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) Alhamduillah: Second 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.

Adios!

 

International Students, Identity Crisis and Social Diaspora

In the modern day and time where the world has shrunk in distance and everyone is connected in the social space, it is common for students from one country to go to another country for the purpose of studying.  Two decades ago, it might have been unusual to do so and it was relatively harder for children especially from the country I come from to  convince parents and/or relatives to send them to a faraway land to seek education assuming  financial resources and the academic requirements weren’t the constraint factors. In the world we live in, people are more aware of the culture and traditions, thanks to the social media and the number of international students have increased tremendously. There is a great emphasis on the exchange programs, teaching and learning of new cultures, culminating the stereotypes and enhancing the exposure of the ‘now’ students. This is a good thing right? Absolutely, it is a great way to become a more tolerant and knowledgeable version of yourself and there was no better time to become globally aware than now.

However, international students are migrants even if temporary and just like other migrants, they too at time face identity crisis. In my opinion, having talked to many of my colleagues, students face greater problems, mental and psychological (compared to the migrated families) which they themselves are oblivious about. Many have great experience living on their own, making friends but also experience loneliness, homesickness, emotional breakdown sudden increase in responsibilities, language/accent barrier, difficulty in finding like-minded people and other issues settling in at some point in their stay. Transition phase might be short or long depending on their personalities but there are common problems every international student could relate to. Talking from my experience so far, I often question my identity as a Pakistani student living in Canada who is not so desi like the students I meet here from Pakistan as I have spent my teenage in Middle East (UAE and Saudi Arabia) but also not so angrez as the Canadian born students with a Pakistani heritage.  These migrations from country to country does lead to confusion, and again the two sides of migrating to developed nations for a better future can be debated for hours. I have seen the elderly missing their heritage and home countries but moved for security and better environment for children.  But there are those who are contented with their move and have no regrets. However, one thing I observed is that migration and re-settlement are difficult and the locals should appreciate and play their role in making the new comers feel at home. For students who are working hard not just academically but finding their path towards permanent residency, trying to find jobs and settle down should be helped by others especially those who were once migrants themselves and have been through the whole phase of identity/social crisis and dealt with it. When I first came here, I tried meeting people from Pakistani society and understand the system, get support but it seems people are busy in their own work and have little time for the new comers. Communities should be welcoming and open for the students belonging from their nation who came on their own and help them connect to the right people, mentors , career counsellor and help keep the culture alive at the same time because one thing impacted the most due to globalization is  amalgamation and blurred uniqueness of different cultures.

 

A night of mystery

A Night Of Mystery  

Written by: Mehak Ali

Edited by: yasir ali

Murders, assassinations, rapes and explosions were very common in Moscow. The FBI agency planned to eliminate all the e wrong doers in order to bring back peace in the city. Sir Jackson Beckham, the head of the Intelligence committee took every case seriously and tried his best to catch the criminal red-handed.

It was 7^th July, 1994 when a similar situation took place in the Red Quarter apartment # 25. The day before Mr. Rochester complained that her maid, Flora had disappeared from their home and the following day her hand prints along with the gun shots were found in the apartment # 25 which was adjacent to Mr. Rochester’s apartment.

Sir Jackson, Commander Paul and other team members were ready for their new mission. They were eager to solve the mystery and to punish the culprit. Commander Paul was an old friend of Sir Rochester and believed that Rochester was kind person who although was short-tempered but could never kill someone.However, since people could change themselves depending on the circumstances; he felt the necessity to suspect him.

The FBI team went to the Red Quarter which seemed an old haunted building. To their surprise, the security guard was sweating and praying loudly.Mr Paul asked the guard angrily;”It was you present when the murder took place, right?” The guard replied in a frightened tone;”Y…y…Yes sir. I got a call from apartment number 25 which had always been empty. The ghost threatened me to leave this place immediately or else I will die. I got scared sir because life is precious to everyone and went to my cottage.”

Mr. Shaun (FBI Assistant) said: “You are such an idiot! The murderers pranked you so that you can leave the place and they could successfully accomplish their demonic plan. There are no ghosts…only humans, good humans and bad. Understand?”

Guard: “Yes sir, I feel sorry for whatever happened yesterday. Let me take you to the crime scene.”

The FBI team along with the coward guard went to the apartment where murder was committed. They found the cordless phone plucked in which was used to haunt the guard. More over they found gun shots on the wall and a silver watch.Mr Paul immediately recognized that watch because it was he who gifted this Swiss watch to Sir Rochester on his anniversary. Now the suspect was turning close to reality.”Did Mr. Rochester kill the maid?” he thought.Next, the team went to Sir Rochester’s apartment.

It was midnight when the team knocked Mr. Rochester’s door.Mr Rochester who was choleric became angry when the team started questioning him about eccentric stuff. “Is this the right time to come to someone’s house? His flared.Mr Jackson accused him for killing poor Flora.

Mr. Rochester exclaimed: “I belong to a respectable family. Why will I kill my maid for no reason? Please stop suspecting me.”   Sir Paul stated, “Isn’t this your watch? I found it near the crime scene. What does this prove..?”

Mr. Rochester said, “I know nothing about it sir. I know I have no prove but I swear I am innocent.”

Flora’s friend, Ushna also used to work in the same building. The next day, the FBI agency questioned Ushna about Flora’s death. She felt that the crime was committed by Sir Rochester as she has witnessed Mr. Rochester shouting at Flora for not cleaning the floor properly. She told Flora’s address to the team.Flora’s mother started crying when she heard about her daughter’s death. She told the team members that Flora was raised as a princess. All her wishes were granted by her parents because she was their only child. Two years back Flora got married to the businessman named Michel who lived in Moscow but he refused to take Flora with him. It was only last month when we warned him and he accepted to take Flora with him.Furthermore, Flora’s mother gave picture of their son in law to the team.

Later the team returned back and questioned Michel about the crime. He said that Flora was his wife and killing was surely not done by him. The mystery was becoming convoluted when Sir Jackson came with an idea. The team called all the residents of that building to a conference hall. Sir Paul announced: “We have found Flora’s dead body and you all have to come to the police station to sign the letter that you all recognize her body.” Susie who lived in apartment #13 said: “Sir, when you have found her body, why are you calling us to the station. Crime has been solved and it’s all over.”

Sir Paul; “Everything is not yet over young woman. You have to come and I will hear no excuses.”

The people went back to their apartments while Sir Jackson and his team mates stayed inside the car with blacked windows which they parked near the buildings entrance. After an hour they saw Michel and Susie coming out of the gate and heading towards the nearby park. The team followed them to their final destination.

Susie stated worryingly: “I told you not to bury the body in this public park but you didn’t listen me.”

Michel exclaimed: “Relax honey. Lets dig the place and see whether they really found the body or are just horrifying us.”

They digged the area and found Flora’s body in its place which gave them relief. They started pouring sand over it again when Sir Jackson came out of the car with the hand cuffs.”

He caught both of them and took them to the police office. After being beaten so badly Michel finally confessed the killing of his own wife. He told the team, “I used to love Susie but my family was narrow minded .They asked me to marry Flora who was their niece or else I will not get my father’s property after his death. I wanted money as well as my love and so I agreed to marry Flora. It was not my intention to kill her but I was drunk and by mistake shot her. In the mean while Susie stole Sir Rochester’s watch and kept it in apartment # 25 so that no one could suspect us”

“You guys have made a big mistake by taking an innocent life and will be kept in prison for your whole life”, exclaimed Mr. Jackson.

Moral: ‘As you sow so shall you reap’