Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater.

If you give her sperm, she’ll give you a baby.

If you give her a house, she’ll give you a home.

 If you give her groceries, she’ll give you a meal.

 If you give her a smile, she’ll give you her heart.

 She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.

 So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of s*&t.”

“When she is a DAUGHTER, she opens a door of jannah for her father
When she is a WIFE, she completes half of the Deen of her husband
When she is a MOTHER, Jannah lies under her feet”

‘If everyone knew the true status of a Muslim women in Islam, even the men would want to be women” (Shaykh Akram Nadawi)

How blessed are we women in Islam that Allah swt has placed us at such a high pedestal where we bless our fathers, our husbands and our children with the rewards of Jannah just by being dutiful and chaste. Yet, how sadly misunderstood is the concept of women in Islam for the rest of the ignorant ~ media hungry world.  The western media has depicted us in such an awfully oppressed light. If only they would stop being so biased and understand that every pearl is valued so long as it is treasured in its shell/oyster.  Hence the sad state of those cultured pearls that go from hand to hand and still are unable to make its possessor feel special.

May Allah swt give us all the hidayat that we may do complete justice to the role we are in, be it that of a mother, sister, daughter or wife and even more importantly that we bring up our daughters in the beautiful light of Islam and how a muslimah conducts herself. Ameen.

Here is something I came across in my inbox, but by no means is this some sorta standard bench mark about losers, however, it does show how one could improve ones attitude and fall on the other side of the court.

•           The Winner is always part of the answer;
•            The Loser is always part of the problem.
  • *********
  • ♦ The Winner always has a program;
  • The Loser always has an excuse.
  • *********
  • ♦ The Winner says, “Let me do it for you”;
  • The Loser says, “That is not my job.”
  • *********
  • ♦ The Winner sees an answer for every problem;
  • The Loser sees a problem for every answer.
  • *********
  • ♦ The Winner says, ” It may be difficult but it is possible”;
  • The Loser says, “It may be possible but i t is too difficult.”
  • *********
  • ♦ When a Winner makes a mistake, he says, “I was wrong”;
  • When a Loser makes a mistake, he says, “It wasn’t my fault.”
  • *********
  • ♦ A Winner makes commitments;
  • A Loser makes promises.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners have dreams;
  • Losers have schemes.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners say, “I must do something”;
  • Losers say, “Something must be done.”
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners are a part of the team;
  • Losers are apart from the team.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners see the gain;
  • Losers see the pain.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners see possibilities;
  • Losers see problems.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners believe in win-win;
  • Losers believe for them to win someone has to lose.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners see the potential;
  • Losers see the past.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners are like a thermostat;
  • Losers are like thermometers.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners choose what they say;
  • Losers say what they choose.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners use hard arguments but soft words;
  • Losers use soft arguments but hard words.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners stand firm on values but compromise on petty things;
  • Losers stand firm on petty things but compromise on values.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners follow the philosophy of empathy: “Don’t do to others what you would not want them to do to you”;
  • Losers follow the philosophy, “Do it to others before they do it to you .”
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners make it happen;
  • Losers let it happen.
  • *********
  • ♦ Winners plan and prepare to win.
  • The key word is preparation.

Most of the vendors were nice enough to allow me to take pictures. And here they are for those of you who were unable to attend this small but lovely  fayre :-

Click to view slideshow.

I hope you guys are inspired by all the glamorous colors and gorgeous creativity in these pics ! I know I am

See you and have a pleasent weekend.

Till my next post,

Creatively yours

Naush

 As always the Market Day was excellently organized.  We spend a lovely afternoon finding some amazing stuff and enjoying all the activities organized. Not only did we have over 100 stalls selling clothes, shoes, decoration items, cds, electronics, toys, books, games,  furniture and heaps of many more things, but we also had stalls for games, face painting, rodeo rides and ofcourse tons of more activities. I managed to click a few lovely photos which I am sharing here.  As a community, Arabian Ranches, always amazes me with friendly and mostly helpful residents. 

Click to view slideshow.

Needless to say, I bought myself a heap of lovely stuff from the table top sales !

Sharing with you’ll the ghastly celebrations !

  Click to view slideshow.

My youngest son, 9 years old Eman, has an amazing sense of humor and whats even more remarkable is his timing. He has confidence, he is methodical and he is witty. What a combination of extraordinary traits. Truly quite unlike how I was when I was as old as he is today !  If/when my folks were ill when I was young, I would really panic and hold onto my grandma for support and assurance.  These boys are really far more confident than me when I was old as them

Today when I was bringing back Eman from his after school activities, there was a silence for sometime from the back seat (quite unlike him) . Then he asked what really had me all mushy inside.

“Mama, what will happen to me, if you pass away ?”

A question every mother dreads yet answers always in the positive with alot of assurance lest her prized possession worries himself.  The question came out of a bolt and in the few seconds that I registered it and formed an appropriate answer in my mind, with “almost tears” building up in my eyes  .. .. ..

He continued to ask with serious concern in his voice, ” I mean, who’s going to teach me how to get a credit card or how to get a drivers licence.?????

It took me a few seconds more to zap back those tears and realize, he had ofcourse pulled off a loaded one on me !!! Kids, I tell you. What worries these little chaps have at age 9 !!!

When he was 7 years old, he has hurt his knee pretty bad, in a soccer game. While the nurse tended to him, without shedding a tear, he asked his class teacher a question, she related to me the following afternoon.  He asked her quite seriously, “Does that mean, its the end of my soccer career ?? Give me the truth Miss “

We really had a laugh that day thinking of how my 7 year old worries about his soccer career !

Then on another occasion he was asked to sing a couple of songs for a bunch of relatives whom we were visiting in India, whom we knew rather briefly, just to break ice with them we encouraged him to sing a couple of english songs.  Ofcourse, he loves an audience and after his performance, he got a loud applause. He bowed down several times, and blew kisses at everybody saying “Thank you .. thank you … you are too kind … I love this audience. He must have been 7 then. His comments amazed them more than his songs did.

Such is my little son. A witty charmer. So I think, he’s going to do pretty well with me and even after me ! Inshallah.

We have a tradition in my moms household which I have carried forward in my own home, is to make Sheer Khorma (A sweet milk drink loaded with dryfruits) and sevian (a sweet vermicilli dish)  Traditionally both these dishes are prepared only for Eid, in our household. Generally it would be ready before sam got home from the morning prayers but since one essential item was missing, we went shopping for it on Eid morning !!!!  Now where in a muslim country, are you going to have a store open on Eid morning, which is a national holiday ??????? Well what do you know !!! In Dubai, ofcourse, since we have gotten so commercial about EVERYTHING.  So we did find it eventually at Union Cooperative Market in Al wasl road although Choithrams had opened, but they were out of stock on the said item.

After getting back home, I had a very looooooong date with my kitchen. 4 Hours later ~ I was ready with my buffet of more than half a dozen dishes !! Yippe … open the gates for the guests  

Here are a couple of pictures :-

Click to view slideshow.

Drooling ????  70 Chicken sandwiches and it was over before half the guests had arrived !!

Ofcourse the entire day was spent entertaining and with family, friends and relatives. But then all festivities are always about sharing with family, isnt it ?

Please do leave a comment to tell me how you spend your Eid and what are the special dishes you cook.

You can also subscribe to my blog by clicking on the ‘subscribe” icon on the right side bar and alternatively you can also follow my blog by pressing the follow icon on the top left side of this page.

Till we meet again.

Allah Hafiz

Naush

Reasons for delay in updating this blog :-

• July – Visit to Turkey
• August – Ramadhan
• Sept – Visit to Khasab
• Sept – Schools reopen
• October – Too many party favor and baby shower orders !!!

If your interested in viewing any of my recent party favors or baby shower pictures, please click Here.

We travelled to Turkey this July. I will be posting several pictures in my next post. To say that its a beautiful place is an understatement. But I’ll keep the details about that for the next post.

We returned to Dubai early August and Ramadhan, the holy month for muslims when they fast from Dawn to Dusk, had already begun. This year’s Ramadhan has probably been the best so far. why ? All the boys fasted with all 5 prayers  …. and Taraveeh  ….. that too ….. 20 rakahs  …… and they also went for Qayam !!!! How awesome is that !!!! Needless to say, I am so so proud of them. Bilal is 12, Sawaab 10 and Eman 9. They were so true to their fast, refraining from music, playstation and even tried to guard their tongue.  Mashallah.

Here is just one of their pics :

Ramadhan in the Gulf is really special. Empty streets at Maghrib, short working hours for all, a lively atmospher in the evening and everyone (muslims and nonmuslims both) refrain from eating in public areas during the day time.  Probably one of the only things that I did not really like about Istanbul.

I’d like to share with you’ll one of our Iftaars ( meals to open the fast taken at dusk) ~ Although every year, we decide that we’re going to stick to fruits followed by a proper meal, invariably we land up having fritters and chaat ! Thats a weird connection between Indian/Pakistanis and Phulkas (fritters) for Iftaar !!! Here is one of the Iftaars :-

What your seeing here are onion fritters, potato fritters, chicken fritters, chilly fritters,  Chana masala (chickpeas masala) and dahi bhallas ( fritters in yoghurt)  Ofcourse we break the fast with a glass of water and some dates, followed by a few of the above items, finish our Maghreb prayers and relax a bit. Again by 9:00 we’re already off for Isha and Taraveeh prayers.  Mostly Sam would have a little something to eat after returning from Taraveeh and then rise again for Fajr.

Ramadhan this year has been especially blessed. I pray Allah swt accepts our duas and fasts and forgives us for all the small and big sins we commit. Ameen.  I hope so much to carry on all the rituals we did this year into next year too. Inshallah.

Thank you for visiting me today.  I hope you visit again.

Before, I forget, You can subsribe to my blog as well, by pressing the icon on the right or follow by pressing the icon in the top left side. Till then. Allah Hafiz

Naush

There are few women, who are involved in fashion wear, or accessories, party organizing, jewellry, gifts and handmade stuff. It is, now, so convenient to know exactly,  who is planning what event,  rather than having to go two highways away to pick a special gift !  We now have the information right under our nose and thats just brilliant. Its always that one person who is ready to carry the baton, claim the baton and in this case, pick the baton, that makes all the difference. And for the Ranches, its Clemintina.

Two weeks back, we were interviewed by Express times of Gulf news and finally, the feature appeared in last Thursday’s newspaper. Its such a delight ! I suppose there are several ways of being featured in the Newspaper, unfortunetly one of the many being, in the obituary or having done some thing obsene like straus kahn. But I’m glad in my lifetime, I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by City 7 for a 15 minutes programe and now, I got a chance to have my mug in the newspaper and all for good reasons !!! Alhamduallah.

Here is the link :-

Please visit this link, to read what we had to say, here.

Also, here is our blog directory : Business Women of Arabian Ranches.

Thank you for visiting me today. So glad you dropped by.

Naush

I can almost never include Dubai as a part of the “rest of the middle east” region. The similarities end with the topography, geography, climate, roads, road signs, bridges, building structures, language, national dress and thats that.  Dubai has been more “accepting” in nature. The local people have opened doors and opened arms to embrace us. Perhaps, more than they should. There are, however  ”those differences” between them and the rest,  that really bothers. The difference between the rest and here, is that two most “sinful” things are permitted to be sold over here, which I patiently hope and pray would be abolished inshallah.  

Some more similarities : The joys of hearing the Adhaan at every prescribed time in every corner of the country, the deserted streets at the time of Iftaar in Ramadhan, the fact that every public toilet is equipped with water for istanjah, the freedom of not having to justify being a muslim are just a few of the key points I love about being here.  Dubai pampers us. Us, the expat and us the local community.

However when we came here over 2 decades back, things were not as “naked” as they are … there were’nt so many radio channels “questioning and almost mocking authority” … … .. there was genuine respect for the culture. Radio channels and tv channels, interrupted for the Adhaan break. Today, even the malls dont bother to run the adhaan audio at the prescribed times.  People refrained from eating in Ramadhan becoz they cared for their muslim fellow collegues or friends. Today, lavish iftaar parties are hosted by corporates but if one of the employees keeps a beard, he is easily and totally “targetted on the hit list” as being a “fundamentalist”.  People disregard “Ramadhan courtesies” ~ People conveniently eat and drink on the roads etc without any regard for the authorities.   Non muslims take advantage of the short working hours, eat openly during office meetings infront of muslim fasting collegues and still, grumble that they are inconvienced by the Ramadhan routines !!!

It saddens me to see that inspite the malls displaying graphic images of proper dress code for women, still they conveniently violate rules, “baring” the skin even in winters as a common practise. Do I think, there should be some pressure from the authorities ? Absolutely.

Opening doors, does not constitute dumping our culture from the back door. Why do the visitors forget that we are “VISITORS” ?? Surely no one goes to Spain or Holland and asks them to change their laws to suit our needs ??? Why do the visitors forget that we are in a “rulership state” ~ why does shariah bother them so much ?  Why do you feel democracy is the only answer ? When did Prophet Mohammed sallallahu alaiha wa salam and his believers accept democracy?  Democracy is only a way of getting a bunch of people to set rules for the rest of us to follow. Who is to question them, once they are in power ? Did anyone question George Bush ?  Why should rules that have been laid down from 1400 years back, become “primitive or backward or barbaric ” ?? Anyone knowing that the repercussions of rape would be death by hanging or gunfire, would think, atleast 10 times before commiting it.

It depresses me to see how westerners try to ”influence” the culture here. 

One of the main areas of concern to them is that, the laws are strict !!!!! If only they had been to “proper”  Muslim states, they would then know just how liberal Dubai really, is.

We have noted a trend in friends who come here from Europe and Uk, initially they are super excieted and privileged with their jobs coz they benefit with their average education into cushy top notch positions. A sudden influx of luxuries follows, villas in elite properties, four wheel drives for the missus, a maid at hand, and ofcourse, nothing but the best bars and yachts for weekdays and weekends… Life is good indeed. Until, they realize that the color of skin has alot to do with their privileges rather than their qualifications.  I have seen friends who suddenly turn all “thats Dubai for you”  ~or ~ “Only in Dubai”  ~ whether it be, the traffic on sheikh Zayed road or the road safety practises or treatment of maids etc, until, they get so accustomed to being pampered, that alittle inconvenience becomes a statement followed by “thats Dubai for you” ~ they tend to forget where they come from and accept that every place has downfalls.  There is so much generalization and narrow mindedness on their part, that it is totally annoying just to read anything from them in “letter to editor” section of the newspaper especially in 7 days, which tends to add fuel to the whole attitude.

“We” make choices. Thats the choice we made to be a part of the system here. Then I fail to understand, why try to change that system ? Becoz it doesnt suit your convenience or ideals ??? In any case, you should be the one making the change coz you are the one who made the choice to stay here. Remember, there were no guns pointed at you to come here, no one really “forced” you. Its all about the choices “you” made. so while you have made the choice, it would be “ideal” for your own conscience and that of the others, that you learned to praise the candle instead of curing the dark. Learn to respect what you have, rather than constantly whining coz you have nothing else to do !!

We dont celebrate birthdays etc so last weekend, we took the boys out for movies at Mall Of the Emirates. Yep, its the Transformers part3. I’m not exactly a great fan of 3D, but it was shocking to see that the place was swarming with people. All seats were being sold like hot cakes. So we just had the 3D ones available. Its been ages since we saw a movie and eversince the boys, we’ve only seen the Toy story or Terminator kinda ones !! May be one of these days, we’ll just sneak into one of the Indian movies leaving the boys with their bazookas and car stunts in their theater ! May be, who knows ! Not that, that they’d miss us anyways

Ok, so back to Transformers. The movie was good. There’s a term we use in slang hindi for a movie as such “paisa wasool” which means, the movie was worth every penny. Ofcourse I love GM cars and the corvettes and cadillacs were simply amazing. The stunts and graphics were mind blowing. Watching in 3D also kinda made it more “REAL”.  We had a blast with the movie and annoyingly I was the one, super excietedly saying awesome or wow or whatever when the stunts took place, while Bilal was simply glued to the movie with ONE expression ~   Talk about being childish

Click to view slideshow.

Oh yeah, the boys had been craving for some Dubai ski fun, and its really been a long long time since their last visit so we decided to drop them over there too. Now for all those of you who may be interested. There’s a superpass available at Dubai Ski for dhs 200, which gives the child 4 of the major attractions in addition to the snow park. I think, it was totally worth it. The boys could not have enough fun.

They were too tired to go else where for a meal so we settled for chinese in the food court on the first floor. Wow, I was totally exhausted by the time we were home. But amazingly the boys just got so fresh once we were back home, Jumping into their study (I call it gizmo cav, these days) rushing to switch on their computers and PS2 and back to tapping keys and rocking joysticks and whatever till the wee hours of the night ! What I would’nt give to have that kinda energy !

I’m so glad that the summer is going smooth with their swimming and their guy friends visiting us frequently. Every year, I get stressed before the summer holidays worrying what i have to plan for the boys, to keep them occupied. This is the very first year, when they have taken charge of what they’d like to do and I think, they are enjoying it and I think, thats all that counts.

See ya folks ! Hope you all are enjoying you summers too.