A note of appreciation and recommendation !

I just came across Shehzad Roy's blog and started following it.Shehzad Roy came to Public attention as a singer back in 1995 .His songs were greatly praised and liked by the public but soon he gained attention not just as a singer but as a humanitarian when he started his organisation by the name of 'Zindagi trust' zindagi literally means life and his organisation works to provide education to the underprivileged children in Pakistan. He has been awarded for his hardwork and selfless dedication to his community both at national and international level..I too admire him.His blog appears on my Blog list, lower on this page. Please read it to support this individual who is striving to help the poor kids in our society !

My day dreaming problem

A pic from the Northern areas of Pakistan - The Himalyas

I'm a day dreamer and always have been, but unfortunately now this habbit is proving disadvantageous and problematic to mention the least.I'm growing absent-minded beacuse of the constant day-dreaming. Sometimes its just a moment of my thoughts drifting away to some imaginative situation and at other times its a good long phase when I completely lose track of time. I forget what people say to me or what instructions I'm being given.It does n't just annoy me it irritates the people around me. My 'glass half- full' approach to this situation is that philosophers and scientists are always absent minded. They say Einstein forgot to attend his own wedding while another scientist (I've forgotten who it was ) boiled his watch for a whole 20 mins thinking it was an egg !!!

My mom's 'glass half-empty' approach to this situation is that every scientist may have been absent minded but every absent minded person does not turn into a scientist !!!.

(I know she's right but I'll continue with my optimistic approach while trying to improve :))

As my heart sings along

Away from friends

Uzma and Faryal and their oh so teasing looks !

Its Summer and I'm away from home at my uncle's place in California, USA..Well obviously its good to be on a vacation and enjoy the relaxation and roaming around but its always sad to be away from the fun my friends keep having back home...They keep uploading pics of their activities and day outs and make me jealous :) But thanks to facebook we all keep connected.By the end of summer our mail threads are a good 50 pages long !!..I was wondering what friends did a 100 years back when the only way of communicating was mails which took months to arrive, distances must have felt so bad and depressing then !

Wedding dresses for the bride and the groom

A model wearing a traditional bridal dress called a lehnga

The interest in my last post made me realize that wedding rituals and practices are a popular choice for readers So here's a little more on the wedding on the festivities.This time its the dresses of the bride and the groom.

A Pakistani wedding is a very colourful occasion and is rich with culture.No matter what people wear in their everyday lives on a wedding every one makes sure they adorn a traditional dress.These dresses reflect the glory of east and the charm and grandeur of the once mighty Mughal empire.Embroidery,sequins, and other intricately crafted details are often hand made with amazing precision. The pictures below are from the online galleries of various fashion designers.The pictures are from photo shoots in studios and not a traditional wedding setup :)

Notice the detailed design

Brides usually wear a sharara, the dress in the above pics.The groom wears a sherwani (shown in the pics below).Both the lehnga and sherwani come in various colours and a vast variety of designs.

The model is wearing a traditional sherwani designed by Amir Adnan

A closer look at the sherwani.

This one has embroidery done on it by golden and silver wire

This one's made of a fabric called Jaamawar which is silk weaved with golden threads

This ones a subtle black sherwani with emroidery only on the collar and sleeves.The red turban gives a great contrast with black.

So this was a little about the dresses.I hoped you like this post as much as I liked writing it.I'll be posting some other stuff about weddings very soon.

The shoe stealing tradition !!!!

The bride and the groom.

All eyes set on the shoes !!

The traditional shoe that the groom wears is called a Naagra.

Yes you read it right, its the shoe stealing tradition ! and yes ofcourse the pictures above are of a wedding.How does the shoe stealing relate to the wedding you ask ? well because the shoe stealing is done in the wedding , and whose shoe is it? The groom's !!!!. Yeah its a strange , but interesting practice which I witnessed at a wedding I went to last summer. I had heard a lot about it but I witnessed it first hand only then.

This practice is not exactly a tradition, some people practice it, other's don't.What happens is that the siblings, cousins or friends of the bride (usually youngsters) steal the shoes or a shoe of the groom and hide it until the groom gives them some money.This practice started in the olden times when the couple sat on a floor mat for which the groom had to remove his shoes.This made the shoe very vulnerable to being stolen ,and stealing was thus easy.But nowadays the couple sits on a sofa with their shoes on so the sisters and friends either hold the shoe and not let go of it, or at other times ,like at this wedding, they just ask for money for the shoe without actually stealing it.What follows is a lengthy debate and persuasion from both sides with the groom trying to bargain the price of his shoe,while the shoe stealers try and make the groom give in to their higher demands.The persuasion is the best part of it all, filled with light hearted humour and sarcasm.The money that the shoe stealers get varies as per the financial standing of the newly wed. It usually ranges from Rs 500- Rs 25 000.

This seemingly strange and time wasting practice (as I used to think before I saw it) serves no main purpose except that it creates a friendly relationship between the brides family and the groom from the very starting of their newly formed relationship and brings them to closer to each other.

The city of Angels - Bangkok

Here a few pictures from my vist to Bangkok last week.We couldn't spend much time there but it was still a wonderful experience.Visiting the grand temples and palaces in the pictersque backdrop of Bangkok was an experience that I'm gonna cherish for a long time.Infact I cant wait to plan another visit !. The Thais' are very helpful and friendly.Most of them have a very poor English but they make it up by smiling and bending all the time( So much, it makes you feel Royal :) ).And oh yeah ! Shopping there is an experience of its own since stuff like clothes are very cheap (There is usually a great need to bargain while shopping in front of tourist locations especially if you are a foreigner). Food is really a 'No problem' since not only is there an abundance of Thai food restaurants but other cusines are also served at various restaurants widely spread in Bangkok especially in down town area like Sukhumvit (Sukhumvit has an entire street of restaurants serving Halal food).And the most pleasurable experience related to food for me was the fact that Mc Donald's and KFC are present almost around every corner..I felt good about it beacuse the environment, which is almost the same at every outlet throughout the world, gives me a sense of closeness to home! (Yeah Mc Donald's and KFC work that way for me :) !!!`)

My parents in front of The reclining Buddha at the Wat Pho (Temple of the reclining Buddha)

At the Wat Trimitr (Temple of the golden Buddha)