Creative writing
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Healing through words.
Nearly two months since I showed my presence on the blogosphere. Life happened! Yet, I feel a piece of the puzzle missing. …there are two ways in which I find my healing and patience : Prayer and Writing. My time constraints and roller-coaster changes of past few months made me to lack in both, sadly. I found myself constantly anxious and frustrated. I realized I have kept myself away from the same things that gives me serenity and peace : God. Words. Here I am trying to get back on to my rails when I found the NaBloPoMo theme for the month of September : Healing. Voila ! I just…
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Beautiful Beginnings
Hello ! Do people read me here anymore? The April A to Z Challenge bought in many new readers for my blog yet ironically I have been missing in action on my blog since then ! Over the course of past few months my life changed completely. Alhamdulilah. I met, fell in love and got married to a wonderful man. As I go through the first few steps of my married life, I cannot help but wonder how immensely blessed I am. To have a family I was heartbroken to leave, yet, to be blessed with another family who openly and wholeheartedly welcomed me into their midst. Alhamdulilah. It’s not…
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Calls Answered
I have never tossed a coin in a fountain and wished. I have never crossed my fingers and wished. I have never looked on a shooting star and wished. …..but, I have prayed to my Lord, with my eyes closed, and tears springing, in the wee hours of dawn to protect me from sadness and grief. I have prayed to my Rabb in the green carpeted Rawdah to remove the difficulties of my family and friends. I have prayed in front of the Kaabah for all my affairs to be set right and bless me with tranquility. I have prayed standing on the mount Safa to bless me with professional…
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Destiny
“How can you be so late?”, she screamed at her driver. This was the fifth time she was reaching late for work. She reached her office only to see firefighters all around. Apparently there was an electric fire in her floor, fifteen minutes back. She muttered a quick prayer and silent thanks to her driver. (Day 6 of Write Tribe’s Festival of Words and today’s challenge is to write 55-words fiction)
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Inspiration around
My mother’s prayers and kindness inspires me. My father’s hardworking nature inspires me. My sister’s perfectionism inspires me. My brother’s drive for knowledge inspires me. My little brother’s selfless nature inspires me. My friend’s faith in love even after being cheated terribly inspires me. My teacher’s strength in fighting her personal adversities inspire me. My aunt’s strong sense of faith even after losing her twins inspire me. My cousin who conveys her emotions through actions, not words inspire me. My professor’s belief in my abilities inspire me. My neighbour’s helping nature inspires me. My colleague’s passion for dentistry inspires me. Search for stories of inspiration not only in famous celebrities…
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Demon-tia
‘Mom, I am back home,’ screamed Sarah from the front door. Her mom replied back in a puzzled and frightened tone, ‘ Who are you? Why is there a stranger in my house?’ ‘Oh mom, not today, I am really tired and I cannot bear this drama now,’ came the hurt retort. Sarah went back to her room and sprawled herself on to the bed. Feeling dejected and exhausted from this daily ordeal. Her eyes went to the self-made poster of reminder on her wall. It read – Your mother’s dementia makes her forget who you are but you cannot let that make you forget who she is to you. She smiled,…
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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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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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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…