Remember the Magic

Ironically, I just came back from my trip to Orlando about less than 24 hours ago. I am miserable after catching the bug on the plan to Disney World.

ALthough, my family and I went during the month of october, the off-season month, the lines were still very long, and the people still smelled bad! *silly smile *

My brother and I were left with the responsibility of ``babysitting` my spoiled 13 year old sister.

We spent far too much on food, and useless souvenirs. All in all, I didn`t really mind the Disney Challenge.

I was upset with the EPCOT center, though. Could they have made it any more pro-euro???? No country from Africa was presented, oops, I forgot about Morocco. But, what about Kenya??? And, there was China and Japan. okay. but, what about the middle East or South-East Asia?

The majority of it was, England, France, Italy and Norway -- oh yes, can`t forget great ol` America.

So much for diversity! I was greatly disappointed. And I had the unfortunate experience of going at a time where 95% of the visitors were from Britain!!! I am not sure whether there was a brit discount value or not! But, they were everywhere with their ignorant comments and stupid stares.

No one spoke English, or at least American english besides my siblings and the fellow Floridians.

The magic in the Kingdom was suppressed by the great British air of BEANdom!!!

I think I would have enjoyed far better, had the miserable not set foot on the tropical state! *silly laughter *

But, I found Disney to be kinda nice, but then again, I didn`t have to take care of a young child.

Come to Hershey Park, in Hershey, PA!! much more Funnnnnn!

besides, all welcome for a cup of tea at my place!!

Dear Happy one:

As an allegorist, you have a right to talk in riddles. After reading all your posts besides the story, I am still puzzled about who and what hurt you.

``What threw me was the intense culture clash with the settled immigrants of my own ethnicity. I have since observed and experienced this culture clash (which diminishes with time) with great interest``

Intense culture clash?

``It is my personal resolve to not fall in that trap and look down upon fresh immigrants.... but I am reminded constantly of this phenomena by the lack of discrimination I face now that I am a part of the `audience`.``

I think you should do more than ` not looking down upon` the FOB`s. Go the airport every weekend, bring some FOB`s home and shelter them from, the beast.

``While my uncle & aunt (after 25 yrs) still have values, accent, friends, eating habits, etc. that are very `ethnic`, that is not at all the case with me.``

Did your aunt not give you food? Did she make you sleep on the floor? Did your cousins make fun of you? Were you thrown out on the street after three days?

``So I can talk football and I can hang out at a titty bar with a bunch of guys and slip dollar bills under garters (both of which I quite enjoy :)... therefore it is OK for me to be a desi wearing a kurta on a construction site.``

Extremely painful things to do for a FOB. So glad you survived the ordeal.

I hope you wear a Pyjama under the Kurta.

Did your wife accompany you on these outings or did she go with the girls to male stripper joints?

``This `discrimination` is also at a `micro-social` level. It rears up its ugly head in little parties and gatherings.``

What discrimination? No chairs, no drinks or no food? Were you asked to go mingle with the kids?

Did people shut up whenever you showed up? Did they talk in whispers behind your back?

If you are mulling over these slights, insults and `look down upons`, five years after the events, only YOU are responsible for the beatings. Get over it.

As hundreds of Mexicans are preparing right now to sneak over the border to work for a pittance and live in squalor, your sob story fails to pull at my heart strings. Sorry.

``Some got their leotards bloodier than others. The reason why you havnt met the beast yet is because you dont want to meet him. The day you decide to meet him, he will show up. And By god he`ll knock the crud outta you.``

I have enough demons of my own to worry about meeting your puny beast. Thank god, I do not believe in God, specially the kind who sends beasts to bloody children like you in leotrads.

Stick to allegory. It becomes you.

Re : A Great Pilgrimmage!!!

Back in 1986, an affluent and well-off Pakistan-Based Uncle of mine, with three kids, went for their first trip to Disney World. On their way to the ``dunyawi janaat a.k.a Disney Florida`` (according to him...)they made a stopover to visit us, in the Middle East, and did their best to make us feel like complete losers, by the mere fact that they were on their way, for an experience of a lifetime, and that we having lived abroad for the then, 3 years had not plucked enough courage to go visit Disney, and chew the cud with Mickey and Company. On their mentioning for the third time to my dad, about taking the kids, to US, my dad jokingly replied ``Han Bhai Jaaan, Buchoon ne abhi Haj Nahin Kiya Hai, Inshallah, Jub allah Talah Dil Me yeh Tammana paida kur de ga tub chale jaine gey...``
(Yes, you are right, the kids have not done their Haj (pilgrimmage) yet, but with Gods Will they wil do it soon``....My Uncle was not amused!!!!!But at least that put an end to all the ranting and raving till they left.....

12 years on having lived in the ``west``, I still have not plucked the courage to visit this gory exhibit of mass commercialisation of U.S.A. Perhaps i feel good about myself, without having to go shake hands with Mickey, or see a bride arriving in her pumpking carriage. Or perhaps I am afraid to be lost in the sea of humanity one invariably associates with such Public places, with people bursting with artificial smiles, and asking you ``How are you, today``, for the millionth time, without even so much so as lifting their eyes from their selling/vending cash account register, or wishing one ever so sincerely`` Have a nice day``.... It is perhaps an insult to my intelligence to see them being this trivial and superficial. I would much rather they just let go of the superficial niceties, and be ``Real Humans`` for a change!!!!Perhaps i might be shocked even more!!

Its really amusing, to note how the depressing, overcast skyline with inklings of more vociferous rain, can dampen one`s spirits.... for such is the weather prediction for the May Holiday Weekend in this part of the world!!

Wishing everybody a good Labour Day !!!

Kind Regards

Asim

Re:GSM, Mickey=satan

Mickey is a genius all right, but he is not evil - he is godly. Otherwise, how come my daughter doesn`t listen to anything that invokes me or her father, but mention that Mickey would be upset if she didn`t do so and so, gets it done in a rush - she can`t stand the thought of displeasing Almighty Mickey!

As an aside, I wonder what people feel about how to discipline their children. Keep `em on a straight path?

AZ

Attn: The Records Clerk

From Well-over 100 ways Braney should die:

Hasta La Vista, Barney!

Barney The friendly Dinosaur..

I think Barney is a sensitive, polite and wellmannered Dino. If we had them still around, thats the sort i would have liked to hang around the kids, as opposed to his meat-eating variety...

Unforgettable are the words....
I love You,
You love me,
we are one big
happy family.....


There`s words of wisdom in the Barneys Song too.
As an aside, i was a bit shocked to find Anti-Barney Sites on the net, where one spoils oneself, by killing th ``purple dope`` in imaginative ways, with sound effects, and blood spattered galore... Very tasteless and crude, but then what is not these days!!

Rehan, i thought it was a wee bit funny to see yopur comments about this article, in the replies section of another article. The prime Case of Need for speed!!, i suppose..


Regards

Asim

P.S Goofy is the best of these macabre creations!! He always manages to make me smile even now.....He has character, dignity, stupidity, and above all a sense to get terribly disoriented in almost all major projets he decided to venture into!!!Superb

Oh well. Mickey = Barney = Bill Gates

Given: MICKEY is a cute purple dinosaur

Prove: MICKEY is Satan

1) Start with the given:
C U T E P U R P L E D I N O S A U R

2) Change all U`s to V`s (which is proper Latin anyway):

CVTE PVRPLE DINOSAVR

3) Extract all Roman Numerals:

C V V L D I V

4) Convert into Satanic values:

100 5 5 50 500 1 5

5) Add all the numbers:

666

Coincidence? NOT REALLY :)-

Reading about your ‘pilgrimage’ to the Disney Mecca brought back memories of my own fateful brush with the Disney Demon, twice, once in Paris and then in Florida.

When my daughter was 11 years old we went to Euro Disney. It was the first time she and I had gone away anywhere all by ourselves. Her mother was in Warwick University on a BC scholarship and I gladly took out the time for the little dictator’s “life’s greatest dream”, as she put it.

Euro Disney, I like to tell everyone, is “half the size at twice the price” compared to Orlando. At the time, of course, I had no idea what we were in for. Though I didn’t expect it to be entertaining for me, I could not have imagined how plastic and hooky the place really was. My daughter’s delight at the ‘pilgrimage’, however, was enough of a reward.

I had no idea how much stamina and endurance a motivated eleven year old can possess until we spent those foot blistering days in Euro Disney. She was like a whirlwind egging me on as I dragged along with her like a reluctant mule. “Abu aap tu bilkul budhay ho gayay haiN, zara teez tu chalayN,” she would say, “Iss tarah tu nana abi chaltay haiN.” (Dad, you have gotten really old, walk a bit briskly, this is how granddaddy walks.) Mind you this is a child who is otherwise such a softy that I have to literally push her along if we go for a walk anywhere else.

Then last year my nephews came to visit from London and, of course, what was the one thing they wanted Uncle Sohail to do for them? You guessed it: a trip to Disney. O my God, not again! But since I had, somewhere in the past said so, I was committed to the “promise” I had supposedly made, it was a fate accompli and the trip was on. Fortunately, there was a young volunteer who graciously accepted the offer to accompany us and was only too happy to take the boys around Disney’s sacred landscape while I lazed by the hotel pool-side and enjoyed my book.

My advice to all adults: Beware of anything Disney, it will bring you nothing but grief.

...SR