School life, I miss you!!

While I was studying in school I never realized that those days would become the best part of my life & I would cherish that wonderful time forever. Now, whenever I sit alone and spend some time with my own self, I feel nostalgic & wonder how simple and easy was life then. No iPads, no iPhones, no blackberries or iPods, yet beautiful days were those. School, homework, friends and family were the only things our lives used to revolve around. Starting our day with a 15 minutes long assembly, followed by chanting national anthem, sometimes singing with full enthusiasm and sometimes just lip-syncing. Going in our classrooms in queues and once in there, keep peering outside the door to check if the teacher is coming or not till we’d get her sight coming towards us and if we had a test then praying hard for her absence. Decorating classrooms during class decoration competitions and collecting cans on the Environmental Day was fun & waiting all week impatiently for the P.T. period to play Dodge ball, Kho kho & King had its own excitement.
Urdu period was considered as the most boring part of the day. I still remember that once I literally found myself asleep in class whilst Urdu teacher was busy interpreting some ghazal and was totally lost in some other world..:P
Learning for tests on our way to school & completing homework during break time were our favorite habits. Farewell & welcome parties & annual picnics were the happiest days of the year :D for which we would start preparations even before the start of the new academic year!! :D

No matter how much we hated our school when we were students, it’ll always remind us of the beautiful & unforgettable time we had there. Now, that we all are residing in different parts of the world, I feel that those phenomenal memories of our school life will always remain with us in our hearts. Sometimes they’ll make us laugh; sometimes they’ll make us cry. I’ve been through the different phases of life but nothing can truly replace the time we had in school because no matter what we are today, we can never treasure the same memories & same friends again in life.

The Divorce Effect!!

This is not what she asked for. This is not what she was destined for.  This is not what she was expecting from her life. 

Whether she’s a determined successful girl of western society or a simple girl from east, there comes a time in life when every girl dreams about getting married. Sooner or later in their lives, they fancy about meeting their perfect life partner and spending a PERFECT life with them.

And then, the most awaited day comes with lots of awaiting dreams and prayers to be heard. Everything seems as PERFECT as she wished for. Days start passing quickly and then, all of a sudden, even before she knows, she finds herself all alone. She finds herself in a situation she never thought about even in her worst nightmare and gradually, she starts to accept the harsh truth of her life - she has been divorced!

Divorce - The word itself is enough to shake a person's heart then imagine how difficult it would be for those women to accept the fact that the person she loved with all her heart, for whom she left her home and her family, has left her. How ruthless that person would be. I am not saying that all divorces and separations take place just because of men. No, in some cases, women are also as guilty as men. But I would like to highlight those innocent women who have to suffer from this lifetime punishment. Unfortunately, these women are in majority. The reasons of divorce could be anything for example adultery, bad behavior, desertion, mental instability or mental illness, differences in perceptions, temperaments, educations, background etc of either partner. Even if not divorced, women have to suffer from the domestic violence like physical, sexual and mental abuse, intimidation, stalking and humiliation by husband. The list does not stop here; she is also constantly tortured by her in laws. She is not allowed to visit her parents; she is bound to stay at home and ought to do all the house chores forcefully all by herself. Still these women silently tolerate this torment, just for the sake of either saving their marital life or for their children. 

Unfortunately, children are the ones most affected by divorce, in fact, more than their parents. One of many reasons is that they need both their mother and father equally in their lives. They love them a lot and are scared to lose any of them and thus, after separation they have to live with only one of them. They suffer mentally, emotionally and sometimes physically because of the separation of their parents. This causes the inferiority complexes in them especially when they see other children happy with their family. 

In many cases the husband’s family keeps the children. As they know that a mother's weakness is her children hence, she’s not allowed to meet them. Most husbands, with or without the custody of his children, remarry other women. No matter how hard she tries, a step mother can never give the love of a real mother to those children. On the other hand, it rarely happens that divorced women get married again and are accepted by her in laws. 

What is the future of these women and their children? The debate on this topic can take days and even a book can be written on its causes, reasons and results, but the question remains the same. Why does it have to happen? Sometimes it is a good decision but most of the time it's not. Why to take such stand and destroy so many lives when it could be resolved by mutual agreement? There are many campaigns going on for this cause, which is a good thing. Majority of them are in favor of women rights. It has now become a story of every second family and unfortunately it is increasing day by day. 

It’s very easy to say and write on this issue but how far are they implemented in our society is the point of concern. I really hope that one day people will understand the true meaning of this pure and spiritual relationship and would respect their partners as much as they can. Because to make a make relationship work, compromises are required from the both sides.

 

The Silent Killer

"I am gonna quit it soon, this is the last one!" and the so-called last one is never the LAST ONE!!

Whether you call it an addiction or a habit, the fact remains the same that smoking is a silent killer. Every year millions of people die around the world from this inveterate disease. It is beyond my understanding why can't people give up this habit, despite the growing awareness of its harmful consequences. The funniest thing is when the social smokers proudly say "Mine is not a habit. I smoke occasionally and am better than chain smokers". But according to the research, people who are occasional smokers share some of the same risks as chain smokers. In simple words, it doesn't make any difference if you consume poison slowly or swiftly, the reaction is going to be the same. 

 

 

Another funny thing I find in the end of every cigarette TV commercials is a small note saying 'Smoking is injurious to your health, Ministry of Health - Government Warning'. I wonder if the government is so concerned about its citizens' health then why do they allow their channels to show such commercials? Why isn't there any ban on its consumption? Just showing a note on TV or the 'No Smoking' signs and stickers in shopping malls and public places won't work. I myself have seen people smoking in non-smoking areas but there's nobody to stop them.

 

Let’s have a look at some of the major diseases produced by smoking:

 

·           Mouth cancer

·           Lung cancer

·           Bladder cancer, Colorectal cancer

·           Coronary heart disease

·           Kidney cancer

·           Uterus cancer

·           pharynx cancer

·           Moreover, It increases the stress level.

and the list goes on. If only people would realize the value of their lives & how important are they to their loved ones!

 

I hope my message is very well conveyed to the concerned folks & I really hope that one day I'd see a better smoke-free environment in our beautiful planet.

 

It's never too late!!

Last week I came across a very interesting and inspirational forwarded email. In that email, there was a short story of a pencil and an eraser. Once the pencil was feeling sorry for the eraser that for every little mistake it makes, the eraser has to erase it & in doing so, it loses a part of itself. Thus, its life becomes shorter and shorter to obliterate the pencil’s mistakes every time. The same is the case with our parents. They are with us in all the ups and downs of our lives, when there’s nobody to support our decisions, when we really need someone to take a stand for us. I’ve learned from my own experiences that in the end everyone you trust will turn their backs on you. Your friends, your relatives and even the one you love. But the only person who’ll be with you in the time of need is your mother and your father. We don’t really comprehend their contributions to our lives. We don’t realize what we’ve got until we lose them or until we have to stay away from them or until they’re gone. When we are young, we hate their interferences, we dislike their lectures, we loathe their advices. But then, we miss those advices, those lectures when there’s nothing left in our hands. And trust me, only then we realize how true they were. Even I never bothered to ponder over what my father used to advise me when I was young. Today, when I am confronted with the realities and true face of life, now I realize how right was he. God has created our parents so that they can teach us what they’ve learned from their lives and experiences. And I believe that each and everything they’ve taught us will help us someday in our lives. But alas! We think that we know better than them and that they’ve got to learn from us how to spend their lives ‘our way’ rather than learning from their experiences. And when we realize that whatever we did was wrong, it’s too late. 

Our parents dedicate their whole lives for the sake of their children. They work hard and try to give us a luxurious life, they bless us with all the necessities of life and in the end, we give them nothing but our ignorance and anger. So guys, let’s start doing something good for our dear parents. Let's make them feel special and tell them what they really mean to us. It’s time to pay back our parents for whatever they’ve done for us, because it's never too late!!