I am a family girl!

I have been away - for longer than I should have. I haven't been busy with school. Of course not! That's one of the reasons I joined this profession; more time for myself & the family. Family - yes... I had my first baby just a couple of months ago. Now there IS a family and the excuse is more valid. Obviously, I still don't have ME time, especially not after the baby! A baby is a responsibility like no other. It's round-the-clock hard work & requires selfless dedication to this one tiny being who with just one big toothless smile replaces all that fatigue & sleeplessness with a renewed sense of vigor & strength. I think love is a powerful emotion. More than hate. Hate you forget at times. Love stays with you in every living moment. Especially the sort of selfless love mothers are known to have for their children.

So, yes. I had a baby. I HAVE a baby. I haven't blogged lately but my activities can be summed up in the following:

Eat, burp, poop, sleep; 

Feeding, cleaning, counting sheep!

Oh, and talking about babies, I remember meeting two little girls, twins, perhaps 3-4 years old, wearing angel wings to a party. On being asked "Are you angels?", they replied "No! we are human beings." Times have changed and babies are smarter. Like my husband's cousin's two & a half year old son who to everyone's astonishment was counting in Spanish the other day; apparently learnt it on youtube (which he accesses unassisted on his father's cell phone).

It's Alive...!!!

It's been what... over 9 months since I last posted anything. There could have been so many reasons for why I haven't posted. But there aren't any. I can't even say I got busy. I know busy and this is not what busy feels like. I found a new job though... to teach marketing & the likes to university students at Forman Christian College University (FCCU). Love it. Never thought I could enjoy teaching so much. It is just not my thing; or at least that's what I believed. Until I realized I can make a qualitative difference in people's lives when I teach inside and outside class. Anyway...so I was thinking...

It's funny how some of these schools like to have multiple descriptors; you know, broaden their market offering. There's FCCU - it's a college AND a university (...and no wonder there aren't enough 'Woman' at FC - because it is clearly a college university For-Man! At least that's what I thought 10 years ago - you know, like YMCA?). Then there's Government College University (GCU); they just had to put it out in big bold letters. We have a baccalaureate program too... and for the bold & daring, we even offer PHD degrees... don't you underestimate us you... people. The funniest however is University College Lahore (UCL). It's a university, but we can double up as a college too. They might as well add an 'S' in there you know... University College School Lahore. A one-stop shop for all your educational needs.

Thank God Kinnaird College is still KC... girls of all ages; but girls forever. and Lahore School of Economics isn't ashamed of the 'S' in LSE... and the kids don't carry Barbie school bags & Ben Ten lunch boxes.

Anyway... I like teaching at FC. It's a fun place & has a great work environment (at least my department does). Now if only I could find inspiration to write again... I would have a life again.

Pictures that speak!

 

Swine Flu - strict precautionry measures for all passangers!

 

All Salutions for Hair. Yes.

 

Your guidness father means a lot to me.

What a great place this is - there's always something to make you laugh:)

Lost in pronunciation!

Sorry for the long long break. I have been very busy doing nothing. Doing nothing is pretty strenuous and drains my brain of all energy and ideas.

Anyway, so yesterday I was recalling all those funny pronunciation bloopers you might have experienced when reading off an English word written in Urdu script on a banner, shop sign, on a taxi, on a leaflet or in an Urdu book. My mom-in-law has quite a few such bloopers in her memory book. Like that one day when she parked her car in front of an Urdu banner outside a shop that read something like 'Alar-iswanik' which after careful rereading she realized, was 'Ultrasonic'. Or how waiters in Lahore offer you 'sup-rite' when all you want is 'Sprite'. Just yesterday I was reading a house rental ad in Jang Newspaper and I was surprised there's a 'Cream' block in Garden Town but then I realized it was actually Kareem Block - it's just written the same way.


Oh and today as I was driving past some shops in Johar Town, I saw a banner that sounded like 'anonsabal' deal but the English read 'invincible'. No wonder in Pakistan, hospital is 'hasaptaal' and school is 'sakool' or 'iskool' - yeah, school is kool and it's for children not 'chil-durn' - when you write it in Urdu, it does look a little like chil-durn though. Oh and has anyone ever noticed how 'caterers' is always spelled as 'caters' in Urdu? I noticed that too today (since I was consciously looking for mistakes). And a cook is a 'kuk' when spelled in Urdu and when I read it, he is considered a domestic 'seront'. And a female is a 'femeel' because obviously she is responsible for the whole femeeli you know.

How can someone who doesn't know the English word pronounce it correctly when he reads it off in Urdu?? Below is the list of English words that have been mispronounced when read in Urdu. I am sure you guys must have some examples yourself.

An angry ramble.

Caution: unpleasant angry ramble ahead! 

... why can't we all just concentrate on becoming better people inside and stop worrying about what we appear on the outside? Why can't our women stop gossiping, mistreating servants and talking crap about each other and our men stop ogling at everything female that moves or verbally raping each others women with their cuss words? I mean, their holier-than-thou attitude deserves a little more justification than their daily prayers right? Ordained rituals are important in every religion - but I am sure they don't hold precedence over ordained strength of character and the more universal human morals.

Why cant our society stop ostracizing people for dating, choosing their own partners or falling in love and start concentrating more on how we actually conduct our relationships and how we contribute to other people's lives? We have all heard about honor killings (Karo-Kari) in Pakistan for so-called 'crimes' such as two consenting adults eloping and getting married without their families' permissions. I wonder what honor there is in killing your own family members so inhumanely. Love is punishable - but hate is not?

Why cant our society stop blaming the poor, illiterate and misguided masses of the country for their miserable conditions or for the mess that the country is in right now and instead strike at the root of what causes all this and fix that? With an education system in tatters, with inaccessible and grossly insufficient health facilities, with some of the worse living standards in the world, and rampant corruption (at least we are world leaders in something!), we can't expect the people to be exemplary citizens and make positive contributions to society.

Why can't we stop branding people who drink or women who wear western clothes as 'bad Muslims' and start branding people who make 6 year old kids work in their house, men who women who indulge in voodoo and magic as the real 'bad Muslims'? Religion has been grossly misinterpreted. It is just a matter of convenience really. We make a big deal out of everything that we can conveniently avoid and we play down everything we can't easily avoid. For example, we will never eat or even touch pork because it is OMG so Haram - but we have bank deposits, saving accounts and we earn interest on it, we give interest on our car loans, the whole banking system is interest-based - and interest is 'Sood' right - one of the bigger Harams of our religion. Then there's dancing - well - so you can't tell your parents you were at a friend's dance party last night but you can dance all you want at weddings right? Surrounded by men - some relatives, some friends and some you don't even know - but you dance and it's ok then? Oh and another issue I have with us - we wear these lawn suits that are translucent if not completely transparent - parents won't let their daughters wear jeans and tees but they can't stop them from wearing these thin white lawn shalwars (she might as well not wear one) just because it's a Pakistani dress? That makes it 'decent' and jeans and tees are by default indecent? Oh and the worst... ever heard an aunty say "My son is a little spoiled - lets get him married - he will come around." Why did you let him get spoiled? Your daughter freakin' wears a dupatta on her head and isn't allowed to leave the house unescorted. Your requirement from your daughter-in-law is that she be the purest of the purest of all the virgins of Pakistan. She be pretty, well-mannered, beautiful and tall. Your son... well... "you know... he's a boy and boys will be boys." This drives me nuts!!

SUCH double standards are all around us! I have them, you have them, we all have a little bit of them in us. I wonder why we are so comfortable with them? Is it really convenience or is there something I am missing out here?