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Solitude
Introverts of the world, Unite !
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A grandmother’s wisdom
It was 25th November, 2004. A beautiful Eid morning. After our morning prayers, I was with my friends visiting our neighbours to greet them on the festive occasion. While at a friend’s house, I got the news – “Your maternal grandmother passed away”. My initial reaction was “No, it is not possible. How can it? She was healthy and happy“. Running back to my house, I had only one selfish thought in my head – Please let it be any one else, but not her. Please, let it be that I heard wrong. Please, not her. It was the first close death I encountered and it affected me deeply. A…
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Quarter Life Crisis
Quarter-life crisis is Feeling like you have no one to talk to even when you have people by your side. Watching ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ episode after episode, at a stretch. Sleep cycle follows a different time-zone than the one you are in geographically. Living in at your parent’s place after 5 years of college freedom. Unpaid internships and feeling lousy about it. Scary thought of you turning out to be a cat-lady who knits all day. Refreshing Twitter and Instagram page at a rate of million times per second. Tweeting about your every mentally deranged thought. Texting becomes way cooler than actual talking on phone Terrified of the…
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Optimist or Pessimist ?
(Feb 24th prompt from NaBloPoMo : Do you think you are more of an optimist or a pessimist? ) Thinking long and hard on the answer to the above question. I came to this sad conclusion: I am an optimist when things go my way. When its running downhill, I turn in to a dreadful pessimist. How wrong can I get ?! It is easy to see the silver lining on the cloud when we can gaze at the beautiful sky while standing on a firm ground. What happens when the ground is shaking and there is an earthquake? Our ability to find the silver lining depends on how much we actually…
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My solace – Books
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.” ― James Baldwin …and so I am busy with these for the next few days. insha’Allah.
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Silence of my home
Growing up, my house did not know the meaning of silence. 2 studious girls who did their daily lessons by reading loudly. 2 hyperactive boys who always had to play football or watch cartoon. Not to forget, the cat and dog fights for everything from the TV remote to the Nutella bottle. However hard my mom tried, it was dearly impossible to wind up for the day before 11 PM. There was one or the other chatter – Crying sessions because the home work assignment was not completed (this was usually me!) or screaming at the other for breaking a favourite toy (usually the boys) or being on the telephone…
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Weekly Photo Challenge : Threes
Pictures speak more than a thousand words. My lovely cousin sisters giving me hope, not all of childhood innocence and curiosity is devoured by pixels on a screen. May they be blessed and protected. (Weekly Photo Challenge : Threes. Tell a story in three pictures ) Linking it to NaBloPoMo. Phew 21st day.
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The hijab – My choice
From the time I was 11 or 12, whatever is it that I chose to wear- skirt & top, jeans & kurta, salwar kameez or the abaya – there has been an extra fabric on my head, covering my hair, popularly called as the HIJAB. On doing a quick Google search, you will realize the fact that the Hijab is one of the most controversial topic regarding the Muslim women. The extra fabric hasn’t prevented me from gaining a degree, working in a hospital, travelling alone, outing with my friends or in short, living my life. It is a personal choice after studying and comprehending my religious texts. It is…
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Facebook
I have a love-hate affair with Facebook. With friends and family all around from the farthest east to the farthest west, Facebook truly helps me to keep in touch with them all. But hadn’t Facebook been there, wouldn’t I have found other ways to keep in touch with them if I really wanted to? On our Facebook friend-list we have everyone from our kindergarten friends to the Professors at college. In real-life, would we be actually sharing details of our honey-moon trip with our Professors or would we be comfortable showing recent pictures of our family/extended relatives with people whose sole contact with us was only sharing the same class…
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A city and a village.
Place where I grew up : Doha, Qatar Class gradation and caste differences was something I was not aware of during my childhood days. Everyone had the same Staedtler Pencil and Faber Castell Colour Pencils. It was assumed everyone was from reasonably well-to-do families. Some of our neighbours were from Syria, Egypt or Palestine (besides Indians!) and though we wished each other on New Years and Eid, we were not much in contact otherwise. Outings, community get-together at the local club, Eid meet at the Park – every community mostly socialized with its own kind. Though a cosmopolitan city, cohesive nature and intermingling among st the expatriates and natives are…
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A cold morning
Seek beauty in the finer details.
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Hometown to home
Today morning, I was surrounded by the lush greenery By night, I am in the desert. Morning, I was braving the heat. By night, the cold chills my bone. Morning, I was dreading the 30kg luggage limit By night, I was dreading the last-bag-on-the-baggage-carousel fate. Morning, I was in my home town. By night, 3000 nautical miles later, I am in the place I call and feel home.
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E-books
My sister and brother in law gifted me with a Samsung Note 10.1 a few months back. Thus started my love affair with eBooks. I used to read eBooks on my laptop or on the small N900 screen earlier, but due to the cumbersome nature either of holding the laptop or due to strain of peering into the small screen of N900, I could read only one book at a time, that too with frequent breaks. So it was not a common affair. With the tablet, the screen is quite comfortable for reading and since there was a Note cover too, I can place the tab in any way that…
