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1997

all good things come to an end

so i learned today. i had been alone here in jeddah since 26th decemeber 1996. sheesh, that was last year. well, paa was in canada at the time, skid in canada too, and maa and sunny in karachi, pakistan. i had a long argument with paa and i eventually won and and so i stayed alone in jeddah, saudia. paa had given me 7000 SR in cash to spend during his absence. i gave back 3000 SR to maa today. where the other 4000 SR were spent is another matter. i have, however, prepared a list and i will copy it after a few pages.

i made a great mistake that i cannot undo. i didn’t write during the period of 27th december 1996 and 26th january 1997. here are the things i remember. the very next day when my father left for canada, kami suggested in school to go to PIZZA HUT for lunch. and i agreed. so we ate pizza’s (ALL YOU CAN EAT). i was the guy with the money so i paid the 40 SR. the next day me, shahzeb, ahsan, and junaid went to POPEYES. it wasn’t that good. in the afternoon or night (8:30 pm) imran and i were wandering near the school when imran suggested to go to AL-BAIK. i immediately agreed. after all, who’s waiting for me at home ?

imran’s parents had to go to makkah. i had to get a diskette from sheraz so i told imran to let us first go to sheraz and then to his house. he told me to go and collect the diskette and then come to his house. i didn’t want to go to sheraz’s house alone cuz the guy makes me nervous. anyway, i did collect my diskette and told him that me and imran were going to AL-BAIK. asked him if he wanted to accompany us too. he went, asked for persmission, came and told me (as always) to wait for 2 minutes. it’s always 2 minutes. anyways, he seemed too astonished when i told him about my financial condition. we went to AL-BAIK and ate the chicken broast. i bought and gave the broasts to both of them. and thus 33 SRs went there.

i kept going to school regularly. went to kami’s one day and stayed for a couple of hours. on 01/01/1997 sher gave us a party. the day was wednesday. we had planned to cut school and go to Ballad or something. hussam, kamran, sher, hesham, and i were going. sher phoned and reconfirmed that i was awake. kamran reached here first. then hussam and sher. and last of all hesham. hussam ironed his shirts and pants. kami borrowed my grey shirt. we dressed, i.e, changed our uniforms and headed for ballad.

unboarded at Mehmal Centre. enjoyed the day very much. bought THE ROCK for 30 SR from a phillipino. also bought METALLICA – LOAD, BUSH – SIXTEEN STONE, and SWEETROCK. then all of us ate AL-BAIK. reached home and when we got out of the limousine, hesham blurted out, “sikander, a girl named aasia lives around here somewhere. do you know her ?” and i replied, “are you asking ME ?”. and when i looked up to their gallery, aasia’s mother (basheera) was looking down at us.

at noon, me and shahzeb went to AL-RAYA Supermarket from where i bought a NEWSWEEK. jojji’s maamo, i.e, brother of mother, came from Pakistan. he brought with him about 20 CDs. jojji doesn’t have a CD Player so i gave him my AIWA NSX 990 Mini HiFi deck for recording on the third of january. i took his VCR and watched 12 Monkeys, The Rock, and Apollo 13. got my deck back on 4th january.

talked to puppa and asked him permission to buy a VCR. got it. so went with hussam to International Market on the 6th and bought a JVC VCR for 650 SR. the original price was 720. the next day was SportsDay. this time (after a 2 year delay), we got access to Al-Ittehad Sports Stadium. but only those who participated were allowed to go to the stadium. the rest were to stay in the school, i.e, in their classrooms.

so on 7th january, sarosh, khurram, imran, and sheraz came to my house. watched INDEPENDENCE DAY. sheraz, sarosh, and i were watching it for the first time, khurram for the second, and imran for the fifth. it was an awesome movie. imran and i also played Mortal Kombat 3 on my PC. we both love it. i always play by Kung Lao and he by Lui Kang.

at night, i rented SENSE AND SENSIBILITY and went to kami’s house. i slept while watching the movie that night. the next day, 8th, i rented SABRINA from AQEEL Video. the cast is harrison ford and julia ormond. the day was wednesday. i had a bad stomach ache during Chemistry’s practical. so did sheraz. he went home. rahat gave me SPICE GIRLS and i recorded the whole album. me, shahzeb, ahsan, junaid, and hammad went to PIZZA HUT where i ate 12 slices and 3 glasses of Pepsi. jojji ate 14.

thursday, 09th, saw me going to Kababsh restaurant with talha for dinner. talha was alone in jeddah like me since the 5th. ate jal frezi, dal maash, kher, falooda. watched DIE HARD III and BIG. zafar uncle came and slept. and then came friday, the bid day. why ? well, ahsan was born today, sixteen years ago and also RAMADAN started.

ate sehri and went to tawoon mosque with talha and shahzeb. in the afternoon, we were invited to ahsan’s for an iftar party. i gave him two cassettes, E-Type – The Explorer and Ace of Base – It’s A Beautiful Life. me, fahad, shahzeb, ahsan, junaid were present alongwith others. played SNES and 3DO. ahsan has a PC, SEGA, SNES, 3DO, NEOGEO, and SONY PLAYSTATION. he’s real rich. but he still isn’t happy. now he wants to buy a NINENDO 64. me and ahsan watched all three parts of DIE HARD. everyone was great.

i don’t remember the date of the day talha and i went to Shoula Centre but i do remember it was after 10th and before 20th. it takes about 15 minutes by car and we went on foot. bought a shirt on the way from AL-HARAM. reached the centre and talha bought 5 CDs. gave one to me named 100 Adventure Games. All of them were shareware. he also bought a Phil Collins cassette. didn’t have any strength left for coming back home on foot so we stopped a taxi. me and talha also sat on the main entrance platform of our school at 2:30 am in the night and ate burgers and drank pepsi. then went to Tihama park were we sat and talked till 4:30. then came home and slept like a dead horse.

najeed stayed at talha’s house for three days. both of them came to my house at 3:30 and we watched JHONNY MNUEMONIC, MASK, and two cassettes of MTV. talha made a mixture of beer, pepsi, water, and apple juice. the smell of the resulting liquid was unbearable. i took one sip only. talha drank four glasses and then slept. we sliced a pizza with the MULTIGAMES CD. enjoyed ourselves very much. rented MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, CABLE GUY, etc.

monday, 20th january 1997, was one of the best days of my life. i had to go to school but i was feeling very very sleepy. so i wrote two notes to kamran and najeeb and gave them to talha and slept all day long. told kamran to return my book to the librarian and to arrange with imran, sarosh, sheraz, and khurram what to bring to the One-Dish Iftar Party. told najeeb to bring me SLANG. then slept till 12:50 pm when kamran phoned me and woke me up. he said hussam is coming to my house. as hussam went to tuition directly from schook, instead of going home, he came here. i started cleaning my room. he slept while i kept cleaning till 4:30. then took a bath while he ironed his clothes. when i got out, i was wearing a vest and towel. i put on my shoes, locket, and took my guitar. then hussam took this picture :

great, isn’t it. as soon as he snapped this shot of me, the bell rang and sarosh came. he brought samosa’s and fruit chat. the came kami and sheraz. they brought two pepsi’s. then khurram (chickpeas) and last of all imran (kababs and samosas). i ordered two large Super Supreme Pizzas and two salads from PIZZA HUT. the total cost was 122 SR. we took photos. kamran talked with sadia. we all listened secretly. played SNES and PC. sarosh changed my windows password and refused to tell me the new one. anyway, i corrected the problem. he had changed ‘dear’ to ‘suck my ass’. god! i do hate the fellow. but he’s a good friend too. sheraz left at 7:45, then kami and imran, hussam and khurram, and last of all sarosh at 11:25. i enjoyed myself throughout the day.

by the way, i forgot. on 15th january was hussam’s birthday and i went to his house on the 16th. went to Jamjoom centre and bought him a model of BMW. also bought the locket for myself that day. on tuesday, 21st, i held a part for ammar, omer, shahzeb, ahsan, and junaid. on wednesday, talha and i iftared at imran’s door. at night we three went to WATANIA and i bought a Stephen King poster while talha bought ID4. talha came at 5 the same night and we watched HAPPY GILMORE and then slept. he went home at 12 the next day. on friday, i delivered free Iftar meals to kamran, ahsan, and sheraz. on saturday, i slept the whole day. even missed iftar by waking up at 6:45.

and then today maa and sunny came home. sunny is much thinner now. maa is the same. they brought LOAD for jojji, two belts for shahzeb, TULSI for me, etc etc. they slept the day away and i decided not to go to school tomorrow cause we will start packing for Canada.

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