Salaam

Asalaam Alekum and a belated Ramadan Kareem to you all!

I know we haven't posted for a long while, but here's the update for anyone who might have wondered where we were: I (Baji) moved into a beautiful house a few weeks ago so of course that meant a lot of packing and a lot of unpacking. I'm still not completely unpacked. Then my family (a lot of people) came to visit and then Ramadan started! And now I'm pleased to tell you that InshAllah tomorrow I'll be leaving for Umrah and then off to Pakistan. The whole trip will be about a month so I'm extremely excited! But as this is my first time to Saudi Arabia it obviously means this is my first time visiting Mecca. And I can't even begin to explain the emotions I'm having about visiting the House of Allah. It's almost like since the last 10 days, my feelings are growing exponentially. I'm excited. I'm scared. I'm in awe. And almost every day in the past week I have cried at the sheer idea of stepping foot into the land where our beloved Prophet salalahu alayhi wasalaam received his first revelations. The land where Ibrahim alayhi salaam and Ismail alayhi salaam built the House of Allah. And of course even these two grand historic events don't compare to the simple fact that this is the House of Allah. This is where the whole Muslim world faces when they pray. How can one NOT be in awe of this beautiful place? And after only a few days in Saudi Arabia, Poops and I will go InshAllah to Pakistan. And I can't even fathom the enormity of the crisis that has affected over 14million people there. I will do my best to update this blog while I'm in Pakistan so as to give my perspective on the situation there.

And my co-author (Zarga) is in France for most of Ramadan so InshAllah when she gets back to her home in LA she will update the blog with her story. Also you may want to check out our other blog Amreeki World Adventures (the link is posted on the sidebar ==>) for pictures from our trips.

Zarga and I both wish you all a blessed Ramadan and a blessed Eid, InshAllah. And please pray for the Ummah and those who suffer.

The Liberation of the Sahrawis

The Saharawi liberation movement has been greatly overlooked by the international community and media. Along with Palestine, it is the world's last colony. Morocco considers the Sahrawis as captives.
While the situation has improved since the early 1990s, the political liberalization in Morocco has not had the same effect on Western Sahara according to Amnesty International in 2004 Some quick history- Morocco's 1975 annexation of the territory, a former Spanish colony, sparked a war between its forces and Algerian-backed Polisario guerrillas. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in 1991 but UN-sponsored talks on Western Sahara's future have since made no headway. Rabat has pledged to grant Western Sahara widespread autonomy but rules out independence. The Polisario Front wants a referendum on self-determination, with independence as one of the options. More than 165,000 Western Saharan, or Saharawi, refugees live in the camps, according to the Polisario; 90,000 according to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). They exist mainly on international aid. The largest camp is the Dakhla camp in Southern Algeria. Human rights are repressed in the Moroccan-controlled territories of Western Sahara, according to Amnesty International in 2003 and Human Rights Watch in 2004, when it comes to having a pro-independence position.

Dakhla refugee camp

Today, the main source of misery is not lack of food, or health care, but unemployement. Even though there are small shops , a hospital and school, many are unemployed. The Sahrawis are unable to work and provide for themselves, the UNHCR distributes rations for 125,000 people and believes that the nutrition for the refugees is improving. Sadly, the Sahrawis primarily live off of rations.

The liberation of Palestine is a cause which is very dear to all Muslims, but let us not forget our brothers and sisters in the Western Sahara. May they be able to live freely on their land, inchAllah.

Miss USA 2010- A Victory for Muslims??

The new face of American beauty is- Rima Fakih, a beautiful Lebanese born American. She emigrated with her parents to the United States as a baby and attended Catholic school in New York City until her family moved to Michigan in 2003. After her win, Rima commented - "I think it would prove that Arabs don't always try to separate themselves, but instead are integrated into American culture" . She also stated that her and her family celebrate both Muslim and Christian holidays. Personally, I do not think that a person no matter what religion they belong to, should make concessions regarding their beliefs just to become "integrated" into their country's culture. To me her comment was really ignorant and just makes me say "what a sell out" lol. Okay let me stop lol. A Muslim women doesn't have to in a beauty pageant to become integrated.

But the main issue here is that many are saying that it's such a milestone for America to have the first Muslim Miss USA. But honestly, in my opinion this is not a victory for Muslim Americans, she simply represents the face of a new type of America. Rima Fakih, does not represent Islam or Muslim women. Muslim women are modest and do not parade on stage in skimpy bikinis! She simply represents Arab Americans.
It's just a beauty pageant! Her victory is not going to bring about any type of change for Muslim Americans. .Plus it's not like her victory is going to change the American perception of Muslims. Already right after her win, many are bringing up the fact that one of her uncles is a member of Hezbollah and how she comes from a strict Shi'a family.

Why do Muslims in Western countries have to make so many concessions in order to be accepted by the societies in which they live? Honestly, I would rather live in this world as a stranger, than have to give up aspects of my religious beliefs just to be accepted by society and become completely integrated into American culture. Yes, I am an American by birth, but for me it will always be us Muslims and them (the non Muslim Americans). I would never want to become FULLY integrated. Many disagree with me, please share your thoughts on this!

Food-ing it in Detroit - day 1

One of my greatest pet peeves is when people take pictures of their meals and add it on their Facebook accounts. Why do they do that? WHY? Now that is big time chichorapan. The only exceptions to this are if it is something really, really unusual. Like you're in Africa and a native slaughtered a cow in front of you and cooked it right there. Now, THAT'S cool. I wanna see that. But you went to the Cheesecake Factory and ordered a shrimp pasta and took a picture of it because...? So anyways, the following pictures aren't unusual at all. At the same time, this isn't Facebook and I'm not clogging up peoples' newsfeeds with my shrimp pastas. This is a blog. Plain and simple. A blog = venue for chichorapan. So let's begin.

We arrived in Detroit Sunday night. Since we'd been to Detroit many times before, we knew the one place that was going to be open FOR SURE that late was Famous Hamburger.I ordered a cheeseburger and Poops got the chicken burger. By the way, their coleslaw is pretty good. I forgot to take a picture of my meal because I was super hungry, so here's a picture of what it kinda looked like:

Teaser Trailer for: Detroit Food Extravaganza

(on the ride home from Detroit)

Poops: When's your baby due?

Me: I don't know. When's your baby due?

Poops: When's your baby due?

Me: Way after yours. When's your baby due?

Poops: No, I'm due after you. When's your baby due?

(No, none of us is with child. But both of us sure look like it. Time to hit the salads and the gym.)

Detroit Extravaganza

I'm currently in Detroit for a few days. And I'm totally loving the fact that Dearborn is nearby and HAS A TON OF ARAB/HALAL RESTAURANTS. !!!!

I thought I'd be all cool and do some sort of "live blogging" but like an idiot, I forgot the cable to my iPhone and my camera. At first I thought I'd post the pictures on facebook via my iPhone and then copy and paste them on here, but then I'd be a big time chichori and I'd have to write about myself as the next example of Amreeki Chichori.

As I write, I'm looking out over Windsor and Detroit. And this pretty lake in front of me. Ah pretty...scary lake. I'm also totally afraid of heights so staying on the 55th floor of an 80something story building is new for me. New. But I use mind control techniques to get over my fear of heights (it's not really heights I'm afraid of, but I'll explain more later.) This hotel is BEAUTIFUL. Alas, we'll have to wait till the weekend to go over my pictures.

So wish me luck, because as in love with as I am with all the good food here, I still make sure my doors are locked when we're driving. (knowwhatimean?) Detroit's a ghost town, a yummy falafel ghost town bitahini.

Tikka done right

We're coming back bigger and better (and badder) in a couple days so stay tuned! In the meantime, enjoy these chicken tikkas!

Amreeki Chichora: Facebook

Click here to learn about Amreeki Chichora.

So before I start our first example of chichorapan, I should explain that I'm completely computer illiterate. Poops is my witness to that. I never knew there was such a thing as the PrntScrn button on my keyboard (I mean let's be honest, who looks up there?) so even though I can probably use it now, I'm just gonna post this example anyways since I spent so much time manually editing it (by editing I mean using my camera to take a picture of it, opening it up in paint, and painting out the name of the chichora.) So let's begin.

Our first chichora (well, chichori) comes to us from facebook. Now, I'm sure many of you have witnessed the same thing I witness EVERY DAY on my newsfeed: the same person joining 500 groups and pages every...freakin'...day. This person is always...ALWAYS...on your newsfeed, joining something.

Khawateen-o-hazraat (Ladies and gentlemen) I present: Facebook chichora

Here we can see Facebook chichora becoming a fan of a multitude of pages and groups:

And here, Facebook chichora is admitting they have a problem:

And yes, they're both pictures of the same person's chichorapan.

I guess I do it too ...bleh

I find it annoying when bloggers take off without reason for long periods of time. And I'm one of them. Sorry! It's been a whirlwind of chaos mixed with tsunamis of emotions followed by hurricanes of joy. But we'll get to that later!

First things first, this is totally overdue. So the contest winners from our 101 post are:

"Grand" Prize winner:

weed: $5

partying it up with your buddies: cost of weed

being sober enough to remember mom's nagging questions about jumping off a bridge if your friends do it too: priceless

Adriana, Miami

Second winner:

THIS.. IS... SPARTA!!!!

Sanjeeta, Boston

Third winner:

Ghost of Olympics future scaring the crap out of Teddy Michael Phelps.

Sonal, Cleveland

P.S. Hope you all liked your prizes!

The Ruling concerning the Celebration of the Prophet's SAW birthday

Here is an online book I came across which discusses the topic in length.


www.scribd.com/doc/26252138/The-Ruling-Concerning-the-Celebration-of-Mawlid-by-Shaikh-Saleh-Ibn-Fawzan-Al-Fawzan

Mawlid Anabawi (The Birthday of the Prophet SAW)

Friday was the birthday of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW), there were many celebrations and gatherings in Muslim communites all around the world. The Islamic center here in Los Angeles had a special spiritual night, with anasheeds about the Prophet SAW, and speakers talking about the Seerah of the Prophet SAW. Now, I know that we are not supposed to celebrate, light candles, dance on our Prophet's SAW birthday, but unfortunately I had a little doubt. I figured just listening to speakers talk about his life will be okay, and singing anasheeds about our Prophet (SAW) is okay. I actually feel really guilty now about having taken part in this, Astaghfirullah! So I decided to do some research on these celebrations how they started and where they came from, and if it is acceptable.

One hadith that pretty much sums all this up is : The Prophet SAW said "Do not exaggerate in me, as the Christians exagerated about the son of Maryam. I am only a slave so say 'the slave of Allah and the Messenger of Allah'" (Saheeh al Bukhari 4/142 3445).

Allah also forbade the Christians from worshipping Isa (AS): "O people of the Book! commit no excesses in your religion: nor say of Allah aught but truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an Messenger of Allah and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His Messengers." (S. 4, V. 171)

I also started thinking about the Sahaba, and realized that they never celebrated the Prophet's SAW birthday, nor did the Prophet (SAW). They were the Ummah that was closest to our beloved Prophet SAW, many died for him and loved him very dearly. If it was truly a commandement to celebrate the Prophet's (SAW) birthday, they would not have missed out on it! So why do we do it? Are we better than the Sahaba? Can we really understand the love they had for the Prophet SAW, and does our love for him compare? Once I began thinking about all of this and reading I realized celebrating our Prophet's SAW birthday is bid'ah.

Now, I also wanted to see find out how all these traditions originated. I was watching a program on Huda TV, "Ask Huda" and this question came up. The sheikh (Muhammad Salah) said that it was the Fatimites (which is the worst sect of the Shi'as) that began this tradition of celebrating the Prophet's SAW birthday. This was a sect from Egpyt. They also celebrated the birthday of Ali (the Prophet’s cousin), Fatimah (his daughter). The Prophet’s SAW birthday celebration was introduced in Egypt by Al-Malik Muzaffar Ad-Din Kukburi in 604 AH/1207 CE. Kukburi was brother of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi (Saladin). These were the days of Crusade where almost 200 years waves after waves of crusaders from Europe came to the heart of the Muslim world in the Middle East to fight Muslims in their own countries. During the crusade, both Islamic and Christian culture exchanged views on many things and each tried to put its influence on the other. Christians brought along their cultural and religious celebrations, and Muslims imitated some festivals and feasts of the Christians who lived among them. One of these feasts is the tradition to celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h as Christians celebrated the birthday of Jesus Christ, known as Christmas.
From Egypt the tradition of Mawlid was spread to Mecca and the land of Hejaz in Arabia. From the Holy City where Muslim peoples of different nationals assembled during the hajj season each year, the tradition was spread to North Africa, Morocco and Andalusia (Spain). To the north it was spread to Syria, Irak, Turkey and Balkan peninsula, and to the south, to Yemen and Hadramaut, and to the east, to Southeast Asia and Indonesia.
Since then it has become such a present aspect of so-called Muslim Culture. This was a reminder to me to not get caught up in cultural celebrations that are so far from Islam.

Allah's Messenger said: "Stick to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of my rightly guided Caliphs, cling to it firmly with your molar teeth. Beware of newly invented matters, for a every new matter is an innovation, and every innovation is misleading" {Musnad Ahmad (4/126) and at-Tirmidhee (2676)}

Hijab in Elle Magazine

I saw this picture in Elle Magazine. I think it's so pretty, and I really like her makeup:)

just a little fyi

my laptop is on its deathbed. it might be a while. i hate using PCs now since i've been so used to using my lovely laptop (or evil laptop as it has a mind of its own) so i'll be delaying some of my posts until i can get the little fella back on track. and also the winners of the 101 post have been notified and Insh'Allah I'll be posting up the winning captions once all systems are go.

and an even more little fyi: poops (the tech-iest person i know) can't even figure out whats wrong with the laptop. needless to say, he can't even eat, sleep or do anything...pray for us!


yours truly,

baji

How Poops became Poops

I've been asked why I call my husband Poops. So, let's explore!

People closest to me know that I'm not the most affectionate person in the world. So it's extremely rare that anyone would hear a term of endearment come out of my mouth, unless, of course, it's directed towards a baby (love the babies!) I also used to be a big fan of the show, A Different World. Anyone remember that show? Remember Whitley and Dwayne?

Well since it's a pretty old show, there were always reruns of it at odd hours on local channels. And I noticed how Whitley always called Dwayne, Pookie. And of course I thought I'm going to do the same. So I started calling my husband Pookie at first just to tease him and we'd always laugh (well I'd laugh.)

Then, it became an ongoing name. Pookie where are you? Pookie pookie pookie whats up? It got to the point that even my friends would make fun of the name and they would giggle and whisper, "pOOkieee," whenever I spoke to Pookie on the phone near them.

As time progressed, Pookie became Poopie. Don't ask me how. I think Darwin is still working on it.

And then, of course, who wants to constantly say a two syllable nickname? So Poopie became ...get ready for it....POOPS! ta-daaaa!

Pizza Challenge

I confess that I haven't had Domino's pizza in a really long time (almost a decade maybe.) Poops and I have been Pizza Hut fans. So when Domino's came out with their new recipe (and Zarga told me a couple of weeks ago that she liked the new recipe) I decided I'd try it. And what better day to taste-test pizza than on Super Bowl sunday?

Poops, however, was adamant that we only have Pizza Hut. So of course, we ordered from both. The top one is Pizza Hut and the bottom is Domino's. I LOVED IT! I think I'm finally over Pizza Hut's greasy slices (not that I'm totally going to abandon it, though) and I love the new Domino's pizza. It was finally a fulfilling pizza that didn't leave your mouth oily. I especially liked that I could actually taste the olives and mushrooms in my pizza compared to just tasting grease in the Pizza Hut version. It also had a (very)little kick in terms of "spicy-ness."

So next time you order pizza, give it a try. Even if you have someone like Poops in your home who refuses to taste anything other than Pizza Hut.

Remember to mail your captions for the 101 post to amreekichoraha@gmail.com and join the Help Abdullah page on facebook (button located on the right of this blog) and donate if you can (also located on the right of the blog.)

Happy 101!

Hey everyone!


Wow it's almost one year since we started blogging here and now we've done a century (cricket-speak) of posts! So...to celebrate, we're going to be giving away a couple of small gifts. But there's still a catch! In order to receive one of the gifts, you have to provide a caption for the following picture:




It can be any caption your imagination comes up with and you can submit as many as you want. The only rule is that you have to submit them to amreekichoraha@gmail.com


So what are the gifts? (Prizes, actually.)


The person with the best caption receives this beautiful paranda or as I call them, "chooTeli," which is basically braided into your hair and fancy ones like this are commonly worn by girls during wedding festivities.





The person with the best caption will ALSO receive one of these tiny bottles of ittar (non-alcoholic perfume.) Ittar are my favorite! They last long and smell great. These bottles, however, are for men. So it can be a nice tiny present for the dad, brother, or husband in your life (unless you're a dude then you can try this one out on yourself and give the chooTeli to your sister.)

Polo

Polo Black



And my personal favorite, HOgo Boss. (sigh) I love Karachi.

Two others with great captions will ALSO receive one of the bottles pictured above (they're pinky-sized!)

So don't be shy, even if you've never commented on here before...go ahead and submit a caption to amreekichoraha@gmail.com and win one of these totally rad prizes! The "deadline" will be Thursday, February 18th at 7pm EST. Zarga and I will post the winners and their captions on the next day. And we will contact the winners via email for their shipping addresses.

So thank you from the gals at Amreeki Choraha for taking time to read our posts and making us feel loved!

Couscous with raisins :)

mmmm mmmm mmmmm! This is my all time fav snack. Well, it's a little heavy to be a snack, but I could eat tons of this stuff lol. It's basically just steamed couscous with the yellow sun dried raisins (steaming the raisins give them a yummier taste). This snack is usually drank with Lben ( I think in english it's fermented milk) or just regular milk.

In Algeria, we usually eat this every morning for suhur during Ramadan.

L.A. wedding part 2

So this was the Mehndi function for Poops' friend and his wife. We entered into a huge hall lined up with appetizers and then proceeded into an even larger area where the event was going to take place. We (we were from the groom's side, of course) sat at our tables and waited for it all to begin...which took soooo long. I guess some desi things (like being on time) don't change despite being in "the west."

This is some of the "traditional stuff."

Here's the groom with two of his buddies taking pictures on the stage before all the hoop-la begins.

Finally! After waiting so long, the bridal party comes out with the bride underneath that flower canopy. There was also a live band as you can see in the back. I don't have a picture of the bride and the groom sitting on the stage together because, well...I got busy. I was the only female (aside from the groom's mom) from the groom's side! And I barely know the fella!

I was thinking the same thing, little kids, the same thing.

It's hard to believe these kids slept through this:

And this was just a snippet of what the whole song and dance portion of the Mehndi function was like.

L.A. wedding

Unlike the average desi, I've only been to a handful of weddings in my life (mine not included.) Last October, Poops and I ventured out to the mysterious west coast...to a place called Los Angeles. It was my first time on the west coast and I loved the views from the airplane. However, those few October days we were in LA (and we went to Vegas for a day) were some of the hottest I've experienced (and I'm from Miami with 100% Karachi blood in me.) Nevertheless, we were there for Poops' friend's wedding.

So this was more or less my first desi wedding in the U.S. and I was pretty shocked by how well decorated the events were. I mean, of course, there's nothing like a wedding "back home," but I think this was pretty well planned out.

Here's the bride's sister and brother "walking down the aisle" before the bride walks down the aisle with her father and mother on each side.

Just a side note: I do find it odd that desi weddings are beginning to look more and more like "western" weddings. You're probably asking how I know that since I've only been to a handful...right? Well I do have facebook and youtube (BUT I'm saving that for the Amreeki Chichora series!)

And here's the groom and bride on stage with the imam. I really liked the stage and the overall ambience they created in the huge room. I don't have too many pictures of the rest of the wedding hall but all eyes are on the stage anyways.

I'll put up some pictures of the mehndi event.

Not all that looks delicious...

is delicious.

Beware of false advertisement. Although, come to think of it, the oranges should have been a giveaway. Chocolate and orange?! Never!

I'd like you all to meet Simmal

My aunt in Toronto gave birth to a beautiful baby girl back in October. We all got to see her for the week of Eid last November (how awesome was it that Eid fell during Thanksgiving break?) The baby girl, Simmal, was the highlight of our trip and we still miss her sighs and cries (and other bodily functions (boy, were they LOUD!))

So here is Simmal...or at least 75% of her feet.

Dear husbands,

When all else fails...

buy her flowers.

Well, hello beautiful!

English: Goat chops

Urdu: Chaunmps

Help Abdullah

Hey everyone!

I have a special request for anyone reading this. As you might have seen, on the right side of this blog I have had up a duah for Abdullah. He is my four year old cousin who is going through cancer (for the second time) and is undergoing chemotherapy to battle it. He was treated the first time (cancer on his face by his eye) at Aga Khan hospital in Karachi and came out successful. However, one year ago, they found the cancer again but this time on his neck. He is being treated again but none of the hospitals in Pakistan are willing to lower the price since it is his second time. First-time cancer patients get priority.
After many inquiries into different (and affordable) treatments, Abdullah has been readmitted into Aga Khan Hospital. He has 20 sessions of chemotherapy left and each one costs approximately Rs.50,000 which is roughly $600.
We're starting this chip-in donation box to help cover at least one of his sessions. This donation box will remain up here as long as it needs to (we just chose March 15 as a "target" date.)
Please donate whatever you can. Even the littlest amount will Insh'Allah find its way to helping Abdullah.
You can visit this site for more info, like the letter from Abdullah's doctor.
You can also join the facebook group, Help Abdullah. (I don't know yet how to link that on here, sorry!)
And if there are any questions or concerns, you can email me at amreekichoraha@gmail.com and I can even provide you with my private email address and phone number if need be.

I am grateful to you for even reading this, and our family will be grateful if you could keep Abdullah in your duahs.

Asalaam Alekum wa rehmatullahi wa barakatahu.

Amreeki Chichora

If you speak Urdu, it's easy to understand that someone can do a slip of the tongue between choraha and chichora. I giggle everytime I do it. However, I have also noticed there is a lot of chichorapan going on lately and I thought hey let's put 2 and 2 together and get Amreeki Chichora! This will be a new series that will highlight some truly chichori activities in the world.

So to explain what exactly a chichora is, I'm going to provide a few synonyms and perhaps an example or two.

Chichora [chih-cho-Rah] :noun, masc., plural: chichoray, synonyms: tacky, cheesy, desperate, cheap, over-the-top, attention-seeker.

Sentence: Stop blasting bhangra music while driving at 5mph through a busy street, you chichora!

Chichori [chih-cho-Ree] :noun, fem., female version of chichora.

Sentence: If that chichori tells me another thing about her "new Lexus," I'm going to kill her IN her new Lexus.

:Adjective, used to describe any activity which involves the synonyms above.

Sentence: Will you boys and girls stop doing all these chichori activities like staring each other down? WE'RE IN THE MASJID!

So as you can see, chichoras come in a variety of ways. Now I'm not going to say I'm safe from chichorapan and above it; we all have a little chichora in us. It's normal. But this is going to be about those chichoras who go above and beyond the call of duty.

Some things to keep in mind:

1.Chichora is a slang word, so don't use it in front of everyone. Some people not to use this word in front of: anyone you respect (like your parents or aunts and uncles.)

2.Use it freely and openly with your good friends and call them out when they're displaying some "chichorapan" (the act of chichoraing, or an abundance of chichoraness.)

3. Anything and everything can be chichorapan, the world is your oyster.

4. Do be prepared for someone to get mad when you call them a chichora or chichori. If said thing happens, take the following action: Discontinue friendship. This person obviously can't take a joke and isn't a good friend.

I reckon you're thinking I'm a mean person. And I agree with you. And here's proof:

notice how no one has refuted my sister's comment.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "You're so mean, why would you do something so sinful as exposing people's chichoraness?" And to you I answer, "Hey, I'm mean. And besides, these people NEED to be exposed. And I'm not using names. So enjoy and have a laugh or two." And that's when you say, "Oh you're right, after a hard day's work all I wanna do is laugh at a chichora. Godspeed Baji and hand me a samosa."

Omelette du Fromage

I received a lovely package in the mail today! And it's from none other than India (aka Zarga.) So what did she send me?

An Eiffel Tower keychain!

And now I can add it to my growing collection of keychains!

A portrait of my sister

So first read this and then scroll down for the masterpiece:



Last summer my cousins from Karachi visited my family in Miami and I took a couple trips down to Miami to meet up with them. During those trips, I became best friends with my then 13-year old cousin.

For the sake of my few readers, I will whisper the name of my cousin.

(change to old Latin accent like the dude from dos equis)

You must know that you should be honored to know his name. His way is unique, his style is oblique. He won't see you later...

His name is***ali gator***

So Ali and I became good friends throughout the summer (we even let Poops become a part of our gang.) One evening, Ali, his sister, me, and my sister were sitting in the living room totally bored. So we came up with a game: let's draw each other! So each of us took turns caricaturing each other. An example is: first we picked my sister, Natasha. So Ali, Ramsha (Ali's sister) and I would draw Natasha and then we would all show our drawings when we were done. And then we would pick the next person and do the same.



So anyways, the first person we picked to draw was Natasha. I overdid it with the details and comment bubbles and Ramsha I think drew a "beautiful" picture of Natasha (I can't remember, there were too many pictures that summer) and then the master, the guru ali gator showed off his masterpiece...

...and ever since then, I can only whisper his name.

p.s. I shoulda posted a pic of my sis for you to fully appreciate this

My enemy

For those of you who use basmati rice, maybe you'll understand. For those who don't use it and just eat it (Poops) here's an explanation of why basmati rice bags are my enemy:

Every few weeks or months, that time rolls around. What is that time, you ask? That time when you've run out of rice and you reach for a new bag. What kind of bag, you ask? A burlap bag filled with 10 pounds of rice. And why is that my enemy, you ask? BECAUSE IT'S GOT A MIND OF ITS OWN!

These bags are sewn shut and the little thread at the end of each side can either make your day....or break it. In my life, I've only ever successfully properly opened a bag of rice twice. One was 3 months ago, and one was 9 years ago.

Understandably, this isn't really the greateste issue in the world to be concerned with at the moment, but really...am I the only one who has this problem?


Jeepers...I can't believe I did a whole thing about the string on the burlap of a 10 pound rice bag.

*note: this picture is from my successful attempt 3 months ago. I was so happy, I had to take a picture. I hate the bag I just murdered yesterday (well if you can't work out the thread you have to go at it with scissors!)

So where have I been?

Hey everyone, (or anyone….anyone there?)

My God, it’s been months since I’ve written here. I honestly don’t know why it’s been months. I guess I could go with the usual “I had a nervous breakdown,” “I had a spiritual crisis,” “I didn’t know what to write about.”

But that’s a cop out. I guess what best sums up my absence is that I felt like I wasn’t posting anything worthwhile. And while the whole premise of this blog was to post things I would normally share with my friends were we all together again, I guess I felt like what’s the point? Who wants to see my Eid flowers or my decadently delicious 3-minute yumyum?

Poops kept pointing out to me every few weeks or so that I hadn’t posted anything and that who cares what I post, I can’t be helping humanity every moment and with everything I do. (More on my humanity trip sometime later.) So of course, who listens to Poops (it’s true, Poops.)

Then, something so out of the ordinary happened. Something which I couldn’t even believe would EVER….EVER happen. Did I mention EVER? POOPS MADE A BLOG.

Omg omg omg….(I hate all this shorthand talk but the situation requires it) O-M-G!!! Wtf is Poops blogging about? Wha…why…augh.

And like a true soul-mate, Poops knew just how to get me blogging again: getting me angry and embarrassed.

So to anyone out there who still considers this pointless blog worth reading...it’s great to be back!
Oh and if anyone, oh God, I can’t believe I’m “advertising” this…if anyone wants to read Poops’ blog…here’s the address: http://unknown-whtever.blogspot.com/

However, I must warn you, even “I” don’t understand 70% of what he writes about (the few posts that he has) so you’ve been warned. And come to think of it, I don’t think anyone BUT a Pakistani male would understand what he’s talking about. So yeah, if you have a Pakistani male in your life who doesn’t care for spelling or grammar (mostly grammar) and keeps up with cricket (that’s 50% of the posts) and Pak politics…then point ‘em to poops.