Yummy...

These are two of our traditional dishes that I cooked yesterday and I won't cook anything else till we finish them.  My daughter sometimes doesn't appreciate this idea of mine.
This is aaloo (potato) and baigun (brinjal or egg plant) curry.  It can be eaten with roti (bread) but it tastes good with white rice and lemon pickle.  It's very easy to cook.  Brown sliced onion in oil, add garlic and ginger paste, sliced tomatoes, potatoes, red chili-powder, turmeric powder and salt.  Cook it well until it sizzles.  Now add long pieces of brinjals, cover the pot and let it cook for ten more minutes.  That's it. 
 
This is saime (long green beans or lobia) and aaloo.  I cook it my way.  Brown sliced onion in oil then add aaloo, whole red pepper, salt, garlic and ginger paste and tomatoes.  Cook it till sizzles and then cover the pot and keep it on low heat for ten minutes.  It's done.  There is a tree of saime in our neighborhood park and the gardener there told me that it provides a good cure from arthritis.

 http://pakpics.wordpress.com/category/vegetable-fruits/......I found this site very interesting and colorful.  Nice job done by Imran Khan.

Tea or Ice....break

I don't have a habit of waking up all night, it just happened the other night and guess what I ate at four in the morning, half liter of my favorite ice-cream.  My daughter likes Walls and I like IGLOO while we both like chocolate flavor.  Walls is not a good name for an ice-cream while IGLOO sounds perfect.  Beside that I love Choco-bars and cone to turn my tea-break into an ice-break.

Igloos are strange houses, build white in a white continent, may be that is why Antarctica is a peaceful place.  The sad reality is that this one calm and quiet place is melting because of what we are doing in rest of the continents.  We don't live there but we must feel guilty about the Antarctic life losing their habitat.  We shouldn't forget that nature happened to be a hostile enemy when taking revenge.
Anyway, is there any way I can build an igloo in Karachi, at the sea-side, I wish.

My Butterfly...

I am very happy to see the comments under my daughter's interview for "Infinity 888 Program" introduced by the team of Personality Quotient.  This is a great initiative they have taken towards our youth to come forward as the best part of our world.  Selected or not, I will be proud of my daughter to be the part of it.  But I won't vote for her because she is my daughter and I fear that her love may lead me to an injustice to the other contestants while commenting.  Her interview is recorded at the site www.personalityquotient.com under "vote for infinity 888 participants".

Her name is Hibah Naz.  She is eighteen now.  I was very grateful to God when she was born.  While raising her, I enjoyed every moment of it.  Now she is a beautiful young lady, ready to play her role, I believe positive one, to make this world a better place.  



Having a satisfaction that I have left behind someone a lot better than me, I think I can die peacefully now.   Glory be to my Lord, The Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful.

Trust in God....

This tasbeeh is a beautiful gift from my parents.  More I count my glorification on it's beads, more I prayer for their healthy, wealthy life. 

“To completely trust in God is to be like a child who knows deeply that even if he does not call for the mother, the mother is totally aware of his condition and is looking after him"........ 

Imam al-Ghazzali

Broken Image vs Broken Mirror...

My heart is a mirror and I am the image.  If it is to choose between the two, I would prefer my heart to be broken for it's hidden over my image for it's obvious.  And what is obvious of me is known as Pakistan.

Keep Smiling, Keep Shining...

Children and smile belong to each other.  When they smile, the whole world smiles with them.   

Let children smile, let them grow and glow.

Smile is the most beautiful melody of silence.  When I'm sad, I look in the mirror and throw a smile at me.  Then everything around me becomes musical.



This world is in pain.
It needs nothing more than a smile to shine again.
Let children smile, let them grow and glow.
Let them sing the song of life, 
Let them run and jump and throw,
everthing then will be fine, 
for this world to shine again.

Writing...

These are two old fashioned wooden pens.  
Writing is one of the passions from my childhood.  I started with copying national songs, quotes of famous people, childrens' poems, riddles and jokes.  It was great fun to find books, magezines and newspapers, reading them and then picking interetsing material out of them. 




Writing is the impression of my soul, each word describes my mood, expresses my feelings.  When I'm lost, I find me back in my writings and reboot my mind and try to reproduce myself.  Interesting, right?

BANGLES...

For centuries, bangle have been a very important part of our traditional life.  They were and still are considered a symbol of marriage.  Married women are suggested to wear hands full of bangles to show that they are enjoying their matrimonial life.  Only widowed or divorced women were forbidden to wear choriyan (in Urdu).  Things are little changed now though.
Bangles and bracelets are the most important item of shopping at happy occasions, such as Eids, mendhi, wedding party, valima or birthdays.  

I loved glass bangles.  I had a big collection of colorful bangles of different designs.  They look so pretty.  I always thought that girls can never be completed without bangles and I still do so.  My daughter is also very fond of jewelry especially choriyan and bracelets.  She has collected many colorful sets.

Booky Productions Presents...

If I ever become a film producer, the first thing that I'll do is to change the name of old Pakistanis movies and will give them an educational touch:

'dil ik aaina' to 'dil ik library'

'ik teray liye' to 'ik kitaab kay liye'

'main ik din lot kay aaoon ga' to 'main ik din kitabain laoon ga'

'mohabbat zindagi hay' to 'kitab zindagi hay'

'koi tujh sa kahan' to 'hay ye library kahan'

and so on...

In my production, the main character of the story will always be a librarian who is highly obsessed with the library. This person loves arranging events for adults and children to come to the library and volunteer in organizing it. He/she is always busy from the beginning till end in motivating his/her love towards reading. The villain will be the character who is always against books and reading (like our political parties and ninety nine percent of celebrities) and always plans to destroy the libraries. Every good character in the movie carries a book in his/her hand and for a minute discusses the theme of the book with a happy face. The cook in the movie has a recipe book, the gardener has around ten to twenty books about planting in his small room, the driver keeps in his pocket the book about traffic signs and a road map, the maid reads a book about cleaning stuff, etc. The police even carry a small book that explains the manners of arresting bad people.

Ending could be different like they may or may not find each other but the main character does not give up on his/her book-mania. At the end, evil characters are jailed only for a month and their suggested punishment is to "read a book a day, keep the evil away"....if they succeed in finishing thirty books a month, they are released as an honorable citizen otherwise the same punishment is extended for another month.

AND THAT WOULD BE A NEVER ENDING STORY!

My Fun Place...

Chase is still on,

to an indelible dream of mine,

the enchanted place with red roses,

white jasmine, grape vines,

chicky chicks, quaky ducks,

goody goats for good lucks,

and a cow family for mooooos,

and a horsey named Fine,

butterflies fluttering around,

kittens running up and down,

birds chirping on the trees,

parrots sitting in a line,

orphans playing hide and seek,

reading, writing twice a week,

on the grass and under the sky,

Here I do my tasty dine.

Hmmm, you know what, I think ducks are not good pets but I will keep them so the chicken don't feel bad watching other birds flying around and having a feeling like they are the only birds who can't fly. And the ducks can't live without water so there would be a little pool provided for them.

Oh yeah, the cows and their husbands will have a proper place with the farm painted on the wall so they don't feel like misplaced.

You know what I'm going to do with the goats to keep them active, I'll make a stand with the steps on both sides and I'll attach a pulley carrying goat food on it moving from one to the other side. They will know their place to find food.

You know...off course you don't know...let me tell you, that place will have mango, banana, guava, imli, amaltas, papaya, saim and neem trees (not like the fruitless and flowerless trees that SMK has planted all around, even birds don't get attracted). Each tree will have little swings and mirrors hanging on their branches. They also have a right to enjoy their residence. Parrots will love it.

O yeah, the track for horsey will be along with the boundary wall all around and I'm also gonna drive the rickshaw on it. Rickshaw is easy to drive and it doesn't need a wide turn, it turns so easily right on its place. You know once I was driving the car and my brother on the next seat, the truck on the right and the car behind us, all shouted and honked at the same moment, stop...and I stopped on a little grassy patch with my eyes closed. That was my brother's car, we switched the seats and sat quiet till reached home. The next time I peacefully smashed the Park Avenue into a cemetery, that was my other brother's beloved car and he was sitting beside me. He didn't appreciate the idea and again we switched the seats. Then nobody else ever trusted me with their vehicle. But rickshaw is different. You're mostly excused for being a rickshaw driver.

The cats will have the most fun there. Up and down on the slide, climbing the trees, playing with the bugs, catching the birds, chasing the butterflies.

The orphans you mean, yes, they will have room full of fun activities. I have great ideas for that. Also for few elders who are sincere, kind, sensible and patriotic....hmmm, they better be from Punjab because the elders from Punjab are more loving towards nature than the elders from Karachi. They do nothing but love taunting and discouraging others. See, the one from Punjab can be very useful, they have interest in plants and animals and they talk more sensible and read a lot of durood.

LOVE...

Yet, in this frame of things, gleams of immortal life,

Show where some servant of God wrought into some high shape,

Work whose perfection is still bright with the splendor of love,

Love, the well-sping of life; Love, on which death has no claim.

Swiftly its tyrannous flood time's long current may roll

Other ages in Love's calendar are set down,

Ages as yet unnamed, far from this now-flowing hour.

Love is Gabriel's breath, Love is Muhammad's strong heart,

Love is the envoy of God, Love the utterance of God,

Even our mortal clay, touched by Love's ecstasy, glows

Love is a new-pressed wine, Love is the goblet of kings,

Love the priest of the shrine, Love the commander of hosts,

Love the son of the road, counting a thousand homes.

Love is the plectrum that draws music from life's taut strings-

Love is the warmth of life, Love is the radiance of life.

ALLAMA IQBAL, "The Poet of the East"

Home Library...

14 ways to cultivate a lifetime reading habit:

Set times, always carry a book, make a list, find a quiet place, reduce tv/internet, read to you kid, keep a log, have a library day, go to used book shops, read fun and compelling books, make it pleasurable, blog it, set a high goal, have a reading hour or a reading day...

It doesn't seem difficult to follow. I make it easier for myself. Putting 'have a library day', have a reading hour or reading day' together....I mean if there are no libraries around what I can do everyday is to spread all the books that I have around me so it feels like I'm in a library. Put the new one somewhere in the middle and then look for it. "Books are very good friends" so I show them my congeniality, "Ooooo darling I finally found you" and give it a warm hug and a kiss. Then I lean on a cushion and put two more cushions on both sides and one under my feet and here I go, I enjoy my reading. In winter it becomes cozier, you know, I spread my comforter all over the cushions and on me putting my feet outside.

I set time to an hour. To make the hour more pleasurable, I would make me tea or a coffee or lassi and have some snack. I don't think that I have to reduce TV/internet time because it's more fun doing all these things together because all the pleasures of the life are interlinked.

There can't be a place quieter than Mazar-e-Quaid or my own balcony, early morning.

"Read fun and compelling books", I don't agree with that. I can read "The Return of the Pharaoh" by sister Ghazali with the same interest as any other book.

'Always carry a book' and 'blog it'...good idea, I do carry books but I never blogged them. I'll try this one now.

Bulleya, who knows who am I, neither I'm moses nor Pharoah...

Baba says that a man cannot have good connection with his creator without discovering himself. That is why he ocassionally recalls his memory from his childhood and tries to figure out why certain things happened to him.

In Surah Al-Qiyamah, Allah(SWT) says, "indeed (every)man is a witness upon himself".

I did that too....my birth, a perfect planning of God regarding my deliverance from non-visibility to civil-ability....in the year when thousands of Pakistani soldiers sacrificed their lives for this blessed land and the nation was united, on the day when Prophet Ibrahim (A.S) intended to sacrifice his son Ismaeel (A.S) to please Allah (SWT), at the time (ASR) when Imam Hussain sacrificed his life to fulfill the will of God.

So what is my birth sign? SACRIFICE...I figured out that I am connected to many best of the best personalities.

Alhamdulillah!

White Diamond...

I believe my thoughts are white diamonds, 
scattered on the island of my mind.  
They are precious, they are pure.  
If they are not, O God, please,
make them like one of kind.







I see the world in light of diamonds.  My heart is a mirror, my thoughts are diamonds.  They sparkle my heart and let out it's shine through my eyes.

My Name...

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"....William Shakespeare


I love my name.  I love those people who call me by my name.  Age doesn't matter.  I even ask my students to call me by name.  I like it.  It's sounds so pure, so lovely, so friendly and so civilized. 
I tell my daughter to address everyone by their names, very respectfully so they feel honored and that is very Islamic, you know.

 

 

"Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry"...Bill Cosby

 

 

 

 

  

Lucky Couples....

It's only a couple of my cousins I know who, unfortunately, didn't have a choice to plan for their marriages but were lucky to have a husband who agreed to plan for their matrimonial life. How should they live, with or without in laws, the house rules, they both should be out to work or not, how many children should they have, their education and financial planning etc.

One of them was deaf. She was put into marriage to a man with the same disability and was a lot older than her. She loved to have children but her husband didn't have the ability for that. She was a very sweet girl, she tried her best to keep the relationship but finally broke with him and married her husband's best friend who was also deaf but from different sect(sunni). Her husband supported her at every moment especially in the period of cut off from her own family. Now they have very cute talking triplets.

The other one (her youngest sister) was married in a Punjabi family. He was and is a perfect gentleman. They never knew each other but after marriage, they both had nice understanding. They both agreed to have only one child, girl or a boy doesn't matter, so they had a girl. They both worked for their better future of their only child. About seven years ago, they decided to return home as her husband wanted to spend time his parents too.

Both these families are living a peaceful life. Before marriage they were strangers. After marraige, they became the best friends to each other. They have nice terms with their families and everyone but they don't listen to anyone when it comes to do something for their own family. They sit together and get advice from each other. They best thing these couple do is that they give importance to each other.

Hope and Rise...

  
"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world"...Leo Buscaglia








Hopes are like roses; delicate, colorful, fragrant, protected by the thorns of adversity, grow well under the heat of burning desires.

 

My Cooking...

My siblings got the stomach of my parents, they eat more than a little, they throw up....and for the very opposite reason, I became the apricot of my dada's eyes...I was a perfect Meiji baby, he fed me with malaiyan and his favorite meat dishes. He could eat the whole chicken at one time.

My cooking is sometimes horrible.

I remember my early dishes. Couple of times I added sugar instead of salt because they looked same. The first time I made (bhindi gosht) lady finger with meat, I added toooo much water. The curry became too gooey at the end. Rice...I'm still not good at biryani or kichri.....what I usually do, I boil white rice and add curry or vegetables or meat to give it a taste.

Making roti (round bread) requires a good talent. I never liked it. My mom had a hard time teaching me how to make roti. Next time I refused. See, it involves many steps and I had a bad memory, what if I forget any of the steps....

I don't try complicated dishes like haleem or biryani etc. I am thankful to Shan spices for making it easier for me.

I never tried to become a good cook. I do make good dishes but they are my style of Chinese or Italian or local dishes.

One for Three...

Henna wished for a son so she could dedicate him to serve the church. I wished for three sons so I could dedicate them to PAF, NAVY and Commando. Henna had Mariam instead and I had Hibah. Henna fulfilled her wish and I dedicated my daughter to Pakistan as Hibah is an Arabic word which means the most precious gift. She is equal to three sons.
Alhamdulillah, Pakistan Zindabad!

Tea Break

"A tea-break never ever breaks my heart,

for tea and I aren't souls apart", said by me.


The journey from tea to lemon-iced tea was incredible.  Tea and books are my best friends.  How can I ever live without tea.  It is an addiction but not so bad.  I've tried Jasmine, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon teas, with both sugar and honey and sometimes even without any sweetener but it still tastes sweet.  

Tea break is the best thing that could ever happen to me when I'm tired.