Mei Kong Rawalpindi

Mei Kong is situated on Haider Road in Rawalpindi. For Pindites, there is no better place than Mei Kong. The restaurant is an old establishment. The management keeps on changing the interior so rapidly that even their regular customers feel the fresh look every time. The staff is friendly.
They offer buffet (eat all you can) and a la carte (according to the menu). Among buffet, high tea is really good. There is a variety of dishes.
Buffet dinner and lunch lack variety. I have taken the dinner and lunch buffets once and the restaurant never missed the opportunity to disappoint me.
In lunch buffet, they were offering four types of fruit salad. All tasted and looked same. However, the management named them slightly different from each other.
In Dinner buffet, there were four chicken dishes. All of them tasted same but they were named differently from each other. One dish was named chicken spicy something and the other was named spicy chicken something.

PS: Their fish is really good.

Timings:
Lunch Buffet: 12:30 to 3:00pm (wastage of time and money)
High Tea: 3:30 to 6:00pm (very good)
Dinner: 6:30 to 11:00pm (wastage of time and money)

Lays potato chips in Rawalpindi's Ayub Park

With the onset of winter, I had stopped visiting the Ayub park for my evening jogs. I started using the footpaths in Gulraiz and Bahria town for early morning walks. There has been a slight break in foggy days and I decided to visit the Ayub park. The otherwise lush green large lawns in the park were brown. There are not much trees in the park because of Rawalpindi’s soil and climate. And autumn was on its peak on remaining trees. I was walking on the curb to enjoy the crushing sound of dry leaves beneath my feet. My poet friend, who was accompanying me on the walk, was in another frame of mind as usual. With a serious look on his face, he asked me how I feel while crushing the poor leaves which have fallen victim to cruel nature. “I am walking in the factory which makes Lays potato chips French cheese flavor walay.” The very serious look on the face of my friend turned into WTF look.

I was surprised to see the bulky lady in red dress doing her walks with the same zeal as she used to do when I first saw her exactly one year ago. I don’t know how she feels about her weight shedding achievement, but she definitely looked shrunken.

Winter carry rig

I carry a makarov (Baikal MP 442). I never thought I would buy a sub compact hangun. An encounter with highway robbers and a hot pursuit afterwords and a lot of sweaty palms during the drive, compelled me to replace my range gun with a makarov.

The gun is small enough to conceal on your body and powerful enough to thwart any threatening situation, provided that you don't forget that you are carrying a handgun.
In winter, when clothing is heavy, I prefer carrying the gun in an outside-the-waist-band belt holster. In summer, I carry the gun in an inside-the-waist-band holster.
I wanted to buy the holster from Shams Saddler, Rawalpindi, but their prices are on a very higher side. I consulted some friends, examined various designs on internet and get the holsters made on my specifications. The cost on these holsters was astonishingly low i.e. 300 PKR for the two. Here is me with my concealed carry gun.

Quitting colas

I have been a coke guzzler throughout my college and university life. Not a day would go by, when I would not down 1.5 liters of cola. Since I was going in gym and would run long distances (8/9 kms in a day), the cola was unable to fatten me.
My father has been asking me to limit my intake but in vain. I would also listen to and read British food show host Nigella Lawson's post about the side effects of the drink. But watching Nigella has more to do with her beautiful curves than her sermons.
Recently, a person visited my office, seeking my services in a criminal case. He was nabbed by police and officials of Pepsi Co for refilling the Pepsi bottles with fake cola. The police also confiscated a truck load of fake drinks. The truck was all set to be distributed in Rawalpindi.
The effeminate mannered client told me details of the business. According to him, there are two reasons for flourishing of fake cola. Pepsi has never been able to meet the demand in peek season and they give a very low profit margin to the shopkeeper how sells their products. Pepsi gives Rs 20 to the shopkeeper for selling 24 bottles whereas the fake drink makers give profit from Rs 40 to Rs 60.
All the drinks and juices can be refilled except the tinned ones. The fake cola industry has not been able to refill tin cans.
After hearing the details of his factory environment, I have decided to say good bye to my favourite drink in otherwise dry country.

Shifting to a new house in Gulraiz, Rawalpindi.

I was living in a rented house on the high court road, Rawalpindi for nearly an year, without any issue despite no water and lot of dust and tonnes of cobwebs. My mother visited the place and seriously rebuked me for living in a house like that.
I rented another house in the nearby housing society, Gulraiz. Gulraiz has everything except it being laden with flowers. Its a sprawling housing society with broken and dusty roads. Upper middle class is predominant here, so you can see as many cars moving on the roads and as many cars parked outside cash and carry shopping marts.
The first visitor in the house was a neighbouring aunty, who told my wife (who just arrived in the city) about the incidents of 7 thefts in the area during the past week. So everyday when I come home, I first have to convince my wife that the locality is safe enough to live in besides telling her that cockroaches, lizards and other such insects don't kill housewives (sometimes I wish they could do that:).

Leather holster from Shams Saddler

Jehangir Mirza wanted to buy a holster for his handgun. We thought to try Shams Saddler in Rawalpindi Saddar. We had heard about it’s high rates and outclass work.
The shop looks like any other saddler’s shop. Everything in the shop smelt of leather. They make various articles from leather such as belts, shoes, purses, wallets, carry bags, gun covers and holsters.
Supervised by a father and a son, the shop is keeping the old art of saddling alive. The owner and his son know the modern gun vernacular.
They asked us about the name and size of the gun and showed us various holsters all in brown colour. They also make holsters with black leather on order. They had cast iron handgun replicas for the customers to check how the holster would fit the shooter and the gun.
Some holsters were embossed with various designs which looked beautiful, but embossing was impractical as the holster was meant to be carried in concealed manner. Sifting the options with our friend’s need, we selected an outside the waist band (OWB) leather holster. The owner of the shop demanded Rs 3800 ($38) for the holster. Outdoing our bargaining skills, he proved his reputation of high rates and outclass work.
When we came out of the shop, the wiser among us said, “Why spend so much on a holster which would always hang around one’s unmentionables.”
Now we are planning to visit the Gown House on Murree Road, Rawalpindi, to find something for the Makarov.

Cruel wife week

This was a cruel wife week for my clients. I got two clients who engaged me against their wives. One client was a matriculate son of an army colonel. He had divorced his wife. Being wrongly advised by his previous lawyers, he got several verdicts against him from every court including the Supreme Court. He has a daughter from his previous wife. The litigation is about the maintenance allowance of the daughter which has accumulated to PKR 800,000. I will be watching over the little-remaining-interest of my client. There is nothing to defend now except asking the court for installments.
The second client was a young man who got married in January 2013. His in laws tricked him, introducing their divorced daughter as unmarried before her marriage with my client. The girl lived with him for two months before vanishing. He came to know about her previous marriage after she disappeared. My client has information that the lady has contracted another marriage with a boy she was acquainted with before her first marriage. Now she is lawfully wedded wife of two people.
When I am not doing criminal cases, I prefer family suits. It’s good to listen to people having family problems.

Reasons for divorce in Rawalpindi

A lawyer friend in Rawalpindi consulted me for my opinion on a piece of paper written by his lady client seeking divorce from her husband. Following were her reasons for seeking divorce from her husband.

My husband talks with his female cousin on telephone.
My mother-in-law says that it was she who selected me for her son and that it will be she who will let me live in the house.
My in-laws do not let me sit beneath a ceiling fan despite having UPS in their house.
When I am sick, they force me to take 5 pills.
My bedroom talk with my husband is known by the whole house.
My mother-in-law says that her son did not say "I accept" on the third asking of the person who was solemnising the marriage.
My husband wanted to punch on the face of the person who asked him that "Do you take her as your wife".