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Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Miracle.
A lankan town that is no more
By David Fox
HAMBANTOTA ( Sri Lanka ) : This story is datelined hambantota,Wednesday,but in reality most of the town doesn't exist anymore. Situtated on a narrow strip of land on Sri Lanka's south caost, it fronted the Indian Ocean , while to the rear lay a big lagoon-partly mangrove and partly reclaimed for salt farming. Hambantota was the southern gateway to Sri Lanka's famed Yala National Park, its beach-front dotted with bungalows catering for tourists who wanted a seaside holiday combined with a wildlife adventure. So the town was at its very busiest when the deadly tsunami triggered by an earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean swept away everything in its path on Sunday morning. Virtually nothing of the town remains.The telecom tower, slightly crooked at its bas has , astonishingly,already been repaired . A small green mosque miraculously seemed to have escaped much damage, although the force abd height of the water was such that the blades of its ceiling fans now hang down like a gnarled claw .
Amazing , isn't it ?
posted by Niqabi at 11:42 PM
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Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Immigrants
Shaheen Ali is a former Pakistani cabinet minister, a human rights and Islamic lawyer and , currently, Professor of Law at Warwick University. She goes back n forth to Pakistan a great deal and says she is "Shocked by the way a lot of Pakistani communities operate here ( in the uk ) . I can't relate to them , it's as of time stopped for them when they got off the plane."The immigration clampdown of the 1970s, she believes , had an unintended effect: "Many men who were working here in the 1950s and 1960 thought they had better bring their families while they could . So families left their vilagges, got on the plane and got off again , having seen nothing in between . You had women in their forties n fifties who were suddenly incompetent. They couldn't even buy groceries. So they stuck together. Clannishness became the norm. A few households , became very important. Many of thse people were hard-working and , with the strong pound, they made money , they wanted to keep it inside the clan.
So very true isn't it? I would love to carry out a research on the problems faced by Pakistani immigrants living in different countries of the world . That would make an interesting topic , don't you think ? I'm always on the look-out for such stuff so do tell me if you come across over something that is even distinctly related to my fantasised research topic.
posted by Niqabi at 1:24 PM
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Monday, December 27, 2004
Lacoste.
Assalam Alykum ,
My hotmail inbox is STILL not working and seriously this is not funny . It never was , though but now its getting extremely annoying . I have to check 14 mail messages ! My patience is on the verge of explosion , though it doesn't matter even if it does coz hotmail is not going to work anyway . That moody panda .
My predictions on the 25 th of Dec of wearing new glasses next time I blog , have proved to be wrong , since I'm still wearing the old ones . I thought I'll get them by Monday and hence informed you accordingly ( as if you were dying to know ! ) but when I checked it from the reciept , it was Tuesday . So just one more day insha'Allah. I also had the misfortune of taking a shower yesterday . I'm still wearing the scarf though , alhamdolilah ! I'm no longer dirty and the scarf is washed as well . My hands are freezing and so are my feet . I am supposed to be wearing socks but I'm not because they drank some water by an after-wudhu-left-wet-pair-of-chappal , I have no idea if that looong word should have been hiphened but in any case it has been.
Tomorrow marks the start of the much not-awaited wedding frenzy . I'm not at all excited about it because of various reasons
-my precious holidays will go down the drain as we're required to attend the wedding for three days .
-The ceremony is not segregated so I'll have to be niqabified for almost the entire function.
-Alot of monetary asset has been wasted on the preparation of my clothes . I could have gladly used the money over some other more porductive item.
-I can't be bothered to dress up
Okay these are the reasons I can think of , I'm sure there are millions of other that I haven't yet thought about . Anyway , today I got my upper lip plucked . I really do need your clapping right now . It was so painful ! I could have died from the pain . I'm sure I wouldn't have but there is always a slight possibility . My upper lip is sore from the constant plucking and has now achieved what seems to be a certain perpetual redness ( I love the world perpetual so forgive me if its not properly used here ) .
Its 1:42 am in Pakistan and I should be in bed . But who cares about the shoulds . By the way , before I leave does any one of you have an original lacoste perfume bottle ? I need to see the picture to verify it from the one I'll get . It has to be 100% original no do-numbery stuff . Why do I need a perfume bottle would be something beyond your brains so no need to think about that .I should be going now . salaams.
posted by Niqabi at 1:21 PM
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Saturday, December 25, 2004
25 th of December .
And today I bought a pair of extra smart shoes on my own . They are maroonish-brown in colour and I'm truly in love with them . Today's christmas plus either its our beloved Quaid's death anniversary or birthday - I'm not entirely sure . But 25 th Dec has some national importance , that I can say for sure .
Had a loong nice chat with my freind , alhamdolilah times infinite and an ugly, long argument with my mum so the effects of both events have been cancelled out . I'm feeling empty , neither good nor bad . Its the intermediate feeling which is just as bad . I call it the little blue-ness. Anyway , I have oil on my head - not that its related to my blueness but who cares ! I've been wearing a scarf for the past one week now . Alhamdolilah the dirt has been accumulating and i'm feeling very comfortable. I have no plans of taking a shower tomorrow as well but I'll definately change my clothes .
Hey by the way , I've ordered new glasses :D . Next time , I blog I'll be wearing those.
Me and my sis went to ***today to get something to eat but since we're both tramps and are in perpetual shortage of money couldn't afford to buy two burgers . Though It was an embarassing sight but I managed to survive coz we're so used to being ....embarassed . We were just fifteen rupees short of buying two ****** ! Imagine the loss ...I mean any one of you could have lended that money to us , right ? But khyr to each their own . And to us our trampness. I was counting money right infront of the counter
..100-150 -200-210-215-220-225-230-240 phew ! 245....and then it was the same hundred rupee we had counted first. But alhamdolilah this time the difference between the actual price and the money we had , was very little . I won't dwell on what we finally got to eat because that part of the story is irrelevant . We are basically poor - that is the main focus.
Other then the real life dilemmas , my hotmail inbox is not working . It has blocked my access , the reason being that the servers are down or whatever is meant by that . Its 12:41 am in lahore , Pakistan right now in case the blog watch isn't working properly . I don't feel like sleeping but my back is aching like hell . I don't feel like blogging either but now since my blog has gone public , I have this responsibilty of providing people with something worth their time . Hence these extra meaningful and benificial posts . The reader of my blog ( if there is one poor soul lurking around the corner reading my blog and has got nothing better to do in life ) should bear in mind that I'm not a writer and never was . I haven't ever studied English Literature ( if it is used as an excuse for lame posts ) and don't intend to , insha'Allah . I totally hate it and wouldn't study it even if I have to eat 1000 almonds and 1000 glasses of milk . Other then this blog I have two other private blogs which are in good shape so its hard to find the time for this one .
posted by Niqabi at 11:26 AM
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Friday, December 24, 2004
Addiction .
I had this saved up on my pc and wanted to share it . Its about addiction and can be very useful for people who have been or still are addicted to something , like the internet in my case.
Addiction is a dependence on a behavior or substance that a person is powerless to stop. The term has been partially replaced by the word dependence for substance abuse. Addiction has been extended, however, to include mood-altering behaviors or activities. Some researchers speak of two types of addictions: substance addictions (for example, alcoholism, drug abuse, and smoking); and process addictions (for example, gambling, spending, shopping, eating, and sexual activity). There is a growing recognition that many addicts, such as polydrug abusers, are addicted to more than one substance or process
Diagnosis
In addition to a preoccupation with using and acquiring the abused substance, the diagnosis of addiction is based on five criteria:
*loss of willpower
*harmful consequences
*unmanageable lifestyle
*tolerance or escalation of use
*withdrawal symptoms upon quitting
There are twelve-step groups for all major substance and process addictions.
The Twelve Steps are:
*Admit powerlessness over the addiction.
*Believe that a Power greater than oneself could restore sanity.
*Make a decision to turn your will and your life over to the care of God, as you understand him.
*Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of self.
*Admit to God, yourself, and another human being the exact nature of your wrongs.
*Become willing to have God remove all these defects from your character.
*Humbly ask God to remove shortcomings.
*Make a list of all persons harmed by your wrongs and become willing to make amends to them all.
*Make direct amends to such people, whenever possible except when to do so would injure them or others.
*Continue to take personal inventory and promptly admit any future wrongdoings.
*Seek to improve contact with a God of the individual's understanding through meditation and prayer.
*Carry the message of spiritual awakening to others and practice these principles in all your affairs.
posted by Niqabi at 1:06 AM
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Thursday, December 23, 2004
I'm a sociologist through n through .
Trying to show off my sociology-ness.
*the sociologist...is a person intensively, endlessly, shamelessly interested in people's doings - in other words very nosy , just like meeh !
*Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in, and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select-doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant chief, and yes, even beggar man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations.." (J. Watson, Behaviourism, 1924)
.
posted by Niqabi at 2:24 PM
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My Blawg .
Assalam Alykum !
I hope everyone reading this, is in the best of health & Iman . This is my blog , and I'm its blogger . This is my first post . Its not an intro kindav post but who cares . I don't need an introduction . I really don't .I love to write really short sentences that offer no explanation and are souless. Its 2:40 am in Pakistan and I don't feel like sleeping . If anyone of you reading this is having difficulty in sleeping , you should try and recite this :
500 times durud-e-ebrahimi .
This works like a magical pill , it can even put people to sleep who've been sleeping all their lives . That's a bit exaggerated , but anyway I mean something to that effect . Now the million dollar question that why I'm not trying that myself is because ... I have no idea . But I think it is distantly related to the fact that I'm excessively lazy ? Could be .
This is the third paragraph of the same post and so far blogging seems to be alot of fun for me ! Now I didn't ask for your opinion so better keep it shut . So there Chij , my beloved cousin , you've got yourself a brand new post on an equally brand new blog . I'm proud of myself and I think you should be too , but for me . I'v finally entered the blogging world with grace and elegance . And I think I'm putting down my thoughts in a very articulate way. From this post being the 1st one to no intro to insomnia to recitation of durud-e-ebrahimi to its being a magical pill to me being lazy to the post having a third paragraph to me having fun to chij being proud of me and finally to this long chain of TO .
Okay now this'll hopefully qualify as The First Post . I gotta go now , anyway . Nothing to look forward to though , probably just the bed . Insha'Allah hope to keep this alive , salaams.
posted by Niqabi at 1:34 PM
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Profile
Name: Niqabi
Location: Lahore, Pakistan
Occupation: Housewife
Religion: Islam
Interests: World War II, Jews, Hebrew, ancient sites, Muslim rule in Spain, revolutions, Vatican city and Islamic literature.
Books: The black album, Portofino, Ladies coupe, In beautiful disguises, The buddhist of Suburbia, The hidden life of Otto Frank.
Contact: niqabified [at] gmail [dot] com
Quote: "We plan and Allah plans and Allah is the best of planners"
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