Day 3 Istanbul:Doner Walk and Gain Refrain

Day 3 was a late start,I decided to check out the area,didn’t want to get lost like the first day,therefore I took a notebook and started marking my path out until the main road so I could track my way back ( don’t consider a bread trail to be a successful method of doing that especially with the count of birds in Istanbul ). Walked around, felt like having a shawarma, which is called a Doner in Turkish, skimmed through a couple of menus, and reached a place, which looked a bit professional, most of the places serve the shawarma not in a pita bread but in a bun, which was the first setback for me. The shawarma for me is to be relished with the least amount of wheat encapsulating the meat ,that’s when the actual shawarma can be tasted.I had come to Turkey with a big perception that the food will be extra tasty which gave me the random thought ,”where is the Turkish Food which I had heard about?” Second Setback.

After having that, decided to head back to the hotel,would’ve reached the hotel easily, until I saw commotion in a bustling marketplace, so I thought I’d check it out and when I went in
I had found the Turkish equivalent of Pakistans food street,since I’d already had food I didn’t try any food over there , due to my laziness I didn’t go back out from the path I came in but turned and started walking towards where I thought my hotel was.Wrong move.Although the path was right and I was able to reach the blue mosque (and my hotel was at a 10 minute walk from there but that day I didn’t know that) I got tired of searching and midnight was approaching near so decided to take a taxi. The taxi took me around the block and I was dropped off at a place saying ,”the road to the hotel is blocked in front but my hotel was straight ahead so I could just walk”.Paid the equivalent of 20 USD to the looter and walked “straight ahead”, no hotel!!!
I must’ve walked for about 1.5 hours after getting out of the taxi asking from different people on where the hotel was, before I reached it.

Hero of the day: Mohammed Ali of the Four Seasons hotel who guided me properly even confirming with the hotels driver about the location,and if that wasn’t enough, he took out a pocket map of the area and handed it over to me guiding on the path properly.
TiP: The least thing one can do is to have the address of anyplace one wants to go, in my case the hotel( Although I had the hotels key with me, but the key didn’t have the hotels address on it,the first thing I did when I went back to the hotel is got their card to help me with my future adventures).

Day 2 -Turkey Land

Good Morning,Same Hotel, breakfast time,free buffet breakfast part of the hotel stay charge.Went down to the have something,decorated nicely,but the music which they were playing
was kinda irritating. As I was having breakfast,it made me think what I was disliking more ,the (free) hotel buffet or the 60’s music,that too poorly sung cover versions.
After that went to see the person who had done the booking for my hotel for the first day and met his staff too,one of which made a suggestion to marry this other single staff,saying that “the angel” was up for grabs.
Went up to my new hotel later (which was to be my place of stay for the next 6 days of my trip )and stayed there throughout the day,the room seemed suffocating at first because of the old furniture and little moving space but they had a balcony to cover up for that ,also,that balcony became the point from where I used to access the internet from an unlocked wi-fi signal.
This hotel had at least 3 english channels, and I actually got around watching the Tv, but there is only a limited tolerance in me for watching the news, and as the night got darker,
my back seemed that it wanted to get itself straight for the next day.

Turkey Trip (day 1) Titled-Of Books and Covers

Immigration didn’t take much time and as soon as I reached the baggage counter I saw my bag coming out of the belt, nice experience.
Directly out of the airport and got the european feel which I was expecting,when the breeze hit me (refreshing).
The most striking bit was how the city was made ,the road network isn’t even,different roads are at different heights from sea level. Imagine driving uphill/downhill on
a bike at 45 degree angles and try reverse parking in a manual transmission at the same angle.
Random Thought Here:Turks have great dress sense ( which was going to get a serious beating,stay tuned for a later post to get more on that)
1st day hotel was in in Nis(h)antas(h)i which is a posh area full of cafes,although good in decor,had a slight problem in the shower.I couldn’t get the shower head to work and the tap below the shower gave out brown water,thankfully my stay in that hotel was just for one night. I went out to Cities shopping mall that day to find some interesting brands that were completely new for me,from what I remember there were seven levels in the mall but was rather compact.Didn’t have lunch there but headed out in search of Armani Cafe which was supposed to be in the same location of course had to ask many people to reach there(whoever said a man never asks for directions was so wrong),did arrive at a restaurant which I thought
was Armani Cafe, went in but the waiter verified that it was not Armani Cafe,although it was quite prestigious ,the food wasn’t something worth remembering as is the case with most
high class restaurants and after dinner did what became a hobby of mine in Istanbul,getting lost.
If it wasn’t for Mr.Onur of Artpoint (who let his toddler and wife go away without him and offered me to drop to the hotel ) my first night in Istanbul wouldn’t have been pretty.
Reached the hotel and saw some tv but all channels were turkish,so decided to sleep.

End of Day 1

Eid Mubarak

Hi folks,it’s Eid Today, I wish you all ,Happy Eid
new dingles are on but they don\t appear in the comic as Dingle has become the narrator this time
Check them out on the dingles blog.

Dingles Are Loaded

Check out the latest dingle days here
Dingles have Coffee too

From Under The Bleachers to Winning Over

She Had a smile
That Stayed A while
Every Night with Her
Brought Me Sunshine

If you hear the above the opening lines to a song, I am sure, you would want to hear the rest of the song too. These lines have been taken from the song First Love, from the album From Under The Bleachers.
An interesting thing about of the albums name is that it appears in 3 songs in the name, putting the listener in a doubt about which track is the title track, or it could be that the reason for the naming the album are the tracks.

Back to the song, First Love, it also has a complete-r fuller Urdu version (not on the album) called Yaad
which you can watch here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaWNx0yp4Ko .

Story based song, Where The Sun Don’t Shine, also talks about the mystery of women, that even after a long period MR. Singer still hasn’t learnt completely learnt about his love” TELL ME WHY DON’T YOU GO WHERE THE SUN DON’T SHINE NO MORE”, somehow this lyric doesn’t make me think straight, and with the singing being in a naughty voice, it’s only natural that thoughts wander.

“With you” is the second video to be released for the album and this track is just marvelous, shows the beauty of being in love being narrated in stages in a story form (again). Soft bass lines and an over infectious chorus line gets you to LOVE the track at the first listen. Very much proves, that even when love at first sight doesn’t happen, love at first sound is possible.

You Lied To Me: as the name of song suggests is about betrayal but also that of the writer to still forgive the mistakes of his love, and “wants her back” even what she has put him through with her betrayals and lies.

It’s easy to be filled with hatred for Zameer after hearing Mind Over Muder,because the lyrics are so blasphemous that you wish he is stoned to death for writing this song. But once the initial hatred dies out  and you begin to think logically about the concept of the song, written from the head of a brain washed conscious terrorist lamenting against God and questioning HIS way but still hell bent to carrying out his acts. Beware though because the song has an immense amount of soul ,the melody may make you start thinking with the mind of a terrorist.

The debut single Win or Defeat is written with the philosophy  in Zameers own words is that “ When Defining Success for yourself ,Don’t worry about winning or losing as defined by societal perceptions but to just follow your own dream”, with such a theme, the lyrics have an uplifting tone and an upside tempo .

This is a good album and an excellent way to promote Pakistani talent globally, if anybody understands english and you need to showcase Pakistani music to them, just present this album and watch them sing praises for what our country has. As good Zameer is on his album he is just a tad better in his LIVE performances.

If you haven’t gotten the album, what are you waiting for ? go ahead and buy it straight away .
It’s available from amazon.com too.

Mauj Chronicles

Artist Name : Mauj
Album Name: Now in Technicolor (I still doubt this name, though)
Reason for mentioning the above: Album Review, Of Course.

Since there are no online music stores valid for Qatar, I had to use the services of my brother to download the album, burn it and send it across to me along with “Zameer :From Under The Bleachers”, both of which have yet to be released in Pakistan, my usual resource for attaining
The music which I do.

Anyhow, I had heard most of the tracks prior to the album release ( that does not mean I have personal connections with any of the band members) , I had managed to listen to the tracks because of Tv Performances which Mauj had done for AAG Tv and Play Tv. But me being an ardent Pakistani music fan ( which all of you must know by now), I had to include the album into my collection of Pakistani Music ( that’s the only “COLLECTION” of music that I have anyway.)

Let me share a few track reviews from the album.
Pyaar Ka Jadoo (Cover): primarily the same tune as the original ( Zohaibs track).O.Shafique sings the song in the voice that had been screaming the lungs out, the night before, in a concert, the night before the recording ( that’s too many commas for my own good in one sentence).
Although I feel the guitars should have been less muffled but I guess that is to give an old sound to the song,the ending has a Caribbean feel to it, which is SO MAUJ.

Paheliyan: “taint tainreiun reiun tannanow tannanow” Funky tune, the guitars are slashy and cool, I’ve currently kept the track as a ringtone on my cellphone. Sharp Start and Sharp Ending, this track I am sure has been heard by a lot of people as it was also performed by Omran in Coke Studio Season 1, other than having its video out which further helped in growing the reach of the track.

Aaye Na Aaye: A completely new track for me but surely lit out a flame in me, the track has a sense of its own and has visuals attached to it ,very fresh sounding and can be easily be an awesome background score for a movie.

Hasratein: The track which I had before was all instrumental, it had a finer chords less impure riffs than the “on album” version, the album version is more raw sounding for sure, to compensate for Omrans pleasant sounding vocals.

Overall the album is pretty good , with lyrics that range from playful to mature , guitars that are heavy ,groovy and structured . A professional album , with Omran that’s the least we can expect, the album differentiates between a good act ( Mauj) and mediocre ones ( Aplently)!

Lyrics (minor)

I’ve gotten my hands on Maujs Album, although I am not doing a review of it at this moment, I would like to share a thought about just one of the point which came to my mind after hearing the track “Awaz” which further strenghtened an already established belief.

“Aye Parindo Kisi Shaam Urtey Huey,Raastey mein agar woh nazar aaye to,Geet Baarish ka koi sunana ussey….
Aye Sitaron Younhein Jhilmilatey huey,Uska Chehra Dareechay mein aajaye to,Baadlon to Bula kar ,Dikhana Ussey” -Mauj

All those veteran musicians and lyricists who critisize the current lot of musicians for not being able to write meaningful lyrics must be doubting their own future ,(hence the bitter resentment)when they hear the stuff being made these days.

Updated

Finally,Dingle Days is uploaded check it out
on the Dingle Days blog

Dingle Days

Hani Alive

Hani Arif is suffering from a condition which ultimately leads to death : Aging

Coming really soon on the DIngle dAyS blog: YOu guessed it right
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