It's raining, it's pouring.

Ain't nobody snoring though. Go figure. No one sleeps when it rains here. Everyone's pretty excited because it doesn't rain very often. But it sure rained a heck lot yesterday. My University campus was like flooded. The water level was ankle high. There was a water level in my boots as well. Call me stupid but yeah, I had no idea that water permeates through leather. I mean, they never taught this stuff in school.

Chapter 1: Don't wear leather shoes in rain.

Poems about Loneliness

I'm feeling lonely today. Go ahead, call me an emo child. Boo hoo.

So I thought I'd read some poems on loneliness. I found some I really liked so I decided to put it up here.

Loneliness

by Rainer Maria Rilke

translated by Robert Bly

Being apart and lonely is like rain.
It climbs toward evening from the ocean plains;
from flat places, rolling and remote, it climbs
to heaven, which is its old abode.
And only when leaving heaven drops upon the city.

A bad day, a baptism, a birthday, a book and a blog

I had a horrible day yesterday. I had a class at 8:30 in the morning and so, since I take the metro to Uni, I had to leave my house by 7:15 at the latest, to get the 8 am shuttle bus that my Uni provides. What happened was that I left my house in a fabulous mood. I was even singing. That's how good I was feeling. My friend's name ends with 'lova' so I was singing Mr Boombastic, exchanging Mr Lova Lova for Miss **lova Lova, while making a mental note to tell her about it have a few laughs.

So I was like "Mr Boombastic, say me fantastic, touch me in me back she say I'm rooooooooooooomatherfacker!!!"

My Experiences with the Hare Krishna Mantra

Here I am, with a post on my personal experiences with chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. This was due a long time ago, but I had exams and assignments to work on, so my apologies.

So here's all the coolio stuff that happened to me with regard to the mantra:

The first time I heard a studio recording of the Hare Krishna mantra with careful attention,

Chanting the Hare Krishna Mantra

Today, I thought I'd write about chanting the mahamantra or the Hare Krishna mantra.

The Hare Krishna Mantra:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

1 round of chanting means repeating the above 16 words or the mantra 108 times. This is called a japa.

AND AGAIN!

What's the world coming to?!

Oh, the insanity!

I don't understand Arabic, ya lahwy!

But maybe I'll actually read one of these Arabic blogs. I'm trying to learn Arabic... Maybe it'll help?

AI CARAMBA!

I thought I'd check out some other blogs from my Global Dashboard today. I like it when people read my blog from there and so I have decided to occasionally go on it and return the favour. But there was a little surprise for me in store. Here's a screenshot:

How to Lose Weight

It's the weekend! And this weekend is going to last 7 days! FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABulous! Eid is on Sunday and so we have a wonderfully long holiday.

Aah...

So anyway, I thought I'd blog about the workout routine and diet I followed to lose weight. Here goes:

A View from the Metro

It's been an interesting two weeks, what with the new Dubai Metro and all. I have to say, though, Dubai did a really good job. The objective was to have the train up and running and ready for passengers on 09.09.09 at 09.09.09 PM. And that is exactly what happened. The fares are also reasonable but the Student Card is the BOMB. The fares are really cheap and it's really good for us students. Boy, is it fast. It takes about 19 minutes to cover a distance that would take around 40 minutes by car. And there's no Salik toll! Faaaaaaabulous. There are, however, some kinks in the system.

Meanwhile...

Hello to my 2 and a half readers. I haven't blogged in over a week. And my blog hits have barely changed.

Blasphemy.

Krishna in My Dreams

This morning, I woke up feeling good because Krishna paid me a visit in my dreams =) Well, I was horribly lazy and a bit stressed out, to be honest, but the dream was very nice! And what followed was rather freaky.

The dream is rather vague now but I will try my best to remember it correctly. Cannot guarantee the exactness, though.

In my dream, Radha and I were in a room. And then Krishna came and

Hello Kitty! =D

Today, my friend and I fed a little kitten! It was so nice. There's this kitten that usually hangs around near this shopping center that we pass by almost everyday. So today, after many many days, I mustered up the courage to stroke the little cat. As I put my hand close to her, she seemed a little hesitant but then looked up at me with big beautiful eyes and I stroked her head a little. Later, my friend and I sat down on the stairs to play with her. Another man was stroking her back and when we came, she came running to us and went near my friend and stretched. I absolutely love the way that cats stretch. My friend was stroking her then and she seemed to be loving being stroked.

Janmashtami 2009

Vaishnavas all over the world eagerly waited for the appearance day of their dear Kanha which fell on August 14th 2009. It's 2 days past now but I have still not gotten over the beauty of the Janmashtami festival.

For a quick overview on Janmashtami Today, it is the festival where people climb on top of one another, making a human pyramid to break the "dahi-handi" or "pot of yogurt" which is hung on a string tied to and from building tops. This is one of Krishna's pastimes enacted on the day of his birth. His birth too is a great story. Devaki and Vasudeva were locked in a prison cell because Devaki's cousin brother, Kamsa, was destined to be killed by Devaki's 8th son. So he ordered that all her children be killed upon birth. But when Kanha was born of divine birth, Vasudeva was instructed to

Driving Motor Vehicles II: Driving Motor Vehicles SAFELY

Irony, best beloveds, IRONY! Let me tell you why:

I almost had a car accident today.

WITH A COP!
WITH A COP! A POLICEMAN! I ALMOST HAD A COLLISION WITH A POLICEMAN! HOLY CANOODLE! A COP! A COP! THEY HAVE GUNS! HE COULD HAVE TAKEN AWAY MY LICENSE! EGAD! A COP!

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let me tell you how:

Driving Motor Vehicles

A friend of mine just got her driver's license yesterday. It's totally awesome and I'm real happy for her. I have to say, though, getting your driver's license is a terrible pain in the ass. I got it on my fourth try. I know, I know. Shame on me. Tsk tsk. Boohoo.

The rule here is that you take 40 classes, give your road test, and if you fail, you have to take 8 more classes. And that happened to me 3 times. And each of those 3 times, I came out of the Driving School swearing my way to glory. Yes, I cried.

Helping the Helpless and Loving the Faithless

I was browsing on this Hare Krishna website and I happened to come across this video filed under "Hare Krishna Today". This video is titled "Africa" and the short description given on the website is as follows:

Touring East Africa: A Hare Krishna festival team adventures across East Africa feeding and entertaining hundreds of thousands of people along the way. (Size: 20 MB)

Page link

So I checked out the video and boy, was I amazed. While the Hare Krishnas preached to the people of Africa and tried to make them realize what who their souls were calling out for, they also provided them with entertainment and foodstuff. One of the Hare Krishnas in the video said something along the lines of making a difference and making their lives better, not just preaching. And that, my friends, just hit me right there.

You could save this child's life.

I got this message on my Facebook and so I thought I'd put it up here:

"Humble request please take out 2 minutes to read the entire thing, you may save a life.

Azar Mahood is currently working for a construction company.

This is the third time Azar Mahmoods family is going through this. Previously they have lost their two kids due to this genetic disorder.

A 9 month old child who has a genetic disorder " Bubble Baby Syndrome, his body's immune system has given up, he is allergic to everything even the smell of perfume, his skin peeling off.

Internet Cafes and Increasing Prices

Some time ago, I frequented an Internet cafe + restaurant. They honestly charge way too much for way too little. A friend and I were going there for Internet work and obviously, common dining etiquette (and cafe policies) require that to sit in a cafe or restaurant, you need to order something from their menu. Unfortunately, their wi-fi Internet doesn't count. It cost around 15 Dirhams for an hour, if I remember correctly. Every time we would go there, I would try to send messages to the brains of the waitress that evening. Messages like, "No, I know it looks like I'm here for the Internet, but I'm really not. I really enjoy your fine cuisine... Like your Coke."

Once in a Lifetime

A few days ago, I got this message on Facebook saying that Friday 07/08/09 is going to one helluva day. The message said that at 12:34:56, dated 07.08.09, the time and date would be perfectly in ascending order for one second. This, as mentioned, is a very very rare happening and this occurrence has not been recorded since July 08, 1909.

So on Friday, I was online well past midnight.

Blacking Out

So I've been dieting for the past couple of weeks. I have also been walking for a minimum of 3 hours everyday to burn off the calories. Obviously enough, I have reduced my food intake. Yesterday, while over at my friend's place, I blacked out. Well, I almost blacked out. We were eating in the kitchen and I was almost done with my food when I started feeling sick. I told B that I needed to sit down and he told me to wait while he got one of those folding chairs. He got held up and I followed him to the other end of the house and told him to quickly get the chair. He set it down in the nick of time. Everything was spinning by then

First Post

Hello, all you beautiful people. Welcome to my blog. Click on the 'About' link if you want to know more about me. I go by the name DrainPiper, like the Pied Piper. It's sad, I know, but it would be a lot sadder if I were addressed as "BloggingUpTheDrainpipe". And even worse if I were addressed as "Drainpipe". Thus came the alias... DrainPiper. Not half as obscene as Drainpipe and not half as long as BloggingUpTheDrainpipe. Doesn't make any sense whatsoever, though. Anyhow, thanks for reading this (if you still are) and thanks for becoming a regular visitor (if you do).

Cheers.