LIFE AS IT IS

  Fairy lights that lit up streets, doors and windows of houses and shops, reindeer sleigh and Santa Clause that gave the common area of every shopping mall a festive appearance, and holiday tunes that filled the air of cafés and diners are now gone for a year. In contrast to October, November, December, and the first day of January when Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year are celebrated respectively by most Americans, January is not only colder-grayer but also quiet and uneventful.     Whether you want to partake in the above-mentioned festivals or not, if you live in the West, their festivies will touch you in one way or another. Come October, you see Halloween costumes and Halloween-themed home decor, food, and much more all around you. Your child’s school might even hold a Halloween parade on campus. And on October 31, you will have kids trick-or-treating at your doorstep. I am not a Halloween fan but usually buy small treats to give out to kids who knock...

  There is no other fabric that feels as luxurious as cashmere against the skin. Well, mulberry silk does. However, because this is winter time, we will discuss cashmere and cashmere only, world’s most sought-after fabric of the cold season.  The Daily Star link Cashmere is a word that derived from the angilicisation of Kashmir, the place where the cashmere goat originated. It is a fibre that is obtained from cashmere goats, which live in mountainous areas and cold climates. Today, China is the largest producer and exporter of cashmere wool. However, Mongolia is known to be the producer of the world’s finest cashmere. Grade-A cashmere has the highest quality, followed by B and C.  Cashmere being an expensive fibre is primarily used by mid-luxury and high-end fashion houses to produce everything from sweaters, dresses, coats to scarves, gloves, beanies, socks, even scrunchies, and more. However, cashmere which was once only worn by the royals and wealthy have become more a...

I look out the window and what I see is a stark contrast to what I saw two months ago. My little garden is perishing; my little backyard is strewn with brown, amber, and butterscotch-coloured fallen leaves from nearby maple, sycamore, oak, and birch. The buzzing bees, hummingbirds, goldfinches, doves, and blue jays are all gone. The season has arrived.   I smell the fragrance of fall in the air. The morning air is crisp, the leaves are turning, and the temperatures are dipping. The quilts are out, the comforters are in. Sweaters, jackets, and scarves have been pulled out of the closet in preparation for the cooler days ahead. While the aforementioned things are easier to adjust to, it is my garden and its changing appearance that asks me of my patience, for it is going to be a long wait before my garden dresses up in a myriad of colours afresh.  My vegetable plants have nearly stopped producing. The Italian eggplant is still bearing blossoms, but which dry out and drop to the...

For months, they remained all wrapped up. Wind and snow could crack her feet’s soft skin, so she feared stepping outdoors without bundling them up. When days and nights were not so cold, however, she would go out in slip-on shoes - no socks! Those were always the happiest days for her two feet. On those days although her toes remained covered in thick shoes, her inner and outer ankle bones could still peek out and see the snow-white world. The soft skin atop her feet could also breathe in crisp winter air. When a sudden gust of wind would blow old snow, the exposed skin of her feet would tremble in cold and excitement.  In winter, the toes and heels were always unhappy though. No matter how much they wriggled inside, they could not come out from those thick, sturdy, leather shoes to see the beautiful world outside. They heard quietly the sounds of their owner's steps on snow-covered streets and fallen leaves.  The left big toe growled in anger and refused to work whe...