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?

Bitter Melon...

Another one of my most favorite vegetables.  It has numerous benefits just like green peppers.  It's a good treatment for blood boils, controls sugar level, improves asthma, bronchitis etc....sounds better than sugar which causes diabetes and helps cancer cells to grow faster.



http://ezinearticles.com/?Bitter-Melon---Benefits,-Uses,-and-Research-for-Diabetes-and-HIV&id=78796

http://www.nutrasanus.com/bitter-melon.html

Freedom

A true believer is a symbol of freedom.  He neither accepts slavery from anyone nor bounds people to fulfill his desires.  This is equally true for women too.

base of progress...

 Acquiring knowledge is not bound to a particular person, place, field or thing.  The process has become much easier for any person who knows how to read, living any where in the world, from any religion, with any family background, working in any professional field.  Thanks to all hi-tech contributors, who used their knowledge and talent to bring technology up to this advancement.  All we need to do is to use it properly and positively to take maximum advantage.  Reading ability and a will for betterment is the base of all advancement and progress.

I Love Them All...

 

 

 

The Crescent and The Star...

 It was eight years ago, when I was forgiven and embraced by my soil, when the land was made spacious for me, when I found myself breathing in confinement the same way I was in the so-called world of freedom,...then I came to know the true meaning of motherhood, found out how friendship works and realized the passion of a soldier at war.

Nim's Island...

I liked this movie, my daughter thinks that it's an okay. What I admire the most is the powerful imagination of a writer who writes adventures.  She can talk to her characters...and communicates to the world on her laptop.  She seems to be a coward who never steps out of her house.  An e-mail from a child who was stuck on an island urges her to get there and help that kid.  She was writing the story about the same island and this is how she becomes the hero of her own story.  

We have too many beaches in Karachi.  Can't we build something adventurous there for kids to have fun.  May be some day.

Meal Timings...

My daughter's favorite weekend breakfast "paratha".  It's a simple roti (bread) fried in ghee (vegetable shortening).  I roll the dough and spread ghee over it, fold it again like we roll the rug or a paper, make a ball and roll it again with a rolling pin and fry it.  Easy now but I still can't make it 
 perfect round.  


 Usually she eats it with half fried egg but some times for dieting purpose she just eats it like that, with tea.  People think that paratha is a heavy food with lots of calories.  They are wrong.  It doesn't effect the weight when eaten early morning with a gap of lunch at 1 'o' clock.  






One thing that really annoys me here is that how can people eat breakfast after ten in the morning, lunch after 2 'o' clock and dinner at ten in the night.  That's ridiculous.  The perfect and healthy meal timings are breakfast right after Fajr (from dawn to 8 '0' clock), lunch between 12 and 1:30 and dinner right after Maghrib (right after sunset till 8).

I'm a honey bee...

I sting because it's natural, I'm protecting my honey.

My breakfast this morning...

For me, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it can make my day awesome or awful, so it has to be my way.

This is rusk (crunchy toast) with malai (fresh milk cream).

Malai reminds me of my grandfather, I was very little, he used to give me malai with sugar in it.
I can take same lunch and dinner for days but not the same breakfast.  It has to be different every other day.

The best breakfast of my life was with Alicia, she invited me early morning the day before my flight.  We were served with pocket pita filled with cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, grapes, orange juice and tea.

Mustafa Zaidi...

 One of my favorite Urdu piece of poetry...

ہر اک زبان پہ  ہے ادعائے بے گنہی
مجھے خبر نہیں مقتول ہوں کہ قاتل ہوں
ابھی یہ بات مجھے زیب بھی نہیں دیتی
ابھی تو میں بھی صف دشمناں میں شامل ہوں
جو فرق ہے تو بس اتنا کے دوسروں کے لیے
شب جزاوسزا ایک بار آئے گی 
   میرےضمیر سے لاکھوں گواہیاں لینے
یہ رات ہم نفسوں باربار آئے گی
یہ رات میری ہر اک نظم کو طلب کر کے
کی ہزاردنوں کا حساب مانگے گی
میری زبان میری تربیت میری تہذیب
میں مر گیا بھی تو مجھہ سے جواب مانگے گی
میری نگاہ میں ارضی عدالتیں کیا ہیں
یہ شاعری میری سب سے بڑی عدالت ہے

مصطفے زیدی

Life in trance....

I transferred my dreams to, 

I transcribed my thoughts to,

I transported my feelings to,

I transformed my beauty into,

I transfigured myself into,

......a better version of mine.
I transmuted my lead into gold,
I'm old.

My Hope...

My sight and the dreams in my eyes that I believe they will never die.

My words that I once blurted out in my ignorance, they have filled the blue sky.

My heart beat that composes the song of love that I can never deny.

My mind so enchanted with my vision that I always glorify.

My soul keeps absorbing inspirations from all around, I have my spirit high.

My hope is my life, so restless, so wandering, so whimsical that I can only enjoy.

Green or Blue Passport....

"We had a Turkish maid named Fatima whom we respectfully called Hanim, meaning "madame:--thus, Fatima Hanim.  Our parents made it a point that we show respect to elders regardless of their station in life.  We were not allwed to call our domestic staff "servants"-- they were employees who earned an honest living and deserved respect.

Fatima Hanim was an old, uneducated woman, quite a simpleton really, but extremely hardworking.  We would tell her that the earth is flat and that Pakistan is at its edge and when you look down you can see paradise.  Either she really believed us or she went along with out game, because she always insisted that we take her to Pakistan so that she could look down and see paradise." 

Clint Eastwood played Frank Horrigan, failed in guarding President J. F. Kennedy.

Al D'Andrea: You okay?

Frank Horrigan: No, I'm not okay.  I'm sick, I'm tired, and I'm armed too, so be careful.

Al D'Andrea: You're also may be a genius.

Frank Horrigan: Huh - not to be recognized in this life time.

Pure and Simple...

An excellent human being and a perfect woman, this is my friend Rubina Shams Khan.  I know her now for 22 years and she is still the same person, soft, kind, generous, polite, tolerant and well-mannered.  She came here on a month long visit after 18 years and found nothing changed.  "Things have gone worse.  People don't value their life, time and relationship" she said.  "I met her last Wednesday after a nine years of long span.  We talk non-stop on every issue.


Loyal and sincere to her husband and his family, very different from those who always think of their in-laws as evil.  She is one of those very few blessed women who support their husbands, value their struggle for life and play their role which really proves them a better half.
Beside my mother, she is the only one I know who was very disciplined and dedicated her life to her triplets, two sons and a daughter, same as my daughter's age.  I taught them Qur'an for two years, half hour or less everyday and I don't remember if they were ever absent or came late.  She provided them with both Islamic knowledge and regular education.
She is a great cook.  Always ready to serve her guests with scrumptious dishes, never got tired of trying new recipes. 
We met each other after a long time and looks like we missed each other a lot.  Like everyone else she was upset about the life style people live here but unlike others she was really considerate about bringing a change for betterment.  For being pure and simple she didn't spend her time in unnecessary shopping and buying clothes and shoes and jewelry like crazy.  She was rather more interested in our education and schooling system and how to control pollution and not to waste time and money in late night parties etc.
We both agree that women should be held more responsible than men for the bad situation we are in now and it's women who can and should make it better.
Women like her are a treasure for their family and a role model for society.  I wish for her and her children a trouble free life.

Chili Time...

Green chillies, the most most most important item of my regular diet.  These smallest one in the picture are the hottest, I can eat one with every bite. 
The biggest are not that hot but they taste great when filled with 'achar gosht spices mixed with yogurt and fried in little oil.  This is Baba's special recipe which he taught me on his recent trip.  I can eat them just like that with roti.  He also loves green chillies, he can't eat any food without them.  Mostly people here fill them with a paste of cumin powder, coriander powder, salt, pepper and lemon juice and fry them.  
They also make great pickle, both Pakistani and Afghani style.

Green Vegetables...

Hey, this is great.  Today I cooked the most delicious 'loki ghost curry' (meat and green squash) of rubik history. 
It was two and half years ago, my doctor suggested me to include green squash, zuccini and teenda in my regular diet.  She said that it will liquefy my blood and will keep my blood pressure normal.  She was right.

And this is 'loki'.  I cook it with meat or I boil it and mash it into yogurt and add salt, black pepper and eat it with white rice.  Sometimes I boil it and sprinkle salt and pepper and just eat it like that.  It tastes good.

And this is 'saime', good cure for arthritis.  Courtesy of my 'subzi wala' who gave these four pieces to me for free.

not rich but famous...

This is Mirza Ghalib, the most famous and prominent among Urdu poets.

This is how he flattered the tall ladies around him,

تیرے سرو قامت سے اک قدّ آدم

قیامت کے فتنے کو ہم دیکھتے ہیں

and then he addressed the shorties of his time, 

دم بھر نہ ٹھرے دل میں نہ آنکھوں میں ایک پل

اتنے سے قد پے تم بھی قیامت شریر ہو

He must have said something for the women with medium height too.  Keeping an eye on the women of all height, may be that's why he didn't get time to make money for his livelihood.  But did those women really believed in what he said?  I don't think so.

The Melody Queen...

This is my most favorite celebrity, Pride of Performance Madam Noor Jehan, the one woman show in her field, strong, brave, beautiful, determined and honest to her profession.  Aside from her remarkable contribution to the music, what made me fall in love with her was her passion for Pakistan.  I never heard of a celebrity visiting borders and singing national songs to show their love and support to the soldiers at war.  She did that in 1965, during the war, leaving her own children home she went to the soldiers and sang patriotic songs to boost their courage and to back up civilian support.

The image of Pakistan cannot be completed without her.  I wonder how can our young politicians ignore her astounding participation in saving Pakistan and hesitate to tribute her as the Pride of Pakistan?  
 

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?