Trip Down Memory Lane

I accidentally came across a blog about a girl's experience of growing up in the 80s and 90s and I found it really amazing that I shared so many things in common with her. It brought back many memories for me. From nursery rhymes to story books to things I saw on TV, even games I had played in school. Hence, I've decided to dedicate this blog post to the cool memories I have from the 90s. :D

One of my favourite books during school years was Enid Blyton's story books. I was extremely fond of them and would borrow them often from our school library. During the later yrs I started to enjoy Archies comics of which I've collected some 300 - 600 books. :P Now I have no time to read them but I just love having them none the less.

During those years, friends also introduced me to English pop music. I recollect a friend (also my class partner) singing Spice girls' debut single which I proceeded to sing the next day - a completely messed up version I might add. It went something along the lines of:
" If you wanna be my friend, you gotta get with my friends,
you gotta follow fashion coz fashion is the thiiiiingg!"
Or some bizarre thing like that. It was only when my friend started to laugh at me that I realized those were not the lyrics. :P

I used to keep a scrap book of news paper clipping, articles, pictures, whatever that I had an interest in. I still have it. Brings back tons of great memories. :D Apart from that, I found several rough notebooks in which I would do my homework in (those days we actually wrote in books and papers rather than word documents) and occasionally about random convos I had with friends in class, poetry I wrote (which is too embarassing to blog about) and even bizarre dreams that I still have to this day. I'm seriously considering making a whole blog of the dreams I have. But since some dreams should not be shared, I might just make a note of it "old style" in some notebook. Infact, that reminds me that I actually DID have a diary in which I wrote nearly every day of the dream I had! I gotta try searching for that diary!

Me and my friends were pretty innocent in school (which is, unfortunately, not something that can be said about kids today) and were generally educated/made fun of by the smart alec girls in my class. But they were not too mean about it which was cool. I still remember a girl who tore up her chem test paper after seeing her score only ending up sticking it back with cellotape when asked by the teacher to bring her paper. LOL. I was just sitting behind her watching and laughing away as I saw her mood change from irritation to panic. The teacher obviously got mad when she finally saw the paper only to yell and ask her to get her paper signed by her dad (which in those days was a HUGE deal). lol.

Talking about huge deals, I think my school had pretty decent students but our punishments generally involved being thrown out of class (but we couldn't just leave the school premises so we either had to stand/kneel outside class or stand in the supervisor's office), made to stand in a corner facing the wall, simply standing during the entire class in our place (for which we generally sat down whenever the teacher wasn't looking), standing over the chair (which makes me laugh now) or teachers writing to our parents in our school "diaries" and getting a signature from our rents. The latter one was mostly in 9th grade upwards. Although some teachers were disgustingly shameful in their attitude towards the students and generally participated in insulting us or belittling us (which there is really no excuse for) and occasionally physically causing us pain (which should have been reported unfortunately) which made me hate most of my teachers in school. Dumbest thing was we would pretty much get into trouble for anything and everything. If you were late - they'd write a note in our diaries, if we wore the wrong uniform - got a note, forgot to cut our nails - note, hair too long!!! - warning, wrong colour shirt (it had to be a particular shade of blue *rolls eyes*) - warning, short socks - warning. It seems a lot like military now. I think it could be a reason why most students in my college turned into total freaks because they went from extreme rules to no rules whatsoever. No one cared if you came or didn't come, wrote notes or not, attended lectures or didnt. Only thing was if you didnt have enough attendance you couldn't sit for the exams which was probably an excellent rule but even that people considered horrible. lol. Bunking was extremely common. I was so innocent, I didn't even know what the term "bunking" meant. In case you are in the same boat, it means skipping classes. When my friend first suggested it, my reaction was of horror and that we could get in trouble. We did end up bunking but we never got into trouble. Ever. :D Well, maybe once when we bunked a clinical dentistry posting but we managed to talk our way out of trouble. Coz the entire group had bunked. :P My mum generally knew if I bunked so no worries. :P

After mentioning so many horrible things about school that I feel I should make up by saying something nice as well. Our school took us on trips during book fairs during which I generally bought more archies comics. We used to have fun running through the various aisles of books and checking them out, especially joke books. Our school also took us on picnics when the weather was nice which was awesome. We still had to wear our school uniforms though. :P Apart from that we went to science museums and animal farms which I think I enjoyed a lot more than many of my classmates. :P I also had really funny classmates who were total entertainment to watch. I hope they don't get offended when they realize who's writing this. I actually mean it in a very good way. With so many rules, you need to have a bit of fun & blow some steam sometimes. I also enjoyed PE classes mostly unless it was a particular teacher who mostly wanted us to run round the courts. :S She must have had a miserable life considering how miserable she turned PE class into. Apart from that, horror stories about the school being haunted was extremely popular and I generally made up stories and we used to try investigate various "abandoned" areas of school. It was funny watching some of the other girls get scared with made up stories like "dead man in the sewage" or haunted toilets. I still reminisce and laugh about it with my friends sometimes. :P

This made me smile - part 2

I had kept some bread and seeds out for the birds to eat and I usually get mynas, sparrows and a kind of pigeon who come to eat. It just happened that I put out some food one day and it started raining heavily so I peep out to see if the food is getting drenched, only to see a tiny sparrow come flying in the rain to eat the food, see me and take a u-turn in the rain and fly back. *wub* I was like awww! Poor little thing. :P

Ignorance Is Bliss?

I was watching this Asian drama on tv and some of the things I heard on the show made me laugh like hell at it's absurdity. A man had a head injury and was rushed to the hospital. The dr. informs the family members that he has lost a lot of blood (typical tv drama issue) and needs an immediate blood transfusion. Most doctors would be able to catch the fact that you can't have a huge amount of blood collecting in the cranial cavity (skull) due to the lack of space. The second thing the dr. proceeds to mention that the patient's blood group is AB positive and they do not have that blood group in the hospital and cannot accept any other blood type! :P Most high school grads know that AB positive is a universal recipient blood type! You can give them any blood type! And to my shock he goes on to refuse to accept O negative blood type which is the universal donor! People with this blood type can donate to every single blood type! I feel bad for the Asian audience listening to this nonsense. The least they can do is get such basic facts right and educate the poor public.

Self Improvement & Islam

How many of us can say that we constantly try to challenge ourselves to be better all rounded individuals? I'm not simply talking work wise as most of us have some sort of motivation or the other when it comes to work. We want to be able to get a raise, a promotion, not lose our jobs, not look bad in the eyes of other co-workers so we try to work hard. What about other aspects of our lives?

Do you look in the mirror when you've gained a few pounds and say, "Hmm, I need to start eating healthy food and keeping fit" and then try to make changes in your life that benefit your health? I don't mean checking your weight obsessively and going through fad diets & rigourous exercises until you've attained some model like figure. There's a difference in being thin and being healthy and fit. I'm talking about the latter. Even thin people need to eat healthy foods and get daily exercise.

How about learning new skills? Have you ever found yourself thinking about teaching yourself skills to be self-reliant? You may not have succeeded but the point is, did you try or did you just give up?

How about improving language skills, whether it is English or trying to learn Arabic, the language of the Holy Quran.

My point isn't that one should not be happy with themselves but to not give up learning and growing as individuals. Not to settle for being second best. And I don't mean competing with others but with yourself. Challenging yourself to be better than what you already are in every aspect of your life. The excellence of knowledge can be seen in the following verses:

"Allah will raise in rank those of you who believe and those who have been given knowledge," (Quran 58:11)

"Say: 'Lord, increase me in knowledge.'" (Quran 20:114)

"Are they equal: those who know and those who do not know?" (Quran 39:9)

If you truly follow and understand Islam, you will realize that Islam is a way of life and about being a well rounded person. And if we follow Islam in it's true sense, we would be better in every respect.

"Mu'awiya was heard to say in a khutba, "I heard the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'When Allah desires good for someone, He gives him correct understanding in the deen. I am an even-handed distributor, but it is Allah who gives. This community will remain straight following the command of its Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and will not be harmed by those who oppose it until the command of Allah comes." " (Bukhari)

According to Islam in growing closer to Allah:

“Anas reported from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in what he reported from his Lord, the Mighty and Majestic. He said, "When the slave comes towards Me a hand-span, I go an arm-length towards him. When he comes towards Me an arm-length, I go a fathom towards him. When he comes towards Me walking, I go towards him running."” [al-Bukhari]
'Abdullah b. Mas'ud reported: I said: Messenger of Allah, which of the deeds (takes one) nearer to Paradise? He (the Holy Prophet) replied: Prayer at its proper time, I said: What next, Messenger of Allah? He replied: kindness to the parents. I said: What next? He replied: Jihad in the cause of Allah. (Muslim)

Being good to your family, neighbours, orphans, friends:

(Picktall) “And serve Allah. Ascribe no thing as partner unto Him. (Show) kindness unto parents, and unto near kindred, and orphans, and the needy, and into the neighbor who is of kin (unto you) and the neighbor who is not of kin and the fellow traveller and the wayfarer and (the slaves) whom your right hands possess. Lo! Allah loveth not such as are proud and boastful” (Quran 4:36)
(Picktall) "Thy Lord hath decreed, that ye worship none save Him, and (that ye show) kindness to parents. If one of them or both of them to attain old age with thee, say not "Fie" unto them nor repulse them, but speak unto them a gracious word." (Quran 17:23)
(Picktall) The Prophet is closer to the believers than their selves, and his wives are (as) their mothers. And the owners of kinship are closer one to another in the ordinance of Allah than (other) believers and the fugitives (who fled from Mecca) except that ye should do kindness to your friends. This is written in the Book (of nature). (Quran 33:6)
"Abu Safwan 'Abdullah ibn Busr al-Aslami reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "The best of people is the one who lives a long life and whose actions are good." "[at-Tirmidhi]
Narrated 'Aisha: The Prophet said "Gabriel continued to recommend me about treating the neighbors Kindly and politely so much so that I thought he would order me to make them as my heirs. (Bukhari)
Narrated Abu Shuraih: The Prophet said, "By Allah, he does not believe! By Allah, he does not believe! By Allah, he does not believe!" It was said, "Who is that, O Allah's Apostle?" He said, "That person whose neighbor does not feel safe from his evil." (Bukhari)

Being kind to another Muslim:

"He who relieves a hardship of this world for a believer, Allah will relieve a hardship of the Day of Resurrection for him; he who makes it easy for an indebted person, Allah will make it easy for him in this world and the Hereafter; he who covers a Muslim (his mistakes and shortcomings), Allah will cover him in the World and the Hereafter; Allah will be in a person’s need, as long as he is in his brother's need." (Tirmidhi)
"A Muslim is not a fault-finder and is not abusive, obscene or coarse." (Tirmidhi)

So don't forget to strive harder to be a good Muslim. Do not give up if you fail. Keep challenging yourself.

Divorce, Islam and Dr. Phil

I was watching Dr. Phil recently (For Better or Worse) where a couple were not sure if they can stay married as the husband had cheated on his wife. Towards the end of the show, Dr. Phil says to the wife that he'll tell her exactly when she will know to divorce her husband. I was expecting him to say something like when he proves he can't stay sincere, etc. Instead he said something that really surprised me. He said, when you feel no anger then you can leave him because when your children ask you why you left their father, the reply is not in anger but that you tried everything but it just didn't work.

For some reason his words reminded me of the following ayah in the Holy Quran regarding divorce:
Take them back in kindness or part from them in kindness (65:2)

Although this ayah is referring to men divorcing women but I really appreciated Dr. Phil for telling the lady not to separate in anger. We do many things in anger that we regret sometimes. His reasoning for that recommendation was for the benefit of the couple's children. I appreciate him even more now. :)

Freaking Fake Forwards

Don't you just hate it when you get the same forwards again and again from friends every few weeks, months, etc? What's worse is many times these forwards are completely useless and full of lies. Probably the most annoying ones are those that threaten you with some kind of misfortune if you do not forward them to a few 100 friends. Okay, so I'm exaggerating regarding 100 friends.

Lately I was sent forwards of all kinds. The only common factor was that they were all a waste of time and full of lies. I don't mind a good joke or a nice message or even cute baby pics but the moment a forward tells me to pass it on, I reach for the delete button. If it was a good message, it would spread without the need for any kind of pressure. If you've noticed, many "religious" forwards try to guilt trip you into forwarding the messages. So, people forward them along just to ease their conscience so they don't feel like the bad guy or girl. You hit forward and wow, don't you feel great? Don't kid yourself.

Okay, so maybe I'm being a bit harsh and sarcastic. But someone needs to talk about this and break the cycle. There are amazing websites made to destroy the chain of false forwards. If only someone took the trouble to google instead of hitting the forward button.

So, for those who are really interested in breaking the chain and don't want to feel guilty about sending out and spreading lies, here are a few simple tips on what you can do to be sure of the contents of the mail:
1. Simply google the subject of the forward. Most of the time the forward is really old and people have discovered it's fake. These are the people who made the REAL effort. If that doesn't work you can always add the word "hoax", "fake", etc to the search and it's likely that if it indeed is a hoax, you'll find something about it.
2. Sometimes subjects get changed and you don't find much so try to pick out key words or phrases from the email and google for that.
3. Try searching for the email specifically on sites like the following:
Hoax Slayer
Hoax Buster
Snopes
4. If the forward is of a specific nature, then check for the information on specific sites.
eg. A very popular one was hotmail shutting down and asking users to forward the mail to discover the users whose accounts are still active. Isn't it strange that most people decided it's easier to forward the message than to actually contact the hotmail staff and ask them if the information was true?
Other popular messages that spread fast are about viruses. Best thing is to check with Microsoft and other such sites regarding these viruses. Again, most of the time, they are fake. But it's always better to be safe than sorry. Be sure if it's real and what you can do to protect yourself.
Fake Islamic emails, unfortunately, are also very common. Many times I've noticed they are about fake hadith. These probably take more effort in figuring out because there are no specific sites aimed at such kinds of forwards. The possible options here are asking your local imam, writing in to the many islamic q&a sites which you trust (but that could take some time), or trying to google for the hadith, and other content to make sure we aren't spreading false information. Usually one of the clues that the email is fake or atleast partially fake is if it contains any kind of shirk (associating partners with Allah), threatening you with any kind of misfortune, not mentioning the source of the information, hadith, or generally a very haphazard, random message with no real purpose or very poorly written. Meaning, it's not an Islamic article. It's like a forward with some hadith or "Islamic" story, a few inshaAllahs and a please share it with others.

InshaAllah, I'll try my best to pick out the fake Islamic emails whenever I come across them and post them here.

In the meantime, if you manage to follow the simple tips I've suggested instead of simply hitting that forward button, feel free to feel great. Now please forward this message to everyone you know. ;)

This made me laugh...

Sometimes I come across articles, posts, comments that make me laugh. They may not be intentionally funny but I still find them humorous. Does this mean I have a strange sense of humor? Even so, I'd like to share a few of the things I came across today and it may bring a smile to your face as well.

We've all had times when we were frustrated by the internet connection some way or the other. Maybe some of us more than others. I found this particular comment in a blog post on trying to fix the issue rather hilarious:

"I've tried the usual, in the usual order. Shouted at the computer, switched it off and restarted it, shouted at it again, hit it. Nothing works."

I also came across the following comment to a blog post that made me laugh. It speaks for itself:

"a radiologist told me I had a nice uterus, which funnily enough was removed more than 20yrs ago"

Maybe it's just me. I need some sleep.