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The Unofficial
Zain Verjee Fanpage

The Unofficial
ZAIN VERJEE Fanpage

Original URL:
www.homestead.com/GoZOZ/index2.html

Fiction: A Day In the Life of Zain (a letter to ZV)

A Poem: "Gifted Ornament"

A Poem: "Gifted Ornament"

The Unofficial
Zain Verjee Fanpage

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InnerAsiaHQ-1
InnerAsiaHQ-2

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Fiction:
"A Day In the
Life of Zain"
(a letter to ZV)



	Welcome to the unofficial Zain Verjee fanpage. I wonder if this is the only ZV fanpage on the Net, so far. I haven't seen any other fanpage yet, except online news or interviews about her. Anyway, as you can see below, I've written some ZV-inspired stuff just for fun. Please don't ask me why she's my favorite. You'll just have me looking for my very long list of reasons why I have such good taste. LOL. But I've have gotten some emails from here and there saying they got here, seen this fanpage. Some inquire on how they can get in touch with Zain. But I'm just a typical fan, you know (whatever that means). I can just advise you to visit: cnn.com/Q&AAsia. You can subscribe to the newsletter of Zain's show, "Q&A" for South Asia only. I'm sure she'll be pleased to hear from you. Maybe not. Just click the links below. Thanks for dropping by, You can email me at: InnerAsia@yahoo.com. Visit my other webpages, too at: InnerAsiaHQ.

		"Gifted Ornament" By DSF, 02 June 2001 Your paternal seeds were perhaps sown By the skilled mahajans of Gujarat; Crafted by trade into full bloom, grown, For love at first sight, embarked On the famed railways of free Nairobi, planted home! Hence, the budding of you, a first offspring, 'tis good luck! And here, your childhood days were happy and well-spent, Your British-schooled mind tamed in gleeful adolescence, And further cultured by the mentors of cold Montreal Where holidays rolled on, leaving you enthralled; For soon, it is the memory of it all That warms you up to new questions, thawing; It is the heated buzz of Kenya, calling! Wise counsels, your maternal inspiring guide Prod you to return to the thunder, rumbling, coming... Applause! Over the airwaves, it is your primetime, Inciting the thunder with flashes of insight, In symphony with your winning smile; Yes, praises clamor, resounding way beyond borders, Till they hear, they hear! The world's news leader hears! And off you are to tread once more, To run the ground on formidable news desks Anchored by your rich past, you are at your best! For answers to our questions, our future rests Upon your loving toil of joyful commitment; Sprouting green groves for the growing learned; Nurtured by your generosity of spirit, fearless! Firmly stemmed, yet reaching out, You are our world's Gifted Ornament!

This is my Q&A Zain trivia list. There are 100 items in this wild list of thoughts/guesses/ observations on what I think of Zain. And all Zain has to do is answer, 'TRUE' or 'FALSE'. If you're a ZV fan, please don't bother emailing your answers to me. Neither would I know the answers. LOL. 1. You move your hands when stressing a point. Or you rub them. 2. You like light blue. 3. You're a multi-linguist whose thought processes are very complex and you can absorb lots of information in your mind. 4. You're the eldest sibling; you have a younger brother, Irfan. 5. You're a workaholic. 6. You love desserts. 7. You love necklaces and rings. 8. When you're processing your thoughts, your eyes flicker. 9. You like to laugh, have light moments. 10. You love to read good books and watch good films. 11. You also like music but I don't know what type. 12. You're generally friendly with people but have strong boundaries that you don't get too personal with anyone all the time. 13. You love champagne. 14. You also appreciate the small things in life. 15. You love to travel (who doesn't?). 16. You love being in summits and playing a leading role in them. 17. You're for the empowerment of women and children. 18. You're loyal. 19. You're very independent and trustworthy. 20. You can also be sensitive to the feelings of others. 21. You play fair even in tennis. 22. You also have a great sense of humor. 23. You're probably a romantic yourself when you allow yourself to be one. 24. You love making your job exciting for you by being creative about it. 25. You make a firm stand when you need to. 26. You can be impatient but also have great control. 27. You like to be on top of things. 28. Your greatest inspiration is your mom. 29. You respect and admire people in your field like Christianne Amanpour. 30. You like the good, elegant things in life when you can enjoy it. 31. You love presenting your best self when given the chance. And when you do, you shine. 32. You are also empowering of others. I mean, you also encourage others to do their best. 33. You're a very private person to a reasonable degree. 34. When you have lousy days, you bear through it all with a grin but the negative energy comes out of your ears. LOL. 35. Your eyes cannot lie no matter how you hide the truth. 36. You have some rebellious streaks but only up to a manageable degree. 37. Your dream is to be part of top management in a leading network someday. 38. You have deep insights about life and will engage anyone who wants to talk about life in general. 39. You also have deep insights about people and usually arrive at them given ample time to know them better. 40. You enjoy the night life up to a reasonable degree, but no one can claim you're a party animal. 41. You love good food and love to cook. 42. You enjoy entertaining friends and guests. 43. You enjoy the company of intelligent, vibrant and nurturing women 44. You compete with men in your own silent way (with killer instincts). 45. You love receiving flowers and surprises, esp. from people you like. Nice strangers are also welcome, but stay as strangers until you give them a chance. 46. You take good care of yourself not only because you're always in front of a camera, but also because you know you're absolutely gorgeous.wink 47. However, there are also times when you get tired of appearances because you're more driven to solve urgent problems. 48. You're a keen observer. 49. You have a great sense of discipline and self-awareness. 50. You have a huge heart and wish better things for the world. 51. You like to surprise people who underestimate you, but you're also magnanimous. 52. You can also be down-to-earth and playful. 53. You can look snooty when you're in a bad mood, but it only means you want quiet time, nothing more. 54. You trust those who protect your welfare and you're very grateful for it. 55. You wait and look into people's deeper thoughts and feelings when they have trouble verbalizing it, instead of putting words in their mouth . 56. Everyday, you feel your big job responsibilities are making you grow wiser and more mature. 57. You don't sweat the small stuff because you'd rather move on, establish harmony, get things done. 58. When you're in a bad mood, you get impatient but try hard not to show it. You're only human. 59. You're comfortable being a jack-of-all-trades and are driven to master all of them because you enjoy variety. 60. You can be stubborn up to a healthy degree if you know there's always a better way only because you want to get things done the right way. 61. You allow others to empower themselves by being generous of your time and talent to get them to where they are now. In other words, you have generosity of spirit. 62. You can also be skeptical of things and situations unless you have a big reason to change your mind. 63. You are always improving yourself everyday, affirming yourself for it, giving yourself a good pat on the back. 64. You like to share your experiences with people and people enjoy it. 65. When you are wrong, you retreat in your corner to assess things and strive to improve, with humility and a renewed sense of inspiration to always become the best you can be. 66. There are times when you can be hard on yourself, but it is a natural process you feel is necessary in order to do better. 67. You appreciate role models. 68. You like to look out for the young and take them under your wings when you have the time to share. 69. You are appropriately affectionate and have healthy comfort zones that don't freeze everybody out. 70. You love a good work-out because it makes you think clearly. 71. You can approach the subject of sex like a scientist would or look at it with a healthy sense of humor and play. 72. You have interest in philosophy because you love great thinkers. 73. You're very competitive but have a great sense of fun at it. 74. You pursue the things you love or enjoy not only because you want results but because you feel achievement is a healthy expression of self-affirmation. 75. When you make mistakes, you lick your wounds for awhile and come back stronger, tougher, better. 76. When you see or hear of stories on video about smart NGOs helping poor communities, there's a glint in your eyes that reflect the dreams you long for your country. 77. You have strong disapproval of injustice and the oppression of those who have less or are weak to defend themselves. 78. You do not hesitate to ask the questions that people want to ask themselves but are embarrassed or afraid to do so. 79. You can ignore senseless remarks that have nothing to do with the task at hand without showing it. 80. Your years of experience overseas also taught you to calibrate your actions so as not to needlessly offend people from different cultures. 81. There are days when you just want to let your hair down and do silly things for a change (I'm your perfect example). 82. You curse in your car with the windows closed when there's horrendous traffic ahead, but you smile at the driver next to you. 83. Your eyes roll if you have to wait in line and so you instead compose your report in your head. 84. You read volumes of transcripts everyday like you were reading a newspaper, while munching on fish and chips. 85. You lie on the couch to read a good book you've been dying to read and hope the phone doesn't ring. 86. You've taught yourself a long time ago to consider your alarm clock as your reliable, best friend. 87. You hang out with friends and enjoy some laughs with them as long as they won't discuss the news. 88. Before you sleep at night, you first do some light reading, then bury your head under your pillow because you don't turn off the bedside lamplight. 89. You bring a hot bottle of water when the weather's cold but hide it under your jacket. 90. You make sure your nails are neatly done a few days before your next watch. 91. You feel lucky you have clear, good skin. 92. Your greatest asset is your strong drive. 93. Your charm works on many different kinds of people because you don't have to pretend. 94. Your zest for life was a result of a happy childhood and supportive, loving parents. 95. You cope with stress by taking little breaks to enjoy the small, fine things in life like emails. LOLOL. 96. You are quick to support people who do not have a mean streak in their veins. 97. When you know there's a good idea that others will be putting to work, you do not hesitate to announce it to others who might be interested. 98. You defend those who do not deserve to be taken advantaged of. 99. You are quick to remember even little things that people value. 100. Your soul is longing for your greatest destiny and is happy that life's been good to you.
			Hello, Zain, Good morning! It's 8 pm here, 7 am there, Friday. I wonder how your morning starts. After a quick breakfast, shower and make-up, off you go, snaking through Atlanta's traffic jam. Do you live far from CNN? I always thought that CNN houses its news people in apartments because you're on call 24 hours a day, like doctors. Maybe the apartments are for the offshore correspondents, producers and camera men who need to make a stop at headquarters. I have no idea. Then, when you get there, you get your schedule from your producer, you make thousands of calls, you read, go to briefings, meet up with some VIPs. Lunch time, you meet another VIP or colleague to work on some things over a sandwich, chicken tikka masala or whatever. After lunch, it's off somewhere to meet with a public official from India or some UN guy. Back to CNN. Another meeting. After that, you finish your draft of yesterday's report, go to the taping room, do some VOs, edit some film. Then, you have a production meeting for your Q&A show. If not, you're on board. The make-up artist is working on your hair and face. You go through your script. Your floor manager tells you, "5 minutes!" So you rush through the sheets of your script. The continuity writer hands you a last-minute report that you need to include. The director tells you to remember the live event before the weather newscast. Femi Oke butts in and tells you that she's going to nag you about your Kenya pics. The scriptwriter tells you that it's Charles Hodson who'll do the finance report, not Todd who's down with a cold. Then, CNN Asia makes a quick call to your producer and says that Veronica Pedrosa will be on board, not Karuna Shinsho, who has an important interview with Japanese PM Koizumi in a barber shop because parliament has urged him to get a traditional haircut. Lolol. Ralitsa Vassileva drops by your make-up room and warns you to be careful with Jeanne Moos's new clips because they're so funny, you'd be unable to stop laughing. So you're ready and hop towards the newsdesk. Jim Clancy walks by and reminds you about your taping for "Inside Africa" after your watch. And you say softly, "Yes, Uncle." So there it goes.the OBB starts, your ear mike has a little trouble. You signal the PA and she tosses a brand new ear mike. Lolol. And just in time, the camera zooms in, you forget to button your blazer, but hell, the camera can't catch it. Lolol. You look at your papers, arranged in order all over your newsdesk. You clear your throat, mike goes on air and you open your watch with a forceful delivery of the Headlines. You're done. The camera cuts to you. Smile! You're on camera. "This is Zain Verjee for the World News." And you're thinking, "You folks don't know what a crazy day this is for me today and I have to sit here and look sane! (Zain!) " lololol. So you go on with your script. The video clips run in tandem with your rhythm. "So far, so good!", you tell yourself. Then, you call in Beijing Bureau Chief, Rebecca McKinnon. The broadcast feed is delayed for a few seconds. "Must be the lousy lines in China," you're thinking. Rebecca tells you that the spy plane just got kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf bandits, with McVeigh on board. Suddenly, ""Breaking News" butts in, McKinnon's interrupted and she mutters to herself, "I had to wait all morning since 5 a.m. to bring you this lousy news and I get interrupted@#!#$@$@! LOLOL. US President Bush is at the Pentagon making an announcement. He says he's going to approve the Kyoto agreement, after all, as long as Sharon and Arafat agree to a ceasefire by midnight, GMT. Senior White House Correspondent John King raises his hand, Bush acknowledges. King asks if his decision has anything to do with installing nuclear power energy plants in California because the Pakistanis have agreed to destroy their nuclear weapons and will donate the rest to California for the energy plans. Bush says, "That's part of the hidden agenda in the Mitchell Committee report and that the NATO's expanding all the way to Asia because the British feel that India needs them back. Anyway, Gandhi's gone but his spirit lives on so the Indians find that satisfactory. And that the nation, Africa will be very glad to welcome Colin Powell next month for a visit with Joseph Kabila who claims they're long lost brothers." Bush says. Huh??? More questions here and there from CBS News and Fox. David Letterman just walked out and Jon Stewart rushes his script. At one corner of the press conference room, Larry King's making headway with Hillary Clinton who's telling him that she's dying to watch Bush mess up the presidency. Back to CNN. "Now for the weather, here's Femi Oke. Femi, how was your holiday?" Femi flashes her big smile, unperturbed by the idea that you reminded viewers that she was on vacation. Lolol. She talks about rain pouring into Bangladesh and that more crickets will be singing in Africa because she ordered them to do so (or else, this viewer from the Philippines will keep emailing her about it. LOLOL). Femi continues and tells us that when she was back home in the UK to visit her parents, she found this great toaster that can tell you about the temperature. "Hold on a sec, Zain, " Femi says. She disappears from the screen. Comes back with this toaster. Camera zooms in. "This piece of bread came from this toaster," Femi continues, "It's about 17 degrees in here. As you can see, there are three black burned spots, way down the tip of this slice of bread. It looks much like the map of Australia and New Zealand. We apologize to our viewers for our satellite map of the Australian continent. This is all our camera could shoot from space because our crew dare not go way down south to the Antartica. Again, our apologies. I'll go there myself to take better pictures during my next holiday calendar. Now back to you, Zain. You still haven't shown us your Safari bikini pictures from Kenya. Oh, I forgot. Now here's your global forecast around the globe. " Music of Forecast Highs. ZZZZZ. "I can't stand the same music over and over again for a whole year," you tell yourself." Okay, alert now. Camera zooms in. You tell us about the monkey business over in New Delhi. The mafia guys have taken over Bollywood and this attracted a lot of monkeys on the loose who barged into the theaters to see the movies for free, courtesy of the mafia. But Indian citizens are concerned because of some mysterious ape-like creature that tore the movie screen in downtown New Delhi. Some Indians claim that the ape-like creature was upset because Bollywood producers didn't hire the mammals to star in the film, "The Mummy Returns". Many panicked. And this has sown fear all over the Asian continent, that even the Japanese yen has plunged to all all-time low. And so, you pass on the ball to Charles. Charles, in his usual cheery self, raises his eyebrows, not up and down, 'though. This time, it's sidewards. He is also very perplexed over how the monkey business has affected the Nasdaq. And so the numbers roll. Commercial break. Back to Zain. This is the part you're bracing for. Jeanne Moos's video reports on some new carousel in town, done by some of New York's fine, young artists. There's sculptured carousel seats instead of traditional wooden horses, depicting Madonna, Elvis, Jackie O., Lee Iacoca and Bill Gates in this huge carousel. Then, the camera zooms in closer to the middle. It's a Ted Turner piece at the center of the carousel, with a speaker attached to the statue's chest. Then, an old recording of Turner's voice says, "Creating a broadcasting network that will feed you news 24 hours, 7 days a week is the most ridiculous idea in the world. "News is evil. It makes people feel bad." (Reader's Digest, Nov. 1998) Only a nut will invest in building one. What crazy nincampoop will do such a thing? The idea sucks! It's just not feasible. It's absurd! It's......" Cut to Jeanne Moos for the last frame. She's speechless and just shrugs her shoulder. So this is what Ralitsa warned you about! She was right. You're trying hard not to giggle in your seat. But thank God, it's closing time. And so you manage to muffle your laughter. You flash your great, famous smile and you're thinking, "I am so glad this is over. Gods, I need to rush out of here. I can't stand not laughing about Moos's story in silence. I can't! Hurry up! Damn those guys at the editing room. I hope they don't zoom out so slowly on me!" You feel your chest is about to explode. "Hurry up!," you mutter to yourself. "That was your world news report! I'm Zain Verjee. Make sure you stay with us throughout your day!" Smile. Your eyes dart towards the monitor. "And now, I'm dissolving beside the CNN globe! Don't they have anything better to do???" Thank God, it's over. Whew! LOLOLOLOL you go... "That Moos story was wild!," you tell the floor director. Your producer just smiles and taps your shoulder. "Great job, as usual, Zain! We knew you'd pass the test." Jeanne Moos steps up from behind. She winks at you and says, "That was a joke, Zain!" Huh???? LOLOLOL. This is a day in the life of Zain one Thursday morning. Your final thoughts as you go to your cubicle, sit on your chair ."Today was a full day! I need some downtime over a glass of champagne and a good book like 'The Death of Vishnu'. I can't wait to read up on Manil's climax on existential sex." LOLOL. regards, InnerAsia