I can never forget arriving in Jeddah International airport, and seeing the faces of my Mom, Dad, Brother and lil 10-month nephew, with his rosy pink cheeks, spiky hair and the look that said ‘Why are you smiling at me like that? Excuse me do i know you??”

That was 2 months ago. Little later brother left, sister and nephew left, and now the time for me has come!…

The Masjid Al-Aqsa

The Dome of the Rock

Yet after so many years (atleast 12 years!) I am amazed to see this photo on this news site , with the words ‘Indonesians march for Aqsa mosque, Palestine‘. This potrayes the bitter truth that the image of Masjid al Aqsa, really has disappeared from people’s minds. And to think Indonesia is considered the largest Muslim country!

What you can see in the photo is clearly  a model of the Dome of the Rock. Can such a large mass of people be all so misled and fooled? This indeed is very sad to see.

“When you attack black people, they call it racism.

When you attack Jewish people, they call it anti-Semitism.

When you attack women, they call it sexism.

When you attack homosexuality, they call it Intolerance.

When you attack your country, they call it treason.

When you attack a religious sect, they call it hate speech.

But! when you attack the Prophet Muhammad(PBUH), they want to call it freedom of speech!” – Max Man

This is something I read on twitter, re-tweeted by someone else. I am not sure who this “Max Man” is, but he has a really good point there.

PS. Due to my exams, I have not been following much on the issues surrounding the Prophet(PBUH) and Facebook.

Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world. [Wikipedia]

It once created a big buzz when it first started in the UK as these images, apparently, breaks the privacy of homes and people. In the early days, the faces of people on the streets were not blurred, but many court cases later, they ended up blurring all the images of people. This view is taken from a vehicle that has a mounted 360-degree camera, that captures images, which are then put together to get the view. Zoom in on the five guys walking in the centre. Spot me if you can . If the Applet below doesn’t work, click here.

I got back to Liverpool last week after a very “high” 4-weeks in Jeddah. Originally intended to be a 3-week long trip, the Ejyafalajokol Eyjufjallajokoll Eyjafjallajokull volcano delayed my return trip. (That was just my spelling error, I still don’t have a clue how that is pronounced.)

But thanks to the volcano and the generous people at Saudi Arabian Airlines (if you follow me on twitter, you must have had enough of my whining), our family finally got to get together again after my sisters arrived along with my 10-month old nephew.

After 5 days of going to the airport in search for a seat to London, I had said enough good-byes to everyone at home that by the end of the 6th day, when I finally got a seat, I feel as if I haven’t left my home yet. It feels as if my 6th goodbye  wasn’t complete. With my current academic busy-ness, I have had very little time to mentally shift myself from Jeddah. This is just an attempt to wash the post-vacation blues away from my mind.

And finally, to all of my online friends who wanted to meet-up but couldn’t, I am very sorry it didn’t work out this time. I had a higher priority to my family. But inshallah, there will be another time soon

Designed by: Ahmed Al Haddad (@cdes). Shows the two famous skyscrapers in Riyadh drowning.

My post on the Jeddah floods of November 2009 is long overdue and it has always been on my list of posts to be written. But an opportunity came knocking when a similar rain hit Riyadh earlier today and caused similar damages, if not as strong as Jeddah, to the infrastructure of the city.

The Jeddah floods helped in unveiling a lot of infrastructural defects and bad town planning by the Jeddah municipality over a period of decades. It arose a lot of questions by the citizens which led to the king calling for an official investigation. It led to the arrest of many officials at the Jeddah Mayoralty and un-covered the not-so-hidden cases of corruption and bribery by them. What really saddens me is that, even though the investigation hasn’t reached anywhere yet, the end result of their actions led to the death of 120+ people (unofficially: 500+) and damage to even the latest road and bridge projects across the city.

I really hope that the devastation in Riyadh is not that serious and pray for the well-being of everyone there. The presence of a number of geeks in Riyadh didn’t go wasted either as a new website was launched within hours of the rain : RiyadhRain.com

The website gathers all the tweets from all the users of Twitter in and around Riyadh that puts the tag #RiyadhRain. It also has a collection of videos uploaded on YouTube by hundreds of users that also shows how the humanitarian efforts are being carried out by the citizens, which is worth another post that I hope to be writing very soon.

Butter fly roofs come in various varieties. You can read more about it here.

Considering its really imposing and iconic nature, I was considering making it a part of my final year design project, which I’m working on now.

Since my design has to suit the climatic condition in Kerala, India…how far is this gonna be practical…hmmm…any suggestions??

For those who have been wondering where i was, i’v been occupied with my final semester thesis works…juries, discussions, exams, reviews and re-reviews!…and a couple of other reasons too

Thanx to all who encouraged us to keep writing…and apologies for not keeping up to your expectation. Hoping to be more regular. See you all soon!

More on Jeddah:
God Help Jeddah
When it rains, it pours!

VIDEO: Floods in Jeddah (NoComment TV)

Especially having lived in a country like Saudi Arabia where there is a mosque every 2-3 blocks, I and many others used (and some still are) to complain about how everything comes to a complete stand-still during prayer times. Everything from the small baqala (grocery shop) to the largest of the largest supermarket chains (UPDATE: Bigger supermarkets are open during prayer time, but the counters are closed); the smallest start-up company to the biggest banks; and err… an online newspaper as well. There are even times when the traffic is at an all-time low during prayers. More about this can be read here.

And now I can really put the pieces together and get an idea of the complete picture. Getting those time-offs just so that you can pray on time is really something everyone should cherish. An excerpt from “Susie of Arabia”:

Another thing that struck me on this drive was the sheer number of mosques we passed along the way. I know that in Jeddah, there seems to be mosques every few blocks in every direction. But out in the middle of nowhere, it felt that even in extremely remote and sparsely populated areas, mosques stood every couple of miles or so. Some were very minimalist, with a floor, walls, a roof, and of course a minaret, and just bare openings without actual doors or windows affixed. Even very small villages seemed to have numerous mosques within their boundaries. When Muslims are traveling, they can delay saying their prayers until they arrive at their destination, but with mosques conveniently located every few miles, delaying prayer times is not really necessary.

What really made me write this post was this video that I stumbled upon. A British journalist for the BBC, Kate Humble, was in Jeddah(as part of the documentary, The Frankincense Trail) with the film crew where she was taken on top of a building in Balad (downtown Jeddah) during maghrib(sunset prayer). She was so over whelmed by the dozens of adhans that she breaks into tears.

I would like to end this post with this beautiful adhan from a mosque in Malaysia:

PS: For those of you who are wondering what the title of the post is all about, I was trying to make it sound similar to the latest game “Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2” that hit the stores a few days back.

Hopefully by now you probably know what this means. This was a flyer that I got at a recent Engineering Careers expo at our university. Companies like BAE Systems, Agusta Westland, Lockheed Martin and others of the like, were present. These are probably the biggest companies in Britain and deals with military arms(ranging from fighter jets to missiles) and their trade. The arms deal between the Saudis and BAE systems ended up being a huge controversy over corruption claims and it still fails to die.

To cut things short, they claim that these companies provide arms for Israel which in turn is used against Palestinians. Hence, we shouldn’t be working for them.

Please note: I am not judging anyone here, nor am I supporting any of the sides. Just wanted you all to taste the controversial world we live in today, no matter where/what/who we are.