Tag: life

daily prompt

The quiet, shy girl

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Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?

“Are you still quiet and shy as you used to be in university?” A friend asked me one day when we found each other on facebook.
“I think I’ve changed, a bit.” I replied.

It seems like something I was born with. I am the youngest of my two siblings. My father used to take me everywhere. My relatives used to invite me for sleepovers which would extend for weeks. At school, my marks were always good. I never failed. In university, for my converstation exams, my responses were the briefest in class, but my marks were just as good. Still, I was that quiet, shy girl.

I married, moved and studied abroad, and now have three children; two graduate boys and a girl in her first year of high school. Still, I am that quiet, shy girl.

Therefore, going on stage for a speech or performance would be my nightmare. Of course I lived these moments as I had to do them sometimes at school or university. But even though with all my rehearsals and prayers, I couldn’t help my hands from trembling and my heart from pounding.

I always remember my graduation ceremony, it was such a funny, great day. My friends and I were full of the life of spring, shining in beautiful dresses, lining up in a long queue with many others of the same group. We couldn’t wait to step on stage to receive our B.A. certificates and shake hands with Her Honour, our smiley-faced dean. It went so well with all my friends: climbing the steps, shaking hands, turing for the memorable photo, and then climbing down the few steps and joining our families. Just that simple.

But, things went slightly different for the quiet, shy girl. I tripped over my long dress as climbed the steps, but thank God I straightened and steadied my legs, and didn’t fall down. I tried to forget and calm down, but then my graduation cap slipped down my hijab. Before it could fall, I grasped it and tried to put it back on my head, but it would not stay there. There was no time, Her Honour was already extending her hand with a genuine, warm smile. I believe she didn’t give others the same one. With one hand grasping my cap over my head,  I shook her hand and receive my certificate. Then I hurried down the steps, and forgot to take that memorable photo with the certificate and the smile.

But I took other photos and laughed long and hard that day. Sometimes, the quiet, shy girl can be more special and fun than the others.

With all the best wishes,

Nahla

Books, Just writing

Idolization

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Just look at how people follow a special player, or jump on stage to hug that famous singer, or run after a remarkable actor to take a selfie. And look at those who bow, kneel, and even kiss the ground that this leader or that walks on. This idolization has been the same throughout the ages, it’s obviously disgusting these days because of the social media madness.

Have you ever thought how those idols throughout the ages take but, never give? They don’t know you, won’t care about you. Whether in the form af a celebrity, a leader, or a political party, they want you, as a number, as a voice. They stand high and long, here and there, just like statues. Their strength and durability depend on the expertise of their craftsmenship. But, they never live becuase statues are soulless, vague, and empty. And, one day, they would be dumped, forgotten, and replaced by other statues.

I remember one day while watching a documentary about a famous Egyptian singer from the seventies, there were women throwing themselves out of the top windows of high buildings. Were they really happy following him into the grave? I wondered, thinking how those people will one day answer to God for commiting suicide. This is completely blind idolization, which I believe is so destructive, so humiliated, so pathetic.

On another occasion, when I first came to live in the UK, I met different people. My first friend and neighbour was following the Shia Mathhab. By the way, we didn’t introduce ourselves as Shia and Sunni. These differences just seemed to be obvious. Well, as my friend and I used to visit each other quite a lot, I noticed that there are certain things that she was celebrating and practising which I wasn’t. I asked her about that and she simply replied, ‘I swear I don’t  care about this Imama or that, I just do what my mother does.’ We burst out laughing. How simple and funny our life would be, if we don’t idolize our differences!

Children, of course, might idolize their parents, or students idolise their noble mentors but that’s out of pure love and ultimate reverence, because they deserve it. These people in our lives are the ones who really care and love us.They can not be replaced, can not purchased.

By the way I have just finished The Stationary Shop Of Tehran. It’s a good book, I enjoyed it, enjoyed more reading about Persian Culture and traditions which are a bit different from my Arabic ones. Herewith is my book review, hope you will like it.

The Stationary Shop of Tehran

With all the best wishes,

Nahla

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Just writing

Life in the countryside

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Do you ever see wild animals?

One of the best things about living in the countryside is the ability to handle difficult problems and situations. There, people live and strive to thrive. Using basic ingredients, they can make the most delicious meals and desserts. They can fix broken things, mend old clothes or sew new ones, and even save lives as quickly as an ambulance.

I’m not sure if countryside life is still the same nowadays as it was when I was a little kid vising my grandparents for a month during summer holidays? But to be honest, though I enjoyed it, I couldn’t wait to go back to my easy life in Cairo.

I remembered that becuase of today’s prompt.  I am not sure if a scorpion can be considered as a wild animal, but I am making it one in my post for today.

It was one of those long, hot summar nights, and I was having a sleepover at my Aunt’s country house. We had just come back from visiting one of her neighbours. We were laughing and joking, and couldn’t wait to hit the pillow. My aunt rested on a wooden bench in the big, high ceiling, and so dimly lit hall, pondering her next day chores.  I headed straight to the bedroom I used to share with her, but just before getting changed, her screams filled the house. I ran out, and saw her hands tightened around one of her calves, as she lifted her leg, trying to slow her blood circulation. ( of course I understood that later). ‘Scorpion,’ she shouted, and her sister ran outside to get some help from their neighbour, asking another to fetch the village doctor. That night, she survived, and I went to bed whispering one prayer: ‘Please God keep that dreadful insect away from me. Amen,’ I prayed and fell into a sound sleep. Next morning, life went back to normal, with my aunt doing her chores and me playing around.

By the way, did you know that scorpions don’t live in Antarctica, although they can adapt to almost every other place on Earth. Of course, they would freeze, be unable to use their venomous sting, be easily seen, and their lifespan would be cut down to a few days. Don’t you think this can also apply to wild, evil people?

With all the best wishes,

Nahla

Books, daily prompt

Don’t go back

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What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why?



I am reading The Caliph’s House right now. It is a travel memoir, a type of biography. It’s full of adventures, cultural explorations, self discoveries, and humorous characters and stories. However, it has also some misinterpretations of Islamic teachings, perhaps becuase it’s written in the first person, mainly reflecting and generalising personal views. Here is the link for my book review. Have a look, and hope you will like it

https://nh825.wordpress.com/2024/12/02/the-caliphs-house/

Any way, the more I read from the book, the more I am totally convinced that ‘don’t go back,’ though the hardest decision one might take, is also the right decision. It something like; forgive but don’t forget. Or, time never goes back, so why would you? Or, don’t cry over spilled milk! These all could be hard decisions taken in different ways and on different occasions.

My point can apply to places, people, and even careers. Once you step out of something, you change and so do the others. You become a different person, and so will your old place, your old friends, and your work experience. It will be not only disappointing but also torturous to imagine yourself, the others, or your old place, the same as in the old days.

So, the best, though also the hardest, is to not go back which of course doesn’t mean abandonment. Eventully, you will call your old friend, visit your old place, and relish the memories of your old job. But that will be it, no more expectations, no more memories.


Does this make any sense? Hope it does.



With all the best wishes,

Nahla

daily prompt

Strange

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Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?


We often hear that men do not know how to cook, or even worse, their cooking is terrible, don’t we?

But isn’t it strange when you find out that they can, or can do very well.

Cooking is mostly one of everyday mandatory chores, but it can also be fun and a special hobby.

I still remember my father’s baked potatoes with meat. Although he mainly used basic spices, that dish was like nothing else- delicious. I remember he used to cook this dish, mainly, but not often, during the summar holidays. The aroma would waft through our house, making our mouth water. I remember how he looked so proud and happy of his achievement.

Strange how simple things, such as baked potatos with meat, can be carved in children’s memories. And, how strange that some parents deny their children such beautiful moments to relish later on when they grow up.

If it weren’t for the speciality of the chef, the love it was made with, and my family around it, I am sure that dish wouldn’t have crossed my mind for today’s prompt.

With all the best wishes,

Nahla

daily prompt

More than three

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Name your top three pet peeves.

‘I can’t find,’ the everyday phrase that makes me mad
‘Mama, there aren’t any clean glasses in the cupboard?’ Shouted my son from the kitchen downstairs.
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply as it was just an hour or so ago that I had taken a dozen from the dishwasher and arranged all the sparkly clean glasses in the cupboard.
‘Go and borrow some from the neighbours, then,’ I shouted back from my bedroom.

‘After you.‘ The kind but also annoying phrase.
‘After you,’ I said with a smile and took a step back so the  next person, mostly an elderly, could get on the bus. But then the third followed, and the fourth, and the fifth. And, I became the last to get on. (To be honest, sometimes I am the second in line who accepted the first’s sacrifice and caused the martyer more delay)

‘I am not complaining,’ the phrase that gives me a terrible headache.
‘Such a horrible day! My muscles ache. Traffic, traffic, traffic.
No one understands. No one cares. Everyday expenses. Blocks on social media, etc., but, I am not complaining.’

‘Don’t judge‘ the phrase that makes me feel so unfair, so inconsiderate though I am not.
‘He didn’t stop swearing all evening.’
’Don’t judge.’
‘How can this be judging?’
’Because you mean he is a bad person.’
’But I didn’t say that, and he might be better than all of us. I was just referring to something that was obvious and improper.’

The poor drama, that makes me so disappointed, so hurt. 
’I was busy with relocation and all its fuss.’
‘You moved, really? Where? Why? How is it?’
And I answered, joined in, detailing what the other already knew.

With all the best wishes,

Nahla

daily prompt

Cats or dogs

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What are your favorite animals?

I was raised in a culture that generally adored cats and disliked dogs. But, please don’t contextualise this attitude within a religious framework that some consider insignificant and cruel to the poor creature. ‘Muslims are not allowed to have dogs as a pet.’  How many times have you come across this statement? But believe me, things are totally different.

First, it’s mainly for hygine reasons that we are not supposed to keep dogs indoors. Second, we have lots of beautiful stories in our holy book and tradition about the friendship between humans and dogs. Third, we are not the odd ones out on this issue. It was really so funny when one day my boys told me that some of their English friends are keeping their dogs outdoors for hygiene reasons. Fourth, who said that dogs like to be kept indoors? But since I am not a specialist to provide detailed explanations, I’d advise you to search online if you wish to learn more about this issue.

Now, back to the issue of preference between dogs and cats, I think it’s all culturally based mainly on bad experiences, frightening tales, and ignorance.

When I was a kid, about six or seven years, my aunt, during one of our family gatherings at my grandparents’ country house, narrated how she was bitten by a brutal dog. On another visit, my cousin and I were enjoying our lunch after a long run outdoors, and out of the blue, she told me about a neighbour got bitten by a brutal dog.

Things about dogs were a bit different and less scary in Cairo but unfortunately, the poor creature’s name and his family were mainly used as an unforgivable insult in people’s fightings and disputes.

Given this context, wouldn’t you keep miles away from those barking dogs but adore those warm, soft, furry, and purring creatures named cats?

With all the best wishes,

Nahla

daily prompt

Heidi

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Beach or mountains? Which do you prefer? Why?

Do you think Heidi, the girl of the Swiss Alps, would have been the same if her story started in a city by the seaside instead of the mountains? Let’s first imagine how things might have changed in her story.

Her gruff grandfather, instead of tending to his sheep and house, he might have been a fisherman. Her best friend, the shepherd, might be a sailor. The green scenery, the endless open green space, the towering mountains, the fresh air, the sheep, cows, and horses grazing around the mountains, and the free activities of climbing and hiking, might all be replaced by the different location.There would be the blue, endless sea, its close, reachable sky, its salty, fresh breeze, its rocky or sandy beach,  its boats and ships, its colourful marine life, and its free activities of swimming, diving, and sailing.

Both places are amazing, full of space and freedom. Perhaps Heidi would have liked her life in a city by the seaside. She moved in the first place to live with her grandfather, the only living relative who had time and space to look after the orphaned Heidi. So, she would love it anywhere as long as she had his company. But the story would not be the same. It would have a different beauty.

I think I would like ‘Heidi, the girl of the Swiss Alps’ more than than ‘Heidi, the girl of the ocean’, but perhaps both can enjoy a short visit to each other on holidays.



With all the best wishes,


Nahla

daily prompt

Why

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If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?

Sorry but I don’t know why I couldn’t help laughing when I read today’s prompt, and am still laughing. I am just wondering why I would want to meet with any historical figure. What’s the point?  Honestly, the only figure I want to meet right now is my next-door neighbour whom I haven’t met yet though I have been in my new place for more than three months. The day I meet her will be historical, indeed.

Of course there are great historical figures, noble people whose names and achievements are like lumnious stars in the history of humanity, but I don’t know what I shall tell them.

In such interviews, people usually start with: ‘It’s a great honour to meet you. I can’t find the words to express how I am feeling right now, and I am actually at loss of words.’ But some people are not good at giving this eloqunt introduction. I am one of them. Then, there is this second paragraph: ‘I read your memoirs, your history word by word, from cover to cover, and learned a lot, really a lot.’ Again, some people are not so good at this art of exaggeration. They simply wouldn’t like to be at risk of being asked to give examples of this list of readings or achievements (especially if there’s little if not none). Then there’s the ending of this magnificant interview: ‘Thank you for standing for morals and principles.’ I would like so much to say that, but would also explain that today many are shouting loudly while saying that morals and principles have no market these days. And finally with the last praise while waving goodbye: “And, thank you so much for saving humanity.”  But, “unfortunately the new “historical figures” are planning to destroy it, smash it into tiny pieces,” I would add with broken heart and destroy the pleasure of the whole thing.

I don’t know about you, but I think that if you read about great people, noble figures, it would be like meeting them. You will hear their voices, learn from their wisdom, and honour them in your heart with no flattery, no shame, and no lies.

With all the best wishes,

Nahla

daily prompt

Instincts or Intuition

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Do you trust your instincts?

Who can’t or won’t trust their instincts? It’s a conscious, automatic reaction after certain stimuli; a warning, a threat, or a danger, and we have to respond. Otherwise, we will be in a big, big trouble. Imagine you find a lion in your garden. Would you open your arms wide for a hug or run for your life?

But the story is different with intuition. Totally different. This is because intuition is subconscious. You think, feel, and react without reason, without stimuli, without even understanding why.  Imagine you see someone for the first time in a group of people you are introduced to for the first time. It was at this first encounter when  you decide that they would never be your friend. Later, perhaps within a few months, you find out that you made the right decision because there was nothing mutual you could have shared with that person.

Can we trust our intuitions? I believe that would be different from one person to another, because we are different. Intuition is stimulated by our different life experiences, our intelligence, and talents. or it might be a blessing from God. That’s why some people ignore this gift while others not only keep it in mind but also in their actual decisions.

And I do trust my own intuition.

With all the best wishes,

Nahla