Fun Photos

The most important photo I just received from my mother:

That would be my mother on the left, and Nobel Laureate, Prof. Mohammed Yunus, on the right.

On a less-serious note, I also got a new decoration for my office from my friend R a while back:

(That would be the Galactica orbiting the dwarf planet Eris; Dysnomia is the moon in the back. So... Earth is only a few planets away.)

I also got something else from my father for Eid:

Nothing for the Halloween weekend, though. But, if you ask me, these photos are tons better. KF

Eid al Kareem

Yesterday was the best Eid-ul-Fitr I've had in a very long time.

See, the end of Ramadan is the biggest holiday for Muslims, and the most enjoyable. It's an incredibly fun time when everyone gets together with friends and family, feasts throughout the day, and is generally smiling, happy, and generous.

For 2001 to 2004, I was still at college through Ramadan and Eid. The plus side is that I was able to fast with dozens or hundreds of other folks, and broke fast with most of them each day. That much was good and gave the month a lot more meaning. 2005 was sort of like that (the year I began working). The only down side is that, while I was able to spend Eid with friends usually, it wasn't the same as usual.

Eid for us is celebrated with prayers in the morning, then going around to your extended family's and friends' homes for more food and gatherings all throughout the day. This gets harder when most of your friends are college students, and no one really has the capacity to hold something like that... So, for the past few years, it's been prayers in the morning and then hanging out with friends for some of the day. While good, it still felt like that usual Eid tradition was missing.

But, yesterday was markedly different. Some of my extended 'family' (meaning including friends of the family) have moved up to the DC area since. So, me and S, a (slightly) older family friend, went by a Bangladeshi friend's house out near Reston, VA, and met up with several others there. Thereafter we went to another friend's house in Manassas (about 15 minutes further west). In the evening, to top it all off, one of S's friends was holding a party at his place in DC.

I'm not gonna go into details, but it was the most enjoyable Eid I've had in a long, long time. (Better yet, the group I'm around now is at least close to my age group.) Here's hoping that future Eid's will be at least this good, insha'Allah. KF

Connections

So everyone in
the Bangladesh community now is trying to figure out their connections
to Mr. Yunus. ...we apparently have a lot here and there.

As I
already said, several years ago (in 1997), Mr. Yunus came to Nashville.
My relatives and the rest of the Bengali community in Nashville held a
reception in his honor--which is when most of them spoke with him
personally. I knew who he was back then (he's always been a big name
among Bengalis, South Asians, and economists), but I think I was out of
town when he came to visit.

Besides that, apparently in a village that I visited with my father back in 1998 in Bangladesh, Mr. Yunus's house was the next one over from where we had dinner. Here's a shot of me catching some coconuts beforehand. Arrow's pointing out where from he his house is. Oh, and the village where he lent that initial $27 that began his experiment with microcredit was just nearby as well.

Yeah I know, we're kind of going to lengths here for a kind of six-degrees-of-Mr-Yunus. But, come on... KF

Meaning of Peace

This had me in a real good mood all day. The Nobel committee has awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank: Nobel for anti-poverty pioneers (BBC) There are plenty of reasons why I'm real happy about this... I think every Bangladeshi has to take some pride or appreciation in Mr. Yunus's recognition. He actually received a degree from Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, and so several years ago when he visited Nashville again, many of my relatives met him personally at a reception they held in his honor. My mother made sure to get a photo of the two of them, "for when he's awarded the Nobel Prize one day."

Of course,
I'm sure most people expected it to be in Economics, not for Peace.
That's just yet another reason why I'm happy about this turn of events.

See, Yunus himself proved a number of things through his work. He proved:

• Being poor does not necessarily mean you're irresponsible with money (Grameen has a 90% or greater repayment rate)
• Women are as good with--if not better than--finances when compared to men (96% of Grameen's borrowers are women)
• Access to the means to lift oneself out of poverty is the most important element, more so than the means themselves
• There is a fundamental link between poverty alleviation, and peace

Better yet, by awarding the Peace
prize to him, the Nobel committee has highlighted that last point.
Improving people's lives in itself is advancing the cause of peace,
justice, and democracy. It's not just about holding elections and
drafting constitutions, but keeping that stable by supporting the
poorest sections of society.

Anyway, before I drone on, I'll just suggest you check out the BBC article and some of the links there. KF

Halal Fried Chicken

It's Popeye's. And it's halal:
http://www.zabihah.com/_details.php?rest_id=2794

I only mention this because when I switched over entirely to halal meat 4-5 years ago, then it was real easy to give up fast food. I didn't even get cravings for McDonald's or Arby's or any of that. But the one exception was KFC... I got lots of cravings for their chicken pot pies, greasy original recipe, and who-knows-what-went-into-it gravy over the mashed potatoes... But now I got something to tide over those occasional cravings. I mean, it's not the same, but Popeye's is just as good.

Subway doesn't count, by the way. I still eat that often. KF

That Just Proves...

I had a brief conversation with my sister just yesterday regarding the difficulty of waking up at 5AM for suhoor (the pre-dawn meal)

T: Yeah, I think it's a guy problem
Me: What, you mean women don't have problems waking up at 5AM?
T: Just that I asked some guys here and they had the same problems
Me: That's because it's hard to wake up at five in the morning
T: I know, but none of the women I asked said they had that problem
Me: Well, that just proves that women lie more than men...

No, I'm not serious... Don't give me a hard time over this... KF

For Future Reference...

Well, I couldn't keep it up for even two days. The very second day of Ramadan, I overslept by an hour and missed the time for suhoor (the short meal before dawn). Oh well, it wasn't too bad 'cause I could just sleep a little more on account of it being Sunday--insha'Allah this doesn't happen any during the week.

But, for future reference:
Never, never eat anything spicy for suhoor.
That's all. KF

Ramadan Kareem

Every year
Ramadan manages to sneak up on me again. Well, it's the first day of
Ramadan (and the Autumnal Equinox, and Rosh Hashanah--three holidays in
one!). It's already off to a good start: I didn't oversleep this
morning and managed to wake up in time to fix seheri.

I
do have a few goals for this Ramadan. There are some more habits I'd
like to break, and I want to see if I can go this entire month without
oversleeping any day. I'm planning on (insha'Allah) coming into work
early and leaving early each day to make it easier on both my life and
my work, so it should be all good. KF

Getting Out

I finally got
away from the DC area, and headed down to Chapel Hill, North Carolina,
to visit a couple of friends (their blogs are linked on the left
there). It was a lot of fun, and definitely a refreshing break from the
city. I gotta do stuff like this more often; staying around Washington
makes you go crazy after long enough. (Unfortunately, with Chinese
class coming up again I'm not sure when I'll get another chance to take
off for the whole weekend, but we'll see).

And how can I pass up playing with these guys?

One of these other days maybe I'll have photos from the actual city of Chapel Hill. KF

No Place

I'm keeping with my policy of not mentioning my workplace or co-workers by name.

But
anyway, last weekend, the CEO of our company invited those on our
contract (the largest in our company's history) to his farm about an
hour west of here, as a celebration of the renewal of said contract.

Less like a farm, more like a resort, the place's name is "Utopia".
The name is accurate.
Enough said.

Oh,
and the CEO is quite a personable fellow; it wasn't until halfway back
home that it hit me I was talking with, say, my supervisor's boss's
boss, or something like that. Good thing, too; I think I might've choked if that thought had occurred to me during then. KF