No More

No more fashion statements for me. There was a time when I used to follow the trend, but I grew wise — and that comes with age. I got appalled at the wastage of money, and stopped caring what anyone else wore.

It doesn’t mean I stopped caring what I wore. I wear what looks good on me — a few clothes, but good ones.

A few years back shirts hit the floor. I am writing about the trend in Peshawar. Everyone wore floor length shirts (I must have looked terribly out of place), I remained an exception. Nowadays shirts have gone up quite a bit above the knees. I am not bothered. My shirts remain the same. 
DAILY PROMPT

New Sensation

Ah, sweet youth. No matter whether you grew up sporting a fedora, penny loafers, poodle skirts, bell-bottoms, leg-warmers, skinny jeans, Madonna-inspired net shirts and rosaries, goth garb, a spikey mohawk, or even a wave that would put the Bieber to shame, you made a fashion statement, unique to you. Describe your favorite fashions from days of yore or current trends you think are stylin’.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/new-sensation/

Strange How Fears Help Me

If the fear of hell wasn’t there

I would have lapsed in my prayers

My daily walks and eating healthy

Wouldn’t have happened to be fair

Being fat would have been my fate

I am glad I escaped the snare

(Sheen)
DAILY PROMPT

Fearless Fantasies

How would your life be different if you were incapable of feeling fear? Would your life be better or worse than it is now?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/fearless-fantasies/

Broken Trust

If I was a genie I would get rid of lies and deceit in the souls of humans — one wish

I have seen you on the prayer mat

Bowing down to our God

Yet learnt you lie so blatantly

In total disregard

Of what’s true, and what did happen

The truth between us all

You forget the Angels writing

Of what did befall

Your hatred and maliciousness

Severed the ties that held us close

They are shredded and beyond repair

With wickedness you pose

Lies and deceit spread their poison forever

With broken spirit I won’t trust

The likes of you never

(Sheen)

DAILY PROMPT

Generous Genies

Remember those lovely genies who grant wishes? Well, you’re one and you’ve just been emancipated from your restrictive lamp. You can give your three wishes to whomever you want. Who do you give your three wishes to, and why?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/generous-genies/

If You Leave

  
I did my leaving two and a half years ago. I left my birth country for an adoptive one. It was heart wrenching. The sheer feeling of loss which settles around one’s heart never goes away. You may bury it in the bottom but it resurfaces now and then trying to haunt you.

Next thing on my agenda is a home here which is going beyond my reach day by day. When I came here prices were still reasonable. My son pulled me short in asking why are you in such a hurry to buy?  My money dwindled due to lawyer fees and other expenditures, and now it’s not enough to buy a home. One reason of my watching Fixer Upper. 

Homes I like are out of my reach. In my range are only run down ones which requires copious amount of money and energy to make them right. Two days ago my left leg below the knee joint is giving me awful pain and I am dreading going to a doctor to find out the cause — added money drain.

One thing I wanted to ask was: Why have builders stopped making smaller houses like two beds and baths?  People like me who would like to live alone would like smaller places. Condos have high maintenance taxes, and are certainly a no-no.

Away from Houston there are places where one can find decent homes and less taxes. Going further away will be another cause for heart pain because I will be reduced to seeing my son once a year.  Another decision to make…..

DAILY PROMPT

If You Leave

Life is a series of beginnings and endings. We leave one job to start another; we quit cities, countries, or continents for a fresh start; we leave lovers and begin new relationships. What was the last thing you contemplated leaving? What were the pros and cons? Have you made up your mind? What will you choose?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/if-you-leave/

My Pride and Joy

It used to be my home in Peshawar. The love which welled in my heart at the sight of it surprised me. Now I have been away from it for two and a half years. I just hope everything is fine.

Three years back when my husband died, I sold what I had in the lower portion. It squeezed my heart to breaking point to let everything go. I dulled the pain by trying to shut my brain about what was happening, since the most prized person had already slipped away.

My most prized possession is my iPad now. It keeps me entertained. Morning begins with the Azan on it for morning prayer. I hear the recitation of Quran when I am having my breakfast. IPad is my sketch and writing pad too. News, entertainment (which currently extends to Property Brothers and Fixer Upper) reading, FaceTime with daughter, writing of my blog—- all done with the help of iPad.

I can’t think of life without it.

DAILY PROMPT

Pride and Joy

What’s your most prized possession?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/pride-and-joy/

Trick Questions

  
Late one night some guests arrived at our home. This happened when I was about fifteen. Like all teenagers I was least bothered as to who they were, and why they had come? As our guest rooms were to one side there were nil chances of my seeing them.

Next morning I  had massaged my scalp with oil. I was gathering my clothes to take a bath, when the door to my room opened and two ladies along with a child entered. I had never seen them before. Next my step mom peeked inside and told me these guests wanted to talk with you. 

For the next hour those ladies kept asking questions, and I tried to answer whatever they asked. They would give a searching gaze to my hands and feet, and then their gaze would probe my face. I was relieved when they got up to leave.

Bath forgotten I went to look for father to ask him as to who they were, and why were they interviewing me? I found father sitting in his car in the garage. I told him that two weird ladies had come to my room, and they were really strange as to the way they stared at me.  Father didn’t answer my questions only saying that they were our guests meaning that we have to put up with them.

Those ladies were my future in-laws. I came to know much later.

The purpose of this story is that you never know what to answer or that you won’t like certain questions. It depends upon the interviewer and circumstances.

DAILY PROMPT

Trick Questions

A Pulitzer-winning reporter is writing an in-depth piece — about you. What are the three questions you really hope she doesn’t ask you?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/trick-questions/

Unattainable

As a child I didn’t hanker after toys. I was more into books, and those I got without asking. There wasn’t anything I needed, except that what I needed wasn’t available, and couldn’t be brought into my life.

I felt sad when I looked at other children with their mothers. I also felt different from other children my age  thinking I must have done something bad, so God took my mother to punish me. I felt a lesser person than the others.

When I would come home after school there was no one waiting for me. Lala (elder brother) wouldn’t be at home, and the house would be empty and silent.

The servants were indifferent. They would put the food on the table whether I was there or not to eat it. Often it was cold or tasteless. In the evening I was so tired I would fall asleep without eating anything. 

I wonder now what happened to the food, and where did it go?

DAILY PROMPT

Out of Your Reach

Was there a toy or thing you always wanted as a child, during the holidays or on your birthday, but never received? Tell us about it.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/out-of-your-reach/

Connecting my Dots

I swing by one to hold onto the other

Makes me crazy to get them to the right places

I throw them at random willing them to look out

So that they can latch on to the correct edges

Balances in sentences in my daily musings

I leave it up to them to get their own spaces

(Sheen)

DAILY PROMPT

By the Dots

We all have strange relationships with punctuation — do you overuse exclamation marks? Do you avoid semicolons like the plague? What type of punctuation could you never live without? Tell us all about your punctuation quirks!
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/by-the-dots/

Brainwave

  
My iCloud was getting to be a big thorn in my side. Every few seconds it kept flashing messages at me. It seemed my iCloud storage’s capacity was depleted. It needed money to enhance the storage. And that was the crux, and I didn’t want to buy.

Every time it let me know no storage it felt like doomsday. I deleted a lot of stuff from my iPad hoping to free storage. No such luck. It started pushing things onward to my iPhone.

I went to Settings. It was a revelation. Every app was getting its space on iCloud. Why couldn’t it let me know what was important to me, and what I wanted to save?  Can you imagine even news was saved up there? Who wants news saved? I wasn’t that big a moron yet.

I turned it off. As simple as that, and life goes on.

DAILY PROMPT

Brainwave

What’s the best idea you’ve ever had? Regale us with every detail of the idea — the idea itself, where it came to you, and the problem it solved.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/brainwave/

Do you believe in magic?

  
When I was a child how I wished for a magic wand to get lots of toys and candy. As I grew up I came to know magic was forbidden in Islam. Those who practiced it were companions of the fire meaning they would go to hell. Certainly I had no wish to go to hell so that put paid to my childish wish.

I know there are certain people who do dabble in magic. There is a cost to pay. Their faces get ravaged in time, and in the end they only harm themselves for a little gain in worldly goods.

One friend in a spirit of mischief decided to give me a book of spells. I had not asked for it and it was a surprise. I kept thinking why did she give me the book? Did she want me to lose my soul? 

I took a look and there were spells for whatever one wanted to do. I took a scissor and shred it into pieces. I didn’t want anyone to get hold of it but there must be many more from where it came from.

DAILY PROMPT

Do you Believe in Magic?

You have been transformed into a mystical being who has the ability to do magic. Describe your new abilities in detail. How will you use your new skills?

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/do-you-believe-in-magic/