Yay ! No braces

Well I revisited my old dentist today ( not the new one I mentioned in my previous blog ).I was desperate to make sure that I did n't need braces again. The idea of having braces while in university was embarrassing but greater than that was the horror of making regular visits to the dentist every month for the next one year. So, fingers crossed I went to my good old dentist who to my great relief has suggested that I do need braces again but I may wear retainers if I like. I'm just so happy !!!!

Hair Affair

Just yesterday my maids daughter came to our home wearing a 'Paranda' in her hair. I quickly grabbed my camera and took a pic of her . I thought it would be nice to show what a Paranda is. Now, a paranda is a fabric coiled into a string,and split into three so that it can be tied along with the braid.It comes in various colours and decorated with different ribbons and sequins to make it attractive. Its pretty much a rural tradition now since the women in the cities are hardly seen wearing it. But it still looks nice . And oh yeah I think I should mention that the ones that match your hair colour can be used to make your hair look longer !!!

The Lahore attacks and the accompanying vexation

Tuesday, 3rd March 2009 was a sad day for the entire Pakistani nation.Chagrin is probably the best word I can use to describe the feelings my friends and I had when we first heard the news. Our Behavioral sciences class was postponed and since exams are just about a month away my friends - Anum, Misbah and I decided to make use of that one hour instead of just idling in the cafeteria or the common room, and so we headed to the reading area to catch up with all the lessons taught. We had just spent 25 mins of our time studying when suddenly Misbah's cell phone vibrated ( something that happens very often..shes pretty social) and then I saw her jaw hang down in surprise. " What ? " I whispered. She handed me her phone to look at a text msg.

People in Lahore paying their tributes to the security personnel who laid their lives while protecting the Sri Lankan team

It read " Sri Lankan cricket team attacked in Lahore !!!" . Well obviously this shocking piece of information shook us out of our concentration on studies and the anticipation to know more did nothing to help it.Misbah replied to that msg asking to know more. We were upset and disgusted that the Sri Lankan team , our guests, had to witness such an event in Pakistan and we were furious on those stupid terrorists who were inhuman enough to do such a thing. These terrorists who ever or where ever they are, Mumbai or Lahore, have no loyalty to any nation or religion. Their lord seems to be the devil, they'll do whatever is necessary to see people in pain.Its sad that these terrorists had to choose sports as their target , sports which serves to unite people and provide entertainment.Its specially upsetting because Pakistan is a country where cricket has a great lot of fans who'll probably not be able to watch International teams playing in their homegrounds for quite a while. But the best part of it all is that the Sri Lankan team and the Sri Lankan govt reacted in a very wise and positive manner. They said that they will never regret coming to Pakistan, infact they praised the policemen who sacrificed their lives to protect them. The Sri Lankan team especially praised the driver of their bus and gave him their shirts as a souvenir, for he drove through the bullets to take them to a safe place. This was indeed a positive bahaviour and I am sure it discouraged the terrorists who were perhaps aiming to sever Pak- Lanka ties. It is by standing united stronger than ever that we may be able to defeat those terrorists who are a pain to mankind.

For now I am thankful to god that none of the players were seriously injured and am apologetic towards the Sri Lankan team that such a thing had to happen. But I'd also like to honour all those police men who stood up against those terrorists and sacrificed their lives to save the team

Not again ....

I hate dentists. I hate the helpless way I have to sit in their wired chairs laden with all sorts of technology while they push and pull their metallic tools into and out of my mouth.I hate not knowing when to expect pain and one of my biggest fears while sitting in that chair is "What if the dentist drops his tool into my eye ?" ( I know I should have grown out of this fear years ago !!). But the dissappoinment that comes with all this resentment towards dentist is that I have had an abnormally great number of visits to the dentist in my life.

As a child my milk teeth never fell out on their own and had to be extracted by the dentist to make space for the permanent teeth !.Then when I turned 12 , my parents and I decided that I needed braces which I had on for two years,requiring trips to the dentist every month.Ups and downs followed the time till yesterday when I made an appointment with the dentist because my parents thought that my teeth were inclining backwards. So there I went to the dentist ( not my usual one), impressed by how young he looked, sat in his chair trying to relax myself by saying

" Hey its just a check up , what could probably go bad " when he said to me...

"You might need braces again !" and if that wasn't enough, he went on to say

"Well your wisdom teeth have n't erupted yet, and the bad part is there is no space for them to erupt so you'll need an X-ray to determine its position ...and then we might have to surgically remove it !!!"

The surgery part made my goosebumps rise to the size of ping pong balls !!!(or so it seemed) so I'm praying to God that my X-ray does not show any wisdom teeth at all,there exist people whose DNA doesn't code for it !.I hope I'm a part of that exceptional minority. And besides that I still am deciding wether or not to put on braces again. On one side is the incentive of having a better facial profile once its removed but theres obviously the burden of having it on for 18 months....not to mention the frequent trips to dentists for 18 more months ...AGAIN . Should n't I just love dentists now ?? .....:)

Shopping for clothes - The Pakistani way !

Day before yesterday,it was Sunday.A day my family mostly spends in one of the following four ways, 1 - Having friends or relatives over at our place for tea, dinner or lunch 2- Going to meet our friends and relatives 3 - Shopping or 4- Recreational activities. Since my grandma who lives with us will be leaving Pakistan to visit my uncles and her sister in a few days , she had to buy presents for all of them.And what better present can there be from Pakistan for Pakistanis living abroad besides Clothes and fabric.


If only I could have them all

Pakistan has a huge textile industry and as a result the markets are flooded with clothes.A special attraction is unstitched fabric.All the possible types of fabrics imaginable are available with varieties in colour and design. This is really fun for people like my neighbour 'Sara' who mix and match different kind of fabrics and then stitch or stick different embellishments or sequins on it to make their own trends and style. Lawn (a kind of fabric) is a favourite in the subcontinent beacuse its really comfortable in the hot and humid summers of this region.And then ofcourse there are different qualities and prices,ranging all the way from Rs 20 per yard to Rs 500 per yard.And did I mention that clothes can be purchased all the way from the roadside and bonets of parked cars to elaborately furnished boutiques !




But the problem that accompanies all this charm and variety is the undecisiveness faced by shoppers like my mom and grandma who take hours to decide.Questions like "Will the green chiffon look better with white lawn ? " or "Will the purple cotton look better than the red one?" are just a few of the random questions fired at me while I am pretending to be really interested, lost in some other thoughts !. It may sound like a lot of effort but it really is fun to be sitting with a rack full of fabric in front of you trying to imagine the way you'd look in that fabric once its stitched.
My mom - just can't decide !
So that was what I did this Sunday.A hectic and yet funfilled day dedicated to my ammi (mom) and naani (grandma) !

In the line of friends

We at Dow Medical College are approaching the end of our third semester with flying speeds.The syllabus seems to be growing every second and our teachers seem to be in an illusion that there are 336 hours in a day instead of 24 (Thats the only conclusion I can reach after looking at the homework piling up). But besides all the work and studies its the time of the year when we get to decide and choose a clinical group for ourselves. A group of around 10 - 14 people who'll go for ward duties (in the hospital) togethor. Seems like an easy task ? Yup, it did to me too.But Only when my friends and I sat togethor to decide who the 14 people would be did the problems become visible.

We are a group of ten friends who agreed to say togethor but then each one of us or rather most of us had some other friends which the others friends werent friends with or even had problems with.Some wanted'A' to be in the group others wanted 'B'. When everything would seem to be decided there would arise another problem because 'D' would have a problem with 'E' being in the group and bingo ..confusion again.So it was all a chaos.Believe it or not, we had arguments, misunderstandings, tears, and even heated up conversations at 1 am !!!.

All I wanted was there to be a minimum number of people in the group i.e 10 so that while in the wards, teachers could give us better attention and co ordinating could be made easier but that meant splitting the group beacuse as a rule every group should have 25% boys. While all ten of us are girls......Problem again.But finally we decided to keep a max of 14 people in the group, compromise with our studies in the ward but still be togethor !!!! I hope it wont have any serious implications on our studies but the good thing is that I've got my pack of friends with me !!!!!

Mid sesmester

A lot has happened lately . I breathed a huge sigh of relief as my midsemster exams just got over a few days back. Even though they were just mids and our scores from these exams have no practical value besides self assesment, I was tense to the extent of puking and had two sleepless nights before the exam day while my friends sat in luxury watching Gossip girls and Japanese sitcoms online !!! I think getting tense over trivial stuff is just a part of my nature but my best friend and mom argue that I'm turning into a perfectionist, worrying for everything and nothing. It is difficult for me to believe their explanation entirely but I do realise their explanation is partly correct , I'm not exactly a perfectionist but yes I do try and keep myself stick to schedules very strictly.

Other than that I have a bad bruise on my elbow which is changing colors like a rainbow and is really fascinating to look at. The weirdest part is , I dont even remember how I got it.I was playing squash the other day and I think I swung the racket in such a way that it hit my elbow. And even if its not the explanation, things like this happen to me pretty often .My joints seem to be excessively mobile and wobbly.Trust me walking in my shoes is like walking on roller skates !!!