Watching the semis

Pakistan Zindabad !! ( long live Pakistan) - that was the slogan of the day on 30th March the day we had our semi-final ( Cricket world cup 2011) against India. Matches with India are always sensational, not only because both the teams are wonderful at the sport but also because India and Pakistan have long been rivals at almost everything, so its almost like a battle ground out there at the stadium.

Students from our college had arranged for the screening at a local banquet hall, so it was a huge screen and spectators from most of our college around that screen watching it with lights off, hooting, singing and enjoying every bit of it !! I must say, it was one of the most memorable days of my life, sitting with my friends, painting flags on each others face and then jumping up and down on every sign of success in the match !! But after one inning Fary, Azz and I left for Shii's place since a few of our friends were gathered at her house to watch the match. We drove down to her place like around fifteen blocks away with our faces half white and half green looking like ultimate fools :D We got pretty shocked stares including one from a lady who almost forgot to look ahead of her after her car passed us by :D

At the end of the day we lost the match, but that day and the days before shall forever be etched in my mind. Going team shirt shopping with friends, and trying to find green stuff ( Pak flag is green and white and all possible green items were out of market due to the cricket passion), waving my beloved national flag and praying for my team, its all a beautiful memory..We may have lost the match but it just helped all of us Pakistanis bind more strongly :) Long live Pakistan !

Patriotism on fire !

Its 23rd March, Wednesday, today. Back in 1940, 23rd March was the day when the Muslim league resolved to establish a seperate nation called Pakistan, which was then geographically a part of India. This day is still celebrated as 'Resolution Day' and is a national Holiday. To top that ,today Pakistan is also playing its quarter final against West Indies in the Cricket World Cup 2011, so its Patriotism on fire. Yes Cricket for Pakistanis is all that and more, its faith, its sentiments, its patriotism, its ego etc etc. So yeah I have my fingers crossed for victory tonight :)

New moon and a New year !

I was watching 'New moon' when the clock struck 12 last night and the air was filled with sounds of fire crackers ! My parents were watching the celebrations on TV downstairs but I didn't bother to get out of my blanket and continued watching. I had been planning on watching 'New moon' since ages but somehow always ended up watching some other movie instead of it. The movie was total crap I'd say. The books are always better but in the case of the Twilight series, when I think of it in retrospect, I wonder what made me such a huge fan. I now think the entire series was just a cheesy teenage fascination ! I mean why on earth would a human choose to live like a vampire !! For God's sake I mean, why !? And please don't say " For love"..If I were in Bella's place I would have chosen Jacob and lived a normal life and not made Charlie so unhappy ! But oh well everyone makes their own choices and I've always had the tendency to fall for the character other than the lead in almost all the movies with a love triangle ( yeah I'm weird)..

Oh I forgot to say HAPPY NEW YEAR !! I hope you guys have a wonderful year ahead and stick to your resolutions..My resolutions for this time are in two sets. The first set is of things I have to do and the second set is of the changes or adjustments I need to do with my attitude and personality..

Set A - Things to do

1 - Study for the boards
2 - Improve my clinical skills
3 - Excel in driving ( I stink at it )
4 - Stop wasting time
5 - Be more regular with my exercise
6 - Increase fruits in my diet
7 - Loose a few inches here and there

Set B - Attitude changes

1 - Be more focused and present minded.
2 - Be more objective oriented.
3 - Get rid of my indecisiveness
4 - To live while studying not study while living.
5 - Be a better group leader ( for my clinical group)
6 - Improve my self confidence.


I hope 2011 brings us all, happiness, the fulfillment of our prayers and a lot of blessings. Cheers :) 

The man I call my role model !

"Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Muhammad Ali Jinnah did all three"

This description of Mohammed Ali Jinnah which perfectly summarizes the magnitude of his efforts has been taken from Stanley Wolpert's biography of Jinnah called " Jinnah of Pakistan"..


And how am I suddenly reminded of him today ? Its his birthday today. He was born in 1876 in this very city ( Karachi) and it is here that he lies at eternal rest. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, also more commonly known as Quaid e Azam ( urdu for great leader) is the reason Pakistan exists in the world map. It was his tiring, selfless dedication to the cause of giving muslims a separate home land that made Pakistan possible. All possible obstacles were erected in quaid's way and thousands of people were killed in  order to prevent Pakistan from being made, but Quaid's leadership and the nation's sacrifice finally made it possible..

Here's the title song from the movie Jinnah which stars Christopher Lee as Jinnah and Richard Lintern as the younger Jinnah. I'd advise viewer discretion since the song depicts some scenes from the Pakistan movement, how sometimes entire trains of muslims migrating to Pakistan were stopped and its passengers brutally killed etc,its a wonderful song though and brings out the patriotic side in me

Eid OOTD

So its Eid ul Azha, this eid is different from the previous Eid ( Eid ul Fitr) because it follows Hajj, the annual congregation of muslims at Makkah while the previous Eid follows Ramadan, the month of fasting, I wont be doing a long detailed post since I have to rush for my study session. But hey I didnt forget that my followers, especially Jana would love to see the dress :) So well the dress I wore is once again all designed by me, I bought the fabric, and then found the perfect lace and ribbons to go with it, I had the lace stitched under the neck line and on my sleeves while the ribbons (black and white) on the lower edge of the dress. The shirt has been tailored A-line, as in it looks like a frock and has no slits on the side like the usual shalwaar kameez shirts. I bought the scarf from a scarf shop near my home and the trouser from another shop altogether so this dress has pretty much been together piece by piece :)  I absolutely love the bangle, it matches the dress, has a pretty ethnic look and its not even expensive !! I got it for Rs 150 ! Thats a little less than $ 2 .00..

I hope all of you had a brilliant Eid :) and since I didnt say this before I'm gonna say it now ' Eid Mubarak' everyone !

Just before Eid !

Eid is just around the corner and the one thing I've learned over the years in Pakistan is that last minute Eid shopping is a very BAD idea. And I advise everyone to refrain from doing it, well unless you like over priced items, busy to  the point of un co-operative shopkeepers, no space to park your car, the panic of not finding the right thing, or a gazillion blaring shop announcements that a child in red/pink/green with a huge nose and a lollipop stuck in his mouth is at the control desk, wailing for his mom/dad/grandparents and wont tell his/her name because Mommy said not to tell your name to strangers !

I start my Eid prep before Ramadan, and I'm through and over with it by the mid of Ramadan, well except for a few minute things like getting my dopatta hemmed , or finding the right scarf to go with the dress, well you see I wouldnt be Najwa if I did everything exactly on time. But its usually no big deal because even if my family  is done with shopping, we do go out very frequently in Ramdan just to window shop and enjoy the hustle n bustle, the lightings etc etc..

This time Eid will be a sombre affair because of all the grief the nations going through, most of us haven't really shopped for Eid as we used to, and the shopkeepers agree that their sales are lower as compared to last years. But nevertheless, Eid is a gift from Allah and every muslim deserves to be happy on this day, albeit with simplicity. I hope we all get to share our happiness with the flood victims too, may God grant them a happy Eid too.

Iftaar delights

So I promised a post on Iftaar items and here it is. For clarification Iftaar is the name for the food that's eaten at the breaking of fast. It could be anything, your usual dinner, salads, drinks etc but its Sunnah (practice of prophet pbuh) to open the fast with water and dates and thats what most muslims do. At our household, my we usually prepare various snack items and drinks. Here are some pictures of what we usually eat,

Pakoras - Its basically a gram flour preparation that's fried. Its high in calories so we restrict the amount we consume, but its really tasty. Its also a special favourite in the rainy season.

Black chick peas, cooked in spices and onions

These are lentils that are usually mixed with the black chick peas .

Dahi Baras - These are fried and boiled baras, made out of lentils, and then mixed with yoghurt. Spices are sprinkled on the top

A banana, pineapple and peach smoothie !

Samosas

Kidney beans

Fruit chaat (Fruit Salad)

Egg halwa ( Its basically egg cooked in sugar and oil)

A little bit of everything

This is Rooh Afza - Its a herbal drink that's often favoured in iftaar.I got this picture from the net because I'm usually so thirsty that I gulp the entire glass down before I can actually take a pic :)

 

 

 

 

These are just some of the items that are usually prepared for Iftaar in a typical Pakistani household.

PS - These pics were taken on various occasions. Its not that we eat all that in one day, the max we have is 5 - 6 items per day :)

The Red Fort and Anarkali !

I'm not a restaurant reviewer but I really wanted all my non-Karachite blog readers to know about this place. Its one of my favourite theme restaurants in Karachi. Lal Qila - Translated as Red Fort is located in almost the centre of the city with an easy approach from just about everywhere in Karachi. What I like best about it is the ambience and the environment. It has been designed to look like a fort back from the mughal times, the exterior just gives you a slight idea of what you can expect inside, a guard dressed like a Mughal soldier is there to welcome you at the gate. Once you step inside, the exquiste decoration, architecture and the waiters all dressed like Moghal fortmen will take you back to the 1600s. Just to give you a brief flashback of  history, the Mughal emperors who hailed from Central Asia ruled the sub continent from the 16th to the mid 19th century and that period was one of the most culturally and architecturally gifted periods that the sub continent has seen. The remanescents of their glory still stand majestically and include the Taj Mahal, Lahore fort, the Badshahi mosque etc.

The buffet with live cooking...Did I mention it's out in the open air ?

Coming back to Lal qila, I would suggest that every foreigner who comes to Karachi and likes eating out should make a visit. All my relatives from abroad have been there, loved it and have a special request to be taken there everytime they come to Karachi. The food there is excellent, I love the Mughlai cusine, and my dad is a special fan of the quails that are served there.The only glitch I find it to have is that it serves a a few Chinese dishes also which really doesnt go with the theme of the restaurant and I think should be replaced with more of the Mughlai dishes.

The interior

And ofcourse , if you wish to throw a birthday party there, that too would be in the true Mughal fashion as  around six waiters dressed like soldiers with fake swords and a cake in between will make a small parade to your table and then announce the emperor's order out loud to have you cut the cake ! Sounds interesting right ?

Something that I really look forward to is meeting the dressed up character of Shahzaada (Prince) Saleem ! He roams around and visits people on their tables, reciting duets in the love of Anarkali. The story of Prince Saleem ,son of Emperor Akbar, and Anarkali is probably a tale that every person from the subcontinent knows. In short Anarkali was a dancer who used to dance in the court of emperor Akbar for the entertainment of the courts men. Prince Saleem , the son of Emperor Akbar fell in love with her and wanted to marry her, Emperor Akbar found this bond unacceptable and ordered Anarkali to be burried alive. Many contoversies suuround this story, some say she was provided a secret passage to Afghanistan , others say she was put behind a wall and bricks were laid thus hiding her from the world's view forever. Whatever the story behind it, Prince Saleem and Anarkali have been a subject of great fascination and this restaurant makes good use of it.

The dressed up Prince Saleem

Here's a song which shows the story of Anarkali and Prince Saleem. The conversation that you'll hear in the start and in between of the song is in Persian, the official language of the Moghal courts. I'm sorry I couldn't find a subbed version of this song, but I think you'll understand the nevertheless. This song has been sung from Anarkali's point of view who cries and sings for her love.

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

So who's up for inviting me ?

Its exam time and I'm supposed to be studying with all my spirit and soul but, behold, my magazine rack is filled with numerous wedding invitation cards. My granny's cousin's daughter is getting married and I'm invited along with my granny ! My mom's second cousin is having a wedding and I'm supposed to attend it ! My mom's cousin's sister in law is getting married and they'd be 'delighted' if we became a part of the event ! Yeah, this is where having a closely knit family system gets you, finding your aunt's cousin's daughter-in- law's mother-in-law at a wedding should be of no surprise in Pakistan ! Our weddings are filled with all the possible people you could relate to. In case you're thinking why hasn't the possibilty of politely declining crossed my mind ! Bravo , Say Hello to my Super convincing and duper emotional blackmailing mom and heck those puppy dog looks too ! Because you see mom says and I quote " What is Aunt XYZ gonna say ? She'd be really sad if you wont go !" ( As if ! ) or  " Oh come on ! You'll like it there " ( I serioulsy dont ! ) and " Oh you can just make friends with Cousin ABC " ( as if my sullen face with everted lips would even bring anyone close to me !)

My exams start in two weeks and all of a sudden all my relatives decide to marry ! I mean seriously would it harm them if they waited for my exams to get over ! Or are they participating in some kind of 'who gets a baby first marathon !' speaking of which reminds me that our population is growing way too rapidly, but hey an  idea just clicked ! I'm just gonna go to a wedding and start talking about population control , family planning or the economic burden with the ever increasing population!  Lets see how it affects the weddings or rather the wedding invitations I get !

PS - I just got back from a friend's bro's reception which was really wonderful and actually the only wedding I was eagerly waiting for this month :) . And as long as my study schedule isn't affected I dont mind attending weddings at all ! So please keep rolling those invitation cards in . And dont worry I will not ruin it for you by talking about population control, or will I ?? :p

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 :)

The Annual Dinner !

We had our annual dinner in the first week of March ! The long planned, long awaited and most anticipated event of the year ! It went really well, the dinner was at Rangoli, a theme buffet restaurant, while the function and award ceremony were held at The Jade Hall ! I made a video to be presented at the dinner and was the comperer for a small segment of the show too ! Here are a few pics of the event


The traditional Sajji. Its basically meat cooked around a fire ,

I just love this picture. I was leaning against a wall in the restaurant. Uzma took this pic


That's me with my co host Sheryar !


I just loved their dance performance !Thats AJ, he was awarded the best sportsman's title. I've mentioned him in my previous posts too.



Wq's dance. Superb !
We made sure we got the front seats !

Waiting for the climax with a heavy heart !

Cheers for DMCs soccer team !

That's our college's team (medical students) in blue and the dental students in green

This entire week was our university's Sports week ! All our classes and ward duties were off and while I should've been out painting the town red I made plans to utilise this free time studying, the only sad part is I spent more time on-line than I did on-my-desk ! as they say on facebook, I need to get off facebook and put my face in a book ! Nevertheless the sports week was an enjoyable affair with emotions running raw, competitiveness reaching peaks and patriotism to our colleges ascending to levels they rarely do in regular studying schedules.

At the girls badminton match

There are six institutions under our university (Dow University of Health Sciences) - the college of pharmacy, the college of oral health sciences, two colleges of medicine , college of nursing and a college of medical technology. I haven't named them at the risk of confusing the reader. All six institutions come face to face in this sports week to blow each others ego and return to their college as victors. Victors who would boast of their victory till the return of the sports week the next year.
Mushaira (Urdu)- Its an event where poets recite their poetry and duets

Tomorrow was supposedly the day for the finals, but, tragedy struck ! There were two bomb blasts in Karachi today. One on a public bus and the other in front of the hospital where the injured were being taken ! It wrecks ones mind with disgust that there can exist humans who'd do such a thing. I dont think they even deserve to be called humans, for humans are supposed to be God's best creation, gifted with the ability to think and discern right from wrong. Surely those who shed each others blood can never be called humane if not human !

So considering the tragic event of today, our final matches due for tomorrow and the gala night due on Sunday have been postponed ! And so we await the climax of our teams' hardwork and pray for the departed souls side by side..........

Eid update !

Boy was it a hectic eid ! Even though we did n't go out much, cleaning up and managing the meat was a pretty tiring ordeal.Not much for me, but more so for my mom since she had to clean, organize and make packs of around 6o - 80 kgs of meat to be given to the needy in town and also make bigger packages to be sent to some poverty ridden suburbs of Karachi where there is a lot of poverty and people cant afford to buy meat.We retained some of the meat for our own consumption and did a BBQ on the second and third day of Eid.And this BBQ was special because I did it pretty much on my own (For the first time ever :)) Check my previous post Festivity and Celebrations for more info on Eid

This eid is mostly about the sacrifice, sacrificing an animal (goat,sheep,cow,lamb etc) .In the cities people just buy an animal few days before eid while in the rural areas where people mostly have farm and farm animals,a reared animal is sacrificed.Its a sacrifice and not just slaughtering because one tends to develop an emotional attachment with that animal overtime, but then, due to God's order one has to sacrifice it.And this sacrifice is the entire concept of this eid.It teaches one to put one's personal love and desires aside for the greater interest of the mankind ( as the meat is mostly given to the poor and needy).

Festivity !

Its Eid day today.The last eid I posted about , a few months back, was Eid ul Fitr, which is to celebrate the completion of the month of Ramdan.This eid, Eid ul Azha is celebrated as the Hajj is completed.Hajj is the muslim annual pilgrimage to Makkah and consists of a set of rituals to perform in accordance with with Allah's ( God's ) orders. On this Eid muslims are supposed to sacrifice an animal (cow,lamb,sheep,goat,or camel) in the remembrance of Prophet Abraham's exemplary act of dedication to God.When he was ordered by God to sacrifice prophet Ismail,his son, in God's name, prophet Abraham and Ismail both showed their obedience to Allah by agreeing to the act. But just when Prophet Abraham raised the knife, prophet Ismail was spared by god and a lamb took his place.This was a test by God for both the father and the son who not only passed the test (obviously !) but also left a great example of loyalty to God.So in remembrance of that grand example of patience and devotion, muslims all around the world perform the sacrifice, and distribute the meat among the poor and needy.After that is the usual festivity and everyone wishes eid to everyone else and people go and their meet their relatives etc.. I'll be updating my activities of Eid day soon :)

The past two to three days have been very hectic, because not only was there my elective to manage, but also eid preparations, some reasearch work I'm doing, and to top all that was my friend Rita's sister's wedding (hehe sounds complicated does n't it ?) .I was more than excited about the wedding because not only were all my friends going to be there but also it was to be the first time I'd attend a Hindu wedding.I just love getting to see and experience different cultures and different religious rituals, and what better event can there be to do that than a wedding.I believe weddings can tell you a lot about the culture, and that proved to be right yesterday ! It was a whole new experience and pretty intriguing too..The wedding was pretty different from the traditional muslim Pakistani wedding. They had a fire around which the couple had to move 4 times, thrice with the bride in front of the groom and in the last round with the groom ahead.All this time the hands of the groom and the bride were tied and the brides face was covered . The wedding arrangement was distinct too, with there being a central square area, on the four corners of which there were pots mounted and in the centre was the fire for the couple to go around. There were to be more rituals after the round but I had to leave since it was getting late.But it was a lot of fun to witness something new for the first time.

The circumduction around the fire .


My best wishes to the bride and groom !