Words talk

The US election drama, as entertaining and involving it has been to follow, it did not have a happy ending or should I say a tragic start. The Trump-mania had started to surface during the crazy election period with both the rise in hate speech and that of the guilt speech but it reached a whole new level upon the result announcement. There has a wide range of sentiments from people around me and as much as I am not a fan of Facebook status wars (or comment wars of that nature) I had a sudden urge to share my two-cents on situation. My American friends are mostly shocked and feel sorry; not sure who are they most sorry for; their country’s fate, Trump’s supporters or everyone else living in the USA. Although I feel very special when I receive messages telling me ‘I am sorry what Trump said, its offensive and not what America stands for- I am with you’ [1] , I don’t fully require them to say that to believe it. Primarily because I can empathize with their situation. I was very fre...

You know when sometimes you dream and get up and it seems so real that it scares you? You can recall the intricate details like the different types of flowers in the flower bed. The posture of how people were sitting; their expressions, body language, thoughts? Only in my case it was all real! I opened Facebook and all the people existed. I was also friends with them. I have had all those communications and interactions- that was all real! May be I missed it too much, perhaps a pleasant dream is how I want to remember it and don’t want to make it my reality. In reality, things are different- the stakes are high. The friends, I was going to be friends with for life and it was true, existed. The friends, I was going to be friends for life and it was a lie, existed. The friends who were close to me and seemed like a part of the daily routine but disappeared quickly in the changing time zones and the friends that I saw less often but trusted; distance from them ached more. I ...

Living alone has its disadvantages, alarm clock is your only alarm, but it comes with its perks, amazing new friends!! Some of my friends have asked me to put together a travelogue but I, being me- enough said. However, I have put together a list of some new experiences that I enjoyed, some not so much, about US, travel and living here: You meet new people from different backgrounds, cultures, languages and learning about all that is pure leisure. Gives you different perspectives; you start viewing things from various angles. Sure there are so many resources available but nothing parallels learning about a place from someone who has been born and bread there. People want to learn about your culture and in the process you learn more about your own culture and get a chance to view it from a different lense. You become more responsible. If you are out of shampoo, you will have to replace it- its not on auto-replace. That magical power is limited to Pakistan. You rea...