PG Triathlon – Not just a sporting event, it brings people together!

So last week I went to support couple of my friends who participated at the Prince George Triathlon. It was a nice morning, but a little cold, sun was playing hide and seek with us. As I walked towards the lake for the first part of the triathlon i.e. swimming, I saw all the athletes getting ready, stretching, talking about their previous experiences and records, and some already jumped in the water to warm-up (I was like really warm-up in cold water – makes me shiver a little, a little).  I was so happy to see so many families and friends supporting their beloved ones. Mom's, Dad's, Brothers, Sisters, Daughters, Sons.......I felt a little homesick seeing families and there was me. 

So I was watching athletes while they were swimming, I met some interesting people. I met with a couple who were there to support their son who is participating in it for the first time; amazing couple lived in so many different countries and did so much awesome work for the community. His Mom was so excited that she was about to jump in the water and be there with her son, i can see her eyes the protective Mom. Dad was talking to me and sharing his experiences in Prince George and how things have changed in recent times. The huge a little far from me providing me some shade, i wondered trees always provide shade to others who provide them shade, such a selfless act. 

Any ways, one thing I love about people in Prince George they are always supporting each-other as if they are family - well sometime even families don’t support, but this community is more than a family sometimes. This teaches us to live again, not for yourself, but for others they need you! 

So I met with another interesting person, who participated in PG Triathlon 10 years ago. I can see in his eyes that he is reliving that experience again not by participating in it, but just by supporting others. He was telling that triathlons are much harder now than back in the days. 

The more I talked to different people the more I wanted to participate, but I guess I am not ready for this extreme sport yet. My friends are amazing and super human who could participate in events like this, even with a broken toe and even with no training due to vacation time. What can i say about my friends, i wish i have even the tenth of their strength and courage. You are amazing! 

My friends who participated in this event year after year, two amazing athletes who never say no to any challenge. They go against all the odd and inspire me, don’t tell them though. Haha! I don’t want it to sound too flattering. The most amazing thing that I have seen was father-daughter running 5km together. Wait!! She was just about 7-8 years old. Amazing! Isn’t it! There were so many Moms participated in the triathlon and their kids were there to support them, so awesome!!!

Fun thing there was a guy who participated in the event with Spiderman suit on! Way to go Spiderman! Haha!

It felt so good to be there for supporting everyone that I will be there again, maybe even as a participants next year.

I will always be there to support my friends; in the end at least I can say hey that is my friend who just finished. :D 

Good luck my friends for all other awesome events you will be participating. 

Life is like a song - What a wonderful world

I am feeling a little poetic today after listening to Louis Armstrong – What a wonderful world.

Life is like a song and you can sing the way you want, make it smooth like jazz, you can burst it with energy like a hard rock, you can make it nostalgic by adding some country tunes to it, you can create memories by signing it like soft rock, break some legs by rapping your heart out, make everyday a happy day – that remind me of Michael Buble song “It’s a beautiful day” and Bob Marley’s “Everything is going to be alright”. The list is never ending!! But remember life is a beautiful song.
Appreciate the colors in the rainbow and the flowers, the majestic and pretty blue sky look like a snow mountain,  feel the green grass under your feet, feel the breeze caressing, feel the rain droplets, dip your feet in the lake, appreciate the shade provided by tree during these hot days, sing like nobody is listening,  ……………..you can add tons of things to this list………….

I always say you know what Past, Future, and Present mean. There is famous saying – Yesterday was a history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift and that is why it is called “Present”. Open your gift with hope and be optimistic, gift is a gift we just need right pair of eyes and thought to see the worth in that gift.

Today is all about living and tomorrow is also about living it all over again in a different style and genre.

I think to myself what a wonderful world……………

Sometime I wonder what the hell I am writing and from whom, my audience may not be interested in this, they are smart and know all this anyways. Then I say it is a gentle reminder to my friends and to me that we are living in a wonderful world.

Never lose hope, hope is what keeps us going and make us work harder.

Have an awesome song!! (I don’t know how many of you will get it) lol!

Trip to Williams Lake – The city to make memories and smiles!!

This blog is dedicated to my friends from Williams Lake, YOUR CITY IS BEAUTIFUL LIKE YOU!!!

Williams Lake, a small city with blessed surrounding and landscape. The city is bustling with different colors of diverse culture. For some it may not matter that they live next to a beautiful lake, but for me nature is everything and living next to a lake is like a dream come true. People have undivided opinion about Williams Lake, which I don’t care about, I love the city and that is all.

That was a perfect day in Williams Lake, it was drizzling. I drove to a higher location and hiked a little to enjoy the spectacular view of the beautiful lake. After that I went to enjoy some country music at the concert, really nice and intoxicating tunes (even the name of the singer was Whiskey Jane). It was raining that night, but I didn’t saw anybody doing the rain dance. Everyone had their cow boy hats and boots on. Long boots remind me of my close friend all the time. I am thinking about her even right now.

The city gave me a lot of memories to cheer about – seeing a friend after 2 years and don’t know what to talk about, a walk around Scout Island while eating DQ blizzard, breakfast next to the lake, two benches at the top of a tiny hill, spectacular view engraved in my head, the lukewarm breeze, unexpected rain droplets kissing my skin, using sky as a canvas and drawing pictures from clouds, and the horse race down the hill and the whole rodeo show.  I don’t know why I love this city, I have been to so many other cities, but the feeling I felt there I have not felt anywhere else. I guess that was a perfect day to visit cities like WL or maybe I love the city because two of my very close friends are from this city. All these memories are coming back to my mind and I am feeling like I am in Williams Lake.  There are other reasons why I love the city, but I cannot describe them in words.

There are some bitter memories as well like a flat tire and unavailability of replacement tire, almost hit a deer, getting a speed ticket - damn tail-gater, non-availability of hotel room, but all this makes the trip all the more adventurous. I have no regrets all the trouble to get to Williams Lake worth it, I will do it all over again and again. When you see a friend after years you forget everything and the feeling is indescribable. It brings back all the memories when your friend was near you and the time you spend with them. Every moment was priceless!!

I love the house near the lake and wish to own a house there in future! And you are welcome to stay at my future house. The door sign of my future house will read like “Friends, Smiles, and Laughter are always welcome” :)

Sometime small things about a particular city make us going back there again and again. My reason to go back to this city is to relive every moment I spent there on 29^th June evening!!!

Life of a graduate student

Disclaimer: all character and events in this blog, even those that are based on real characters –are entirely fictional, all opinions are poorly written, and any copyrights issues – I don’t care. The following blog contains coarse language and due its contents it should not be cited anywhere (Shah 2013). They say don’t forget to cite.

Huh! Why I decided to write about life of a graduate student? What is there that has not been said and experienced?

I remember somebody wise once said each individual is different (…..citation need- they say don’t forget to cite), well I guess he forget that there are grad students. Isn’t guy? You know what I am talking we all share same “HAPPINESS”, get it? no darn! I still struggle with North American sarcasm! I mean we all share the same pain – structure is missing, too much information, too little information, what about the methodology, and biggest pain in………. referencing. Holy smoke! Why not we just have universal referencing, oh Chicago is a windy city, lets blew away some grad students, APA – who developed this one, bunch of psychos – we have treated lots of people, time to have fun with grad students, MLA – cant think of anything stupid, you guys are smart figure it out. Darn it! Grad studies killed my creativity, now even when I talk to people about normal stuff I tend to cite authors from my research.

 The other night with friends, “according to American department of energy 2012 we can use breweries residuals to produce energy.  NERD ALERT!!!! I was like seriously “Zishan” – 2012. What the hell!!

Sometime we graduate student even dream about our research. One night in the dream I figured out how to implement my methodology, I woke up in the middle of the night wrote it on chips bag with a marker and went back to sleep. I saw that after a week and trying to figure-out what the hell is that. God bless the grad studies, oh oh I mean! Supervisor bless the grad studies.

Some day we sleep in our offices, we meet our grad fellows in buses and library or in Tim Horton queue, we make guest appearances in social events, we decide to see a movie at the cinema hall when it was off the screen a month ago, we try to save leftover so we don’t have to cook lunch for tomorrow, we are the only people at the university on weekend, even the security staff recognize you, we are the biggest customer strata for Tim Horton and other stores at the campus, we can smell free food from our office, we text each other when there is a free food,……..the list is never ending(……..) citation needed…. They say don’t forget to cite, otherwise somebody is going to get in trouble.

CITE CITE CITE! What about my opinion, oh it is already stale!

Alrighty! I wrote this for fun, if I offended somebody please feel thank me! no seriously thank me and other fellow grad students!

If you want me to describe grad studies in one line I (Shah 2013 – they say don’t forget to cite) would say “it is complicated like my tax returns”  so many damn rules and regulations to follow.

That said, I still love being a student and love being in the midst of all this confusion, that make our life more interesting.

Three cheers to grad studies. Hip hip hurray…………..

  

   

What is Gender - Personal reflection and experiences

It is my personal opinion and reflection and I have no intention to hurt any gender. I am a “Man” in case you are thinking that this is definitely written by a woman. Oh in case you are wondering I am not a student of gender studies either, I am a business economic student, oh! Yes right I may have some “economic motives” behind this.

The inspiration of writing this blog comes from two of my very close friends article. The article not just inspired me to do things differently, but also made me think about gender inequality. Thank you my fabulous friends! 

There are only 12 fortune 500 companies that are headed by women, I wonder “why”, you can count the number woman billionaires on Forbes list on your fingers, I wonder “why”, everyone wants to be Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and I wonder “why”. Having said that gender studies is not just about women, that is a misconception. I guess that is why I have never met a man who is taking gender studies. Gender study is itself marginalized by the society as the field of study about plight of women. This is sheer out of ignorance and stereotype!  

What do I know about gender studies, may be nothing, actually, I have no formal education and background in gender studies, but do we really need to study this as a subject? We just need to keep our eyes and ears open to figure out how gender plays a huge role in our day-to-day life. In my friend Charelle words “Gender is linked to everything, and everything is linked to gender”, if you just for a minute analyze your daily routine and habits you will realize how everything in your life is influenced by your gender - the clothes we wear, what we drink, kind a car we drive, what we eat, everything is affected by gender stereotype created by the society. My understanding of gender is based on my personal experience and observation of events around the world.

So what is”Gender”? Gender is something that separates us anatomically, but in today’s world gender has a different meaning – a word that dictate us what you are supposed to do, how you act, how you react, do’s and don’ts. oh! “It is feminine” “it is masculine”; this is what society thinks gender is. Who define what is feminine and what is masculine? And what are these terms anyways? We all feel the pain, we all smile, we all cry, and we all come in this world the same way. So why this question!

Before coming to this country I have never heard of gender studies as an academic stream. I guess in my country we have not only marginalized woman, but also made sure that they never even realize that they are marginalized. Women don’t even realize that they are discriminated based on their gender, oh you are a girl – you are supposed get married as soon as possible, have a family, cook, and clean. And most of the women accepts that due to our so called “society norms”. Why not you let them decide what they suppose to do, marriage, family, cooking and cleaning is not the only thing in their lives.   

Gender in my personal opinion in this marginalized world is about how we are treated and distinguished from each other based on our gender, what is expected from us and what is acceptable to the society. Kids at the early age were taught about what is expected from their gender.  Why not we teach them what is expected from them to keep the humanity alive and what they can do to make this world a better place.   

While writing this intricate blog, I felt is it right to say this or not, then I said to myself who is anybody else to decide what is right or wrong I will write whatever I feel like, we all have freedom of speech. But again freedom is dictated by the society and boundaries are well defined.

Gender should only be anatomical difference and nothing else.

I may have said so many things that someone find offensive, but then again why it is offensive, are your sure your understanding is not influenced by the society and their so called “norms”. If you still feel offended then accept my apologies.

I want to thank my friend Emmy (the title is based on your observation that my perception should not be influenced by anybody, but me)  and Charelle for inspiring me! Love your article!

Time well spent today!

Another New Year – What I have lost and found last year - Precious Year 2012!

A New Year is like a blessing - live it to the fullest

For the last 3 years I was spending my New Year day on streets of New York, not like a homeless guy, but enjoyed the vibrant culture and colors, street performances, chatting with strangers, hot coffee outside Macy’s, shivers at times, smile and laugh with strangers, loud sound of party blowers, people holding plaques “Free Hugs” “Don’t forget to smile” “Lord is with us”, street vendors selling some of the coolest stuff, kids dragging their parent to M&M and ToyRus stores, people lost in city maps, couples asking strangers to click their pictures, traffic cop waiting for 18 hrs shift to get over, an old lady looking at the empire state building and reminiscing how it looked when she was young, and a young man observing all this while waiting in the queue for “Rockettes” dance performance at the most beautiful theatre “Radio City”. Another last day of the year in New York fast paced life, the only day when the city lost its momentum and slow down to enjoy each and every bit of being human. New York is a city where you can find yourselves in thousands of pictures taken by strangers from all over the world, like I have hundreds of strangers in my photo albums.

 I missed all that mixed bag of emotion here in Prince George on my first Canadian New Year Eve!

The year 2012 was a wonderful year for me both personally and professional, I started my new position as a Research Fellow for the university, made some friends for life, bonded with old and lost friends, moved to a new and wonderful place with amazing roommates, had amazing summers with friends, travelled to some of the most beautiful cities in Canada, met some really amazing and crazy individuals– don’t ask their names some of you know what I am talking :D, learned some important lessons. Although there were days when I wanted to go back home and hug my Mom and Dad, stay in their arms, hold my little nephew, and see the smile on everyone’s face. There were days when I needed my friends to talk me out and fortunately there were friends like Matt, Greg, Alishia, and Charelle, whom I am indebted. There were friends like Harpuneet and Ashish who were trying to make me laugh. Tried skiing for the first time and rest is history and one of my most read blogs. So many memories I don’t know how many I will be able to recall.

Moments when I had supper at the lake and splashed water……, flying kites and snapped tread - running for the kite, meeting a friend after 5 years, from knowing to liking, ….I think I am getting a poetic, now I am going to stop now.    

Writing this blog brings back all old memories, I have no regret, I have cherished every moment of happiness and sorrow. Bad days make us realize the true worth of good days.

Thanks for being my friend! Cheers to New Year and Cheers to New Memories.  

Sweetheart! just hold me and follow me - this is how we dance

Dance like you have ants in your pants

Dance makes me and my partner Happy! Even my fingers are dancing while writing this story. Yo yo! Like a rapper! Yo yo!

India is famous for many things, its diversity, spicy food, big fat weddings, scorching heat……but one thing I love the most about India and Indians that we are Happy People. So the question is how we express our happiness? We do that by dancing our heart out, dance until we are drenched in our own sweat, until we are exhausted or collapsed, or until or shoes broke down, c’mon I am going to dance barefoot in that case.

I, Zishan publically admit on this day that I love dancing like crazy, not just crazy bollywood dancing that to my Canadian friends is like changing bulbs, monkey dancing, or dancing like you have ants in your pants. Yes, I do all this crazy dancing along with this more formal style like Bhangra. That’s not all, in Canada I have learned some new style Waltz, Tango, Salsa, Twist and turn, Robot dancing, pop and lock, tap dancing. Oops there are other styles too, Shake that Ass, belly dancing, strip tease… haha! Just kidding! I don’t know this style or maybe I do. Haha! :p

Once more thing everyone, dancing is fun, but at the same time it is injurious to your health, you may get bitten by someone, got kicked or punched in face, knees, gut, almost anywhere, gets you in fight, girls and guys hit on you – girls are fine with me, but guys oops wrong number dude. Haha!

Okay! So I went to a dance studio (lets say it was a dance studio:p) in Montreal. Since my feet were dying to hit the dance floor. The studio that night was packed and to my advantage it was freestyle night, so I can do whatever I want to. :D some guys were doing awesome spins and robot dancing, I said fu.. I can’t do that but I can do some crazy mix of Indian and North American move, so I asked my partner to watch me and follow me afterwards. I mixed tap dancing with some bhangra and other freestyle moves. I must admit that it was a little embarrassing for a minute, but then everyone start cheering me up and joined me.  My famous two finger whistle caught attention of everyone, since it was so fu…. loud. Hehe!

My partner joined me, but she said I don’t think I can follow your step. So to please her I switched to ballroom dancing with twists and spin, she was uncomfortable with that too, she left the floor. But no worries another girl joined me, but to my disadvantage she was trained dancer, I was like FML. I got nervous and she said “Sweetheart just hold me and follow me” I don’t know what style of dancing she led me into. But that was awesome but lacking panache. Who cares after 5 minutes, I have gone back to my freestyle dancing and we had great time after that. But fun part my partner just disappeared from that studio I was where the hell is Emma. But then I said who care lets enjoy since that was my last night in Montreal and I to have catch an early morning flight. I was sore next morning and limping instead of walking, even the security official asked do you need a wheelchair and are you okay! I was like if someone asked me what happened what I m going to tell them, I was dancing my ass off on an official trip. Haha!

Dance is life and music is like blood. I have a secret about how I can dance like crazy and for hours. If you want to know secret call me maybe! :D

So you want to dance you know who to call.

I am waiting for the dance club at the UNBC to start again!