My Life and other comedies

“I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been a victim of my own optimism.”

Elizabeth Gilbert
Eat pray love

and the rest of your life starts right now... 07/09/2011

I have been busy lately – busy but not writing dead. I have been writing – I write all the time and I write everywhere! A piece of paper, my cell phone’s text editor but very seldom my PC. I write when I feel and my feelings are at their lowest in this fake virtual world. Anyway so I write regularly but in order to post something on this site I have to make sure it makes sense. You know what I mean? I write just as words come to my mind, in whatever order, whatever sequence – as an untamed flow of ideas, which may not make sense to anyone but me and I jot them down and try to make sense of it when I re-read :) now this activity takes a lot of time for which I never get time. So any way, as I was saying that I have been busy with a hectic work week, a new venture I am working on and above all being mommy. Many people ask me how and why would I engage myself from head to toe in things which I am not expected to do? Well the problem with me is that I have too many expectations off of myself. I am a true picture of a person who believes that this life is way too short to accommodate everything in it but it doesn’t hurt to try ;) everything that I wish to achieve, everything I am expected to achieve – I do not compromise on anything less. Why should I? I am what I believe I am, I will be what I will make of myself – if I limit my capabilities, that is exactly what they will become – limited! Its simple really – it really is.

As someone very close to me once said, ‘The key to success is not to beat yourself up about not being able to achieve all that you desire in a particular phase of your life – have a plan and focus on short term goals that should ultimately lead to self fulfillment, cause honestly that’s what life is really about – you have no one but yourself to satisfy and please – and you are the only one who can do it’.

Writer's Block 05/13/2011

now adays i am fumbling to get things done. Things that need to be done! things i shouldnt delay anymore and things that i cant delay anymore esp those with due dates approaching soon! with all these things to take care of I am left with a lot less time for my virtual world - even though i surf the internet on a daily basis but exhaustion kicks my creativity right in the bum.
so today since i am still suffering from wht i percieve as my writer's block i'l share a few articles i read online which are a must share.
First is a candid write up on the credit card addiction written by Khizra Munir for Friday times
http://www.thefridaytimes.com/13052011/page28.shtml

and the second is a website i came across the other day - http://1000awesomethings.com/
its so close to what i wish to achieve in the section "Stuff of Life" that i had to share this here....

so while i recover from my writers block you go n enjoy some seriosuly good stuff :)

Feedback 04/26/2011

Phew…7 days rigorous ‘Training Of the Trainer’ finally over! I am glad it is and in a nut shell it was great! I actually love attending these positive moral boosting activities. This one however was a bit long and exhausting but nonetheless helpful and positive. One of the key things I learnt during the course of it was the importance of the ‘right’ feedback – both in terms of content and style. The trainer emphasized on importance of starting any feedback by emphasizing the positives and then continuing onwards to the criticism without the use of connecting words like ‘but’, ‘however’ and others of the sort. She suggested increasing the use of a ‘full stop’ in our sentences instead. And also to keep the mention of negatives to a maximum of three (preferably two) in one sitting, this makes feedback taking more acceptable and does wonders in terms of effectiveness. I think this is absolutely brilliant. Difficult to achieve but brilliant. If we could somehow inculcate this in our daily life imagine how polite all of us could become, how much more impact our conversations would have and how much more pleasant life would get. Seriously it will. I am telling you.

Over the course of these seven days I also discovered that we as human and more specifically as Pakistanis cannot even praise our own actions. It is easier for us to look at what we did wrong than what we did right. But this is not irreversible just needs reemphasizing and reemphasizing. So let’s focus on what we do right everyday and be proud of it. This however does not mean to gloat your perfection to the point of ignorance, I mean acknowledge your strengths in terms of having a feel of pride but do keep on updating your personal profile - self improvement must never stop. And also look closely at people with a positive approach you’ll be surprised with what you discover :)

positive thought to kick start the weekend :) 04/15/2011

Never run yourself down. Believe in yourself! esteem yourself not with egotism but with humble, realistic self confidence. Stop brooding over the past. Drop the post-mortems. Live enthusiastically. Starting today, make the best you can of it. Give it all you’ve got and you will find that to be plenty”

Preschools, pots n pans and a Nikon D3100! 04/08/2011

Yesterday was a busy day – busy, tiring but fulfilling. Fulfilling because I got to tick off some of the longest pending items on my to-do list – which I tell you is the greatest feeling EVER! So I started off with some pre-school hunting madness- for which I am approximately a year and a half too late. For those who are unaware of the term let me delve deeper to make it clear – well I don’t know about other countries but in our part of the world (or may be the city) we like to start a bit early with our children education. Can you imagine if god forbid at 3 your child doesn’t know all the names of the animals in the world, cities, planets etc – how in the world will you live? (Ok this is just my frustration at being rejected at most of them talking) I know back in our time this wasn’t the case but then again almost everything has changed – like working mothers, super smart babies and family structure etc.

I have come to terms with accepting the preschool concept. I think it can be thought of as being healthier for both mama and baby (may be not too much for the papa who pays an exorbitant amount for a mere 2 hours a day or less) but a bit too over glorified. And now since all the good schools prefer children coming from pre-school over those who are not, you feel compelled to fall prey to the rat race even if you don’t fully agree or if your pocket doesn’t allow – you’d rather save up on lawn dresses then compromise on your child’s future. (Well at least that’s the case for me *sigh*)

So anyway, after being not allowed to enter at most of them, rejected at many and registered at few, I decided to call it a day (next round is coming Monday *grunt*).

After that I headed to sadar bazaar and had a successful shopping day :D I got a DSLR Nikon D3100 yayyyy…. Yes you’ll be seeing good pictures on this website now. Well it’s not exactly mine, I’ll be sharing it with my sister (she’s super good with it – I am just random) and then did some baking accessory shopping! Nothing makes me feel better then to shop till I drop! I could actually become a shopping assistant for some one…and I am serious! Dead serious on this one!!!! just give me your money and ill shop shop n shop …..for you ofcourse ;)

thank god for parents, thank god for cars n drivers n thank god for even having the option to look into sending your child to a preschool ..... what are you thanking your god for today? :)

Dare to be different 04/06/2011

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For someone who harps about positivity, sunshine and all great things in life, I have been quiet down in the dumps for the past ten days or so. Well life is a bitch and theres really nothing you can do about it. I have been having a very tough time lately trying to figure out which way to go and what all to do – but if there’s anything this experience (which I am not ready to talk about…yet) has taught me it’s that no matter how much one tries to transform into someone else in order to please people who are important in one’s life it’s simply just a waste of time. Cause even if you do try and become someone else just so that person can accept you, would that make you happy? The resentment of everyday and every moment reminding you that you sacrificed so much will only hype up your expectations from that other person and it will all crash one day or the other.

I may be wrong but I believe that the only way one CAN bring about any change in one’s self - it has to be from within. Till the point your heart wants and brain agrees that there is a particular aspect of your life/personality that you wish to alter nothing will make this change positive. Its holds true for everything - from quitting a bad habit like smoking, drugs, alcohol, an unhealthy lifestyle or editing your religious views or opinions about lifestyle choice or what you wish to pursue in life. That is why our prophet (P.B.U.H) was a living example and all his followers learnt more from his conduct then only from his words. The only thing that counts is inner satisfaction, the faith and ability to differentiate between right and wrong. Agreement for the sake of acceptance and due to lack of clarity in my opinion is an unhealthy subjugation which eventually results in frustration, anxiety and ultimately depression.

I believe that Allah has made each and every one of us to the best of our capabilities and the fact that we all are different makes this world a bearable place. Imagine if we all were robots or replicas of one another how boring everything would be. I may not like orange color but someone else may absolutely love it – my dislike for the color doesn’t make the color wrong, it just makes me different from the person who likes it.
“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are” – Kurt Cobain

Sumthing along the same lines by my fav author :)
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/04/05/10-sec-reading-body-and-soul/

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Candidly Yours! 03/22/2011

The blog I am sharing today belongs to my very own little sister. She may be the only person who can say exactly whats on my mind :) and may be on yours too. Its sure to make you nod, smile and go 'true that' every now and then :) so go give it a read i am sure you will enjoy it!
http://www.karachiandotherstories.blogspot.com/