1) Red lipstick and nail lacquer! you don’t know what power the color red on the lips and nails has until you apply it and watch heads turn! there’s nothing like a fiery red lipstick to totally make my day. i got it yesterday and i love it! it’s vital life giving energy, every time i look in the mirror i congratulate myself on a spectacular buy… now the shade of red will vary according to your skin tone and features etc. but believe me everyone can pull it off!

2) dramatic black eyeshadow that makes your eyes look dark and mysterious

3) a dress that always makes you look and feel great!

4) stilettos, really, really high stilettos

5) money in the bank… start saving today

6) a supportive best friend who’s an optimist and will always highlight the good

7) a pessimistic, bitchy best friend who’ll tell it to you like it is; someone you can bitch about work, your boss, your folks, your in laws, your kids, your better half with… and in case your single then about how much it sucks to be single!

8) a wax wali who may take long but does a good job

9) a beautician who understand your skin, hair and hands

10) a tailor who knows your body better than your lover, somebody who you not so much explain the design to as telepathically communicate with… he just gets you

11) song lists arranged on your ipod with mood sequences happy, sad, mushy,  power ballads, guilty pleasures,  girl power, rock anthems,  etc. etc.

12) a cell phone with an awesome camera

13) a notebook to jot down thoughts in…you never know when inspiration will strike

14) a few dog eared favorite books as a companion on every journey

15) a goto restaurant and a favorite dish that always makes you feel better

16) a favorite perfume

17) a favorite poem memorized by heart

1) talk about interesting current events or even if you don’t, tag the post as such,  so that it comes up in more hits. so, even if no one is actually reading the post ,and are only sitting there,  cursing you for being so deviously clever, there will be more hits, and a false sense of security makes the world go round!

2) make the posts more visual… lots of pictures of pretty places and pretty people. even if they make people wonder what the hell they’re doing there! you see in this intellectually challenged era people don’t like to read, they prefer to be told things visually, verbally. no one wants to read a  piece of text and then interpret what it means…because it apparently uses up too many brain cells or something! so more pictures, less words

3) some free give aways or gifts would attract the greedy,  scum of the earth…meh, a hit is a hit!

4) create multiple blogs and get them all to follow each other… people tend to have lemming like tendencies and will follow blindly… if everyone likes something, hell, it MUST be good!

5) post the same posts with slightly different tags on all said blogs you created in the previous point, so that google is flooded with your blogs whenever someone tries to search something!

6) name your blog ‘google’

7) paste your link on all kinds of blogs, in comments sections of websites, on friend’s facebook walls, in your own facebook profile

8) create a facebook page for your blog and force people to join

9) casually force your blog into conversations, sometimes without letting on that you’re the author. a typical conversation would go something like this:

“funny that you should mention the blasphemy law/ murder/ turtles / kittens / global warming / the change in zodiac signs / displacement of 4000 KESC employees…. i was reading about it on this wonderful blog (insert name here) very articulate and pithy, you should visit it sometime’

10) use all your contacts, beg, borrow or steal and get someone famous to endorse your blog on a public forum; again the lemming psyche comes into play

11) use quasi intellectual, french sounding words in titles and tags. you have the Carte Blanche on this… haha see?

follow these simple tips and voila! your blog will be thriving in no time!

He asked me if i’d stay a while

He chuckled at my fanciful plans numerous

He finds my self absorption incredulous

“what fools mere mortals be”, He said

as i kneeled in prayer before going to bed

“you know you’re not the center of the universe

Copernicus called to say, he was quite terse”

“everything your doubt touches dissolves to nothingness”

“leaving in its wake a confounded mess”

“you drudge drearily along from day to day”

“because you seem to know no other way”

“if only you could understand the secret of life”

“it’s easy, live for others and you won’t feel such strife”

But then my mom told me how it would be Sadqa – e – Jariah if even one person gets inspired by my story, so please…be inspired!

I remember as a kid being forced to read the Quran, being guilt tripped into going through the motions and hating every minute of it, thinking of ways to get out of it. Hoping maulvi sahib won’t be feeling well today.

That was some 17 odd years ago, somehow Allah and I lost touch along the way, like an old friend you suddenly feel very awkward around and look the other way, pretending not to notice them when you run into each other.

MashaAllah everyone at my house prays 5 times a day, I was kinda the odd one out, far from the dutiful daughter, I’ve done a lot of things in my life I’m not proud of. I was the one who probably made people wonder ‘she’s with them??’

It got to the point where I was very despondent, verging on the edge of full on depression. I needed something to change; pronto! Eventually something did change; my perspective. I was no longer angry at everyone and everything, I hope my family will attest to the fact that there has been a change in me, hopefully one that’s permanent. More & more before I do something I find myself wondering if Allah would approve of what I’m about to do, and if not I try to refrain. Notice I use the word ‘try’, I’m still learning the ropes with this whole friendship thing.

Now, I read the Quran because I want to & not because someone is forcing me to. I read the translation & try to understand and remember what I can.

Little steps, but hopefully InshaAllah I’ll get there. At last I’ve found peace.

Their word was law, and you either agreed with their point of view or were silenced forever.

I mean whoever heard of a peaceful revolution, right? People have to die, it’s just collateral damage.

How about the billions of people around the world who have accepted Islam, and the ones entering its folds everyday? Because no. 1 on that list was Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH)

The Islamic revolution has been the only revolution that spread through the power of the pen and the sunnah of the last prophet (PBUH). I don’t deny wars were fought but they were always on the defensive rather than the offensive, and how about Fatah-eMakkah? If that’s not a feather in our cap I don’t know what is!

All this sounds kind of unbelievable until you take a more detailed look at the life of the Prophet (PBUH). I could use countless analogies to describe him but each one would pale by comparison. He was the best of us, the perfection we must forever strive to attain.

A man whose enemies swore by his honesty. Isn’t it somewhat ironic that they had declared war on him and set out to kill him yet they left their valuables in his guard. Countless stories highlight different aspects of his personality. A personal favorite is the story of a woman who used to dump garbage on the Prophet (PBUH) each time he passed by her street. When a few days passed and she wasn’t at her usual post the Prophet (PBUH) went to her house to see if everything was okay. Upon finding her sick in bed he swept the house, filled her earthen pot with water and gave her some to drink. She was so overcome with gratitude that she immediately accepted Islam!

Be it personally or professional, every facet of his life serves as guidance; the charismatic, eloquent orator, the loving family man, the just judge, the prudent leader, the loyal friend, the knowledgeable teacher; the perfect human being!

this post is going to be about my cell phone. funnily enough i can’t find this cell phone on the LG website… something rotten in the state of Denmark, me thinks…

I got it for my birthday, it was available in black and pink, so naturally i chose pink ’cause i’m weird like that. I don’t have many good things to say about this cell phone; for one thing it hangs on the most inopportune of moments like when you’re texting someone, secondly the battery doesn’t last very long, especially if you use your cell phone to listen to music, one day at most. thirdly the phone’s memory is very limited, the inbox can hold no more than about 250 messages so you keep having to delete them. the games suck and last but certainly not least cause this is what pisses me off the most, the charger seems to stop working after a few months… so far i’ve changed 3 chargers and the third one has started acting up.

so, why haven’t i changed my cell phone you ask? laziness mostly… but one of these days i’m gonna sell off its sorry ass and get a Samsung Corby, stay tuned for a post on everything that annoys me about the corby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E43sg-Ytt58

so my advice to everyone is never take courses in the summer, take the summer off and go to Alaska!