LIFE AS IT IS

Ipshita’s parents are Bangladeshis at heart. They want to expose their child to both cultures from a young age. They believe it will enrich her as a person. The two-and-a-half year old Ipshita already knows two languages. She is fluent in Bengali. She understands English but is yet to form long sentences in English. Her pre-school teacher said that her spoken English would improve by the end of the spring semester. Ipshita wears both Easter and Western clothes. When she visits Bangladesh with her parents she wears salwar suits. She sometimes wears salwar suits at home too. She loves her South Asian fancy dresses. They are so brightly colored! She has quite a few of them – she got a couple of them as gifts from her extended family in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and her parents’ city. She visited Dhaka twice in the last two years. The city was always too hot and humid for her. Although she did well during her first trip, on her second trip to Dhaka last September, she was...

Ipshita is an American by birth and a Bangladeshi by lineage. Both her parents hail from Bangladesh, a small country in South Asia. Her parents’ place of birth has a rich history and culture. She is only two but has already visited Bangladesh twice! Ipshita lives with her parents in a two-bedroom apartment in Wilmington, Delaware. The city is called the hub of the American credit card industry. Her dad works at an American multinational bank. Ipshita’s mother is there for Ipshita 24 hours a day. She is a full-time mother by choice. Both of her parents moved to the United States for their higher education. Her dad came to this country in his teens, soon after he finished his high school in Bangladesh. Ipshita’s father, Arif, has been in the U.S. for more than 10 years now. He studied computer information systems in college. He later earned an MBA. Ipshita’s mom, Samia, came to the U.S. as a graduate student. She studied business and mass communications. ...

I long to call her  I long to be surrounded  By the sweet fragrance that’s hers. But, she takes to her heels She leaves me, she leaves me When the evening falls on the city. I try to stop her Stop her from going. My thirst for her and her love Only increases with every attempt to stop her, To stop her from going. Here I am standing alone by the window, Watching her go as I'm standing alone. Alas, she does not realize She does not realize my love for her She just does not realize...

I watched Mardaani last night. It's a Bollywood film on child sex trafficking starring Rani Mukerji, the versatile Indian actress. After watching this film, I felt that everyone should watch it to understand and feel the pain of children who undergo the trauma of forced sex. We don't like to talk about taboo subjects. We like to believe that our worlds exist far away from "theirs" even though these crimes are taking place right under our nose. We like to think that these crimes will never affect us in any way and that our lives will forever remain untouched by the filth of the underworld. As a woman and a mother, I felt that this is a must-watch film. Everyone should watch it, men and women alike. I should put extra emphasis on men because this "business" thrives for them and to satisfy their perverted needs. Rani Mukerji has been my favorite actress since the release of her film, Kuch Kuch Hota Hain. She is a powerful actress, a brilliant performer, w...

Although we may not always be on the same page, even so we can stay friends. Although I may not always meet your expectations and you not mine, even so we can stay friends.  Although the way you look at the world is different from mine, even so we can stay friends.  I want my friends to give me only that much, that much that they want to give me from their hearts…not a bit more or less, for there is no compulsion in friendship... https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wara-Karim/1401474443425018

Motherhood has instilled in me a different type of emotion, an emotion whose existence I was unaware of in those pre-mummy years of life. Today, when I see suffering children, turbulent emotions rupture my heart. Sometimes, I shed tears in silence. I ask myself if this emotional overflow is because of my new identity as a mother. Perhaps. Every child deserves a happy childhood. But to millions of children around the world, "happiness" is a word that carries little or no meaning. Many a child's childhood is snatched away at such an early age that they never know what it feels like to go school five days a week, eat three good meals a day, or sleep without having to worry about their houses being blown up by enemy tropps. In any conflict, it's the children who suffer the most. When I see images and video footage of living and dead children of Palestine and Syria, I sit still before my computer and know not what to feel. Sometimes I wonder what I myself would have ...