The rooster in my lawn !

My cat Nina

I've been observing strange patterns in my neighborhood lately. First, my immediate neighbors got their house painted, and then as if by some strange inspiration suddenly three other neighbors decided it was high time to paint and fix their house.And so within a matter of days my peaceful locality has begun to look as if its been trying to reconstruct itself after a tycoon wreckage or an earthquake destruction..There are painters rubbing the house walls with sandpaper , workers cleaning the window tops, overactive neighbors hammering their fences as if their entire survival depended on it and carpenters drilling to the point that I seem to have developed tinnitis ! Imagine three houses around you going through the same process. I'm hoping they don't begin a competition to see whose walls are brighter or whose fence stronger ! Besides its definitely going to make my home look old next to theirs ! But no matter how old, wrecked, shattered or devastated my home looks like I'm not going to have it painted right now and be a part of the renovation mania ! I'd rather appear dull than an obsessed copy cat !

And its not just this renovation thing, I've also recently noted a change in a choice of pets..People have moved from the old fashioned dogs and cats to the uptown style ! ( And no ! I love my cats so no matter how old fashioned I look I'm not letting go of them ). Just a few days back, while on my evening walk, I saw not one but two middle aged ladies walking with a rope tied around a goats neck.It was funny to see the goat following them in the middle of the road ! I mean whats next ? A cow ? ( Keeping ungulates as pets may be seen in the Eid, Eid ul Azha season , but otherwise its pretty rare ).Then again, my neighbor across the road has two pet rabbits who roam around here and there freely , its often a pleasant surprise to see them sitting at my door they are just so adorable..But here's the shocker that happened this morning. I walk out of my front gate to go to college and find a ROOSTER strolling in my lawn !!!!

PS - The rooster is my neighbor's recent choice of pet and I'm assuming it was fed up of the renovation fiasco back at his place and decided to saunter along my old fashioned lawn for some peace..Well at least now there's someone who thinks the way I do !...lol

The bowling match and other 'Arena' moments

Arsala and I !

We were in class day before yesterday when Uzma whispered into my ear
" Have you started studying yet ? " turning to look at her with a bewildered expression ( its not usual to hear Uzma talk about studies) all I said was " No, but I think we should " , it seems she had her nerd pants on because she went on further to ask " So when do we start ?" amazed at her interest again, but consciouss of the fact that her concern was natural I tried to push the idea of studying to the latest date possible and suggested " Lets start from the 15th , as in after half the month passes we'll have a better idea of the course outline " Uzma instantly pulled out her cell phone to see the date and turned the screen towards me " Its 14th already Najwa !"..I must say I was just as shocked as her to realize that it was already 14th but more than the strange epiphanic feeling was the stinging sadness of starting studies again :) But anyways I did do a little reading today and found the subjects to be pretty interesting !

Enough talk about studies, lets move on to something thats more interesting ! Its hangouts and parties ! We had recently been planning to go watch 'Avatar' after classes ended but facing the challenge of having a full house at practically every theater for the entire upcoming week we changed the idea to go watch a movie to have a bowling match instead. So yesterday, after all the slow, dragging classes ended after what seemed a longer than routine day , we packed ourselves in four cars and headed to 'Arena'..I like arena for its location ( close to home ) , affordability and the fact that its got everything under one roof ( Mini golf, bowling, cafe, ice deck, the artificial rock climbing cliff, snooker pools , gym, arcade and even a paintball fighting war zone !) Farwa, a friend who studies at a college in the North western province was in town and we called her to be a part of the fun.

The bowling match was fun and I finished at second place ! I wont go into much details and let the pictures speak
Its s good thing I took the picture while I was still winning :)


Uzma played five consecutive games , winning all the rounds !!! She sure has stamina

Some of the scrumptious desserts we had at gelato affair after draining our energies at Arena


Love ya all !

A look into the future !

All scrubbed up for the OT !

I apologize for my post being very short last time, I was in a hurry and my haste did n't allow me to put much details about the stuff I mentioned last time. Life has suddenly changed, its as if I've been catapulted from the north pole to the south in an instant, I mean thats how you feel when you come back after an extended leisurely vacations with a prosaic mind to college and are thrown into the whirls of an ever demanding and tough routine without any prior time to adjust to the change .

I'm in the third year of Medical college now , third year, the time when we're posted in hospital in each ward on a monthly basis. I've been posted in E.N.T (Ear, nose and throat) which is not exactly my area of interest but is nevertheless a great experience.We ( as in me and my other friends who've been posted in the same ward) attend OPDs, wards and OTs dealing with ENT.Its so much more different to be studying stuff theoretically and seeing stuff in real life, on real people in real life situations ! Talking to patients, taking down their clinical history and knowing that they're telling me their personal information, which they probably did n't even reveal to their close family , trusting me to be one of their healers ( which I'm really not at this stage !) is a burdening but elevating responsibilty.

Besides the ward duties and ward studies we have our theoretical studies as well which obviously are getting harder. This week has been pretty tiring not only because I'd been trying to adapt to a new routine but also one of my uncle in US is getting married and we're supposed to be sending all the traditional dresses to be given to the bride from Pakistan ! And so that means - A looot of shopping !.. I was pretty excited about the new challenges and was pretending to be unfatigued but yesterday proved me wrong. As I retired to bed last night, and was about to fall asleep a loud groan ( by myself ) startled me, I rolled on to my other side and as soon as I was semi- conscious , it happened again, and jolted me back to vigilance , thats when I realized that I probably was tired ! . And if that realization was n't enough, I had six friends/aquaintainces tell me today that I looked tired/sleepy/worn out/weary etc etc..

But anyways I know its just because I'm still getting used to it and I'll probably adjust to it all in less than a week ! Besides the amusement of meeting patients and the excitement of witnessing something new everyday is bound to keep me energized :)

I'm back !

Boy has it been a long hibernation for me..I've almost forgotten the time when I last posted.And to be honest I have no idea why I did n't have time.I mean there was nothing major I had been doing and yet it seemed time was flying.But ah ! now I remember ! I was too busy watching ' Hana Yori Dango' , the korean drama that Uzma had introduced me to.All the time that I was online was spent staring at my laptop's screen watching the once sensational drama that had been my addiction past week !

Other than ogling at my screen , I was also busy revising some parts of the Holy Quran that I know by heart. Dido's bruises (mentioned a few posts earlier ) are also getting better and she invited us to her home to treat us on getting better, we used the oppurtunity to throw a surprise birthday party for Uzma and Sidra as well.Then there was New Year's eve which was also the day when we had a blue moon and a lunar eclipse in Karachi ! ( What an end to 2009 !).

But with all that happiness and joy came a tragedy as well.It was the 28th of December when a bomb blast killed about 40 people in a religious procession. It was really heart breaking to see something of this magnitude happening in my very own city and afflicting its brutalities on innocent citizens.May Allah grant patience to the families of the deceased and bless those who passed away ! Ameen