LONG TIME, NO SEE?

So basically I am debilating which one would it be? Either I am going to melt quicker than a Mcflurry ever did in record time or be roasted and charred, grilled to perfection to the bla

ckest steak you ever had.

You feel I am exaggerating? Unfortunately No.

 Hello Karachi summers.

Hot sweltering heat. Tonnes of humidity.
To top it off our darling KE decides to pull off the plug at the very moment ensuring the summer Inferno leaves no remain.

It's the third of Ramadan. And guess what?
We welcomed Ramadan in the early hours of Sunday morning with plenty of unity.
With Whole blackout in Karachi.

But that's not all.
 Since that moment its been playing hide and seek, unconcerned about our predicament.
I got home early from the hospital and was plannjng to take a afternoon nap since, there was no electricity the entire night and morning.

But why would KE let that happen?
Of course not. The moment I take a shower and return to switch my fan at top speed and lie down.
BAM!!!!!

There it goes again.
I should have known.

Here I sit telling you all this, hoping against hope and praying for the electricity to return.
It makes me cringe to think of all the others out there in this heat and the less fortunate ones who don't have access to a UPS or generator.

May Allah give everyone the power to fast and have some mercy on everyone and cool down the weather.

Darling Electricity dont you think it's enough of Long time, no see?

SOMETHING THAT CAUGHT MY EYE TODAY

I hope this makes your day as much as it made mine.
Pass on the love ❤

One of the most beautiful things I've ever read!

I promise 😘

“What’s your favorite insect?” my seven-year-old daughter asked as we took an evening walk on the first night of her spring vacation. “You can’t pick butterfly. Everyone picks the butterfly,” she quickly added before I had a chance to respond.

“Hmmmm,” I thought out loud. “I guess mine would have to be a ladybug,” I finally answered.

“Mine’s a firefly. I love the firefly,” she said wistfully.

We kept walking. Talking. Enjoying the rare treat of alone time—just my younger daughter and me.

And then:

“Am I okay? I mean, am I fine?” she asked looking down at herself. “Sometimes I feel different.”

I immediately stopped walking and searched her face. Without saying what she meant, I knew; I just knew.

I bent down and spoke from a painful memory tucked away since second grade. “When I was your age. I felt different too. I felt uncomfortable, self conscious. One boy said really cruel things about the way I looked. He said I didn’t belong. His words hurt me for a long, long time,” I admitted.

As she looked at me sadly, her previous words echoed in my head. “Everyone picks the butterfly,” she’d pointed out a moment ago.

I placed my hands on her sturdy little shoulders as if somehow this could make her feel my words right down to the bone. “I want you to know something. You can always talk to me when you feel different or uncomfortable. I will never laugh. I will never judge you or tell you it’s no big deal. I will never brush away your feelings because I understand. I remember how it hurts. And some times you just need someone to understand that hurt.”

“I love the firefly,” she had said a moment ago. I then realized I had something she could hold on to.

“You mentioned that you love the firefly,” I reminded her. “Well, I think you’re a lot like a firefly. You know why?” I asked.

The worry on her face lifted. She looked at me hopefully. “Why, Mama?”

“Because you shine from within,” I said touching my finger to her heart. “Not everybody sees it, but I do. I see it. And my job is to protect that light. So when people say mean comments that squelch that light, I want you to tell me. I will protect your light by listening and loving you, my brave, courageous, and unique little firefly.”

My daughter stepped forward and wrapped her arms around my neck. She still said nothing—not one word. Maybe it was because she was on the verge of tears. Maybe it was because silent comfort was all she needed in that moment. I can’t be sure. But what I can be sure of is this: this story is not over.

You see, as weeks have passed, I haven’t been able to stop thinking of our firefly talk and the timing of this message. The end of the school year can be hard for kids, especially the Fireflies—those who shine from within. And it’s that time—time for awards, banquets, recognition, and applause. The Butterflies will be noticed. So brilliant. So colorful. Their talents so obvious. But let us not forget the Fireflies. Their triumphs are quiet and unsuspecting. Their gifts might even go completely unnoticed.

A firefly might be a seat saver on the bus so someone doesn’t have to go to the intimidating back row.
A firefly might be a songwriter who pens music in his nightly dreams and hums away his days.
A firefly might be an artist that creates pictures you can feel with your soul.

A firefly might save his money for years just waiting for his heart to tell him, “That’s the one who needs your help.”
A firefly might stay up past bedtime calculating numbers beneath the covers because he was born a mathematician.
A firefly might be the I.T. kid of the school who jumps at the chance to help teachers with their computer woes.

A firefly might get lost in a cloud of flour, delighting in culinary arts.
A firefly might be a horseback rider finding peace in the company of animals and nature.
A firefly might devour a 357-page book in one sitting.

A firefly might have eyes for the lonely, looking for someone who wonders if she’s invisible.
A firefly might stick up for the lost, the rejected, the alone.
A firefly might be the lost, the rejected, the alone … just waiting for someone to notice his light among all the bright, fluttering wings of the Butterflies.

Maybe you know a Firefly. Maybe you love a Firefly.

If you do, please don’t wait. Don’t wait for someone to hand him an award or a give her a certificate to make their talents and gifts “official.” That day may never come. So say it now. Say this:

I see your light.
I see it when you pick up your guitar.
I see it when you make brushstrokes of yellow, green, and gold.
I see it when you sing with your eyes closed.
I see it when you laugh with your mouth open wide.
I see it when you stand along the water’s edge dreaming of your future.
I see your light, my brave and courageous, firefly.

You shine from within.

And regardless if anyone else sees it or not—you know it’s there, and I know it’s there.

So keep shining.
Keep singing.
Keep creating.
Keep dreaming.
Keeping caring.
Keep adding, subtracting, and multiplying.
Keep making your magic.

And just you wait. Someday the world is going to see what I see. And your light will be so beautiful, so brilliant, so bright that the world is going to stop and wonder where such a light comes from.

And you and I will both know that light, well, it’s been there all along.

Because you are a Firefly.

You shine from within.

And I am here to protect that light, my brave and courageous firefly.

From Children Who Shine From Within By: Rachel S

MORNING CLASS BLUES

Dear 8 am morning class,

I sometimes wonder what did I do in my past life, to deserve coming across you, year after year, without fail. Every year I tell myself and hope this time it would be different.

But Alas! My prayers regarding you always go unanswered. Do you even realize how much you rule and dictate my life? You are the sole reason I have dark circles around my eyes and I look like a zombie when I meet you every day.

You are the reason I can't sit and watch "Friends" and "One tree hill" all night. You are the reason I don't go out to late night gatherings because inevitably if I avoid meeting you, you make me suffer. You are the only reason I didn't do well at times because I am not a morning person and I don't remember what the teachers taught. If not that, you also make sure my life turns into a nightmare by ruining my overall attendance if I get late.

Setting up an alarm makes me so sad. It just ruins my entire day. Have you ever heard of that if the start goes well the day is automatically good? Well to your pleasure and mine displeasure, you ruin every day of mine, except Sunday without even trying hard.

But you are indifferent to how badly you make me pay as long as you win. Morning class come on. Be a sport.

Please understand that I really need my beauty sleep. I really need to watch the latest season of Suits. I really need to know what Sid posted on Facebook and how many likes my latest Instagram picture received. I really need to check out all the new Brangelina memes and see how you do nail art at home. I have millions of other very important things to do apart from meeting you all time. Why don't you get it?

Cut me some slack would you? For once understand that I really don't want to flunk my finals and be turned out of my own house for failing exams due to you only. Wouldn't you feel guilty?

It's because of you I start my day, each day without breakfast and stay hungry till mid afternoon. Have you forgotten how important is a good breakfast for a person's well being? But no. Apparently you never focus on my sufferings.

Because of you my phone is never charged and I can never play the latest candy crush level whenever there is that boring forensics lecture. I stay disoriented all day and forget that I was supposed to wish my best friend her birthday because my sleep ain't done. Why can't you be a bit nicer and become a late morning class?

Technically it's still a morning till the clock strikes 12. So what's the hurry? Its not like what you aim to deliver at 8 cannot be delivered after minimum 10 at least.

Think about it. Because this way forget Facebook likes, you will get plenty of hate mails and you will be forever cursed. Concerned about your well being and obviously mine.

Yours Sincerely, The one whose life you have been ruining for the past 16 years without giving it a miss. I need a break.

STEPPING THROUGH

Stepping through.


Pausing. 

Wondering. 

A moment to orient myself with the present. 

It hits. Where am I currently?

What lies ahead?

What comes next?

Is this what I was looking for, unaware of what I was looking for?

How long a distance,  there is still ahead to tread along? 

All the thoughts flood in. Yet, the answers still evade.

AND I MISS MY FRIENDS...

I was randomly scrolling through my news feed when a picture caught my eye. It was a picture that evoked so many emotions entangled with nostalgia in a fraction of a second.  

Funny how you aren't thinking about it and it's miles away and then suddenly everything brings it crashing back. 
Yesterday only I was telling myself that I should learn to appreciate the good times I have had up till now. And let the rest go.

Our people whom we called our own in the world so they can venture near and far. And make someone else feel like we once did when they were our friends. And how I was lucky they were once an integral part of my life.
But how do you stop missing them or wishing they were still around. It was a picture of 3 of my friends from college who are in a different medical university and yet together. I don't envy them because I love them all. But there's a part of me that always knocks home that they are together there and I am not with them.

I logically know it's a part of life and it's how life moves on. And I will still meet them again. Just not like everyday, all the time like we used to be. And they still have that to look forward to. And a part if me wishes everyday that I was around them too.

Because no matter how many new people you come across and befriend you can't really replace your old friends. 
Whenever I look at people in my school around who still have their old friends together. I am struck with nostalgia and the realization how lucky they are.

And at that every moment,  I miss my friends. Because despite all the new ones I have it's just not the same. Won't ever be the same.

The little comfort that I found was I once was with them like that. I will always hold on to those. 

HOW ABOUT A CUP OF CHAI? ;)

This wasn't originally my idea.

I just made a new friend,  all the way from India :)

Himanshi.

www.imperfectbutreal.blogspot.in

Who's as in love with chai as I am and I feel connects to it. And upon reading her chai article, it just made me reflect on my relationship with chai.

Trust me, we have come a long way.

So grab a cup of tea and sit back, listen to my chai love life.

I am not one of those people who has grown on chai since forever. Absolutely not. Infact, the opposite. I never liked tea or chai as we call the magic concoction that drives the world around,  specially in our side of the world :)
I never understood why people were so fond of it. After all it was just milk infused with some plant leaves and spices. Just.

I was in grade 2 when in our English Language exam to check our writing skills we needed to write the recipe of making tea aka "chai".

I wrote the recipe confident that I would score full on it. Since I have been seeing tea made in my house for everyday for so many years. When were all those observation skills going to come in handy?

Anyways when the score came I got a 1 out if the total 5. I was heartbroken and I hated tea more than ever.
On coming home I accused mum of not knowing how to make the right chai.

Little did I know that there was a standard chai and then there were "chai" versions hailing from different areas and respective cultures.

I am a punjabi and the way chais were made in our houses was very different from the standard tea procedure that we get in the cookbook. So obviously it didn't match the recipe my teacher was looking for and I was doomed.

Chai never made an impact until I started med school. Or more like I don't know how I survived without it for so long. Soon after coming to school, chai grew up on me. Specially the "elaichi" ( cardamom) one from the bahar wali dukan in the uni. In the early days a friend was very fond of chai and I used to get dragged along despite me claiming that I didn't like chai at all. But I was always ignored. 

Then I was forced to taste it and drink it despite me saying no. 

But the magic started working. Chai because my saviour in the long uni hours, to the late night parhai ( study) sessions, to when I was feeling down and needed something to lift me up. Chai was always there for me.
Welcoming,  warm, soothing and utterly delightful!

To the time it became something I look forward to every morning. I need a cup as soon as I wake up whether it's in the morning or my evening nap once I return from school. Chai is an absolute constant.
And I love it. Do you?
If not. Try it sometime. You might end up falling in love with my chai ;)

And it will keep you going throughout just like it does to me.

And in my country the elders say, there's nothing that a good old cup of tea can't set right and make you feel better.
It works like magic.

Or lets say it is the magical elixir and it's recipe is being passed down mother to daughter through generations.
The guys might know nothing else but they even they learn to make yummy chai. Afterall, you don't know when the chai making skills come in handy.

For girls when families come to look for prospective bahus ( brides) for their sons, the girl who makes good chai is a win win! :)

No exaggeration,  I swear.

It wouldn't be wrong to say the world goes around on chai :)

Keep drinking chai and keep spreading it's warmth around. 

Meanwhile I will go and make kashmiri chai for myself. Since it's winters and a chai break is needed after narrating my chai story.

My chai's waiting. Is your's?

DIWALI ♥

To all my friends from across the border many many warm wishes of diwali to you :)

HAPPY DIWALI ♥

I hope it brings loads of happiness in lives of all of you and mark new beginnings and bring people closer who drifted apart.

Stay blessed :)

Light loads of diyas and keep on lighting lives.