A House of Hopes

“Brick, cement and wood, can only be a piece of art but never called a home until we don’t dress it with emotions and love” said my grandmother, the time when I was about to start my new life. My wedding is an arrange type. I have to fly from Pakistan to London, a whole new world. I had been advised from the every member of my family what to do and what not to do.



It took about 8 hours to reach London airport, and an hour more to reach my new home. During the journey I had been thinking, thinking and thinking about a fairy life like in novels and stories. A perfect happy family tied in a bond of Love and togetherness. I know nothing but flooded my mind with random thoughts. I was so confused and perplexed about the new beginning.


During the whole journey my eyes were kept gazing my hands. And I heard a voice in car “only 15 min and we will be in home”. My breath turns so fast even I can hear the sound of my pulse. And few minutes later car stop. My door was open and I stepped out from the car. The grand, impressive and a luxurious wooden house in front of my eyes___ my house or a home, nothing, it’s my dream. I took a step towards the welcome door; no one was present there to welcome me. The very first time my heart shattered. My mother-in-law and everyone was in their room, only a house maid was there to guide me. I came into my room, and change my dress. I came out in the balcony and saw new crack of dawn, with the emptiness of warmth. This is only a building with DO NOT DISTURB broad. Everyone have their own life and set of rules. My big home turns into a hollow, empty vessel in which I can only hear my own voice.

"~*My HeArT BrEaKeD*~"

What is life? How it works?

I am always haunted by such questions, because I never found the right answers. It was said that when everyone says you are wrong then fault must be located in you. Same in my case I always try not to hurt someone but for good fortune everyone got hurt. And for my astonishment they were hurt from such acts which I did in their favor.


Why relations became so complicated? Aren’t they supposed to help, understand, and value you? So, why no one show elasticity?


 I hate the feeling of depression but when I got depressed I took long time to be normal. But few days ago I was hurt from someone I loved, I care and I value most in my life.



I always thought if you want to have a healthy life do all that good with others what you want for yourself, not being selfish but being caring.





Alas! I found I am an unbearable negative person on this earth. “A selfish, self-centered, egoistic and stubborn girl”. perhaps this may be true because other may know you better then yourself.


May be I never know why people broke hearts? what kind of satisfaction they would found? I never know either why I am always wrong_____but the only fact i know about this life is "life can never be a bed of roses". and life can never drive you the way you want and above all life is not about EXPECTATIONS.


The beautiful Qoute I read few days ago;


"you have only two options in life



1: accept
2: change


so try to accept what you cant change


and try to change what u cant accept"


and i guess i have only one option Accept wether its good or bad.:)

creative work

This cupboard mosaic is made by PISTASHO shells and PUMPKIN shells

By: Sheeza(myself)

Decades of the dupatta

 When adorned by Fatima Jinnah, the dupatta was a symbol of modesty.

By remaining covered with a dupatta during her political campaigning, Fatima Jinnah set a trend among women politicians that continues to the present.

Begum Rana Liaquat Ali Khan draped dupattas with a unique elegance.

A newscaster in the 1970s goes on air with a dupatta, but doesn't cover her head (left); Pakistan's first female Major General, Dr Shahida Malik, wears a dupatta as part of her offical uniform.

Benazir Bhutto the ex-prime minister of Pakistan

The Pakistan Women's National Guard uniform incorporated a dupatta in the late 1940s, but it was nothing more than a sash across the torso.

The airhostesses of Pakistan's national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines, haven't always donned a dupatta.

In 1966, the uniform for PIA airhostesses, designed by Paris-based fashion sensation Pierre Cardin, also included scarf-like dupattas over graceful tunics.

Pakistan's fashion designers have long grappled with the politics and symbolism of the dupatta.

The uniforms of PIA air hostesses have incorporated dupattas in a variety of ways, reflecting the socio-political environment of the time.

For the average Pakistani woman, the dupatta remains an essential and practical component of her daily outfit, the traditional shalwar kameez.

 

 

New research for weight loss........miraculous YOGURT

While some calorie-conscious people may drop dairy products when they're dieting, a new study suggests this strategy could backfire.

 Research presented this week at the Experimental Biology conference reveals that yogurt may help turn up the body's fat-burning ability ? making it easier to lose fat while maintaining lean muscle.

The new study ? presented by Michael Zemel, Ph.D., professor of nutrition at the University of Tennessee ? found that individuals who included Yoplait Light as part of their weight loss plan lost significantly more weight compared to others who simply reduced calories. The yogurt eaters lost 22 percent more weight, 61 percent more body fat and 81 percent more trunkal (stomach) fat during the 12-week study.

Zemel and colleagues at the University of Tennessee studied the impact of adding yogurt to a reduced-calorie diet on 34 healthy obese adults who were randomly assigned to one of two diet groups. The Yoplait Light group consumed about 1,100 milligrams of calcium each day, which included three servings of Yoplait Light yogurt. The other low-calcium control group consumed only about 500 milligrams of calcium ? or the amount that's typical of the American diet, which is chronically low in calcium.



All subjects received an individualized diet plan that provided 500 fewer calories than their usual intake. Body weight and blood pressure were recorded weekly, and total body composition was assessed before and after the 12-week intervention by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA).

"Not only did yogurt help the study participants lose more weight--the average weight loss was 13 pounds--they were about twice as effective at maintaining lean muscle mass," Zemel said. "This is a critical issue when dieting -- you want to lose fat, not muscle. Muscle helps burn calories, but it is often compromised during weight loss."



"The moral of the calcium story is to not dump dairy when you're dieting," Zemel said. "Not only is it critical to keep your calcium levels high so you won't lose bone density, it will also help you maintain your muscle mass and increase your fat loss. A diet rich in lowfat dairy foods, like yogurt, can help make your weight loss efforts easier."



Zemel recommends three servings of dairy foods a day, particularly fat free and lowfat choices. Yoplait Light is a fat-free yogurt that is an excellent source of calcium and contains only 100 calories per 6-ounce serving.

Rise and shine

The sunrise is the most beautiful thing on earth. It has changed my life. I was the girl who’s goal was to not have any class early morning because I was not a morning person. I’d seen the sunrise maybe a handful of times, only because I had been waked up earlier for prayers. The same morning I had been waked up by my mother. I would have to get up and run to fresh up myself while it was still dark. I wanted to get my bed again before sun rise. But for some reason I heve to go on roof  and I saw the sunrise. I was blown away how beautiful it was. That time of morning is so great because the world is more peaceful and you aren’t distracted by hustle and bustle. The only people I found are runners or readers in street and my area garden. It is quiet and you can be still and think clearly. I realized this is the greatest time of the day.

So, I went to go run and take sunrise photos. So, I did. Everyone was sleeping. I was awake. It was like a magical morning. I was spellbounded. So I took a cup of luke warm milk, grabbed my diary and then had one of the best mornings of my life.


 A winter morning so silent, calm, beautiful, colorful, and attractive-  my cup of milk, my diary and my thoughts, in a beautiful paradise. And I was all alone. Now, I do love to enjoy this pleasure again and again, because this quietness was amazing. I loved it.
 

 
 
 I read and wrote for at least an hour. I learned a lot, and discovered something I had missed my whole life… mornings.

Islamabad to lahore!!!!!!!

I had a long trip from islamabad to lahore from the GRAND TRUNK ROAD (GT ROad)

so here the coups d'oeil of my journey.

Bill Against Women Harassment

I couldn’t help but laugh at the first story I read in the newspaper at my breakfast table. The headline, which read ‘Higher penalty for women’s harassment approved,’ indicated that the government had increased the fine and years of imprisonment for all those lecherous men out there. And, in fact, according to the Criminal Law (Amendment Bill), the punishment for sexual harassment has been increased to three years’ imprisonment (up from one year) and an ‘unspecified fine’ for a ‘vague insult’ to a woman.
 

As I read on, I realised that the bill was aiming to do more than just dole out stricter punishments.


The story reminded me of my college days– a journey I began on the public bus system. As I commuted from home to college, I had to be wary of a number of things, primarily the rampant harassment at the bus stop and inside buses.


I remember out of seats – all eight of them – allocated for women, who constitute 52 per cent of Pakistan’s population, I chose to sit only on the seat adjacent to the driver or on the single seat above the engine. The remaining four seats connected to the male compartment, and I would deliberately avoid those, even if they lay empty. Better to stand than fall victim to the touching (from any angle!).


Where a moral building is needed there no bill can cast any diffrence in morality of men. That bill does not define how offenders who engage in sexual harassment on the street and in public places will be tried for this crime (since the police are hardly around when we need them the most). Also, what about those men who pinch you in public places and run away?

Can the members from the treasury and opposition benches explain how we’re going to hold such people accountable to the law in their ‘statement of objects and reasonings’ as well?




If not, they might as well make another amendment before it becomes an act: exclude ‘public’ and limit the amendment to ‘private and workplaces’ only. At least that way women have the hope of pursuing sexual harassers by utilising the mechanisms available to them in their offices. Without any regard for the practical implementation of such an amendment, it will remain ineffective.

Children's day special

The United Nations' (UN) Universal Children's Day, which was established in 1954, is celebrated on November 20 each year to promote international togetherness and awareness among children worldwide. The day is simply set to honour children and minors.


Children’s Day is celebrated with great pomp and show across Pakistan. Different schools and organizations are seen initiating various competitions and awarding outstanding students. There are special offers for kids in Shopping malls, theatres and amusement parks. Parents are seen pampering their kids by fulfilling their wishes for the Day.



If we look around, we find another lot of children engaged in various occupations to earn a little bit of money for themselves as well as to maintain their respective families in a hand to mouth existence. Some little children have to bear the entire responsibility of providing meals and other necessities to their parents and families. In garages, tea stalls and various industrial and business houses, children workers below the age of 14 can be seen in large numbers. Some of them, both boys and girls are serving as domestic servants in many of the city homes, working themselves to the bone, just for bare survival. The employers are rarely kind to them and they make these little deprived children work much harder than their emaciated bodies can bear. These kids take over all the household chores from cooking to washing to any other back-breaking job – and after doing all that they get nothing but ill-treatment as reward.

They cannot raise their voices in fear and the employers often take full advantage of their poverty and helplessness. In fact, most of the employers prefer little children for petty and hard menial work, since their wages are minimum, and they cannot protest and raise their voices – though they do run away from tyranny sometimes – only to fall into a worse situation – which is like jumping from the frying pan into fire. These children have to bear all sorts of physical and mental torture – and for the girls the situation is much worse – they fall prey to lecherous advances of many lascivious employers. These small children go through a kind of living death, while the society and authority concerned stand by and watch indifferently.

For a nation to be progressive the children must be educated in the proper way, since they are our future. The hope of the country rests on them, some of whom may be one day called to lead the nation. Books are the windows through which they can see the light of this vast world of ours. But the windows are closed to them and they are condemned to live in a dark world, into which not a gleam of light can penetrate.

                                                                                          
So much has been said and so much has been written about compulsory education and child labour – though nothing worthwhile has been done to solve the problem of illiteracy. Child labour cannot be wished away and compulsory education cannot be whistled in by waving a magic wand. Sincere efforts and dedicated work are necessary to make the illiterate people realize the value of education for the good of their children.




Unless economic uplift of society at large is ensured, talking about “education for all” is merely a jumble of hollow words without any meaning. It is easy to talk about the value of education – but to translate it into practice is something entirely different.
 
 
 
 
 

A collective effort is need of the time.