sea gifted me...

abra cadabra....

I'm tired bhai....thanks to my daughter for these cheese balls and chicken cutles....now I'm going to make tea for both of us.....need a project for summer to work on....please Allah subhanau wa Ta'alaa! help me....

Health is the best Wealth

I have always been very impressed with my parents' diet, especially my dad's.  The first thing he does after making wudu (ablution) in the morning, drinks a full glass of water (never drinks cold water for he thinks that gives joints' problem).  Then he eats a good breakfast right after Salatul-Fajr (the morning prayer before sunset) which mostly consists of egg fried in butter, mixed with turmeric powder, black pepper, salt and green chillies with a slice and a cup of tea.....skips lunch and then eats his dinner after Salatul-Maghrib (the evening prayer right after sunset) followed by a cup of tea.  Seventy five percent he is vegetarian, mostly eats meat in form of curry, doesn't like too much sweet and loves hot and spicy food.  He quit paan thirty years ago and cigarette about twenty five years ago on his own will.  This is how he checks his will power, by giving up things on his own.   

All his life, he never sat under the fan while sweating, a strict no to an air-conditioner because he thinks AC is the cause of most of the diseases, especially arthritis.  In fact, he is against most of the new inventions for they are useless and a waste of time.   
He thinks he is eighty-five, I say seventy-five but really, he is active like he is in his forties or fifties.  He walks fast and straight, does all his work by himself including washing clothes.  Never asks anyone for even a glass of water.  Always busy in thinking about something. 
He believes more on home-remedies than doctors and for that reason he never fell in a habit of visiting doctors or hospitals.  His health advices to us are usually as follows:

- you want to get rid of arthritis and joint problems, drink normal water, say bye bye to air-conditioner and let sweat get dried naturally.
- for sinus, add black pepper powder or ginger pieces and salt in warm water and drink it. 
- for sore throat, gargle early morning and in the night with salt in warm water.
- drink turmeric powder and raw egg in milk to make bones strong.
- carrots and karaila (bitter melon) are good for eye-sight.
- beet and all the squash-like vegetables are good for cleaning blood.
- drink lemonade or carrie (baby mango) juice to cool down in hot summer.
- chew a piece of garlic to reduce fat
- take cumin seed in yogurt to cure constipation or water boiled with mint leaves and fennel seed (also used in hot day to cool down)
- sit in sunlight to get rid of muscle-ache, it provides natural heat 
- walk as much as possible, do your work your own, early rise and early to bed, don't eat frozen or canned food, never drink water right after entering the house especially if you are panting,

He is like Quaid-e-Azam, the skinniest, the healthiest and the energetic one.  May God always keep my parents happy and healthy, the way they are now.  Ameen!
And I like his favourite couplet, "tang-dasti agar chay ho ghalib, tandrusti hazar naimat hay"...meaning Health is the best Wealth.

Our Traditional Food

After a long time last week, we ate daal poori, one of the most famous snack of Pakistan.  Daal is the bean curry on right and poori is the small, round, disk like bread.




After 28 years, I ate these "bakharkhanis".  As I investigated, the shop I remembered from my childhood, in the market, situated a little far from our house was closed long ago.  Now they come in smaller size and with sugar on it while these particular one aren't sweet and have flaky layers like pastries.  I was looking for them for a long time and found them surprisingly next to the post office about two kilometer far from where we live now.  Thanks to God.

Rangeela...The Most Favorite Celebrity

It is as difficult to measure Rangeela's influence, as it is to count his hyphens.

This body-builder- painter- actor- hero- comedian- producer- director- writer- singer- distributor- composer also happens to be the great communicator.

Rangeela was born Mohammad Saeed Khan in 1941, in Para Chanar, north- west frontier province, Pakistan. Unlike other actors, Rangeela took keen interest in body- building and physical exercises as a teenager.

He moved to Lahore at a young age and earned his livelihood by painting bill- boards for the Lahore movie industry. In time due course, he realized that his talents would not sustain him in a humble professional career of a painter.

Chrysanthemum

In some European countries, white chrysanthemums are a symbol of death and are used for funerals or to put on graves.  In China, Japan and Korea, white chrysanthemums represent lamentation and grief.   In the United States, the flower is usually regarded as positive and cheerful.  The chrysanthemum is said to have been favored by Tao Qian, an influential Chinese poet, and is symbolic of nobleness.

Australians have a tradition of giving chrysanthemums to their mothers on mother's day. Chrysanthemum plants have been shown to reduce indoor air pollution by the NASA Clean Air Study.

My third semester in summer1994, our teacher Ms.C (she got the longest and the most difficult name in the world beginning with C) gave everyone a topic to write about and submit it in a week.  Unfortunately, I got to write about chrysanthemum as we just finished John Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums".  I wish if it was as easy to find out about almost anything as it is now.  Just type the word and it lists down the sites on the screen.  I spent the whole week visiting libraries including the biggest one in Jamaica but couldn't collect enough facts to write about this strange flower.  Finally, on the last day, one of my cousin who was doing master in literature helped me out with very little information describing chrysanthemums as the symbol of sorrow and sadness and their importance in literature.  Based on the data given, I made up the story to extend the assignment and got B.

At that time, I didn't know that chrysanthemums come in many colors and are used as insecticides and for medicinal use. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2603/is_0000/ai_2603000033/

Had no idea that they grow in Pakistan and are celebrated as well, still don't know what are they called in Urdu.   http://networkedblogs.com/fJGD

Eleven years Ago...

 Today I found a little newspaper cutting in one of my book.  I cut it eleven years ago from Naw-e-Waqt when we were in Lahore....the title of this poetry is " اپاہج نہ بنو" 

 

ہاتھہ میں بندے کے اگر ہوتا               گرم چولہا نہ میرے گھر ہوتا
رزق دیتا وہاں بھی مجھہ کو خدا         سنگ میں کیڑا میں اگر ہوتا
تو ہے انساں تو کیوں اپاہج ہے           اس طرح تو نہیں گذر ہوتا
تو بھی بنتا وسیلہ لاکھوں کا               ہاتھہ میں تیرے گر ہنر ہوتا
سر جھکاتا نہ بارگاہوں پہ                  تو خودی میں جو معتبر ہوتا
اک نیا عزم لے کے آگے بڑھ             دیکھہ پھر رستہ مختصر ہوتا
منزلیں چومتیں قدم تیرے                   تو جو آمادہ سفر ہوتا

اے خدا دیکھہ میں ہوں سربسجود        یاں نہ ہوتا تو میں کدھر ہوتا
مل گیی راہ شکرکر ساغر                 مفت میں خوار عمر بھر ہوتا
ریاض الرحمن ساغر

Friday to Friday

23rd to 30th April, the whole week of vegetable diet went fine.  Green squash (loki)...boiled and in yogurt, bitter melon (karaila) cooked with onion and cumin seeds, okra cooked with onion and green peeper, gawar and potatoe curry with rice, just one breakfast with egg and paratha, rest normal.  Budget was under control, no weight gain or loss, blood pressure was normal, mood was calm and no depression.  Good Work!  Keep it up!   

The same week without television, no depression and no high and low blood pressure.  Hardly excluding couple of channels and anchors, the whole Pakistani media has played a big and effective role in causing uncertainty in the environment.  Rest of the media care more about taking more commercials and of multi-national products than viewers' choice.  Or may be I'm wrong.  May be people do want to see what they are showing.  I don't know.  After my television set exploded last Friday, my daughter and I decided not to waste my time and money on what we don't want to see. 

I can imagine how hard it would have been for the people and rulers of Baghdad to believe in what Changez Khan and his family were doing to the Muslims around the world.  Each time news was reached to their ears, the city was already wiped off by the cruel army.  It also took time for the historians to write about how it happened.  But now we are witnessing it each and every day, every hour and every moment what's happening around.  There is no peace if it is find in someone's heart and no refuge if provided to anyone by God, be it in a house, on the mountains, in a cave or on the street.  

The armies aren't even here yet.  Then why is it so much chaos in our lives?  Why have we made our lives and others' so miserable?  Why can't we just sit with ourselves and instantly decide to become peaceful?