I suppose you can call this a quickie entry, but I am down with flu-like symptoms today ... this, I think is my second attack of the flu in as many months. This time, it started with a slight tickling sensation in the nose, then on to a lot of powerful, earth-shaking sneezing, then the slight irritation in the back of the throat, and by the end of day 1, a slight cough. Over the night, the cough worsened - so much so that I started getting bouts of wracking cough that caused my head to swim with anoxia (lack of oxygen) for a few seconds. Now, it is the end of day 2; the cough looks and feels better ... but let's see what happens next. So far, I have not taken any medicine other than paracetamol and a cough syrup that goes by the name of Zedex. I chose that since it has no sedating anti-histamines. It comes from the house of Wockhardt.
Hoping to have a better Tuesday as compared to my miserable Monday!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Preferred Authorship on Writing.com
Sometime in the first week of November this year ... i.e. just over 7-8 days ago, the staff at Writing.com made me, after 6 years of being on the site, a preferred author. This means a lot to me, as this enables me to go even higher in the future. The higher levels are those of moderator, senior moderator, and finally, staff ... but the last is something I don't intend taking up, and also, I am unlikely to be offered that post as I am not a resident of the U.S.
The immediate announcement came with a mail in my G-Mail inbox; I was, naturally, elated to see that my portfolio had turned from a black one to a sunny yellow! Yippee, I said, and immediately went into the WDC site (that, to my readers, is Writing Dot Com). There was a forum meant for Preferred authors and above, where I duly went and declared to the world of WDC pref authors and mods that I had now become a part of their circle. I received many congratulations and accolades ... for which I thanked them repeatedly!
Now, this is no longer a novelty. If you want to see my writing, please do visit this page on the site or this, much more clean link.
Tell me what you think of my writing once you have read some of the stuff that is displayed. If you find the site overwhelming, click on "Table of Contents" just below the portfolio image and browse through the items at leisure.
Are there any items I would like you to really, really read? Of course! If you want to cut through the clutter and see my best work, just open the first folder called "My Awarded Items" and read whatever you fancy within that folder. My personal recommendations for this: "Endings and Beginnings", "With a Cherry on the Top" and "Gandhi: The Naked Fakir".
That's it for now.
The immediate announcement came with a mail in my G-Mail inbox; I was, naturally, elated to see that my portfolio had turned from a black one to a sunny yellow! Yippee, I said, and immediately went into the WDC site (that, to my readers, is Writing Dot Com). There was a forum meant for Preferred authors and above, where I duly went and declared to the world of WDC pref authors and mods that I had now become a part of their circle. I received many congratulations and accolades ... for which I thanked them repeatedly!
Now, this is no longer a novelty. If you want to see my writing, please do visit this page on the site or this, much more clean link.
Tell me what you think of my writing once you have read some of the stuff that is displayed. If you find the site overwhelming, click on "Table of Contents" just below the portfolio image and browse through the items at leisure.
Are there any items I would like you to really, really read? Of course! If you want to cut through the clutter and see my best work, just open the first folder called "My Awarded Items" and read whatever you fancy within that folder. My personal recommendations for this: "Endings and Beginnings", "With a Cherry on the Top" and "Gandhi: The Naked Fakir".
That's it for now.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Hannah's misaaq
To all those readers who are not able to understand that word in the title, a misaaq is an initiation of a person into the fold of adulthood; it is similar to the "janoi"or the thread ceremony of Brahmins; something similar to this exists in some form or the other in almost all faiths. I am reminded of my own misaaq which was performed when I was but 15 years old. A misaaq is performed by a priest upon a teenager who is ready to take on his/her own responsibilities and duties as a Muslim. Before the misaaq, the person is a child, and his/her caretakers are responsible for him/her and his/her deed (s). Once the person has been misaaq-i-fied,the responsibilities are his/her alone. He/she pays for his/her own sins and earns grace for his/her kind acts before the Almighty.
During the ceremony, which takes about 45-60 minutes, the priest goes over the history of Islam, explaining to the candidate the various events that shaped the religion and the various dates that defined it.
He talks about the pillars of Islam, explains the meaning of the "kaleima" (There is but One God and His name is Allah and Mohammed is His Prophet). He goes on to tell about how our own sect of the Shias separated from the Sunnis, how Bohraism came to be, and finally informs the candidate about the Syedna - our Head of Religion. He asks the candidate to swear allegiance upon Islam and its rites and responsibilities, upon the Syedna and asks him/her to perform all the religious duties regularly.
In a way, this ceremony is quite rigid, because no one who has undergone the misaaq can remain completely pure and only religious. The World has its own way of intruding into the privacy and purity of one's religious obligations and of twisting morals of an individual completely.
This, in fact, is something that the priest himself must surely be aware of, since they charge a not-so-insignificant sum of almost 4000 INR to do the job.
After the misaaq, my daughter Hannah (now renamed Habibah) went to school and attended it for the half day that remained to be completed. I plan to attach some pictures of the event later.
During the ceremony, which takes about 45-60 minutes, the priest goes over the history of Islam, explaining to the candidate the various events that shaped the religion and the various dates that defined it.
He talks about the pillars of Islam, explains the meaning of the "kaleima" (There is but One God and His name is Allah and Mohammed is His Prophet). He goes on to tell about how our own sect of the Shias separated from the Sunnis, how Bohraism came to be, and finally informs the candidate about the Syedna - our Head of Religion. He asks the candidate to swear allegiance upon Islam and its rites and responsibilities, upon the Syedna and asks him/her to perform all the religious duties regularly.
In a way, this ceremony is quite rigid, because no one who has undergone the misaaq can remain completely pure and only religious. The World has its own way of intruding into the privacy and purity of one's religious obligations and of twisting morals of an individual completely. This, in fact, is something that the priest himself must surely be aware of, since they charge a not-so-insignificant sum of almost 4000 INR to do the job.
After the misaaq, my daughter Hannah (now renamed Habibah) went to school and attended it for the half day that remained to be completed. I plan to attach some pictures of the event later.
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