Tag Archives: Life

Exploring the Artist in me


A lot of things have changed within the span of weeks. Given the contagious nature of coronavirus, the entire globe is in state of havoc with each country trying to take measures to reduce the spread of virus.

Offices have either shut down or employees asked to work inside home premises. In my case, its now been 2 weeks I am working from home. The exam I was studying for got postponed for another 8 months at the minimum and all of the sudden, I have a lot of spare time in my hand.

I have been trying to stay grateful at this time as I have been wanting to read books or simply move my hand on the canvas and paint out my imagination but was always busy with one thing or another.

So in the past week while I was working from home, I did painting using acrylic paints for the first time and this is what it turned out to be:

Here goes the quote of Rumi  “Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about.”


1)Dervish : This painting is after being inspired by Sufism. It shows a mystical connection between a person and God. Dervish is a wanderer and dances in circles to get divine message and attain spirituality. The person is free from the worldly affairs and wants to connect with higher being.



2) AlhamduillahSecond painting is to thank God for all the countless blessings which a person forgets if one of his/her desires has not been fulfilled or answered by God. After all, “What’s meant for you will reach you even if it’s beneath two mountains, and what’s not meant for you won’t reach you even if it’s between your two lips”. We should remain calm, be a better person and have patience, tawaqqul for our desires to be accomplished.



3) Evil Eye Protection: I have seen a lot of souvenirs from Turkey and Syria with a blue eye. It is said to be a belief that having a blue eye in the house protects against Nazr i.e. evil eye. Given the current condition of entire earth and seeing the photo of mother earth wearing a mask flooding the social media, I was motivated to make this painting with the hope that the world will recover from coronavirus soon.


4) Old Lahore: Having lived in Lahore for four years, I loved the old city especially Mochi Gate, Delhi gate and purani anarkali. The buildings although old have vibrant colors and the houses are so close that women can pass the food dishes through windows. The people are poor but lively ‘zinda dil’.


5) SeaView Karachi: Do you wanna have a sair of Karachi with Raju (a.k.a the famous seaview Camel)? This photo is a depiction of my favorite child hood memory of going to seaview with my family and enjoying the thandi hawa of karachi while the rest of the city is polluted.


6) Chai: The last painting for now is a fun one I made as I was missing Pakistan while being away from family at this time. Chai (tea) is the most popular drink in Pakistan and there is a lot of variety with my favorite being Elaichi chai (cardamom tea). Chai has alot of cultural significance and I did something similar to truck art on kettle.

Someone please get me garm garm jaleibi to dip in my doodhpatti… a combination to die for 😛

I made four more paintings and you can see my quarantine wall. Grateful to paint again after a gap of around a decade because of the busy routine. I have been seeing loads of people do cooking, baking, sewing, learning music etc. Although, the situation is tough..on a positive side,  we would have learned a new skill by the time things get to routine.

qurantine wall



Suicide Awareness and the affect on the bereavers


September is the month of suicide awareness. It is alarming that on average 1 person dies of suicide every 40 seconds across the globe as per World Health Organization’s (WHO) study. It’s been more than a decade since a very nearest and dearest person to me (which I would refer as X) committed suicide, leaving me dumbstruck till this age and changing my personality completely. Why? What? How? are the questions that often come in my mind, waking me up from sleep. Yes…I am a bereaver  and I keep thinking if and only if X told me what was going on in the mind and if I was a little older to comprehend situations, this dark reality could have been avoided.

I found myself a lot mature after this incidence and started viewing the world from a different angle not only because I was related to X but more due to how people’s attitude changed towards my surviving family. This made me realise that despite living in 21st century, suicide is still considered a taboo especially in the culture/country I belong and people view the beveaver  in a peculiar way. Instead of the people working towards the cause of suicide such as mental health issues, emotional, psychological breakdown, trauma etc. and developing detective, preventive and healing measures, most people including the educated class tend to shun the topic and hide the news of suicide. It is considered a gloomy topic which made me do research on it and its petrifying that even the world’s happiest countries including Norway and Finland suffer from a high suicide rate.

It is very important to firstly raise suicide awareness and deliver seminars in schools, colleges, universities and talk about it to public to teach people how to prevent suicide among their close ones. X in my case was suffering from psychological issue and a series of unfortunate events one after the other caused X to take this irreversible step. Its important to highlight that seeing a mental doctor is in no way different  to consulting any other doctor like a skin or an eye specialist and should not be a taboo (which is still the case in few Eastern countries). Secondly, the bereaved are mostly ill-treated by other people for no fault of their own and suffer from the sorrowful path when someone close to them leaves the world through suicide. There are suicide bereavement groups and talking to people who have suffered a similar loss is a good way to get rid of build up emotions which bereavers are not comfortable sharing with other people. It took me 10 whole years to become confident to talk about my story and raise suicide awareness. Undoubtedly, there are many stress in a person’s life and even small criticism or belittling can accumulate and be the reason for someone taking their life. Hence, it is important to be aware of the fact that suicide results in a large number of annual deaths with twice the number who think of committing one, we all play a role to spread positivety and take the person to counselor if you think he/she is depressed or having suicidal thoughts as well as supporting the bereavers who have suffered a huge and shocking loss.


It is important to note that most of the times a person commits suicide if he/she thinks death is the only escape from his/her problems. Usually, they talk about their issues with family/friends and should be given help on an immediate basis as counselling/treatment at the right time can increase the probability of saving life. Sometimes, they might not communicate their feelings but their actions can be an indication of something wrong and should be offered help.

*Here bereavers are those who have been closely attached with the person died of suicide.


Homesick Child

Homesick Child








Life is so busy that we rarely get time to sit back, reminiscing old joys or simply enjoying an afternoon tea. While in present we tend to think about the future and how to make it better. But how fool a man is, little does he know whats gonna happen with him next. But it would not be justice to put the entire blame on a man as this is how the world expects him to behave. As an Asian student, the society expects him to study hard and get the best grades he can. The teachers, parents and even the distant relatives want him to study and study. But what if he has some other talent say painting, No one really cares about it.
India has the highest number of suicides committed by students because of extreme competition and pressure to study. And when asked by elders why do they want their child to put in so much of the efforts, their answer is that it will lead to a better future. My question to all those parents is that what if the child develops an incurable disease because of extreme stress? So, why ruin the present for the future so unpredictable? Every child is different and will reach where he is destined to.
As soon as a man starts working, he sets goals for himself: promotion or to become the CEO in say the next seven years.And for this he might tell lies, do unnecessary buttering or get involved in organisation’s politics. He destroys his current peace of mind for the future peace. I am not saying that every one in the top position does that…No…but many do.
Every day I observe so many people in Coffee shops having a cold coffee or a dessert while busy on phone, arranging meetings or writing reports and I am one of them as well. We are always thinking about the future…completing work before deadline to avoid future penalty, to get greater pay, future recognition etc but do you ever think that this stressful life has an adverse affect on our health!
We need to take out time for ourselves from the busy routine we are expected to follow. We should learn to live in the ‘present’ and find joy in the small things happening around us before it is too late. We need to slow down and take a break to find our purpose of existence rather than doing things because of societal pressure.



My mom tells  that the very first shop that I went after I started walking was Time Medico. Its a famous grocery outlet in Karachi with all sorts of imported chocolates available. My grand dad used to buy me every single chocolate that I used to pick up on the shelves. I have loved eating chocolates since then and I don’t remember a single day when I haven’t eaten at least one chocolate. I feel that eating chocolates provide me with the energy to study better, it helps me focus more and it also cheers up my mood. Research has also found that chocolates can be useful in overcoming the stress and depression in one’s life.

Chocolates (especially the Galaxy dark, my all time favorite) were my only lunch that I used to take with me to school when all my friends used to bring paratha rolls and egg sandwiches. Interestingly, I have eaten chocolates throughout my teenage and I did not get a single pimple, even though my skin is oily. I do not want to generalize it but I think its a misconception that chocolates lead to pimples. Also, during my O and A-Levels, I used to treat myself with chocolates after finishing each chapter which used to provide me with motivation to study further. I would like to give this as a tip to all the students as it was one of the source that helped me get distinctions.

In short, I really love chocolates and I relish trying different variety of them. Below, I have shared some pictures with my favorite chocolate quotes.

P.S I would love to know which chocolate is liked by you guys the post. 😛


Dear LIfe


Life is too short to be a bad person.From the experiences I have gained from this seventeen years of my life has made me realise that god has sent us on Earth to be a good person.To be caring,loving,pious and helping others especially poors is what God want from us.This life is a transitory period which is actually a test from God.But alas,the glitters of this evil world diverts a man from this actual path.This is the reason we see crimes taking place in every part of this world.I dont understand why do people commit sins when we know that it is bad.Moreover no one can deny death.Who ever has been born on this mother Earth shall has to taste death.The question arises that if we all believe in death then why dont we prepare for afterlife and become good humanbeings.

Humans are forever running to gather wealth inordet to improve their standards.In doing so,we also lie and decieve others(consiously or subconsciosly) but the time of death is running around us.

We should take out time to thank God for all he has given us.My friends,health is the most precious gift of god but we dont realise till until we actually suffer from the detremental diseases.Just now I was seeing my mother coughing badly and I realised that life is very short and we should try to do good deeds before it is too late.I also realised that parents are gods blessings uopn us and we should never make them disappointed.Dear pals,we should remember death before sleeping which would prevent us from going astray.