Word Salad

2011-12-12T07:14:00.000+05:00

It comes in waves and it is a veil which is dropped and uplifted again and again...and again...

کوئی چارہ ساز ہوتا کوئی غمگسار ہوتا

2011-12-05T16:04:00.001+05:00

I vaguely remember that in the book 'Zaavia' by Ashfaq Ahmad, the author narrates an incident in which a person came with a strange illness (some marks on the hand) to ask for a cure from baba ji (for people who are not familiar with Ashfaq Ahmad's writings just think of him as a peer/shaikh). At that time baba ji didn't know what it was so he asked the person to come at a later time. Only when baba ji himself incurred the same illness did he gave out the remedy.

I wish I could find the exact incident so that I could narrate it more aptly but the essence for me was that at times we are just too quick to blurt out suggestions when we really don't know what others might be going through. At times we know we are right but still we want someone to say you are right, at times we know we are wrong but we still want someone to accept us with our failures. At times we just need a shoulder to cry on.

یہ کہاں کی دوستی ہے کہ بنے ہیں دوست ناصح

کوئی چارہ ساز ہوتا کوئی غمگسار ہوتا

Again this field has no right and wrong answers. What others do or don't do cannot always be a judge of their intentions. They might be getting angry with you, scolding you, hating you for bringing yourself in such a wretched state and they still might have your best interest at heart...they still might love you all the same.

The English Effect

2011-11-27T07:38:00.001+05:00

It was in one of the short stories back in the O-level's syllabus that a guy tells a girl (or perhaps it was the other way round) that he loves her and the girl replies that if you had said that in Urdu, it would have sound so bazaari (vulgar) ... or something similar to that ... English does have this intellectualizing, legalizing and toning down effect over here. I have seen people happily bearing abuses hurled at them in English but usually they are not so comfortable with Urdu or Punjabi. Similarly when the Pakistani stage dramas were gaining notoriety with their abundant double entendres; English sitcoms were usually let off scot-free with their sexual innuendos.

Confusion

2011-11-23T16:17:00.001+05:00

2011-11-21T04:44:00.001+05:00

How effortlessly he plugs in the verbal abuse when he barks at the waiter to bring the naans quickly. Considerable height and more than a few sessions at the bodybuilding club entitles him to such mannerism.

Where you desperately want to punch the hell out of him, only if you had the same height and sessions on your side; you also start to feel better about yourself. At least there are people who more perfectly adorn the definition of a jerk.

What feels worst is that you did not have the courage to stand up for that poor guy whose lips were sealed only because he has a family to feed.

National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

2011-11-16T18:32:00.001+05:00

See the pictures here.

Maybe because it is of Pakistan but picture number 8 is fascinating...

"An unexpected side-effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiders webs. People in the area had never seen this phenomenon before, but they also reported that there were less mosquitos than they would have expected, given the amount of standing water that was left. Not being bitten by mosquitoes was one small blessing for people that had lost everything in the floods. (© Russell Watkins)"

This blog is about...

2011-11-16T15:35:00.001+05:00

http://www.wordle.net/

Lectures by Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed

2011-11-16T14:56:00.001+05:00

Islam

Temptations of the Youth

Islam and Secularism

2011-11-12T20:08:00.001+05:00

After the Jalsa...

2011-11-05T18:56:00.000+05:00

Article by Orya Maqbool Jan

2011-11-04T11:16:00.000+05:00

Here is the link to an interesting article

Eggs in Ratatouille

2011-09-28T21:58:00.000+05:00

Original recipe here!

Love or farewell or recognition

2011-09-28T21:30:00.000+05:00

Could she still draw back...? Her distress awoke a nausea in her body and she kept moving her lips in silent fervent prayer.
A bell clanged upon her heart. She felt him seize her hand:
-Come!
All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing.
-Come!
No! No! No! It was impossible. Her hands, clutched the iron in frenzy. Amid the seas she sent a cry of anguish!
-Eveline! Evvy!
He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow. He was shouted at to go on but he still called to her. She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.

Eveline, Dubliners, James Joyce

Pakistan: A personal history by Imran Khan (Book Review)

2011-09-27T11:10:00.002+05:00

"Cogent, candid and honest; Imran Khan’s recently published book gives an intriguing insight into the mind of a person who may well become the country’s next prime minister..." Read the review here!

Materialism or Comfort?

2011-09-17T10:56:00.000+05:00

How many times we have noticed that at the time of rukhsati in our weddings the car which is embellished to take the bride and groom away (and at times a couple more close relatives squeezed in) has to be a saloon. If the groom’s family does not own one then either the car is rented or borrowed. Is it materialism or comfort?

Anger Portrayed

2011-09-04T00:06:00.000+05:00

Women in Media

2011-09-03T12:15:00.000+05:00

Pakistan’s recent obsession with dual SIM cellphones is bearable but what irks me while watching those incessant advertisements is that the duality feature is usually depicted by a boy having two love interests...

Beef Brisket

2011-08-23T00:36:00.001+05:00

Recipe by Tom Perini. Got it from here!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 bay leaf, crushed
4 pounds beef brisket, trimmed
1 1/2 cups beef stock

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Make a dry rub by combining chili powder, salt, garlic and onion powders, black pepper, sugar, dry mustard, and bay leaf. Season the raw brisket on both sides with the rub. Place in a roasting pan and roast, uncovered, for 1 hour.

Add beef stock and enough water to yield about 1/2 inch of liquid in the roasting pan. Lower oven to 300 degrees F, cover pan tightly and continue cooking for 3 hours, or until fork-tender.

Trim the fat and slice meat thinly across the grain. Top with juice from the pan (I reduced the juice to make a thick sauce).

Squeeze some lemon juice at the end. Bon Appetite.

Scarborough Fair

2011-08-21T01:05:00.002+05:00

Let me share this beautiful English ballad with you. Here is the best version, I could find.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?