End Of Ramadan....

Ramadan is at it's end. Another Ramadan gone. This year I tried hard. I tried to give it my best shot. I certainly hope I've succeeded and I will be a better person when this Ramadan has ended and the routine life begins. Some of the things I hope to improve in:

No more gossip. It almost always leads to either passing rumors on or backbiting.

A strict control over my temper.

Same goes for my tongue. Think before I speak. Lest I hurt someone y mistake...

....Or deliberately.

Be Thankful for what I've been given. Not lust after the things I do not have.

Not take the thing's Allah's gifted me for granted. They can be taken away from meanytime.

No lies.

No false promises.

Be more understanding towards my husband, my relatives.

False pride is just that- false!

Start meditating regularly; recite Quran regularly and pay more attention to my prayers.

I'm hoping to get these things right this year.....

Thin line between rumour & truth

Here's something I recently got in mail.....

Keep this philosophy in mind the next time you either hear, or are about to repeat a rumor.

Philosopher Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day he came upon an acquaintance who ran up to himexcitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?" "Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called theTriple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?”, the person asked
"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my student let's take a moment to filterwhat you're going to say.

The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?" "No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..." "All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter,
The second filter is that of Goodness.
Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?" "No, on the contrary..." "So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you're notcertain it's true?" The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.

Socrates continued. "You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter - The filterof Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?" "No, not really"
Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tellit to me at all?"
A thought to be kept in mind whenever the next time we’re tempted to repeat rumours to others

An Update

The Pakistanis just got to know the government had been warned about the earth quake… some 3-4 years ago. And nothing was done to at least insure quick help in case of emergencies! It has been almost a week and the roads have as yet not been cleared. People from the villages can not come to cities and vice versa. We need to walk an entire day to reach the biggest village… and the one with a huge population. The rest are even farther!
80% of the tax payers’ money goes to the army. Now you’d think they would have the required machines in case of emergencies… they might, you know, if it wasn’t for the huge luxurious houses equipped with cars, servants, club memberships and blah blah that they get. Now when I think of how I need to stick to my budget and how I sigh and fret to live within the budget and our income and then I think of how the tax gets deducted from our income before it reaches us every month and how that tax is used, it really makes my blood boil.
Just last year my dear old Prime Minister ordered 11 cars from abroad… with cost more than 100 million. This for the transport purposes of these high profile personalities. Now a good, luxurious car in Pakistan cost no more than twentieth of what it cost the prime minister. But, well, who cares? It’s the tax payers’ money! The night I heard that I saw a couple of people sleeping under street lights with torn clothes and who looked as if they hadn’t a decent meal in ages. Of course at that time the prime minister probably knew about the earth quake chances.
We, the citizens, are helping ourselves. Not many trust the govt enough to contribute to eh President Relief Fund. People are privately collecting goods and medicines and sending them to the afflicted areas. My dad is collecting donations and buying water proof tents and blankets so that those people at least have a roof on their heads until they rebuild their houses. This, of course, should’ve been already done by the govt but….!!
And to think we did not even elect Musharraf!
I’m sorry this has gone all political but its reality.
No one I’ve talked to believes that the international help will go to the ones it’s sent for! Not most of it any way…and I think they can’t be that heartless…surely not! But then, they were warned before the disaster struck…. And they still got themselves 11 cars rather than use the tax peyers’ money to make sure they were properly equipped to deal with a situation such as this.
Lucky for the afflicted ones, the Pakistanis are not as bad as their govt. Everyone is donating so much and more. People are giving things, medicines, cash like crazy… helping their brothers in need. My heart soared when I heard about how much people have privately collected. Just a day or so ago an acquaintance went to donate some stuff and the queue was so long it took her two and a half hours! And this when the donations are supposed to have slowed!!!

Scaled 7.6

Pakistan northern areas have suffered from a major earth quake. it struck in the early hours of the morning. Islamabad, the capital was teh big city that suffered. Apart from that dozens of villages suffered. 12 of which are said to be totally flattened with no urvivors. Ofcourse, no one could reach those places to be sure. In Mansera- a village I visited back in May, a school fell with 300-400 kids studying. After two days the govt still hadn't reached to help the alive children out. Ofcourse, I doubt by that time there might not have been many survivors! To top it all, a storm struck in the night. Can u believe it? If some kids were in there alive they'd have drowned!
By now the news is one of the vilage stinks so bad that they will not bother to lift the dead bidies out, they will turn it to a grave yard.
They need things. Injectibles, medicines, water, clothes, shelter. They are poor homeless people who have lost all they had- most of them even their loved ones. the good thing is, the common folk like us are doing all they can to help financially as well as physically. People have hired helicopters to send the goods to the villages. to reach those places by road is not possible anymore.
It is bad. the suffering is awesome. May God Help us all. and help the survivgors get over their friends, family they've lost!

Of protruding stomachs...

It was exactly one week after I commented on my cousin’s enormous amounts of weight gain that I received a phone call about her having a daughter. Whooops! My reaction was strictly due to shock, surprise and the cringe within. I had to crawl after my dropped jaw to get hold of it and put it in it’s place. Me and my big mouth. And this too after *thinking* how extremely huge my petite aunt was getting and then finding out she was almost full term with her- ahem- twins! That, too, after she delivered of course! Delivered- what a weird term really. Like delivering pizza, or the chili chicken burger…. Like calling up KCF for the free delivery. Then, saying she has delivered twins. Really? Where from? Couldn’t there be a separate term for….*delivering*… babies? *Delivering* sounds like a stork is delivering them!
Coming back to where I deviated from… somewhere during this phase I had my grandma tell me how I should have a sister. How everyone needs a sister…. Gran, I’m eighteen. I do not need a sibling eighteen years younger than me. Then my mother started asking me how I’d like a sibling. My brothers were all for it. Oh well. But why did she ask me? Is she..? Ah, so I started observing my mother very closely indeed. All I knew about pregnancy was what I’d read in a story book. The lady in it had cravings for ice cream in the middle of the night.
She wasn’t expecting. And it was months before I relaxed. Neither was it the first, nor the last time I made horrendous assumptions!
When I was expecting, I found myself staring at every female I came across and branded most of them pregnant. Her stomach’s protruding. So is hers’. Goodness, that one’s probably full term…..
It was funny actually. And obviously a diversion. Like when I was a kid, my cousin and I decided we’d stick out our tongues at everyone on a bike…!!
After having Yumna, I made it a point to seek out every lady with an infant and see whether she was as chubby as I’d become!! *sgH*
I see you wonder... What next…. Believe me when I say *my sentiments exactly!*


PS Happy Ramadan To All Muslims :)