Pakistani Pencils :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today's Meal

These are potato-kebab (aaloo kay kabab) with egg and salad.  They are easy to make.  Just boil the potatoes, mash them, add leaves of green onion, crumbs of green chillies, coriander leaves, black pepper, red chilly powder (or paprika) and salt.  Make disks, coat them with chicken broast powder and pan fry them in oil. 

And this is one of the most common dish of Pakistan, malika masoor ki daal (the black pulse soup/curry).  This is how I make it.  Soak 'malika masoor' in water and leave it for at least one hour.  Boil the grains adding some red chilly powder and turmeric powder, on a low heat for one hour.  Then add green-onion leaves, coriander leaves, salt, and green chillies and let them cook for five more minutes.  Then in a small pot, fry quarter spoon of cumin seeds in some oil and add them in the mixture.  Mix it well for a minute and served it with white rice, pickle and salad.

My Bucket List

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0825232/plotsummary

Loved this movie of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, saw last year.  Especially Jack Nicholson (Edward Cole) playing an elite, owning the hospitals but doesn't find a separate room in his own hospital because of the policy.  Here are some lovely quotes from it;

Edward Cole: "Just because I told you my story does not invite you to be part of it."

Carter Chambers: "Forty-five years goes by pretty fast.

Edward Cole: "Like smoke through a keyhole"

And that's the thing that worries me a lot, about the rest of the life.  I made my bucket list too, quite different from the one in the movie.  Good thing about it is that it fulfills the desires of my predecessors too.  Bad thing is that it has gotten too long.  Nothing new, just many piled up conservative thoughts and old-fashioned ideas, backed up by harsh experience and failed experiments.  It doesn't even exist in the form of a list anymore.  It has become a plot, one with everything in it.  Orphans, poor, children, adults, women, illiterate lot, reading, writing, training, fun, planting, playing, swimming, martial arts, counseling, fashion, singing, dancing...all in a family environment.  I never had this concept of family environment for such a project but like a center or an official premises.  It all started few years ago, more exactly when I visited Sailani/Selani Welfare Center and saw one of their spot near by offering free food to please Allah.  Whenever I pass by that road, I see most of the people who go there to eat are Mashallah, healthy and in a good physical condition.  They don't look like the desperate one who supposed to be there.  I personally think of it as a very harmful trend to promote beggary.  Then when I met Mrs. Perveen of Khana Ghar and found out about the way she is trying to save as many miserable families as she can from starvation, this idea struck to my mind.  While she is working hard to feed with food, why not someone else step forward and provide them with basic quality education and good training.  We can't expect one person to do everything and Mrs. Perveen is doing her best.  Things are done better in collaboration of skills and passion.  It's like somebody is there to take full responsibility to comprise and hold on to a system and a team effort is required with a consistent provision of human resources to achieve the short-term objectives so the process doesn't stop.  Since my project is not supposed to be a charity-based one, I prefer at least a year long stock of basic supplies to be planned and provided in advance.  It is also a great convenience to take into consideration the expected as well as unexpected emergencies and leniency by any means in advance.  A clearly-written record of everything and everyone involved in the project helps to avoid mishandling and misunderstandings.  When to get started, as soon as the things are determined. 
I could have continued if I had my continuity of resources but doesn't matter, still working on it, calmly and patiently.  I have never been disappointed in God, for He is the most powerful and owns all the treasures of the heavens and the earth.


I tried to find out that how many orphanages and charity organizations were founded by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).  So far I know none of them and if there were really none organized by him then certainly he wanted well-off and well-skilled members of the community to coordinate with each other and be responsible for the ones who were deprived of the basic necessities of life.  This is what is called an Islamic or a peaceful society.
Another concept that has developed in me in last couple of years is the one about giving sadiqah.  Leaving behind the true definition and reasons for sadiqah in Islam, in our country, sadiqah is considered a charity that is given to alleviate a curse, to remove the side-effects or after-shocks of our sins or like in Urdu we say, "bala talna".  We usually choose orphanages and people who are already living like a Hell to exchange our balaas.
But what if we change our intentions and start giving gifts to those poor living beings, holding an idea of caring and sharing.  If Allah (SWT) removes sins and eliminates curses in exchange of sadiqaat, just imagine how much would He Almighty be happy with Muslims giving gifts to each other, without any feeling of imposed-favors, show-off and photo sessions.
And why is it like children in living in charities or orphanages have to eat and wear something indecent.  Why can't I just bear them wearing nice stylish clothes as I prefer for my own child?  Why not the same food?  And why do they have to look at me like someone dignified and honored just because I'm able to feed them with few pieces of bread?  Why not like a source form the Lord Almighty who is there to give them a big hand, to enable them to stand on their feet, to lead them towards an independent life and to make believe that God is theirs' too.  And I find it better to stay home than to witness these despicable injustices.
Can't we celebrate the important national and Islamic days like making gift-packs for the one who need them.  Little gift packs of bangles, earrings, a clean, stylish dress, shoes, pencils, pens...or may be a tuition or registration or examination fee or a course book for a student....could be anything.  It was six years ago in Islamabad, on chand-raat, I saw a poor old man holding the hand of his four or five year old daughter.  They were very far from where we were standing and I think that she was asking him to buy her bangles while he obviously couldn't afford them.  Then I added this wish to my list that one day I will buy bangles for all little girls who can't afford them and something for boys too.  Printing part is ahead, unlike last time, I will have to sit with someone who can transcribe the script properly.  Where will I find a person with such a courage?
It's too many things to be done in too little time.

Trans-Parent

This is my chamoola, too much use of the Oxford dictionary a few years got me this gift.  But I can still see far better. 




 


That was my favorite nikki-cup which got accidentally broken by me few weeks ago.  I liked it because it was good for drinking in three sips like it is said in sunnah.  

Curry in Hurry

And this is the delicious, also the nutritious loki-tinda-chicken curry.  I thought that let see how would it taste putting two vegetables together so I added tinda with loki.  My daughter liked it and we ate it with white rice.  It wasn't spicy at all so I had to take small hot green peppers with it.

Accidentally sweetish

My first sweet dish, I named it mango-jello-custard.  I made the vanilla custard, added the strawberry jelly and mango chunks and spread some mango shakes on it.  It tasted good.












My daughter didn't taste it, as always she was scared of my food experiments, so I will have to finish it all by myself.  Good Luck to me!

Purple and Voilet

Falsay (the small berries) and Jamun (in English may be grewia and jambling or jamblang), I like their colour than their taste. 

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?

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.