NBA Draft, June 23rd 2022

It is not the NBA draft that caught my attention but the little boy who was introduced by the father, the little tyke was remarkable as a child. He showed, one day he’d be a Draft pick. He’s all grown up, this evening he is going to be drafted by one of the NBA teams. Isn’t it awesome?

The amusing part was when the father said out loud, ‘that’s my son.’ Mom felt her husband completely forgot her, she elbowed him and said ‘He’s our son!’

Imagine how we mothers are always left out, when our children excel in something. 🙂

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Daily Prompts: Finite Creatures

At what age did you realize you were not immortal? How did you react to that discovery?

I have learned man is ephemeral at the tender age of twelve. I watched my father take his last breath. I came to the sad conclusion I’d never see him again.

Bit by bit I grew up knowing , every living thing comes to this world for a certain number of days, months or years that it varies from plants, to humans, to animals and so on. It was a constant worry for me that my mom like my dad will leave us some day, when it happened I was far away from home, no one saw my tears and did not understand how painful it was for me to lose my mom too.

This I told myself is the cycle of life : we are born, grow up slowly, reach adulthood, get old our organs go through the process of deterioration, the clock of life tells us the journey is over and we must leave. The cycle is complete.

I always knew legendary status is not for me. I will never be remembered like Hitler, thank God for that. He was so brutal,who would like to be remembered as he is reminisced about  today.

But Tagore is a legend who has claimed the status of immortality by his life’s work. He was the youngest of his siblings but his name so far has not disappeared from our hearts, as long as we “The Bengalis” are alive Tagore’s name will be alive.

William Wordsworth’s poetry will always warm our hearts and we will say how great he was.

Who can forget Longfellow’s poem : “Tell me not in mournful numbers , life is but an empty dream.”

Yet another poet and Philosopher is worthy of mention in the long line of legends is Iqbal: The following is one of his many poems we love and repeat:

Two planets meeting face to face ,

One to the other cried ‘How sweet

If endlessly we might embrace,

And here forever stay! how sweet

If Heaven a little might relent,

And leave our light in one light blent!’

 

But through that longing to dissolve

In one,the parting summons sounded.

Immutably the stars revolve,

By changeless orbits each is bounded;

Eternal union is a dream,

And severance the world’s law supreme.

I’ve always known I am not immortal. It wasn’t a surprise for me. I did not have any reaction!

……………………………………….. 🙂

365 Writing post: Book worm

Tell us about the last book you read .Why did you choose it? (would you recommend it?) To go further write a post based on the subject matter.

The title of the last book I read was,”American Dervish”, I chose it for the title and it was inexpensive. I was curious to know what the story was about and why was the title American Dervish. The questions came up in my mind. Who was he? Why was he called ‘Dervish’? I knew it had an Indian connection, dervish happens to be a saint in Urdu or in Bengali we say, darbesh.

The story took place in Milwaukee USA

The writer’s name is Ayad Akhtar. This is his first novel. There are a lot of characters in the story. They are :

Hayat: a ten year old boy

Mina : Hayat’s mother’s best friend

Hayat’s mother: A housewife who quarrels with her husband a lot

Hayat’s father: Is a physician, who has wandering eyes

Nathan:A Jewish Physician

Imran: Mina’s son

Sunil: husband of Mina

It is an interesting novel, the author has done a good job since it’s his first book.

In the story Hayat’s parents invite Mina and her son to come to USA from Pakistan after her divorce from her first husband and live with them. Mina a Pakistani Muslim is a pious woman who helps Hayat to read the Quran, Hayat becomes fond of Mina and addresses her as his aunt.

Mina meets Nathan a Jewish Physician, they fall in love and agree to get married.

Hayat the ten year old Muslim boy did not like the idea of his Mina Auntie agreeing to marry a Jewish man. He sends a telegram to Mina’s parents about what their daughter is about to do. The parents especially the father makes sure the wedding does not take place.

Mina meets another man who is a Muslim named Sunil who is  recently divorced from his wife. They see each other and ultimately she marries Sunil.

Sunil happens to be a disappointment, but Mina was not prepared to divorce a second time.

It’s the story of Mina’s struggle. It’s an interesting novel with a lot of twists.

You may want to find out the struggles of an innocent woman who had to face all kinds of trouble in her young life.

……………………………….. 🙂

 

 

Daily Prompt: Childhood Revisited

Sure,you turned out pretty good, but is there anything you wish were different about your childhood?If you have kids,is there anything you wish were different for them?

I love revisiting my childhood, I had the best time in my life. I worried about nothing. My favorite pastime was playing with my siblings.

Studying always took a backseat in those days.As long as I did not flunk out it was fine with me. My parents did not have a whole lot of expectation from me.

I lived a life of pleasure, eating, singing and playing just about summed up my life  those days.

Then everything changed, my father died, we had to leave our comfortable home and move away to my parents homeland. I disliked everything about it, too many cousins, aunts uncles who made it their business to tell us what we should and shouldn’t do.

Although the vendors, the milkman, and the ad of movies was a novelty for me. This was something I liked and appreciated, it told me there’s more to life than, cousins, uncles and aunts.

Looking back on those days, I wonder what kind of a student I could have been, if I concentrated on my studies a little more. My teachers never told me I was stupid, they were happy with my work. They probably would have liked me better for working harder and I could become my teacher’s pet. Even now this thought does not agree with my personality.

In the end I’d only say, I like what I did. Nothing can equal the pleasure I had as one would say,”it was a blast!”

…………………………………..:)

365 Writing Posts: Say your name

Write about your first name . Are you named after someone or something? Are there any stories or associations attached to it? If you had the choice, would you rename yourself?

My first name is Chaman, it means a garden in the Urdu language. The only story I know about my name is it was suggested by my father’s very dear friend.

No I’d never think of renaming myself.

A garden always suggests something beautiful.Whenever I think of a garden, I see the images of beautiful flowers. I know there are all kinds of gardens and they all depict something awesome.

………………………………… 🙂

DP Daily Prompt: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

You get some incredibly,amazingly,wonderfully fantastic news. What’s the first you do?

When I managed to register for the online course I thought this news was incredibly,amazingly, wonderfully fantastic. What can be better, I cannot think. I have managed to discipline myself.

Studying hard was never in my vocabulary while I was in college and university. I didn’t think it was important to top the list or something crazy like that. I was contented to turn pages looking for topics that can be in the exam, which I should study for the exams. It helped me I did not fall but barely walked through.

Then came the post graduate program by this time my confidence was a bit shaky, I did what the other students normally do , I studied hard. This time I walked without a cane, my brain assured me I won’t fall. My profs were happy I was using my potential.

My interviewers probably liked my personality, they never turned me away from scholarships and jobs I applied for.

This course put me on the right path, I study regularly, I read books and even enjoy them. I’m always anxious for the next lesson. It’s so wonderful for  me, I cannot think of anything better than this. I’ve already got my awesome news , there is nothing else that can make me happier.

The only sad thing for me was losing my precious father when I was twelve. Everything else for me was good news, God Willing!

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k: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/dp-daily-promp…expialidocious/

DP Daily Prompt: Reason to Believe

In Reason to Believe ,Bruce Springsteen sings,”At the end of every hard-earned day, people find some reason to believe.” What’s your reason to believe?

My reason to believe is as long as I am honest, truthful, and I never hurt or cheat anyone. I will be awarded by God.I say this from experience.

My father passed away when I was twelve, I had no idea how my mother will be able to take care of twelve children. I had two brothers and a sister, who had almost finished their education.

There were nine of us left to complete our education.  My two older  brothers supported  us by contributing funds for our education.

I always wanted to study in England, I knew it can never happen, my brothers could not bear the expense because it was too expensive to go there to study.

I kept hoping maybe I’ll be fortunate and get a scholarship to study in England. I wasn’t really positive it can happen, hope is a wonderful word and I kept hoping the day will come. It did and I grabbed it.

Now I believe everyone should hope, you never know when God would look down from heaven and say, “this person’s hope needs to be fulfilled.”

It was surely me He  looked at and said those unbelievable words!

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/03/21/dp-daily-prompt-7/

five sentence fiction

It was a bright July morning the flowers in the garden were a pretty sight, the children were playing in the garden, suddenly they heard a loud scream, they went inside the house.

They found their mother crying and the older brother telling the father,”Dad please don’t go.”

The father looked at him,he tried to say something, but couldn’t.

Then it was all over, everyone was quiet, they only heard the mother reading ‘The Holy Book.’

It was the darkest day in their life!

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/09/06/five-sentence-fiction

 

 

 

Fiction: Waiting

 

 

Melanie’s father told her to stay seated on the bench in the shopping mall until he returns.

Don’t worry I’ll be back soon, he said.

The poor child sat there, she did not even stand up to see the different things in that large shopping mall, she was afraid her father will worry if he came back and she was not there.

Morning turned to afternoon, and then it was late evening, her friend Georgia offered to give her  a ride home,she refused, she believed her father would come and get her.

She was so tired, she fell asleep, she dreamed her father was telling her to go home, he was unable to come for her, when she opened her eyes she found herself surrounded by friends staring at her, Georgia laid her arm around her shoulder  and said, “I’m so sorry your father was killed when he tried to cross the street.”

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/fiction-waiting/

 

365 Writing Prompts : Mirror, mirror, on the wall…

Think of your blog as a mirror: What does it reveal? Consider your blog name , theme, choice,design bio, posts what does every element tell about yourself?

I started my WordPress blog in late 2012, I wanted to find out how it works, I named it after my father. In the beginning I wrote about poets, especially Tagore, I grew up learning his poems and enjoyed hearing his songs.

I was advised by a friend to translate Tagore’s poems into English. I hesitated at first, considered it a challenge, but did translate a few. My friends read them and encouraged me to continue.

I wanted to write other things, I therefore signed up with WordPress to do their prompts. I liked the prompts because it makes me think everyday about different topics. I wrote poems, fictions and some biographies of my favorite writers and actors.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/08/14/365-writing-pr…or-on-the-wal