Indepence day and Ramadan

There used to be a phrase "Time flies" which I think is totally invalid now, because time isnt just flying these days, its whizzing by at ultra sonic speed. Its just been a week since my last post and yet it seems like a gazillion years have gone by. So much has happened and so much has changed.
First of all, Ramadan greetings to everyone ! The month of Ramadan had a pleasant start for me on Wednesday as the moon was sighted ( The muslim calender is the lunar calender). I just got back from a friends birthday, and was with my bestie Uzma when the moon sighting commitee announced the month of Ramadan on the news, we greeted and hugged and got to see the moon together ( on the TV :), we just couldn't spot it in the sky).With Ramadan comes the fasting and worship and a change of lifestyle since all the eating and drinking is shifted from dusk to dawn instead of the other way round that usually happens the rest of the year. But I just love Ramadan its my favourite month of the year, filled with blessings, internal satisfaction and of course followed by Eid !!

Secondly, my dad had his birthday on the very first day of Ramadan. I brought home a Chocolate fudge cake on my way back from college and we celebrated it at Iftaar (breaking of fast). One important lesson I've learnt is that the best present for my dad is definitely good food. I'm sure even a blackberry wouldn't have made him as happy and excited as the cake did ! The saying "the way to a man's heart is through his mouth" proved itself right in my dad's case !

Thirdly, the flood has wrecked havoc in Pakistan and I don't remember seeing any situation this worse as long as I've lived here ! Millions have been displaced, the death toll is rising and not just that, diseases like Malaria, diarrhea, dysentry stand a risk of becoming epidemic in the displaced population. Its a relief to know that the Pakistan Army is diligently working to help the people, and I find great pride in the fact that the general population and citizens of Pakistan are actively donating to help the victims. My own college mates are busy in fund raising and are volunteering to make packages and parcels of life saving drugs, tents, kitchen utensils and other equipments to be delivered to the affected areas.

A man trying to save his children after losing everything in the floods

Fourthly, its the 14th of August today, the day Pakistan got its independence from the British ruled sub continent back in 1947, this day naturally holds great meaning and importance but this time there wont be any national celebrations since half the nation is in mourning and its our duty to stand in solidarity and sympathize with them as fellow Pakistanis..

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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

Birthday update

We celebrated Mubashir's birthday on Wednesday..Yeah the same Mubashir who comes up with ideas so ingenius you'd be left wondering what he feeds his brains with ! But of course he's a dear friend and we were really looking forward to the day the "world was enlightened by ideas" 20 or so years ago.

Jokes apart, I must say, of all the people that we friends have surprised, Mubashir was the one who reacted in the most heartiest way, he just couldn't hide his grin. I wonder whether the reason behind it was the cake, the cards, the present we gave him, or our cameras flashing across his face !!

All this birthday galore is making me more and more excited for my own birthday.I just cant wait for 19th July anymore, the secretive little Uzma is busy making my present and she would n't even allow a glimpse...But anyways I love her for putting in all that effort for a chimp like me :D

SURPRISE !

Aniqa - Its April the 13th !

Maryam - Oh no, its the 13th of October !

Huzair - His Id says 13th April !

Uzma - But I'm sure its 13th October !

Najwa - His facebook profile says April ! Should be April !

Mubashir - Well atleast we know its the 13th ! What difference does the month make ?

here we were discussing an issue as serious as the NASA's space shuttle plan or CERN's million dollar investmnts when Mubashir shocked us with his humor indifference and ,we all turned to look incredulously towards him who gave a triumphant smile, knowing that he'd stolen the show , and it doesn't matter to him how he does it because spotlight is all he wants !

And incase I've successfully gotten my readers to guess what the conversation was all about, no it wasn't the NASA, CERN , UN, no not the gaping holes in the ozone and no , not even  global warming !,  it was the discussion regarding a friend , Hunain's, birthday !! ( hey ! come on ! Its serious too ya know ) .

Most of us (in the clinical group) have just been friends with him since the start of this year and hence the confusion was justified ! The fact that he'd trick and dodge us by saying 13th April at sometimes and 13th October at others for the past 5 months did n't help either ! But ofcourse master's at finding excuses to celebrate birthdays that we're , we finally found out that 13th April was  his real date of birth . Having found that out for sure we planned a surprise for him. The idea was to pretend we forgot his birthday, ( now thats what you get when you keep confusing people with your birth dates !)  No one was to wish him, not by text msgs, not by phone calls, no e - cards and absolutely no facebook wall write ups ! We usually wish each other at 12 midnight on our birthdays but we obviously avoided that as well. The next day in college , we  spent the entire morning making a customised card for him with tags by everyone he knew. Huzair's job was to keep him busy while we did all that and to go buy his present (the day before) that we'd all agreed to give him.

His present is worth mentioning too because it was a wallet from Jafferjee's with his name embossed on it. Jafferjee's is one of the best leather brands in Pakistan . Its a hot choice for everything leather, here's a link to their website jafferjees. (Do check it out, you'll love it, I guarantee).

On the left are the many birthday tags from his card.

So finally, after our ward duty , Uzma and Aniqa rushed to give his card some final touches, Azka and I made sure we escaped unnoticed by Hunain to get the cake ready while Huzair yet again took the responsibility to keep Hunain busy ...After all the arrangements were done, we texted Huzair to bring him , and then.... 'SURPRISE ' We had a Happy Hunain standing in front of the cake amazed that we hadn't really forgotten his birthday inspite of all the confusion !

PS - Mubashir isn't really that indifferent , making silly comments is just one of the many things he does to make us laugh ! No offence Mubashir :)