LIFE AS IT IS

We celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr here in the U.S. yesterday. We cooked special food, talked to our families back home and watched TV at night. It was not a day too different from a regular day except for my husband went to the mosque for his Eid prayer and took the day off. But Eid in Bangladesh used to be so different. We would visit and call relatives and friends, watch special Eid programs on TV, eat loads of good food and collect salami/eidi (a monetary Eid gift from relatives older than you). Here, Eid comes and goes by and in some years, we don't feel that it really came. Sometimes I wish I lived in a mega-city like NYC or Chicago, where you can feel the festivities around the occasion. We thought we would visit NYC this time, but changed our minds later... perhaps, we will visit NYC next year, when my daughter will be almost three. We did not cook much this time around - saffron polao/pilaf, chicken roast and a salad followed by firni, a traditional rice custard cooked with...

There are times when everything seems meaningless. We live in a dismal world, where war, poverty, death and violence make headlines. When I think of the comfort I enjoy in my every day life, I cannot help but thank the Almighty. This morning, everything suddenly seems meaningless. I know I am rambling but sometimes, you cannot find the right words to express what you feel deep inside. I am thinking of the children that are dying every day in Gaza. I think of their parents and what they feel. I wonder what a child feels when he/she hears that his/her father/mother/sibling is no more. I ask myself, what would I have done if my daughter died a similar death? Would I have been strong enough to survive the grief? I think of the lives that we are losing in the air. The unexpected and deadly plane crashes are leaving thousands of people without friends and family. I cannot imagine what those passengers felt when the planes caught fire and lost their control. I wonder what the friends ...

People have often called me a tomboy. A tomboy? But I could not and cannot not care less when people call me a tomboy. After all, what does the word mean? A girl who behaves in a boyish manner? A girl who does not fall under the "socially-constructed" definition of how a girl should and must behave? I am sorry but I cannot be what I am not. After all, these socially-constructed definitions are man-made. And man-made things change over time. If I do not like wearing a lot of make-up and jewelry, I wonder how it bothers others. My favorite possessions are my watches, not my bracelets or bangles. But that's the way I am. I wear very little jewelry because I feel suffocated when I wear too much of them . I do not have anything against anyone. It does not perturb me when I see girls wearing make-up and jewelry. As a matter of fact, most girls look more beautiful when they wear make-up and jewelry. It's just that I don't feel comfortable wearing them. Yes, I do we...

It's easier to irritate me than to hurt me.      style="display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px"      data-ad-client="ca-pub-1412858923217987"      data-ad-slot="2221625556">

I was reading a friend's note on Facebook this morning - it was about a truck driver who was kind enough to give her a free ride when she got stranded in a new place. Her story brought back the memories of a day in Carlisle, PA. It was the summer of 2005 and I was attending a tri-nation youth leadership program on the campus of Dickinson College.  One evening, a group of us went out for shopping. We walked to a shopping plaza, which was about a 20-minute walk from the campus. On our way back, we got caught in the rain. I think there were four of us in the group. We were standing on the pavement, getting drenched and praying that someone would stop his car and give us a ride back. We had no umbrella or cell phone with us. We did not even know that rain was coming and all of us were in the U.S. for the first time. As we waited, a taxi driver stopped his car in front of us, asking if we needed a ride. We were so glad that he could spot us in that heavy rain. After he dropped us ...

Sometimes I feel like sitting by a river and doing nothing When I say doing nothing, I don’t mean doing nothing though. I mean I want to dip my fingers and feel the cold water, I want to pick a leaf that fell from a nearby tree, Look at it, run my fingers on it, press it against my cheek, And then float it down the river.  Then watch the leaf float, float and float...