Writing Intro to Poetry, Day-2: Face

   #Introtopoetry, Day-2: Face, Poetic device: alliteration

Friendly Farah’s Facial Features is  Forever  Famous!

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For Posterity

This week, share a post about something that’s about to disappear__ but worth remembering.

Today is, ‘Eid ul Fitr,’ a day we look forward to after thirty days of fasting. This morning I’m sitting in front of my computer and thinking about this day, how it used to be and how it is now.

I’ll go back to the time when both my parents were alive and we lived in a place we called our own. My mom was a pious woman, she believed fasting was sacred, it is one of the things she held dear. I cannot recall any of my siblings follow my mom’s example. We only thought about the day when fasting would be over and we’d get to wear, new clothes, visit friends in the city, and have a grand dinner cooked by mom.

My earliest memory was how we’d wake up at three in the morning arguing with each other, who gets to take a shower first, the reason behind it was who’ll get to wear the new clothes first. Meanwhile Dad had his own bathroom, he’d be ready wearing his all white Punjabi and pajamas, my brothers would do the same, we’d see them off to the mosque where they’d assemble for, Eid-ul Fitr prayer.

After the prayer my dad would call us for our eedie, this was money he gave us after the prayer, I don’t know where my dad got these shiny coins but I loved having them.

Mom would ask us not to waste time but assemble in the dining room to eat sweet shemai, it was a preparation with milk, sugar and vermicelli. It was a sweet prepared by all the families who celebrated ‘Eid.’

After visiting several families and tasting their version of vermicelli, we’d pray that we’re never forced to eat this stuff ever again.

Back home my super mom who woke up long before us and finished her cooking would again call us to get together for dinner. The dinner table was set with all kinds of food, chicken, beef, kebabs, pilaf and a vegetable salad. After dinner we’d be so exhausted we were ready to go to bed, while  Mom was left with the left over foods which she carefully arranged for the servants.

Next morning was business as usual, Dad would leave for work and  we to school and Mom was left to figure out what she’d feed us this day.

This brings to my memory  the song, “those were the days my friend, we thought would never end.”

This morning I’ll make an attempt to emulate my mom in cooking everything she cooked, it’ll never be the same and I won’t have a house full of people to share with.

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Day Four: A Story in a Single Image

Man in Church

Mr. Smith was a man who took everything seriously, whether it is  eating, sleeping, reading the Bible or going to church, he believed in doing one thing at a time. He agreed with Thich Nhat Hahn that whatever you do your focus should be on that particular activity, whether you wash dishes or eat an an orange. Your mind should be clear.The book written by the above author is , The Miracle Of Mindfulness. His family was tired of hearing about mindfulness.

This particular morning, it was Sunday, therefore everyone in the family was to be ready on time. Ophelia was planning how she was going to spend her time after Church.This did not bode well with Dad. He reminded his family they were going to church and their focus should be on church and nothing else. They had a big argument and Dad was a minority. He was upset and decided to leave his family behind, when he arrived at the church, there was no one there. He was there too early.

The priest opened the doors and let him in,Mr.Smith sat all by himself in the church, he had arrived an hour early. He sat there thinking why on earth his family would not cooperate with him.

A couple of minutes later, he realized maybe he was too rigid with his family, and sometimes one has to change to make  others happy. Did he learn a lesson I think he did.

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Let’s Write A List: Things I Wish

Things I Wish List.

1. I wish I stopped complaining about the weather.
2. I wish I could sing Tagore songs well  like Hemant Kumar.
3. I wish I could curb my desire to eat sweets.
4. I wish I studied seriously when I was a student.
5. Used more time praying and avoid gossiping
6. Learned to ignore people who annoy me.
7. Write a poem daily and become as good as others I have known.
8. Help those who need me.
9. Avoid unnecessary arguments.
10. Take more time learning French.
11. Learn to read, write and understand Arabic.
12. Wake up before sunrise to offer my prayer.
13. Have more faith in people.
14. Make proper use of Fitbit.
15. Take less time speaking when I get a long distance call.
16. Avoid eating junk food.
17. Learn how to create Pingbacks to get more followers.
18. This is all I can think of now, so this is it.
19. As Tagore said: “My words are complete and the herb plant is cut off.” 🙂

Why Do I Write

I write to improve my writing. I write to help my thought process flowing. My aim is to be able to write a story without thinking too much, what to write, but pick a topic and start writing, if I can successfully do it. I’d think I’m  improving my skills. I refuse to sit and think for an hour  about the topic at hand but to be able to write without any problems.

As I continue to write I want to  get the feeling, I have accomplished the skill. To me more I write better I feel, yes I agree I will make mistakes, I want to tell myself it’s a natural process which is why I must edit my writing.

Writing helps my brain to function properly, I do not want my brain to become rusty because I’m under using it. It also helps my memory to stay sharp.

Just my writing: As others see us

The title of one of the books in our ,”Teaching English As A Foreign language,” was ,’As Others see us’. We had fun reading some of the things pointed out by foreign travelers to the city of London, England.

A gentleman  was visiting London from somewhere in Africa. On his first day in London, he went to see the famous tube station , “King’s Cross”, not long after he arrived, he noticed a train coming in , it made a moments stop the doors opened, hundreds of passengers came out with long umbrellas which to him looked like guns, he thought all those people were  pointing at him and were coming to attack him, without waiting even a second, he ran to the exit and disappeared.

On another occasion there was another traveler  visiting London for the first time. At 6 pm he walked out of his hotel to see what the  evenings in London’s residential area looked like.

He walked along a posh neighborhood street, as he was walking he noticed the drapes of  houses were drawn, the street was dark.

When asked about his impression of the city, he smiled and said,”I would call it a dead city.”

I wanted to make a comparison of London with Dhaka city.

Dhaka as you know is in Bangladesh, it’s the capital. I went a few years ago, I could not believe how different it was when I lived there.

Now the city is several times larger and there is no law and order anywhere, on the streets, neighborhood, shopping, one just has to pretend it will be okay, but is it?

You will find all kinds of vehicles moving on the most important roads, there is the rickshaw driver taking his time peddling with a passenger or two, the shepherd is going along the road with his herd of cattle. There are public buses, that look like giants driven by  lunatics . They have a man who tells everyone to move to be safe.

There are private cars, school buses, cabs, auto rickshaws , then there are pedestrians who probably pray all the time they are on the road so they are not killed.

I was appalled by the situation, we do have travelers who visit the city, I wonder what kind of impression they take home with them.

The best part is there are traffic lights, but  no one follows them, when it is red the vehicles  start moving. I ask the question, “why do they have lights if they are not going to obey?”

You’d be surprised what one of them said to me, “At least we have lights!”

“For what”? I asked.

He could not answer my question.

I sat and wondered, which is better a quiet residential area at 6 pm in the evening or the roads of a city with noisy bus drivers,all kinds of vehicles, from a rickshaw to a cab, to shepherds with their cattle and those innocent pedestrians, who cannot be sure  they will arrive home safely.

If I had to give my honest opinion I’d say, “No wonder we are one of the developing countries!”

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Writing 101- Prompt-3

Write about three most important songs in your life– what do they mean to you?

I have a lot of songs in my mind and they all mean a lot to me. I sing quietly at times when I am sad, some give me the strength to forget my worries and move on, others make me happy.

To me songs have a unique reaction for me it calms my mind when someone hurts my feelings, I can spend hours listening to songs that are uplifting.

Here is one that I love,: Thank you Allah!

I am ready to commit to a writing practice, this is my first writing practice:

I woke up at 5am to pray .After spending an hour,I felt sleepy, I told myself I’ll wake up at 7 am but ended up sleeping longer. I got dressed to get ready to go to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. I always have porridge for breakfast, one of these days I’d be so sick of it I’ll never look at it.For now I am religiously eating it.

I came back to my room to turn on my computer hoping someone remembers me and will write a nice email to me, but no luck . I’m writing this twist as they call it for fifteen minutes. I may pick up “Atlas Shrugged ” to read .The part I started reading was very interesting, Dagny is quite the brave woman, going to a little diner, I don’t think I would,then again I’m scared of everything, even when a dog barks I think it will bite me. How foolish you’d say, but I have my reason,I was chased by a bunch of dogs when I was six, only because I was carrying a little note for my sister’s friend.

What can I say about my big sister she is such a bully, if you don’t listen to her she’d scream your ears off, do I want to hear her scream, no would you, her voice is so shrill. I tell you she’s no Julie Andrews , the hills won’t come alive when she sings, they’ll disappear.

She used to tell me I’ll never be anything because I did not spend my time with a book like she did.Now that i think about it I bet she did not study all thjose times she had a book in front of her. I know she did not want to do any chores around the house, so Mom thought her sweet old daughter is so studious.

Mom thought Ranu never looks at a book, she’s the one who should do all the chores, she won’t be as learned as the big daughter. Guess what I proved her wrong, I got as many degrees as she did, not only that, I have one more.

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https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/writing-101-prompt-3/

 

Day Two: A Room with a View Today’s Prompt: If you could zoom through space in the speed of light, what place would you go to right now?

I’d like to be transported to Makkah right now. Yes I’ve been to this place before, my memories of this place is fresh as if it was yesterday I took this trip.

My husband and I boarded KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) from Chicago. All the passengers were heading to Jeddah,Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage.

I noticed the passengers were quiet, I saw passengers praying getting themselves accustomed to the place  we were going to, some unfolded their prayer rugs, lay them flat on the floor of the plane to pray.

After several hours on the plane we reached Jeddah, we were directed to the lounge by some Saudis. The floors were clean but there were no chairs, we sat on the floor and waited to be called by customs officials. While waiting I noticed more and more passengers were coming in , there was a family, they looked prepared as soon as they came into the lounge they took out bed sheets and lay them on the floor to sit, one of the ladies took out an apple from her bag, sliced it and offered a piece to me I was too overwhelmed by the whole scenario, I could not think of eating.

Several hours passed My husband and I were waiting patiently for the call to the customs, night changed to early morning we were still waiting.

One of my cousin’s friend spotted us ,he looked at our papers and thought we’d be called shortly. He walked back and forth to find a way to get us to see the customs official, so we could be on our way to my cousin’s house in the city.

There were two young guys serving the visitors, unfortunately we didn’t know their language, he told our friend we needed to pay one hundred dollars, my husband didn’t have Saudi currency, besides we paid what we had to when we applied for visa, this is what we were told.

Somehow the friend was able to get the money, we were out of the lounge after several hours.

From Jedda, our cousin took us to Makkah by car. It took us a few hours to get there. There was a man who was responsible for our accommodation. There were tents set up for us, the ground was uneven and the temperature was very hot. we did not mind we came for pilgrimage, we couldn’t expect to spend the nights in a first class hotel.

We left our things in the tent after getting dressed in white, we were covered from head to toe. We went to the Kabah to make seven rounds, we told each other to stay together, there were thousands of people walking, praying and making sure they did not lose any member of their group.

After completing the rounds we prayed inside the mosque near the Kabah.

Next we went to another place called Safah Marwah, here we were supposed to walk from one end to the other seven times, it was a long stretch, walking bare feet was a challenge, we were not the only one. There was no concession for anyone, except people who had problems walking were provided with wheel chairs.

After completing our walk we went downstairs to drink water, at the  zam zam fountain, it was tough to turn on and hold on to the faucet to drink the water. My cousin-in-law told me once this was a place, where anything you wish is fulfilled. I didn’t remember it when I was trying to hold the faucet so the water would flow for me to drink, suddenly in my mind I said, “I wish someone would hold on to the faucet so I could drink the water.”

I felt someone behind me holding  on to the faucet and I was able to drink the water until I was satisfied. I did not see who it was it must have been “Divine Help!” I was unable to thank this person because she disappeared immediately.

During the pilgrimage all the pilgrims have to go to the hill close by to spend the night. It was a very cool and refreshing night. We woke up in the morning and went back to our tent.

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/day-two-a-room…o-to-right-now/

 

 

Commons Writing 101: Unlock The Mind

I am ready to unlock my mind, I was watching a kids’ championship cooking show on the “Food Network” I am amazed to see they know so much, I am confident theses eleven year old kids would be unbelievable cooks some day. 

They already know the cooking terms. They are serious, much more than adults I have watched. Let’s hope we will have fabulous American cooks within ten years.

This food channel is a very interesting show, much better than other shows on TV . I have learned some very valuable tips watching the different competition they have on the food channel.

I think the Cut Throat Kitchen is very competitive, the guy responsible for this show is brilliant, he takes back the money he initially gives in a very clever way. The contestants are learning to be mean and selfish to win this competition.

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: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/writing-101-unlock-the-mind/

“A nation must think of its neighbors before it thinks of itself.” posted by Ranu

This morning while reading a novel written by Ayn Rand , I stumbled on these lines:

“A nation must think of its neighbors before it thinks of itself.”

These words suddenly woke me up, I thought how wonderful this thought is, but can this be possible, has there been any evidence that this is the way nations think?

I’m not thinking from a political standpoint but as a human, who is tormented to witness all the atrocities committed by stronger nations against their weaker neighbors. As I happen to belong to one of the weaker nations, I tend to think why is there no justice in this world?

When the universe was created, did the creator ever think what sort of a place it would be? Perhaps not or else some restrictions would be placed on humans: such as  stop taking  land belonging to weaker nations, I think the consequence has to be mentioned as well.

k: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/01/29/a-nation-must-…posted-by-ranu