On Cooking!

"Tum roz khana banati ho?"

"Haan! Meri dadi kehti thiN - jis ghar main roz khana pakta hai - wahan khud ba khud - barkatain nazil hoti haiN, aur piyar khulus ka raj ho jata hai. Jis ghar main chulha thanda par jaaye wahan nafrataiN aur tanhaiyaN dera daal leti hain."

On Tipping!

Make a habit to tip well, even when you are not sure. Get assure, it will make you a better person.

One baby grave!

I am not a regular visitor to graveyards except if I have to go to a funeral. Last week, I had to go to a funeral of one relative. After rites were over I took a detour to read plates (kutbe) of various graves around. I saw graves of all ages but one grave caught my eye. It was a grave of a 20 days old baby from year 2006 but many new stuffed animals and flowers were lying on it, like it was visited recently and kutba read:

For moments in our arms, 

Forever in our hearts..... 

I stayed there for few moments. Ye Aulad ka dukh bhi bara harami hai, saari zindagi chen nahi lene deta

Sense of Entitlement!

I am not an option, neither a choice.. I am a PRIORITY!!.. (anonymous) - found on Facebook

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens remains the greatest of English literature. I think at psychological level 2 things makes him the greatest of all. Firstly, at the end of his writings he leaves reader with sense of happiness. Secondly, he can see simple things in life from an unusual perspective (true for all great men).

Recently, I read one of his famous work "A Christmas Carol". Conventional teaching and wisdom to all humans is to forget the past, not to worry about future and to learn to live in the present. Charles Dickens argue against it and says that - for balanced and happy life - you need to live simultaneously with your past, present and future as portrayed by characters of 3 visiting ghosts in the story. Sweet memories of past, living happily in present and keeping optimistic picture of future makes a good life.

It is so interesting to read 2 contrast characters of same person (central figure in story named Scrooge) - one with nothing but all ignorance and other after enlightenment of past, present and future. I felt like I am reading my own life and I think what makes this story great and famous as each reader feels the same way. We all have 2 ways to live life - either with sadness or with happiness. We make the choice and Charles Dickens teaches us how to do it.

You can read the full text here

Seven Days in Utopia!

As I love off beats movies, first I wanted to write my impression about Pakistani movie "Bol" but than decided to write about a less known movie "Seven Days in Utopia" - kind of a Bible belt movie but still worth mentioning.

It is an interesting plot of an young golf player who miserably play in one of Texas open championship and take a hike away from town and end up in a small town call Utopia, Texas (Yes! There is a real town near San Antonio by this name). There he met another previous golfer who teaches him not only the right way to play golf but on the way teaches him lessons of life. Some of the lessons were very powerful like - first thing in life is to do anything with conviction and how without a conviction, a simple statement, even from a passerby, can knock you off the ground. Great things can be achieve with regular rhythms (routine) of life with patience. Life will give you what you picture in your brain! You have to "See it, Feel it and Trust it" (SFT). Life is like flying a plane which can encounter any mishap any time - key is to be calm even crashing! Nothing is an accident in life.  And, you make your enemies friends by playing the sports they like! You keep eye on field not on outcome. Sometime you may have to start from again rather than getting drag further into same mess as you don't have to prove yourself to anyone! Sometime you may need a different putter to play the shot! At the end it doesn't matter to get ball in the hole! What matters is to bury your lies and live by truth.

Trailer here

Ignorance and Arrogance

If you are an ignorant - it's OK. If you are an arrogant -I can even deal with it. But if you are both an ignorant and an arrogant at same time - let me tell you, people are done with you.

Safa aur Marwah!

Tum jaante ho - "Safa" aur "Marwah" ke beech main dorne ka kiya matlab hota hai.

Ye kahani sirf Bibi Hajira aur Hazrat Ismail ki nahi hai - bulke ye istaa'rah (nishani) hai is baat ka ke - Inssaan ki saari Zindagi khushi aur dukh ke beech chalti hai. Isi se guzar ker insaan zindagi ka maqsad aur noor pata hai. Ye 'ritual' hai sabar-o-shukar ki taalim ka!