shops, markets, Haircut saloons, Laundry, Money Exchange etc. etc. Well speaking hindi part applies to most places in kuwait actually as Indians top the majority of expatriate communities in Kuwait followed by egyptians I think. I remember once one of my ex-bosses he needed something or someone and I asked someone in Hindi and replied back to him what he was looking for. So he said "I dont know, what will happen if all these Indians go back"



But recently I moved out of Fahaheel to Abu Halifa, as wanted to move to a different flat and the once that I was looking for were in 3 areas Fahaheel, Mangaf and Abu Haleefa. But as Fahaheel has all the markets, people who dont have cars and bachelors prefer to stay here, so its crowded and difficult to get a flat of your choice. Also it has many old buildings. Few New constructions and expensive ones. So usually families prefer Mangaf or Abu Haleefa. As these places are usually populated by people who have cars so that they can drive to get whatever they need from any of the supermarkets. Although Mangaf also has some kind of Market built up now near to its Sultan Wholesale Center. But again, its still very small to meet all your needs. For example,you cant find curtains or carpet shop in Mangaf. In Fahaheel u get everything.



Wow I have spoken so much positive about Fahaheel, then why did I leave Fahaheel?? Good question, well everyone has got priorities. My priority was a more peaceful negihbourhood. With most families around. Hence I moved to Abu Halifa!



Ok now getting back to the subject of my Post, I have been here for 2 weeks and needed a haircut, i spoke to one of my Indian neighbours, that I needed an Haircut where do you usually go. Indirectly I was asking where can I find a Desi barber. Because there is a hair cutting salon right opposite my building by the name "Dollar One Salon". So he told me a fact that we all know, that three things are the most common shops in Kuwait, you can find them anywhere:

1. Hair Cutting Salon

2. Laundry

3. Fast Food Take-away restaurants



And then he said I go to this Barber next to the "Jamaiyah" Its a co-operative supermarket, all areas have one of them. As that shop has a pakistani barber to whom I go for haircut. So I was like fine. Pakistanis are good at hair cut and styling. For last couple of years I have been getting my hair done by a pakistani barber located in Mangaf, so I used to go from Fahaheel to Mangaf for haircuts. Because I did not have to say anything, he knew how I liked it, being a regular customer. So I said let me try this one in abu halifa as it will be closer to home and I can discontinue going to Mangaf for haircuts.



So I went to the shop it was after Ishaa, the pakistani guy was busy eating his dinner. And he already had a customer waiting for him. So he told me I have customer, let the other guy do your haircut. He was a Egyptian called Ridda, I was reluctant because that dude was sitting outside smoking. I was not sure what will he do to me. But I told to myself, all the Salons have arab and egyptian barbers, so let me try to see. Maybe he is not as bad as I am thinking. we should always try something New in Life. Else you will never know what you were missing. So I reluctantly gave him a Go-ahead. I was reasoning to the pakistani, that he should cut my hair, because I cannot speak to the egyptian in arabic. So when the egyptian guy came in, the pakistani told him he cannot speak arabic, so I will translate for u. He stared at me and the following was the conversation:

Ridda: Yaa Ragal, Inta mai araf arabi? (Hey Man, You dont know arabic?) He was shocked I could see on his face.

Me: Shoyya (Little)

Ridda: Shoyya(Little)??

Me: Ana Minal Hind (I am from India)

Ridda: (Awal marra shufta Hindi Abyad) First time I have seen an White Indian!

I have got this reaction many times, many people say this. becaus we have so much of Keralites in Kuwait. With all due respect. Most people here thinks Indians all look like the Keralites having dark complexion and the ones who have fair complexion (white) are in the Film Industry.



Anyways so he was soo shocked that I said I didn't know arabic because he thought I was Lebanese or Syrian or some arab.



Now the Haircut began, Usually in my life any haircut I have had, the barber would make the hair wet and then start cutting. This guy did not do that. He started with his scissor and was moving so fast, I thought in 10 mins I will be out. And in fact he was done in 15 mins, while my earlier haircuts used to be for 40-45 mins long.

All is Well That Ends Well:
The next week at work, people gave me compliments for my haircut, said looking decent with a nice haircut. So I guess I can go to that egyptian barber again!! SO i was right, we should try new stuff, else we would never know what we were missing.

CS0102 Definition for Rowchange eventhandler

I have built a web application that is deployed and in use. Updated a dataset in it with new Table Adapters in Development environment to meet some new needs of users. Tested it and ready to deploy. Instead of overwriting the old Dataset in Production I pasted it to keep as backup and then when I copied the one from Development environment to overwrite the one in production. as soon as I RUN THE APPLICATION it says CS0102 Definition of TableAdapterRowchangeEvent Handler already exists. When I look at it in development environment it is not duplicated then why the error. After some thinking and loking at details of error, realised it was coming because of the old Dataset which I had kept as a backup. since both the datasets had the same table adapter. Once i moved it out No Issues. Soo as i always say, Issues are usually simple, but we always think of complex things...

Defensive Driving

I attended this "Defensive Driving" course the other day as part of my HSE courses. People not familiar to Oil Industry, HSE stands for Health, Safety and Environment. HSE awareness and implementation is very crucial in this industry because of the Nature of work and dangers involved like poisonous gases are also produced during Oil Production. There many more hazards and Accidents can lead to massive losses, as we are all aware Thanks to BP! The Texas accident and now the one in Gulf of Mexico!
It was my first HSE course and it was effective, as I wear my seat belt irrespective of distance, speed, time of the day etc. And I also bought a Baby Car seat for my daughter. Although she is not willing to sit in it, because she is used to the freedom outside it. So its become a challenge to get her into that baby seat. her mom has already given up. I guess, will have to send the mom n daughter to an Defensive Driving course. To get some motivation. I m liking being part of Oil Business now.

Neways I have another HSE Training tomorrow called SOC- Safety Observation Conversation, where they teach you how you need to communicate and have a conversation when you see anyone working in an Unsafe manner and enviorment... So be prepared next time you see me. Dont do Anything Unsafe.

Always Remember: "SAFETY FIRST"

IIS Again!

IIS stands for Internet information Server for Non-Techncal people it is used to host web applications on Windows server. I have been using and working on IIS hosting web applications or when I used to deploy sharepoint infrastructures across enterprises. But for the last two years I was working on web applications but had access to only a shared folder on the web server where i was supposed to dump my developed web application. The administration was being done by another team owning the web server. SO i was missing IIS!!!

Now we have our own Web server and I have been assigned the task to install/configure/maintain it. I like it. I am enjoying it more, because we now have IIS 7 on Windows Server 2008 R2 using Oracle Client 11G. New server, new capabilities... Enjoying doing it!!! Have to advice how to upgrade the existing web applications to get to run on this. The Trial and error, Troubleshooting, Investigation. I am loving it. Doing what I used to always do in the past.

Have to look at performance aspects, how to get the best performance from the Web server! Enjoying It!!!

Quit FaceBook

I deactivated my facebook account. Was not using it too much and was more of a distraction/addiction. I had my friend requests which I was not sure about. I was not sure of the setting the Privacy. I had some friends, who have made everything private, so you dont know whats up with them. But then it beats the purpose itself of a Social Network. Sharing etc...

So dont for now I have deactivated it and will try not to go back to it. The time is money, need to invest on better things. Have not done reading since long. Need to keep myself updated on a lot of things firstly, Emaan refreshing articles, Positivity and Professional articles, Technology.

Technology changes sooo fast.... really have to keep in touch to avoid getting outdated. So lets use the time for better things than Social Networking!

What to write about??

I have not blogged since long. And the last blog post , that I HAVE . I do not like it. Probably because I was writing it but could not express what I wanted to express. Seems a bit jumbled up. I think that is because I wrote soo many different things, mixed up different topics and tried to put it all in one post and ended up spoiling it. I did not give it my 100% I think.

I have so many things that I think of blogging about For example:

a. How many first child is growing up and what all I am observing from her growth

b. References and how to handle it. When you refer someone for a job and they let you down. How does it feel and what do you learn from that experience

c. Life in a big city- Observing all the different types of people you see around in Office, In a Mall.. Everywhere, you can find from the richest to the poorest...

Etc... etc...

Vacation In India

I am on vacation in MUMBAI, India. AAPLI (Our) MUMBAI!!! I came down for a sudden vacation as I had to utilize my contractual leaves to avoid losing them on contract expiry. I thought i am going to have a good amount of time to Read, Study and Learn. I love to learn. But as I came down and was with family, friends, I found no time to study. In fact even the regular reading that I do online like www.positivityblog.com was less compared to how many times i visit it while in Kuwait!

Still I enjoyd to trips one to Vaholi, a village outside Mumbai, I took pictures of the village the way the rural homes were, the cattle, the roads etc. etc. It is not that I was in a village for the first time, but I was thinking for the first time that people staying in villages and rural areas are so happy and content with what they have. They may not have electricity all the time. They may not have the luxury of going to the sea side or garden. They may not get a Taxi to go anywhere all the time. Still they did not seem sad. But people who live in big cities how difficult it is for them to leave without one of the luxuries that they are used to. Imagine staying in your house without Internet. It becomess suffocating. I did not say worse staying without the Electricity or the Air Conditioner and Heater in the extreme climate of Kuwait.

We know that there were people who lived in this extreme climate in houses of MUD. They had no Air Conditioner. I have heard from people who have been in kuwait for around 25-30 years, they say they used to stay in labour camps which used to be in deserts. They used to sprinkle water on bedsheets to keep cold in the extreme heat.

Back to Mumbai:

I dont remember when I have travelled the last time by the public transport buses in MUMBAI which were the lifeline when I was a kid. I knew which bus would get me where. But now thanks to Bikes and Cars and convenience of Taxi. I just remember my past when I look at those crowded buses and Thank Almighty GOD for his favors. I have used them until I was working in Mumbai and would agree even with all the rush the bus and train system is the most convenient way to reach your work place. Unless you are privileged to have a company chaueffer driven car

Wondering how tolerant a person becomes travelling in those buses and trains when the person next to you has oil in his air that smells/stinks and you can do nothing about it. Or worse when the person next to you has perspired and you dont have an option. Talking of trains, I remember the times when I have stood on one leg because I cannot find place to keep the other leg on the train floor. Now we talk of leg space in cars. I feel bad that my Corolla does not have enough leg space for the people sitting on the back seat. Need a big car and there are still people who are travelling in the same trains and enjoying it. They are content. I wanted to travel this Sunday by Train and looking at the rush bought First Class ticket. But there were hundreds of people in the same queue who cannot think of travelling First Class. We are so privileged and are we as Thankful to GOD for his favours. Are we nice to the people who are poor and needy or are we arrogant, do we look down to others. The place I went to by train, can reached in1 hour 40 minutes and if I miss a Train I get the next train only after one hour. When I was there I had to ask the locals when will I get the train to go back home and had to reach in time else will have to wait for one hour on the station. And the people staying there were happy and content. Think Think we will have to answer one day for the luxuries we are enjoying....

The Law of the Garbage Truck

Received below by Email: Liked it, wanted to enhance my putting my thoughts into it. But its too late in the night...Maybe Later. But read the below makes sense...

One day, I hopped into a taxi and took off for the airport . We were driving in the right lane when suddenly, a black car, jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed the brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches. The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. I mean, was really friendly. So I asked "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, The Law of the Garbage Truck.


He explained, "Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you.. NEVER take it

personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on with the routine life. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home or on the streets.


The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so...... 'Love the people who treat you right.. Pray for the ones who don't.'

Believe that everything happens for a reason.

If you get a chance, TAKE IT! If it changes your life, LET IT!Nobody said it would be easy.

They just promised it would be worth it!”

A very rightly said quote: Life is 10% what you make and 90% how you take!!!!

I am liking it

I think I Love Oil!!! No I don't mean that I like consuming Oil. I think I like working in Oil Industry. I have been working recently with Petroleum Engineers, basically having meetings with people who work and whose job profile is to work in Oil Fields. And I am liking the things they talk about, the factors that need to be considered. The things that need to be monitored. Oil production is not like producing Biscuits in a Factory, because here there are uncertainties and its a Natural Resource. It is indeed a complex business and understanding their business processes to provide solutions for them is what I am enjoying.

I wish to go to the oil fields and learn more and more about the oil business to enhance my skills and be more aligned with the business in providing solutions. I need to plan some higher studies in petroleum business. Dont know when ?? Hoping before all the Oil is over in the wars for Oil.

Recently been on a training on a core product for Oil Industry. Adding some specialization to the General IT strengths. Learning never stops...

The weekend - 7th Jan 2010

This thursday evening after i came back from office and had a small nap, after Ishaa wanted to go to Qurtuba. Unfortunately I could not find my way to go where I wanted to. I went from 6th Ring which has no Exit to Road 45, Then took 5th and tried to join Road 45, but the sign to Road 45 said Surra and Rawda. So I was not sure If I would find Qurtuba on that exit. Finally, I decided to change the Plan and went to 360 degree Mall. Realized the importance of having GPS in your car or mobile phone. Yes you are right people used to ride on camels and find their way in deserts without GPS, or did they have GPS?, I think they used to know directions from the Stars. Isn't it. Any ways we live in an Advanced world. So I should get a GPS for directions. Can you believe although I might have driven down to Mirghab soo many times, always asking my friend for directions. Only recently I figured out how to get there on my own. That shows my Sense of Directions, Oopsss. I just revealed a weakness, so next time in an Interview they ask me for my 5 weaknesses I will mention this one. I will buy a GPS before the interview and say How I turned my weakness into Strength by buying a GPS. Smart right!!!

Ohh I lost the directions again, so I ended up going to 360 unplanned. I had been there many times before but this was the first time I went with my family. And this was the first day my daughter played with a balloon. Her first Balloon. I can remember the date now. As I blogged it. I think she likes going out, She enjoys looking at everything around, all the lights, she is awake or asleep, she stays in her stroller, having her own good time window shopping, as we do our shopping.

As we came out of the Mall to go back home it was 11:30 in the night, there was an empty slot next to my car. A young Kuwaiti Lad came and parked there, he seemed to be in a hurry. I was trying to fold my daughters stroller and put it in the trunk. As he came out of the car, in the speed of his haste, he asked me something in Arabic. Infortunately I did Not Understand and told him that, then he figured out I wasn't Arab. he asked me are you Indian? I said Yes, then he asked me in English: Will you have a problem in removing your car? I said NO, and he left. It was a nice Mercedes. SO I was like, such a gentle kid, there are others who will not mind parking behind you and blocking you until they do their shopping and this guy parked next to me and was ensuring that he did not cause any inconvenience to me. I think this is why this world has not end yet, There are real good people still alive in this world. This is how I thought about this kid. How would you have thought about it?