Sonya Syed

It has been longer than I thought, but yes too many months have passed by, so here I am and I hope that this sharing and writing would take a continuous momentum. These days my life has been consumed by immensely pressurizing mental work of completing my PhD thesis.  After hard labor of two years things are finally taking shape but it has been far more complex than I have ever thought. However, when I see something that should be shared along with my personal experiences then remaining silent is unforgivable. Today I want to share with you a video of a lady named Rujuta Diwekar, she is a nutritionist and health advisor to celebrities in India. The reason why I have selected her work because it has hit a very personal cord with me and I don’t want anyone to make the health and diet mistakes (read, blunders) which I have made in my life. Rujuta was unknown to me until I accidentally opened a video of Kareena Kapoor’s interview on youtube. I wanted to close that video and really

Time has come when we are compelled to reevaluate our idea of success and power. Financial stability and security are very important for our existence, money is required to buy food, medicines, to handle uncertainties, to get education and so on, it has its place in our life. But is it all that there is to life. Our society measures success by the length of numbers on our bank statement and the square feet of land we possess. Success is also evaluated by our power and ability to influence others. Nevertheless, what is the cost that our society is paying to achieve heights of success, both individually and collectively? A study of German doctors found that nearly 50% of physicians appeared to be suffering from the ‘burnout’ reported that they feel tired during every single hour of the day and that the mere thought of work in the morning leave them feeling exhausted. According to a  Finnish survey  m en and women deal with burnout in different ways, male employees who reported exha

Finally, the Punjab government has realized the health risks and zero nutritional value of trans fat like margarine, and banned Blue-band margarine as it is made with vegetable oil that does not have quality of either butter or something similar to butter. Trans unsaturated fats or trans fats are mainly produced industrially from plant oils for use in margarine, snack foods and packaged baked goods. While saturated fats come mainly from animal products, such as butter, cows' milk, meat, salmon and egg yolks, and some plant products such as chocolate and palm oils. For decades giant businesses heavily advertised the greatness of margarine and degraded the nutritional value of pure butter. Butter, ghee, cheese, rice, whole milk and wheat have been demonized for decades, accompanied by health research and studies informing the consumers that pure butter and ghee are responsible for obesity and weight gain, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension.

Yesterday for no particular reason, I watched Shahrukh and Mahira’s starrer Raees movie song. It had all the ingredients which a typical Shahrukh songs contain, a beautiful heroine with long flowing dupatta or a sari pullo, and of course Shahrukh himself. Shahrukh Khan and Mahira   I felt that with him, Indian film industry is on the verge of losing its last batch of ‘Heroes’. Let me explain what I mean by this, I grew up at a time when Indian films slowly started to make a big impact on Pakistan’s society, culture and households through their films released on video cassettes. Besides my family, the people I saw every weekend at my family get-togethers were Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, and Shashi Kapoor.     Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor Left to Right: Amitabh, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar & Amjad Khan Till today the images of these heroes/ stars are engraved on my mind and for me the terms ‘good looking and handsome’ are defined by these actors. Th

So much has happened since Aey Dil Hai Mushkil, Americans have elected Donald Trump, Pakistan has Panama Leaks, world has refugee crisis and I was a judge at the Law Moot Competition held at a local university. Yeh, I know it sounds crazy, since many strange things are already happening so I also decided to contribute my share. For my non-legal readers moot court competition is replica of a court hearing; participants are given fictional facts which they analyze, extract legal problems, research the law, prepare written submissions and present oral arguments. I must say that we have some real gem of lawyers coming up and I pray that with them enters new soul to the legal system. The talent we have is commendable and if I may not sound too biased then my students were simply amazing- I am extremely proud of them all. Judging the competition was such an enriching and empowering experience that I want to do it again; however, it also tests one’s focus and endurance levels. I hav

I know that I don’t have to, but being Sonya, I have to. Else I would not be able to contain this in my being. Today I used all of my will power to watch a very much hyped movie called “Aye Dil Hai Mushkil”. Aur sirf yeh mera dil hi janta hai key mujhe iss muskhil ko dekhne kitni shadeed mushkil hoee hai. I am very happy that Fawad Khan was not the entire part of this ‘Ashfaq Ahmed Sahab cum Bano Qudsia cum Haseena Moeen’ type philosophical love story. Karan Johar has used everything one could possibly imagine, from Shah Rukh Khan, Ali Bhatt, PIA logo in the Ashwarya-Ranbir scene, to the glorious voice of Madam Noor Jehan, the enchanting poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, classic Hindi motive songs, cancer idea of Rajesh Khanna’s ‘Anand’ and of course an extremely beautified Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, to illuminate his movie but alas… it was a puff of smoke. Love is the central theme of this film, someone is calling it heroine, someone naming it a cancer. All central cha

Time flies by so quickly, it seems as if we are travelling with the speed of light. Months have become days and years have changed into months, it was almost one month since I last wrote.  Today I strongly feel to talk about depression. We are inundated these days with articles, surveys, and medical/ scientific updates on depression and anxiety; however, nothing so far has been absolutely successful when it comes to completely eradicating this disease. In fact, the more research and awareness we have the more rapidly depression is increasing. There are very interesting views in our society about depression, some people believe that too much thinking causes depression- so stop thinking or think more positively and your problem will disappear. Some recommend daily exercise, while others suggest praying and seeking spiritual cures and so on. Each of the above treatments are part of the overall depression-cure program, but what we lack in understanding that the thoughts that