Sonya Syed

m y childhood garden lush and green it was so happy it made me scream my joy and hopes and all my mopes my childhood garden my childhood garden with the ups and downs when I jumped I could not touch the ground with my purple pony's it made it homey my childhood garden my childhood garden flying high with the little lies the grass fine up in the sky my kite my childhood garden my childhood garden now in the past I now know that it can never last now as I get taller it was different when I was smaller my childhood garden   ..................   By Danielle Eager * ______________________________________ Now coming to the present - the city is becoming a concrete jungle, everywhere there is bombardment of high-rise towers, apartments, malls or shops but what we are beginning to lack are play grounds for children. There are very few grounds and the ones we have are ill-maintained. Fortunately the local government has made some wonderful parks but the...

After waiting for quite some time I decided to go for the renewal of my driving licence, the wait was not deliberate though but things just came in the way and the renewal got delayed. However on reaching the nearest branch I found out that they were not authorized to renew my licence because the earlier license was made in another branch. So I was back to square one and now I have to go to my designated branch. I must say that the people who work in this or any other government office deserve standing ovation. It was 85 degrees outside humidity was at its peak and the entire staff was sitting without any fan except for couple of officers. It was a large room with hardly any ventilation; walls were dusty with cobwebs and the electrical wiring loosely hanging all over the roof. The wooden furniture which was used by the staff was made some 150 years ago. In the main hall there were stacks of records and documentation which were lying in one corner.     Like many pe...

You decide and plan to do something and then at the eleventh hour you have to suddenly stop. It is more like when you are driving at a high speed, unaware of the newly made speed-breaker, and as you see it you apply emergency brakes. Nothing much happens except that your flow, your speed is broken which is of course a cause of some irritability.   This has been more or less my situation today, I had a meeting late in the afternoon and it was postponed at the last minute. It was a bit frustrating because I canceled everything for it, yet I decided that I shall not let this negativity get into my way. Every morning as soon as I wake up I make a to-do-list in my mind; as I go through each thing in the list I say Thank You in advance for everything. I thank God in such a way as if I am writing this list at the end of the day when everything went perfectly. Like I say, thank you God for a perfect exercise session and so on. With all this in mind I just couldn’t allow th...

This is what happens when one is inspired, there are days when I want to express but cannot articulate effectively and then there times when I could go on writing and sharing. I guess rain has casted its spell on me.   Today I have been remembering my academic life, my teachers, facilities I received throughout my education. I remembered in gratitude my teachers their academic teachings and life lessons. In the midst of all this, the most prominent memory was of my Botany Professor Sir Abbasi’s words, when once during our tuition my class-mate who topped in Matriculation said, “We should always compete because competition is the only way to succeed in this world”. Sir Abbasi with all his affection replied to her that, “a successful person is not the one who compete with others but he is the one who competes with himself”. He said, “Competition is pure jealousy; thus when you say you are competing, you are actually jealous of other person’s success. Competition with oth...

What a beautiful day we have in Karachi; early morning it was bright and shinny with breezy winds, clear skies and the tree leaves gleamed as the sunlight poured its love on them. Then the clear blue sky transformed into the most delightful hues of grey. Finally it rained and the fragrance which emerged from the earth as rain-drops touched it is the wonderful aroma we could ever experience. It seemed as if the angels are pouring white diamonds from the heavens. Irrespective of who we are or where we are, it is like a reflex action that we run towards window or terrace to get the glimpse of rain. Fried food, especially pakoras and tea become natural inclinations in this weather. (Interestingly as I was writing this paragraph I looked up on the internet to have an English alternate word for Pakora. To my sheer surprise Pakora is a recognized word at the Oxford Online Dictionary and this is truly amazing.) I wanted to have pictures of this weather and share with you how I...

These past of couple of days my post titles sound more like the tag lines from mobile and balm advertisement rather than blog titles. There, finally after a lot of pondering for months I changed the blog design. I wanted to do this for a long time but instead of doing anything about it I just thought and thought and today without even giving it a second thought I abruptly altered the look. Do give me your input about this new avatar I'd love to hear from you.   This is what happens when we waste our precious time in unnecessary hesitation and apprehension. If you know what you want, if the opportunity presents itself, if there is a strong gut feeling; then don’t think, don’t doubt, don’t second guess- just go for it ! Probably the quarter of the anti-allergic that I took last night to relieve my flu did the trick. Due to that tiny amount which I took hours before, I am still walking around like a zombie. I cannot think clearly, I want to sleep but simply am unable...

Daily I wake up to the cock-a-doodle-do of my neighbor’s rooster followed by the clucking of three hens which are probably his wives, earlier the neighbors took the fancy of having ducks as well so you add quacking to the cock a doodle do (unfortunately dear ducks became the dinner of some goonda cat). Then few minutes later comes the gentle chirping of the birds along with the cuckoo of Koel and suddenly a sense of serenity enters my being.  It feels as if I am not living in the hustle & bustle of a cosmopolitan city but at a farm house somewhere in the countryside; it is both amusing and peaceful to have nature so close by.   Although rooster/ hens are the fascination of our neighbors but their breakfast and brunch is for some reason is the responsibility of the trees and shrubbery which we have in our boundary. So every morning as uninvited guests this rooster family enters our plants to have their favorite worm food at the cost of muddling the tree roots. ...