My dentist told me to use a super-soft toothbrush for the area he operated on a week ago. I chose a pink colored baby toothbrush with Minnie's ears drawn all over it.
What's in a Number?
My cellphone carrier now offers, "Islamic Services" that include being able to listen to the "Quran, Hadith, Hamd, Naat, Qawali and much more" on my phone.
Somehow I lost track of the Islamic bit after Hamd and Naat.
Or was it when I realized that I can get all these "Islamic Services" by dialing 786? I forget.
Thinking Chair
Halima was over at my place and lounging on my bed with myself sitting on my green sofa. It was then that I realized something and told her that our sitting this way was an extremely rare occassion. She asked why and I answered that I wasn't sure when both of us would be home in Karachi from Lahore at the same time again.
The next day, both Maryam and Halima were over and I had another thought. With Zairah being busy with Ibrahim and Mehreen in CA, it would just be the three of us spending time this way. Until the next year, as Halima duly reminded me.
Next year. I want Afshan and Nazia over right now just thinking of it.
Emotional Hypochondria At Its Best
As soon as Ryzvan signed in from work today, I asked him something that both of us would describe as a, "raat-khanay-ke-liye-kya-pakaoon?" while-at work kind of question: untimely, unnecessary and irrelevant.
Funny thing is, I had realized just how wifey I am capable of sounding as soon as I had asked that particular thing, and alhamdo lillah he was honest enough to reply that it's a question he really cannot answer as well as I could; and so I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. He's as honest as I'd like him to be and alhamdo lillah, more honest than I wouldn't on certain occassions. That, and I made a mental note of checking myself before interrupting his work to ask him something.
Such are the fringe benefits of being friends long before anything else - the emotional hypochondria which makes me sense his reaction to a general situation, even when I am the one creating it for him, and effectively admitting to the sheer silliness of the matter. Alhamdo lillah for honesty and all its instances.
For the Want of Intellectual Stimuli
I was flipping channels on television when I tuned into a children's quiz show on one of our local channels. Seeing Aamir Saleem the singer sit as one of the guests amongst the audience of children made me suddenly wonder the last time I saw someone other than a singer or a musician as a guest for a children's show.
I don't see any authors, I don't even see any actors. I don't see any soldiers, policemen, pilots or any other role models except for singers in childrens' shows.
Talking to Halima about the same, she pointed out that a possible reason why could be that children do not think much about the kinds of people I just mentioned, which brings the argument round to the starting point: children don't think of such people as interesting because such people are not introduced to children with the same razzle dazzle as musicians are.
I want to hear about Ibn-e-Insha from people other than my father. If the actual authors are not available, I'd love to hear people talk about their youth that was spent on such authors like Shafeeq-ur-Rehman, Bano Qudsia and even Ghulam Abbas. Or poets like Ahmed Faraz who are given air-time on Begum Nawazish Ali but not asked how the picture of their country has changed over the span of their lifetime.
Personally I know people who belong to the police and armed forces who have extremely interesting thoughts to share and inspire people with. Why limit such occassions to September 6, and even then to remember older patriots and not celebrate the prospect of newer ones, insha Allah. I know for a fact that many young mindsets will be changed if the army and police were represented by those who feel the same glory behind serving their country as myself, you or any other common man would.
I wouldn't even object half as much to musicians being guests at a show (maybe I would, actually) if they presented even a flicker of inspiration through means of dialogue and reflection shared with the children. Instead, all they do is lip-sync or hand out gifts wrapped in shiny green paper.
Children look extremely cute masha Allah, waving our Pakistani flags in glee while hearing their favorite singer singing a well-known national song, but then they might come out associating August 14 with only the song-and-dance routine. Hearing the people who make Pakistan each day the rest of the year is bound to be an inspiration and a less mindless experience.
I love my country, and I am proud to celebrate its existence. I just don't want the idealogy of Pakistan to be reduced to a mere Chinese whisper that loses its weight by the time it has reached the last ear.
Then Which of The Favors of Your Lord Will You Deny?
The next time I think to scrunch my nose at something I may not like to eat, may Allah Remind me of this. Ameen.
Credits to Asma @ Islamabad Metblogs
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