Tour 2006

As promise, here are some of the beautiful pictures of the tour. Hope you like them. To publish them i have re-sized these pictures. However if you like any of these pictures and want to have them in their original size you can ask me.

A Walk in Clouds

Four of US

River Neelum

Breathless

Rise of Morning

Snakey Curves

3 Days in 8 Places

I am writing this blog while sitting in my office. Even tough I don’t have anything in particular in my mind at this time to write about, but still I would continue with something. Umm..mmm.. I love traveling. I like to see new places, experience new cultures and meet with people from different environments. In Pakistan, you can find many beautiful landscapes where culture, environment, language all are different. Once a year at least, I do travel outside of my city to explore different places within my country. Last year August, I went with my brother, cousin and cousin’s friend on a tour. We all went to Murree and its surrounding areas. We started our journey at 9 pm and headed to Islamabad via Daewoo bus. The bus entertained us with “Matrix Revolutions”. I haven’t seen the movie before, neither I intend to see it that time :P Meanwhile I passed my time while listening to the songs and by sleeping. We reached at Islamabad past mid-night. We took a taxi and reached Murree around 4 am. We took a room in a hotel, whose name is not in mind right nowL. After resting for couple of hours and having a brief tour of the Murree’s famous Mall Road, we again booked a taxi and began our tour. Our first destination was Patriata. It was not a new place for me. I have been there earlier twice. The only attraction at Patriata is the chair lifts and the cable cars. We traveled in them as the part of the holy ritual of our tour. After that we went to River Neelam base. It was the best part, since we have came across a different landscape this time. And lastly, we went to Bhurban, where the only attraction is PC Hotel. Again, as a sacred custom, we entertained ourselves with its food. That’s how the first day ended. For second day, we headed for Ayubia and Nathiya Gali. Nathiya Gali has beautiful landscape and is quite clean with respect to other areas. It was 13th August night that day. Around midnight the whole crowd at Murree accumulated near GPO and they celebrated their independence in their unique style by shooting fireworks, dancing and beating all the cars that passed through that area. On the third day, we went for Thandiyani, another tourist attraction near Abbotabad city. This place holds the national record for having the maximum rainfall, and we have experienced it ourselves too :P we were there, when it rained heavily. Abottabad is a calm and beautiful city. It’s the best city to live your retired life. It’s a proper big city having all the facilities that other cities like Lahore, Karachi etc have. After visiting the famous Ilyassi Masjid of Abbotabad and seeing little bit of the city itself, the taxi dropped us at Abbotabad Daewoo terminal. We want to travel back to Lahore on the same day. However we couldn’t get the tickets. We tried other bus services and luckily, we got the tickets for 8 pm and early next morning we were back to Lahore. That was the end of our exact 3 days journey. Overall it was a nice trip and nothing unfortunate or bad happened during its entire course. The healthy feeling of trip has lessened all the stress which gathered in my mind due to the work pressure. And one thing I learnt was that every person in the northern area is not a Pathan :P they are Pothohari and Kashmiris mostly ;)

The lunch break is over and I am back to work now ;) I will post the pictures of this tour later. So bye and take care ;)

Great Expectations

It’s one of my favorite movies. Though I have read the novel but I like the movie better than the novel. The whole execution of the movie is awesome. From actors to dialogues to music to visuals, the movie do touches the heart.

Synopsis
It’s a story of Finn; a modest guy falling in love with a rich girl. Throughout his childhood he loved Estella, but he was never sure whether she loves him or not. One day a secret benefactor helps him to achieve his dream of pursuing a career as a painter in New York. Finn believed, it had to be Estella and her aunt Miss Dinsmoor who has been guardian of Estella throughout.; since Finn poorness was the only reason why he can’t marry Estella; therefore they have been helping him. But on the day of his success, Estella marries another guy leaving Finn heart broken. And Finn realized all this expectations were false. He was seeing the life the way he wants to see, not what actually it was. And the secret benefactor was a criminal whom he helped once in his childhood. All of Finn’s expectations failed. But still it didn’t ended here.

Visuals
The whole movie is green. In the visuals the green color is shown in abundance. Green is life. Abundant in nature, green signifies growth, renewal, health, and environment. On the flip side, green is jealousy or envy and a dark and cold side of a person. The girl's character in the movie is she's a cautious person and not inclined to trust others easily. She’s an observer in life, but not wished to get involved more than she wants. She’s cold, classy and needs a person to release her from her past. But she's struggling from within.... and doesn’t know what to choose. So I feel...the color GREEN is a sign of nature, inexperience, beauty and most importantly HOPE.... which the movie tries to convey.


Dialogues

Finn:

I'm not going to tell the story the way it happened. I'm going to tell it the
way I remember it.

Ms. Nora Digger Dinsmoor:

She'll only break your heart, it's a fact. And even though I warn you, even
though I guarantee you that the girl will only hurt you terribly, you'll still
pursue her. Ain't love grand?

Finn: What's it like not to feel anything?


Estella: Let's say there was a little girl, and from the time she could understand, she was taught to fear... let's say she was taught to fear daylight. She was taught that it was her enemy, that it would hurt her. And then one sunny day, you ask her to go outside and play and she won't. You can't be angry at her can you?


Finn: I knew that little girl and I saw the light in her eyes, and no matter what you say or do, that's still what I see.


Estella: We are who we are. People don't change.



Finn:

The night all of my dreams came true, and like all happy endings,It was a
tragedy, Of my device, for I succeeded. I had cut myself loose from Joe, from
the past, from the gulf, from poverty I had invented myself. I'd done it
cruelly, but I had done it. I was free!

Finn:

It's my heart, and it’s broken.

Finn:

I did it! I did it! I am a wild success! I sold 'em all, all my paintings. You
don't have to be embarrassed by me anymore, I'm rich! Isn't that what you
wanted, aren't we happy now. Don't you understand, that everything I do, I do it
for you. Anything, that might be special in me, is you.