In my 'Mom era'

 Its been a wild journey since the start of this blog. With the exponential growth of social media platforms and the rise of X, Instagram, Tiktok and Facebook, blogging in this format with words has almost become a thing of the past. Who likes to read about someone's life when you can watch a lifestyle influencer on Instagram show you snippets of her day, her private moments in her home, without any effort from you besides a swap of your finger. It feels mind numbing to the old fashioned me who still loves to read and write. My blog is more about me journaling my own experiences now than it is about show
casing the Pakistani culture, life in Pakistan etc. You have other platforms for that.

I am currently in my Mom 'era' as millennials call it. My two kids and their needs dictate my priorities, my schedule, my work, my diet, my free time, my hobbies, my ability to shower and basically my life. Thank God for a supportive partner who shares the workload of raising them and my parents who are my village. 

I am currently in the process of changing jobs. I go from out-patient work to a blend of both inpatient and out-patient. Something I've always wanted to do. I would still be part time but hopefully I will have better flexibility to accommodate my soon to be Kindergartners' needs. I'm pretty nervous and I hate leaving the comfort of my current job where I had the most amazing colleagues and staff but I guess you gotta move with the tide. 

Currently reading : Spillover by David Quammen

 The New Crusades, Islamophobia and the global war on muslims by Khaled   Beydoun and Kimberle Crenshaw

A pandemic, two physicians and a family

Preface - This piece was written in fragments over the course of months through the pandemic. There are countless other families and physician households who struggled worse than me and my family, this is just a narrative of my experiences. 

                                                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you've ever read my previous posts on this blog you would have sensed that I'm an overly imaginative science enthusiast who day dreams about winning the Nobel prize or discovering a new species of bacteria, or even witnessing a cosmic miracle. But never in my wildest dreams had I thought I'd get to experience living in a pandemic the size of this one. It almost feels like living in the movie Contagion. I'll be lying if I say I haven't already imagined the numerous COVID19 screenplays for Hollywood movies that are going to grace our screen for the next two decades.

The other twist I hadn't imagined was being an Infectious disease fellow (Physician in sub-speciality training)  and now a consultant during all of this. 

To be very honest when I first heard about the epidemic ( before it became a pandemic) in China I would imagine it arriving to the US and hoped I would have a chance to be involved somehow. Hoping to wear a hazmat suit and making history. Because I'm just a nerd like that with a poor sense of realism when it comes to fear. 

Fast forward three to four months we had our first COVID patient in the hospital, an elderly lady, a traveler. We were in lockdown by then. Our department had allowed for us to work from home. I was on my research month and would still go to the hospital because 'work from home' was an alien concept that needed clarification. Fellows were not allowed to see COVID patients, so my husband, then a pulmonary and critical care fellow was spared from seeing her.  Her outcome wasn't good and she passed away. I believe she was the first COVID death I came to know of. Our Infectious Disease Department decided we would not see COVID patients in person unless we needed to and even then trainees were exempted. Such was the dearth of personal protective equipment that hazmat suits remained a dream and we could only wear N95 masks and hold on to them till we secured the next one. I was kinda upset about not being directly involved with COVID patients. They were few in the beginning and every patient that I did not personally see seemed like a lost opportunity of being actively involved in a pandemic that would make history. But ofcourse I hadn't known then that this pandemic would extend for two years and I would come to a point of burnout with COVID. 

I soon transitioned to my clinical month on ID consults. Hospital hallways were deathly silent by then. The very few people you'd come across would jump at the sight of other humans and slide away to the farthest corner they could find, making sure they don't touch the walls or a banister or a door knob on the way. For all we knew, back then, COVID could be airborne, or spread by contact. Some would even shy away from eye contact lest the other stops to say hi and breathes into a space within 6 ft. Hysteria, and hypochondria were rampant. A slight tickle in the throat would convince my husband that he was about to die and announce to everybody that he would rather not be intubated, not want so and so medication and that he would willfully allow me to marry a second time after his death. A classic case of hypochondriac manvid ( can we make that a word like manflu?) In all honesty though, he suffered through COVID the most. He was a Pulmonary and Critical Care fellow who needed to be in the ICU with the sickest of the sick patients not knowing if he could unknowingly be exposed to COVID.

In order to keep my parents and our 1.5 y.o old safe we had them move in to our house while my husband and I moved into my parents apartment which was closer to the hospital. And thus from a public health standpoint, a high risk cohort in terms of risk factors and a high risk cohort in terms of exposure were separated. What it really meant was being separated from my baby, and burdening my parents with childcare all on their own. 

Soon our in-patient rounds were made virtual. Never in my pre-pandemic mind would I have thought it realistic, but thanks to our university and division leadership, trainee safety was never compromised and for the next few months we would see non-Covid patients on our own in the hospital and then convene to discuss patient care plans over virtual platforms like zoom or webex to limit larger gatherings and remain socially distant. This limited my exposure and I moved back in with my parents and baby after a week or so. But, my husband stayed at the apartment and would visit us in the evenings before his nightshift to get dinner in to-go boxes from our garage which I would leave on a chair by the entrance. He would wave to our baby and me from a distance, we couldn't hug or touch. Death rates from COVID were high back then and there was no approved treatment and of course no vaccines. When you are facing the enemy blinded, unknowing of what its true powers are, no amount of sacrifice seems enough to keep yourself and family safe. 

Death tolls were rising. It was a domino effect. There were daily press conferences at national, state and even county level. We would await any information we could get pertaining to the virus. Is there a cure on the horizon, is there any prevention, do masks really work, are we all going to die, what can we expect, how does this end? It was as if you we were put in a space shuttle on auto-pilot without any information about the trip, landing etc. 

I spent a loooot of time at home the next few months during lock down. I put up curtains that hadn't been hung in over a year, I organized my linen closet, re-hauled my laundry room, did mini reno projects and even gardened. I did things that brought me joy, things I didn't even know I could do. I had been in training mode for so long I had forgotten what life outside of the hospital is like if you have time. 

Driveway art competition 

Masala dosa by me and Biryani by the husband

Tocilizumab, convalescent plasma, Remdesevir, steroids, each made an entry into treatment options over the next few months. COVID started to become a routine. A crazy routine but still something you begin to get used to. Like that new rowdy neighbor who you know isn't going away so you make peace with it. My husband was now directly involved in taking care of COVID patients and even intubating them (high risk exposure) We were now exhausted of living apart and fear of COVID had abated some so he moved back in with the rest of us with precautions. If not taking care of COVID patients, he was off and at home. We had been married almost 3 years when the pandemic started. I can confidently say I hadn't spent as much time with him in those three years as I did during the pandemic. There were no distractions, it was just us at home with nothing to talk about besides COVID and life in general. We would take a daily evening walk with my daughter in the stroller and make plans about the future. That was our highlight of the day. Seems funny now that I think of it that we were planning a future in the middle of a pandemic, but as they say, hope is the only feeling stronger than fear. 

Our daily walks

I graduated from fellowship and started my first job as an ID specialist and an Assistant professor at the same place I did my fellowship while my husband graduated to his last year of fellowship. Starting a career you dreamed off in less than ideal circumstances isn't easy.  Our census reached 50-60 patients at one time. There was a weekend when I was covering two hospitals with a combined census of 70-80. It taught me efficiency and resilience. We would have presentations and town halls on COVID all the time and I learned as much speaking for them as the audience I was speaking to. 

9 months later, there was a breakthrough, the first vaccine got an EUA (emergency use authorization) from FDA. Healthcare providers were among tier one to receive it. My husband and I were beyond elated. We jumped at the opportunity and got the vaccines. We posted pics on Facebook like it was the triumph of our lives and to encourage others to get it too. The wave of relief was accompanied by a wave of rumors and misconceptions. Talks after talks, social media campaigns and what not ensued and still run to counter the anti-vaxxers. There were surges and declines in COVID rates but the protection from vaccines gave my family and countless other families like mine some sense of protection that would allow us to move a step closer to normalcy. 

A few months after our booster shot we moved to IN for my husbands job. Vastly different from IL in terms of public health mandates and public perception about masks it was still a good feeling, a fresh start. 

We are two years into the pandemic. COVID is nowhere near gone but life around me seems like its back to normal. Countless people whom I've known and loved have died from it, but life goes on. That faceless, mysterious virus whose origins are still debatable has evolved over and over and now has a variant that is 4 times more resistant to the vaccine than the earlier strains. It's more contagious. But, it's also milder. The quality of a good pathogen is that it never kills its host, it co-exists and more importantly, it adapts, it evolves, it needs to do this to continue living. 

But, its enemy, humans, are a resilient species. We are a great combination of odds and extremes. COVID just made it all so obvious. As the death tolls were rising there was still a segment of the population that thought that this was all a conspiracy by doctors and big pharma. They didn't believe in social distancing and didn't care if they caught or spread the virus. Then there was misconception about the vaccine and heated arguments followed. There were also people who introduced nuances like azithromycin and ivermectin and advocated that they worked when they really didn't. For every ounce of truth there was falsehood out there as well. Thanks to the tireless work of public health workers, scientists, healthcare workers and responsible citizens, truth prevailed. For all the death and misery we saw, there was also renewed sense of appreciation for life. Society recalibrated their lives and priorities. We bounced back, resilient and strong. 

Husband hasn't had a COVID patient in the ICU for a few months now, neither have I dealt with it in the hospital in a while.

Uncertainty remains though, I'm not sure what the future holds for us in terms of COVID but it sure doesn't seem as bleak as it did two years ago. Instead of gazing in the dark, we are now looking at the light at the end of the tunnel. We don't know how long the tunnel is... but hey atleast there is light. 

 

Journaling

I was going through all my posts today. It was interesting to go through the chronicles of my past and revisit the uncertainties and doubts I had. Its even more interesting to see how far I've come from them. How my plans turned into reality and how my dilemma shaped into a decision over time. It gave me an insight, a realization that all that I'm worried about today would be over tomorrow.

There were posts about how I love neurology, a post a few months later about how I wasn't so sure about it anymore and then another one on how I'm confused between Neurology and Internal medicine. Well, here I am today, 4 years later, an Internal medicine resident !

I'm in 2nd year of my Internal medicine residency. Residency, something that seemed so distant and hard to get into is already under my belt ( for the most part) and I'm doing well at it. If I had to go back to my past self,  I'd give myself a pat on the back. I wont tell her not to worry, I wont tell her to take it easy. I'd tell her that she is doing the right thing, I'd tell her to keep going strong and the results are always there. All those worries, those plans and sleepless nights actually helped me get here, and they made me strong enough to stay here and face the challenges that the future brought.

And now I have different kinds of problems, a different set of worries, uncertainties, tribulations and stress. But going through this blog and reading about my own past gives me the insight to understand that they will all be gone soon, and I'd be smiling at them later! 

The Second Arrow

As per a classic sutra of Buddha.

If someone shoots you in the foot, don't pick up the bow and shoot yourself in the second foot. Don't make your sufferings worse, in other words, by arguing with what's so. That's a second arrow . Accept pain. Don't criticize yourself, or others, for feeling pain: that is a Second Arrow. Don't regret what cannot be changed, or try to predict what cannot be known..



Excerpt from Knocking on Heaven's Door by Katy Butler

Forgotten entities

Do you forget stuff ? Like sitting in front of those gates at the airport, as you walk to board the plane you leave something behind! A pen, earphones etc. You never really realize its gone until later. By that time the dear commodity is either someone else's possession, is in the trash, or maybe lying in a cold dark bin of lost and found in the corner of a busy office. Does losing that item change your life in anyway ? What if at a point in life you left behind a part of yourself and just moved on. Oblivious that you are now missing a fragment from yourself you keep walking until something triggers the awareness. Now, I repeat the question, does that change you in anyway ? Had you been any different if you hadn't left it behind ?......We all forget. What from yourself have you forgotten to carry on ? A hope, faith, trait,or a dream maybe ?

The three 'Happiness concepts'

Comparison kills. Dont compare your real life to others life as it appears on social media. Dont compare your life to others even if you know them closely. You dont know what they had to suffer in the past and you dont know what their future holds for them.

When God said he created everyone equal I believe that it also means that he gave us equal challenges, problems and happiness. It may not be apparent to us but if you look at it closely you can find that it holds true pretty well. Here are the three 'happiness concepts' that have always helped me understand and accept reality. They weren't as structured until I sat down to write about them but here's how I've designed them

Past/Present/Future theory

The people you see happy in the present might be the ones who have had a painful past. And someone you see suffering in the present might just have a very prosperous future. So the happiness we as humans experience in our lives is all equal and comparable to others, but its how its distributed through our lifetime that  makes the apparent difference. There's another way to put it as well; there are people who appear to have an entire lifetime filled with sufferings and sacrifices. Sacrifices for their family, their country etc but that is made up by happiness in the hereafter as a reward for their good deeds. So in reality its a win win situation either way.

The distribution of assets

You cant get a perfect life ! You just cant. Perfect is ideal and ideal is not real. Have a friend who has a brand new car, a six figure salary and an uptown home that you've been dreaming of but can't afford ? Well guess what, he/she is also the one who admires your family that he/she doesn't have. What we have in life is ours, it should be valued and not compared. You might not have the ideal job that someone else has, a perfect spouse like your friend, the latest car like your neighbor, or a child like everyone else you know. But what you do have is also something that many others yearn to have. Believe it or not but there are people out there who compare their life to yours just as you do to theirs. No one has everything, and if you think that's not true, think again or look closely.

Individuality

Okay, so you might think "Well he/she might not have the family that I have but the car that I want. Wouldn't it be better if we could trade our lives !? To hell with family, I just want that car". Naah, it doesn't work that way. What we have in our lives is what we are designed for. Some of us are designed for comfort, others for adventure, others for socializing etc. And what I have is what my niche is. If you have a family and not that car its because you deserved it more. Its what you need at that point in time, because inevitably life takes you where you're supposed to be.

All that said. Its human nature to complain and compare but try to break that habit. Train yourself to seek happiness in what you have. Smile at whats yours and also whats not ; learn to be happy for others because you are just as lucky as them, in your own special way :)

 The three factors that I just shared are the few of many that I could write about. I hope I shall be able to write about something like this again

Happy Holidays and Happy Happiness :)

Update # 1 - The Pakistani girl aint in Pakistan no more :(

Okay so this has really been bothering me, my blog is about 'The days in life of a Pakistani girl' and I always posted about life in Pakistan, but now that I've moved, does that kill the entire theme of my blog ? Secondly am I still a girl and not a woman ?

I moved to the US this year, its not that US isn't home to me, it was for many years but getting a one way ticket to here for Karachi was quite painful. I dont know when I'm going back to my friends and that just makes me sad, plus its also nagging me about what this blogs gonna be about now !

The second part about being a girl or a woman, I GRADUATED !! Wooohooo ! So yeah I'm a physician/doctor and I dont think I qualify to be called a girl. It doesn't help though that people around me still think I look like a high school student and have expressed their thought UMPTEEN times. Not funny.

So here's what I've decided. Since Im a Pakistani originally, I can just blog as a Pakistani girl living and enjoying in America and still missing Pakistan. Its gonna be a blend of both east and west :)

As for the girl/woman dilemma, I'm just going to call myself a girl until I get atleast 10 strands of grey hair :D

Re-incarnation

I've been brooding over whether I should be writing another blog entry or not for quite some time. So much has changed since my last post. It doesn't even feel like I'm the same person. I've been on a roller coaster ride since the last post with some really high highs and very low lows. I've experienced life hurl one challenge after the other at me, but I've also had some of the best memories during this time. I wont go into the details of all that happened at this time because one it'll end up being the longest blog entry ever and second, I dont think I'm ready to talk about it here. That said, I have brought myself to write again and I shall continue to do what I loved doing so much. So stay tuned for updates, the Paki girl is back in business...

Rich and pretty, or wild and free ?

Our class had a bonfire last month and my friend and I were supposed to host a party quiz with random questions for all our classmates. While thinking of the gazillion questions, here's one interesting one that kept me thinking for long.
 
                                Would you rather be rich and beautiful, or wild and free ?

An immediate response made me sway towards the 'rich and beautiful' option cuz I'd obviously be on top of the world if I had that, but then I paused to think, Is that really it ? Would that be all I want from life ? And then I said to myself with a deeper conviction that it was the other choice I'd really go for. I'd rather be wild and free. Why ?

Because wild and free means, exploration, discovery, freedom and a continuous progress. Being rich and beautiful probably gives you all that you'd want for a materialistic life but it all also makes you stagnant, what do you strive for when you have everything ? and secondly as they say ( in the spider man movie :D ) that with great power comes great responsibility, with great wealth comes an obligation to mold yourself in a certain way, behave a certain way and that just means giving away your natural desire to live the way you want free from all expectations. I'd rather roam around in my sneakers and laugh in the crazy way I do then walk in stilettos all day. I'd rather be amused at watching a chirping bird on a tree, or marvel at a flower than live in a villa and have nothing to do. I'd rather play around in the rain and get wet and dirty than sleep on a water bed.

I know opinions differ and that might not be your choice but for me that's the ideal way to live. Free and innocent like a child, where every day is day to discover and a day to be amused. 





Picture courtesy - Subhanzeid.wordpress
                                helloiamadancer.com

5 things I want to witness in this world before I die !

1 - The emergence of some geographical miracle or a strange phenomena like a discovery of an unknown continent, a sudden transition of a mountain into a volcano, the sudden emergence of an island with bizarre species of animals on it etc. Now that would be interesting to witness, wouldn't it !?

2- A successful contact with creatures from outer space or finding a positive proof that they exist..


 Err there goes my brain again with its science loving fantasies ! Here are some more serious things I'd like to see

3 - It sounds impossible considering the long unresolved history of these issues but I would really like to witness the solution to the Palestinian and Kashmir crisis in a manner that is acceptable to the people living there.

4- People are more inclined to have scientists find a cure for cancer, even though I do have feelings for this killer diagnosis and understand that the incidence of cancer is far higher than Parkinson's disease I would still like to witness science standing victorious against Parkinson's disease before I die, a treatment that doesnt slow the progression of the disease but halts it ! This disease has always intrigued me for two reasons, scientific and emotional ( my paternal grandfather was a patient of parkinsons disease )

5 - A literacy rate of atleast 70% in Pakistan, its pretty low right now !

The list might just go on but I'll hold myself here and do one more post on it later :)

Picture courtesy - Wikipedia

Its a whitewash victory !

Pakistan whitewashed the England cricket team at the test series played in Dubai by 3-0 yesterday ! It was a series filled with surprises

Saeed Ajmal celebrating a wicket !

                           
1- The England cricket team is ranked as the world's best cricket team but it amazing how they couldn't perform well on the field,

2- Saeed Ajmal !! If there's anyone who pleased cricket fans in this series it was Saeed Ajmal all the way through ! His bowling, his deadly doosra (second) way off spin delivery played the magic that batsmen in front of him couldn't stand a chance against. It was Saqlain Mushtaq a former Pakistani cricketer who actually came up with this technique.

 3 - Pakistan became the first team to win a test even after being bowled for under 100 since after 1907 !! 

And so this series came as an immense pleasure to all those cricket fans in Pakistan who were praying for Pakistan's victory :)

I am a final year student now !! It feels so good to say it, I could say it all day long. It feels mature, more senior, more respectful. 4th year finals were really the exams I was dreading badly, they were tiring and tough but hey they're over and I passed, all is well that end well, right ?

Talking about the latest buzz in Pakistan, ( no not politics, I really keep all that trash away from this space), is the latest offering from the entertainment industry - Humsafar. Thats the name for a drama that has gripped almost everyone. I'm really not that into it, but I have watched a few episodes. It all started when all the girls started talking about it, I thought it was just a girlish infatuation, but soon middle aged ladies were talking about it, and I thought oh heck ladies watch dramas all the time, but what came as a honest surprise was when I noticed guys talking about it on social networks so that proved my perception of it having a female appealing mushiness wrong.

The two lead characters, Fawad Afzal Khan and Mahira Khan

The drama is based on a novel and revolves around three characters who battle fate, conspiracies, love and hate which ties them together and breaks them apart. Its pretty addicting and the wonderful soundtrack, acting and screenplay give it that extra something which has taken to the top of the charts ! Here's the OST, 

So who's hating the new facebook outlook ?? The live tickers on the side, the over magnified view of everything etc. I dont exactly hate it, but I'm not liking it either. I must say its amazing how facebook changes its outlook every now and then, how everybody says they hate it, and yet, they stick to it !

'The wild goose chase' and me !

Seems like people do wanna hear more about me being chased down the street by wild geese !I often get e-mails from readers complimenting me, asking me stuff about the Pakistani culture etc, but this time I was actually amazed to be getting numerous e-mails asking me to post about the goose story I mentioned in the last post !


Okay so here's what happened. Somewhere back in June, on one of the Sundays, when the neighborhood usually is really calm, quiet and deserted in the early hours of the morning, my dear mom realised that we needed bread for breakfast. And who's the person who always comes in handy for all the 'please go and fetch some...' kinda chores ? ME. We have a nice little convenience store down the block. Its pretty close by so I decided to walk, I was sleepy anyway, so walking (instead of driving) was a better option. I walked out of the door and down the street. One of my neighbors was washing his car at a distance, I turned left and walked a little more, passing by a home where some new people had moved in. There was a huge cage in front of that home with all kinds of birds in it. I heard a dog bark inside and right near the door was something like a shed in which were sitting two geese and a baby goose. I was just admiring the fact that the new people are probably animal lovers when suddenly one of the goose stood up and started walking behind me. I paced up a little but I think I just gave the wrong sign because that evil thing extended its neck like an arrow and ran charging towards me. The other also began to follow and make weird duck-ish noises ! Within a few minutes here's how what it looked like - me running at full speed down the street, followed by a wild goose chasing me with its long neck all extended and parallel to the ground , and wings spread wide while the other goose gave a horrible background music to the entire scenario. I was still confused at which way to run to save myself when my neighbor drove into the street with his car and  smartly braked it in between me and the goose. And thats how I was saved ! He stayed there with his car until I safely crossed the street. Later on my way back from the store I completely avoided that route and took a longer way instead.

I still wonder what would have happened if the goose did outrun me or something ? I mean would it have bitten me ? eaten me alive or what ?

I'm flying !

A looot of things have happened recently, From being chased down the street by a goose to sleeping 2.5 hours in 28hours !!... My exams ended yesterday, with the ophthalmology grand finale ! I dont exactly hate ophthalmology but I'm not a huge fan of it either. Its theoretical exam at the start of this month was okay but I was totally dreading the clinical exam, yesterday. The adrenaline in my system kept me awake all night before the exam day and thats how I ended with just 2.5 hours of sleep in 28 hours. But thank God the exam went fairly well and one of the examiners even mentioned that I would make a good ophthalmologist and I should really consider it as a field of speciality. For a second my reaction was " wow ! does he really mean me ?? Is he out of his mind !" :D

Today my friends and I went to watch Harry Potter.. It was epic ! It felt good and sad at the same time that something that was such a phenomenal part of my childhood/teens came to an end. It would've been cool if J.K Rowling continued the series again but I think that would just make the whole 'Harry Potter' thing lose its charm.

And as for me being chased down the street by a goose. Yes, that was hilarious, but I wont be giving you the opportunity to laugh over me this time.. So, that's me signing off :)

P.S - The goose story is yet to come. Keep visiting !

Hey there readers, yes, I'm alive :) In case my unusually long absence from the blogging world worried anyone about me being abducted by aliens, falling down the gutter, or getting locked up in the bathroom of my own home without a cell phone or anyone to call for help ! ( I know thats a NOT Im hearing :D ).

 So anyways I was just busy with lots of stuff and had more than enough on plate to find time to blog, but here I am now, and what do I have for you today ?? An entire list of biographies of people from the medical world and related to it..I havent really read any of them and but I'm sure they're interesting. I'd like to get my hands on a a few. Has any of my readers read any of them ??

Here's the link - 

http://www.onlinecollege.org/2011/07/11/20-essential-biographies-for-medical-students/

10 months of agony and fear, and then, finally - freedom !

My heart was filled with pride and warmth today as I witnessed some really emotional moments. 10 months back a group of Pakistani sailors was kidnapped by Somali pirates and huge ransom was demanded for their release, or they'd be murdered. The families of those kidnapped made desperate appeals on the media for their release. One young girl, Layla Wasi, the captains daughter especially came to notice for her innocent and emotional speech on TV to help her get her father back. Ansar Burney a human rights activist, and an ex-human rights minister, rose to the situation for those in distress like he always has. The huge amount of ransom was collected and paid to the pirates. Not only did the ansar burney trust manage to get the Pakistani sailors freed but it also paid the ransom for other kidnapped sailors from India, Egypt and Sri Lanka, for which their families paid great tribute to Pakistan.

Captain Wasi and his daughter Layla Wasi.

The sailors were in tears once they arrived at the Pakistani port, it was especially so touching to see both Layla Wasi and her dad Capt.Wasi hugging each other, crying, and not letting the other go. That girl did a lot for her father, making appeals, speeches and what not. Capt. Wasi must be a proud father. May Allah always keep or families safe, and may Allah bless those who help others, their reward is surely Jannah ( Heaven)

So so so ...

I rock climbed !!No not on a rocky mountain but a less adventurous artificial thing they have to make people like me get a feel of it :D I didnt reach upto the top but I did something I had always wanted to do, drop back to the ground hanging by suspensions, lame I know, but thats the part I like best about rock climbing :D I would have made it to the top had I not started with a drained off energy level. But anyways, I did make it more than half way through :)

2nd July is the big day !! The day the exams start ( Yeah exam days are the only days I call big in my life, thats what medical college has turned me into ) So anyway its less then a month, and for some reason I'm still not in the study gear. Its probably because I've gotten bored of the entire exam phenomena ! I mean seriously just how many frickin exams am I supposed to take in this life time ? So I've figured, for this semester I'll just play like a pro soccer player playing in his own backyard and save my energy and all those super duper skills for the boards and all :)

Is it alright to have a weird crampy feeling in your muscles after yoga ?? Well you see we had a yoga orientation seminar at college today and we just did a few very basic yoga stretches that didnt seem difficult at all, but all my joints have been feeling weird after that. I probably didn't use the right posture. The organisers are planning a yoga plus aerobic session soon and I cant wait for it !! I hope my muscles are more workable by then !

My favourite Pakistani foods

I'm not exactly a food lover, I believe in eating less and living long but my mom finds this rather disappointing and believes in eating all you want and then working out to lose it. My schedule hardly allows for working out a lot ( did I mention I've managed to work out for 20 mins for 1 month straight ? * read achievement*) I choose to control the calorie intake and hear my mom scold me about how growing children need more nutrients ! YES growing child ! thats what she always says, I mean for God sake mom I'm almost 23, I'm no more a growing child , I am an aging adult, for crying out loud , she then smiles and says oh you still need it any way. Yeah, that's the kind of logic moms use for their kids.

So anyways , I still do like food and there are some foods I'd rather not think twice about eating, here they are

Chicken Handi - The traditional clay utensil used for cooking food as seen in the above pic is called a handi. The chicken is cooked it in it with tomato and onion sauce.

Haleem - Its a cooked mixture of all kinds of lentils, wheat and cereals with meat and spices. Its eaten with a lot of garnishings

Biryani - Now you could almost call this particular dish our national food, since I dont think there exists any Pakistani who hasn't had it or doesn't like it. Its rice cooked with meat and gravy ( and of course spices !)

Chana Chaat - This a favourite for all those who like sour and savoury food. Its boiled chick peas with a lot of tamarind paste, lemon, green chillies, mint, coriander, potatoes, onions and tomatoes.

Naan - Its flat bread that's eaten along with curries and its less classy version, roti/chappati is a staple diet for Pakistanis. I love naan so much I could eat naan all day without actually bothering for the main dish.

Chicken Karhai - This meat dish is sauted with a lot of tomatoes and onions in a big wok

Chapli Kebabs - The one in the pic is a tad overcooked and doesnt look as tasty as it is in real life. Its a patty of meat and spices that is fried with added herbs. The northern areas of Pakistan make the best variety.

Matar Pulao - Its rice cooked with cumin seeds, and green peas

Koftey - Who hasn't heard of meatballs ? This is exactly it, which is cooked in various forms of traditional gravy

Daal - Lentils - I love both the soupy and the dry cooked versions. The soupy one is usually eaten with rice while the dry one with naan or chapaati

Ras Malai - This is a sweet dish. Its basically a dough of milk and eggs, cooked in milk and sugar