Black

Today's post was supposed to be a happy, cheerful one, but there's no way I can make it that, especially since the entire nation is in mourning and the flags were at half mast. It was a sad day for the entire nation. A commercial plane carrying around 152 people from Karachi to Islamabad (the capital) crashed into the Margalla hills near the outskirts of Islamabad yesterday. No one survived !

The site of the crash ( Image courtesy tntmagazine.com)

News channels have been covering the entire state of affair since yesterday, the image of people crying their hearts out at  the airport for their loved ones is a heart wrenching scene. There were six youth parlimentarians on board, one of them happened to be a friends friend. A newly wed couple was also on board, they had just gotten married two days ago and lived a block away from my home. I've come to know of so many people as friends of friends or relatives of neighbours who have died in the crash that it makes you realize how unpredictable death is and how your entire existence can change in a matter of a few seconds. We surely have no power over death and nature, those are the domains that only Allah deals with, But may god grant the deceased with heaven, give patience and courage to their relatives !

My birthday !

Im really sorry that it took me so long to put up a new post. There were a lot of things that kept me busy, first and foremost was my birthday , on the 19th of July, and then it was the post birthday excitement etc.

I must say , this was one of the best birthday I've ever had. It started by a text msg from Hunain, wishing me a Happy Birthday, a good 20 mins before midnight, and then Sidra and Farwa called up with their happy cheerful voices which already gave me a feeling that this birthday was gonna be special. But then , the confrence call from Uzma nad Faryal exactly at 12 midnight made me grin so hard in joy that I could feel my cheeks hurt ! All this time there was an incessant noise of incoming text alerts ( Music to my ears !), I had almost 30 ppl greet me thru text msgs, around 8 through phone calls, and more than a 100 facebook wall posts !!!

And ofcourse, I finally got to see what Uzma was hiddenly preparing for my birthday - It was a scrap book cum story book with autographs and greetings from all the possible people I know, she sure put in a lot of effort. Love u Uzma !

 So what about the party you ask ? Well , we had a party/lunch at Nando's, it was a combined treat by me and Huzair, his birthday was on the 7th of July. Here are some pics 


Thats me reading the scrapbook ------>

just a few friends from the party

Nana means encouragement, optimism and faith !

It  never really sunk in, the fact that nana (maternal grandfather)  is no more, it felt the same like at did when he was around, but today it was different, it all came gushing down, reality, in a sudden instantaneous moment of epiphany ! It was strange because it never really happened in the past three years, but a sudden recall of a memory I had with him did such a miracle !

I was 17 when he was hospitalized for the last time, it was a case of stroke again, the 5th one I guess, the docs said he was critically ill, but to me it didn't matter, not because I didn't care but because I knew my nana was a survivor, a fighter. The first time he got hospitalised the docs had said his chances of living were a mere 5% and yet he survived, and improved. I knew it'd be the same this time, the docs could say whatever they want too..I wasn't allowed to meet him in the ICU in his last few days, the hospitals staff and my parents thought I would n't be able to see him in his heart wrenching condition, but to me it didn't matter because I knew he'd be home in no time. With this in mind on the 7th of December 2006, I left for India to participate in a student service project. He expired exactly 10 mins after my flight took off. ( I wasn't informed, they told me when I got back)..So I was never able to attend his funeral or hold his hand before he died and I guess thats the reason why his death was unacceptable to me, until now...

My mamoo (uncle) is here to visit us and we were gathered in the lounge after dinner for some late night tea and discussions when he remarked how my aunt liked the fact that nana always used to encourage her cooking skills. That's when it struck ! Without thinking I started mentioning a forgotten incident that moistened my eyes once I was done.....- I was 14. It was lunch time and I had helped mom in making a paratha ( fried bread) , proud with my meager achievement I served that paratha to nana , who praised it from all his heart and soul and ate it with such delight as if it were the best paratha in the world ( which Im pretty sure it wasn't !) In the end he saved the last tiny bit of paratha, wrapped it in a plastic wrap and said he'd preserve it and have it framed for it was the first paratha his grand daughter had made. A few days later he suffered his first major stroke and was hospitalized, the nurse handed over his clothes, from his trousers' pocket was found his ID, a comb and the wrapped 1 cm piece of paratha !!

I've never had anyone as encouraging as appreciating in my life as my nana. He taught me to believe in myself and my dreams, I wish he were alive to see me in Med school , I'm sure he'd be most proud of me ! The nana who'd crouch  into my make believe clinic under a table when I was a 6 year old, have his arm wrapped in my old hair scrunchie while I pretended to check his blood pressure and wrote a prescription of chocolates, and then most amazingly he also used to give me my fee,sufficient enough to buy candies, for as he used to say 'little Dr. Najwa grand daughter of Imadul Islam will be a big doctor one day and make her nana proud' !!...

I will nana , I will !

Desi OOTD

I had to go to the nikah ( marriage) ceremony of my mom's cousin yesterday and this is what I wore...

its a dhoti shalwar, the shalwar (trouser) looks like a dhoti ( its a fabric that men in the rurals wrap around their abdomen like a skirt with a bit or twirls and wraps here and there), hence its called dhoti shalwar. It isnt exactly 'in' these days but I had this dress in my closet for the a very long time and I had only worn it once so I thought I better wear it before my mom makes her usual declaration that I have more clothes than I need.

The shoes were Khussey  - they're traditional hand made shoes with embroidery and beads on them..

Tabba times

TABBA !!! Yes the Tabba heart Institute has been giving me a good time this summer.There's so much to learn and so much to see, plus we get free lunch coupons everyday ! Now free food can take me anywhere,  anytime, but seriously Tabba is fun. Especially since my friends are there too and I tell you , getting the same summer internship as your friends is pure luck !

We're being posted in each dept for a week. This week I've been able to see Thallium scans, ECHOs etc but the most interesting one was watching an angiography. We had to wear Lead jackets and lead collars to protect our body and our dear old thyroid which keeps us running in a modest manner ( you dont wanna go obese, lethargic and sleepy all the time, do you ?)..The doctors there are co operative too, well not exactly as co operative as I'd want them too but they still make sure we understand whats going on..

The best part of being at Tabba is that the mall is just at a 5 min drive so we easily escape to that delightful zone of sales and sundaes whenever we're free :)...And oh yeah I've some new plans that I'm sure all of you will love. But you'll have to wait for about three more days..Till then ...Allah Hafiz :)

Its monsoon/vacations/internship time !

Thats us on the last day of college before vacations !

Since the time I opened my eyes to date, the month of  July has always been a vacation for me, but not this time ! Well, technically it is since we're off from college but I'm doing an internship at the Tabba Institute of Heart diseases, at about a 20 minutes drive from home so it isn't a vacation in the true sense. Gladly Shirin, Huzair and Hunain are interning too and so I can spend more time with them during the vacations. I'll be posting more details about the Cardiology experience after a few days.

As for now I'm relieved that I'm done with the rotation in the Opthalmology ward, eye isn't particularly my area of interest but I really liked the rotation experience because I seemed to know a lot about eye diseases without actually studying about them and was able to participate in the discussions in the ward and amaze myself with the stuff I'd come up with. I mean seriously, I picked up the book on Eye just a day before the ward test and yet I think I did well in it. I just got a little confused over the differential diagnosis of leukcoria (an abnormal white reflection from the eye) in the start but I was able to cover it swiftly with other stuff that supposedly impressed the examiner.

Other than that , life's good , its almost monsoon season so we have a thick cloud cover every now and then , it seems like it'd rain but it doesn't, we gave Huzair his birthday present in advance since we weren't sure we'd be able to meet up with him during the vactions, its an Mp3 player that we bought with a combined contribution from all his friends, he seemed to like it a lot :). I have a wedding to attend this Wednesday and I cant wait to wear the black dress I'm dying to put on, I just got it back from the tailor after getting it stitched today..And oh yeah ! How could I forget, we got our transcripts of the 5th semester and I scored a GPA 3.70, its lesser than my previous score but I'm happy and thankful to God that I passed ..So much for the random updates I'll be back with more...