Polyphonic...

I was in a PIA booking office a while back. For all the folks at home, PIA stands for Pakistan International Airlines, but most who fly PIA consistently will tell you that it also stands for "Please Inform Allah". It’s a lot like Air Canada, except, you know, more frightening, and less expensive. Anyway, I was waiting for a friend to book a ticket and another customer’s cell phone started ringing. Something seemed off-kilter, my blogging-sense was tingling, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I listened to the ring tone of the phone and realised that it was playing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Either this was a Muslim with a finely tuned sense of irony, or absolutely no idea how to program a cell-phone. I tend to hope for the former.

The incident reminded me of when I had a short lay-over in Dubai on my way to Karachi. I was busy laying-over on the over-laying lounge chairs, when a huge Muslim woman dressed in full cover answered her phone that was playing rapper 50 cent. Go Shorty, it’s your birthday. Indeed.

At that point, I decided I would make a list of all the inappropriate cell-phone rings I encountered. So far, I have two.