Eid Mubarak!

I just want to wish everyone a happy Eid! :) Hope everyone around the world is having an amazing time with family and friends!

It's been an amazing month. Ramadan was absolutely magical this time around for me, it is every year but I just felt more closer to Allah than before. Alhumdulillah! The sad part about it is that it ended so fast. It feels like just yesterday I was posting a blog for Ramadan and it's already gone! I hope to see Ramadan next year. Insha'Allah!

This year, I have learned to give rather than take. I have learned to be patient (well it's going to take some time). I have learnt to look below and not above, to thank Allah for every moment of each day. May Allah SWT always shower his blessings upon us and may He forgive all our sins. Amen

Anyways, so Happy Eid everyone, with lots of yummy food and loved ones! :)

Ramadan Kareem!

Hey everyone, so Ramadan is finally here! It's an amazing feeling. Ramadan Kareem to all the muslims around the world and may ALLAH SWT bless us all! Ameen!

Ramadan is the blessed and holy month in Islam. It's fasting from sunrise to sunset. Yes, we don't drink water either and no we don't die. I love Ramadan, waking up for suhoor and all the preps and yummy food for Iftaar. Okay so obviously, it's not just about food. It's about worshipping, getting close to ALLAH and praying. Reading Quran, giving charity and helping others are all a big part of what Ramadan is all about.

Ramadan is the blessed and holy month because Quran was completed in Ramadan. It is either on the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th or the 29th of Ramadan. From these 5 nights, one of them is the night of power, it is said to be better than 1000 months.

Mainly, it's all about learning patience, and feeling what the less fortunate feel. It's a beautiful month! I hope everyone is praying, reading quran and of course having yummy food for Iftar! Since, my bag got snatched recently, I don't have a phone and well that's why no picture either. It's the first roza (fast) today and Alhumdulillah going really well.

*The month of ramadan in which was revealed the Qur'an, a guidance for mankind and clear proofs for the guidance and the criterion (between right and wrong). So whoever of you sights (the crescent on the first night of) the month (of ramadan i.e. is present at his home), he must observe Saum (fasts) that month, and whoever is ill or on a journey, the same number [of days which one did not observe Saum (fasts) must be made up] from other days. Allah intends for you ease, and He does not want to make things difficult for you. (He wants that you) must complete the same number (of days), and that you must magnify Allah [i.e. to say Takbir (Allahu Akbar; Allah is the Most Great] for having guided you so that you may be grateful to Him.

(Al-Baqara, Chapter #2, Verse #185*

Anyways, until next time. Have a safe and blessed Ramadan!

My favorite brand

So, by now, I am sure you guys know I love fashion and clothes! If you don't know, I am telling you now. I love fashion and clothes! I have an obsession with clothes.

So today, I am writing about my favorite brand as far as Eastern wear goes. This brand is like awesome. Of course, I love it wayyyy too much and that's Khaadi! Khaadi is always coming out with something new. From the kurta's they have to the embroidered tights to the unstitched outfits! Their duppata's are to die for. It's colorful and fun! The combinations are so gorgeous! When I go shopping, I personally go look at Khaadi first thing, wait for Khaadi's lawn collections!

They also have amazing bags and shoes. Although they're limited, they're gorgeous! I am hoping to get the golden kolapuri chapal's for Eid myself and I got a dress from their Eid collection. I am a regular customer at Khaadi and if you can, go to the Bahadurabad branch. Their customer service is amazing and I love the way they deal with their customers, it's better than any other branch I've been to. The prices for the outfits are reasonable as well. The kurta's go from 2500 up to 5000, the unstitched have different prices. The shoes are from 1200 up to 2000 (I guess). The bags are 2500+ but it's different and unique.

The have a lot of variety in the kurta's! They have printed and embroidered. I love both. Their designs represent the youth, elegance and it's just love! :) They also have embroidered tights, plain tights and printed tights in lots of colors.

They also have kurta's for men! I love them, the colors, the soberness. It's nice! I got my dad to buy a grey kurta, the color my dad had been looking for in so long and trust me, we looked everywhere! We finally found it at Khaadi and my dad loves it! So their men's collection is worth checking out too.

Khaadi also has bed sheets and cushions as well. They recently launched Khaadi Kids collection. They don't have kid's outfits at all the branches. They have it at Atrium, Zamzama and Parktowers! I saw the kid's collection for the first time and I liked it.

Here's their website if anyone want's to have a look:
www.khaadi.com

Kurta!

 

The Eid collection outfit that me and my sisters got for ourselves!

 

 

The pictures are from Khaadi's facebook page. I do not in any way own these pics.
 

Much awaited post

Hey guys! :) So after my exams ended, like right after.. I don't think I even got a one day break, the wedding at my dad's best friends house started. His son's wedding to be exact. Well, like I said, dad's best friend so there was no way to skip it! Not even one day!

Today, I'm going to share with you guys what I wore to the wedding, actually what my sister's and I wore to the wedding. Now let me tell you, us 3 sisters, almost always have the same outfits. Sometimes the colors are different but mostly, same! Yes, we get a lot of different names for dressing the same always, but who cares!

So first day was dholki! For those of you who don't know, dholki is just a little get together where the family celebrates and dances! It's fun and isn't dancing the best part of the wedding? Especially desi wedding! We danced a lot at my cousin's wedding but this one, we just sat and watched. Actually, danced a little! :P So our outfits for dholki were cotton white and green outfits! Comfortable for the summer!

Dholki!

 

 Second day was the Mehndi! It was a big event. They had a combined mehndi, that means the girl's and the boy's side did the mehndi together. There was amazing food. Dad's friends truly thought of us before deciding the menu! :P First, I will share what I wore to the mehndi event and then the yummy food that we had there. Unfortunately I couldn't get the pictures for all the items on the menu there but I got some of it.

Sorry for the bad picture quality and also ignore the background. My room gets so messy when I am getting ready for a wedding! lol... So we wore simple outfits, beige plain dresses with just borders on the daaman (botton) and colored chundari duppatas. Mine was red as you can see, One of my sister's was red and green and the other one was blue and maroon.

Now the food:

So there was Pani Puri and Kulfi as you can see in the pic. There was also Gola Ganda (how cool is that), Halwa Puri, Dahi Barey and so much more! It was probably the most fun event through out the whole wedding.

Third was the actual wedding day! Let me just say that I was NOT comfortable. I was not up to wearing this outfit! It was uncomfortable and it was extremely hot so yeah. But here it is:

This is a Hyderabadi bridal outfit. If you can't handle 2.5 yards duppata, don't wear this. The dress I am wearing has double shirt and 6 yards duppata! So yeah, and I don't know, I just wasn't a fan of this outfit personally. I was uncomfortable throughout the event. I just sat in one place and did not want to get up!

Last day finally, was the Reception! This outfit is like my favorite outfit yet, but for winter weddings. It was not a summer wedding outfit! OMG, we were like boiling up in these outfits. First time, we wore this outfit was in March, so it was nice and cool weather. Anyways, this is the outfit:

 

Angarkha's with Dhaka Pajama's (Pulazzo's) with customized clutches! :)

 

Flower my niece gave me at the Mehndi! :)

yayyy!

Yayy! Exams are finally over! So happy! I cannot even describe it! :P Now praying for good results, Insha'Allah!

So summer is here for all the summer lovers. I don't like summers, and summer is definitely here in Karachi and man, can we feel it! lol! It's HOT! Like bad hot and humid! I mean I can cover up in winter but what the hell am I supposed to do in the summer? lol! But there is one thing I absolutely love about summer and that's the flower bangles we get! They smell amazinggggg!! I wear them all the time! They're absolutely love!

Flower bangles!

Anyways, so I have no plans for going out of Karachi yet again this year. But what I have on my agenda is lots of Pretty Little Liars (yes I am obsessed with it), movies and friends (I hope)! Summers are pretty boring around my place! There's a wedding to attend and unfortunately, I fell on the stairs and now my leg is swelling up. Pray for me  peoples!

On the bright side, it rained today! The weather is beautiful right now and what can be better than to have Jalebi (desi sweet) in this lovely weather? I loved it! Hope everyone is enjoying the weather here in Pakistan today! :)

I enjoyed each and every bite :)

 

Friends

I don't know what is the exact definition of "friend" but to me, they mean the world to me. They are the ones I go to with my every problem, everything. Whether I need to cry or laugh, I know they'll be there for me.

Honestly, I don't mean to be crying over all my friends like my last post, this is a happy post. Today, I want to write about a friend who's been there for me for as long as I can remember being here in Pakistan. He was my sister's PE Coach and he added me on Facebook and we just started talking. His name is Kumail. We became great friends in such a short time. We would be texting each other all day and all night, like 10 pages texts each (I'm not kidding).

He was there for me when I had no one to rely on, no one to talk to about my problems, when I was extremely depressed. Despite of all of that, he made me laugh. He's such an amazing person, I cannot even define him because I don't think there are enough words in the world to define Kumail. The best part, he is an AMAZING dancer, like on the highest level of amazingness!

We laughed, we talked and no guys, we didn't fall in love! We were best friends, like bestest (I know that's not a word) friends.

We had our downs and didn't talk, one time, for a year. After that, we made up and talked and it was like nothing ever was wrong. I love this quality of his, he doesn't keep grudges. He won't bring back the past. He'll be hurting himself but won't ever show it. Only the person who truly knows him will see it right through him. That's how close we were. We would meet up at a mutual friend's birthday party. One year, at the party, we acted like complete strangers and after 2 weeks or so. I got a call from him and we made up.

Ever since, we haven't had a big fight, little arguments, all the time. I can say for real that I have seen him at his worst and he's seen me at my worst, when I was completely broken. We've helped each other through our bad times and been with each other through the good times, and Insha'Allah in the future, we'll continue to do so. It's been just about 5 years since me and K, as I call him, have been friends.

I know we don't get to meet up as much as we'd like to and it's hard. It really is. It's easy to lose touch when you're not meeting a person often but it really doesn't matter. We're friends now and I hope with all my heart, we'll stay friends in the future too. I mean every girl needs a guy bestfriend right? I have mine.

Today, I just want to say "Thank you" to K. For being there for me, for making me laugh, for helping me with literally everything. When I cry and I text him because I know he'll do everything in his power to actually make me smile. I have no idea where I would be without you. Also, for helping me find a teacher, Armana (his sister), for my exams. A big thank you for the birthday surprises! The surprises truly made my birthday all that special. I am so happy for you. I always told you, you could get back up and face everything. I love to see you smiling and I pray every day that you get all the happiness and success that I, myself truly know you deserve. :)

 

Congratulations!

This is going to be an extremely emotional post, just a warning!

Okay, so an old friend of mine got married last weekend and well I am so happy for her. Shahira looked stunning Masha'Allah!

We became friends when I moved to USA in 2001. Now obviously, she had lots of friends from before and we didn't really get along from the start. After some time, we became friends that we were inseparable since then. We went everywhere together, did everything together whether it was bad or good! We barely ever fought but I remember one time when we did, I don't remember what we fought about and we didn't talk. Which was very rare, let me tell you! At that time though and with her especially, it didn't matter because we always made up! She was there for me through the good and the bad! We talked about our future, how she would become a journalist and we would find our dream boys and live next to each other in Beverly Hills and stay best friends forever.

She wasn't like my sister, she is and always will be. We cried together, we laughed together. We did stupid stuff together.. but it was all fun! I don't regret one moment we spent together! Her and her elder sister introduced me to hip hop music and then to country! We went from gangsters to preps over the years and the Tupac shirts! lol! It was crazy fun!

We had lots and lots of sleepovers which included staying up all night, computer, video games and talking! Lot's of talking! One night, we had a sleepover at my house and me and her talked all night long like till morning and then we went to gym with mom! lol! We went to movies together.. and the mall and oh did Saba (the elder sister) get annoyed every time we mentioned the mall because all we did was either walk around the mall or sit at the food court eating chili cheese fries! Oh and I can never forget Wendy's frosty and fries they introduced to me!

Then came the day when we had to move back here (Pakistan), It was like the whole world was collapsing for us! :( It was just horrible! I cannot explain in words what we felt. The three didn't need anyone else in our group, it was just us 3 and that's all that mattered. We talked about how we were going to e-mail each other every single day since living there, we texted 24/7 when we weren't together!

Shahira wrote me a poem too! (She's an amazing writer) It was so sweet and she wrote this lovely message on my yearbook. Before I left, she dedicated "Here's to the nights" to me! It's such a beautiful song!

Anyways the night before I had to leave, they came over and surprised us (me and my sisters). I can never ever forget that night. Saba played the song "Save Tonight" for us and we did not sleep that night. It was just impossible to sleep! Then at the airport, Shahira cried a lot! The moment, I sat in the airplane and played "Here's to the night", it hit me! OMG did I cry?! A LOT!!!! I realized that we weren't going to be able to see each other everyday, how we weren't going to be able to talk anytime we wanted.. or go to dinners or the movies! It was so bad!

Now 6 years later, Shahira got married last weekend and Masha'Allah I cold not be more happier! We don't talk anymore even though, each day my heart aches knowing how much things have changed and how I wish they didn't! We planned so much together and I wish we could've done all of that together. I cried a lot on the weekend because I couldn't believe I was missing her wedding. I doubt she'll read this, since she doesn't know about my blog but even then..

Congratulations Shahira. You have no idea how much you still mean to me. All the best wishes to you and your husband for your new life ahead. May you always be happy! I love you a lot! You'll always be my best friend, the closest to my heart from all my friends.

Random!

So I am sitting here at my teacher's house, waiting for him to come and well I thought why not write a blogpost!

My Accounts exam is tomorrow and OMG, am I freaking out? God only know what's going to happen tomorrow but Insha'allah it'll be good! :)

Other than my exams, honestly, I cannot believe the protests happening! Yes, I understand what the people are feeling! I am a big supporter of IK but it just wasn't meant to be! It's not going to take 2-3 months to make Naya Pakistan! We need to work on that! It's going to take years! And the first thing, we should at least learn to respect each other!

Also, one more thing I'd like to ramble on about is that relationships are not based on which community you belong to or which party you support! It just doesn't work that way! This incident happened with a very good friend of mine! She's not a supporter of PTI so her PTI supporter friends deleted her off of Facebook and then MQM supporter friends too! I mean grow up people! It's so sad to see that we're basing our relationships on politics now! I mean how are we supposed to change the country when we put these things before us? Seriously people?
Sorry to say but It's pure stupidity!

On the bright side, we designed outfits for my cousins for another cousins wedding and well they loved it Alhumdulillah! :) There'll be another post on the designing though!

Okay, so not a very interesting post but whatever, I am bored and I have no idea what to do. It's been 40 mins and my teacher is still not here! :-/

Anyways, remember me in your prayers for my exam tomorrow and the rest!

Weekend...

This week itself was a really hectic week with exams starting and packages that needed to be sent out. It was just crazy!

Anyways, first of all, I would like to wish my pyari si sister a very happy birthday! It was yesterday and yes I did wish her. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAJRA! May ALLAH (SWT) bless you with all the happiness in the world and may all your dreams and wishes come true! I love you even though we fight a lot! :) I hope this coming year is filled with love, blessings and happiness for you! :)
*She's a blogger as well, started before me so here's her blog if anyone would like to read it.
http://www.hijabiwithatwist.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday Sissyyy! <3


 

Today are the elections in Pakistan, a very big day for us all Pakistani's. I am so proud of myself and my family and friends! Honestly, I never saw myself voting, especially in Pakistan. Even then, we voted and it couldn't be better!  It was my life's first vote and I couldn't be happier with my choice. We voted for change, we voted for our future but most of all, we voted for Pakistan! Naya(new) Pakistan, that is! We're tired of the same old scenario, same old people promising so much but giving nothing! We want to give Imran Khan a chance because he truly deserves it! He's sincere. No matter what he did in his personal life is no concern to us. We know he's our true leader! We're so happy to have voted for PTI! We're ready for Naya Pakistan!

It feels amazinggg!

our signs, showing that we voted!

Now that we have fulfilled our responsibility. We're waiting, sitting in front of the television and just waiting for the results to be tallied and announced, even though I haven't had any sleep in the past 2 nights. We're impatiently waiting for Imran Khan to be announced as our new Prime Minister! :)
We also had a BBQ tonight!

Fooooodd! :)

the best part of the night!

Until next time... Wish me luck for my exams and keep me in your prayers! :)

Anjuman

First off, let me tell you guys about the movies. Tarang Housefull is remaking 6 movies from the 60’s and 70’s pakistani movies. Every Friday they air a new movie on GEO. Last Friday, they aired the 2^nd movie, Anjuman. They have the old movie on in the afternoon and then after prime time show, the remake is on air. The first movie was “Abhi toh mein jawan hoon”. Honestly, even though the cast was good, it didn’t appeal to me. I didn’t watch it.

Anjuman, I watched it. I didn’t see the old one, as much as I wanted to. By the time I turned the tv on, it was halfway through so since I didn’t know the story, I didn’t watch it. I LOVED the remake! The cast was perfect.

Cast:

Mona Lisa, now known as Sara Loren was the tawaif: Anjuman
Imran Abbas played Waheed Murad’s role: Asif
Aly Khan played the older brother’s role:  Wajahat
Iffat Omar was the bhabhi.

Story Line:
Anjum Hayat Khan (Anjuman) is a prostitute/dancer but wants to study and be successful. Wajahat is in love with Anjuman. When Asif finds out about his brother, he goes to find Anjuman. She tells him that Wajahat owns her, as of, "nat utarwai". He asks to replace his brother as he's married and falls in love with her. I don't want to reveal too much. You have to watch it to find out.

Acting:
Sara Loren was fabulous. I loved her. She really did justice to the role she was given. Her expressions were amazing! No one else, in my opinion, could’ve done this role better than her. Imran Abbas also did justice to his role.

Music:
I loved the music! Especially “Dil Dharkey mein tumse ye kaisey kahoon”.. Obsessed! Have listened to it 20+ time in the last half hour. It’s just amazing. I love how they have made it slower than the actaul one sang  by Runa Laila, where as, this one is sung by Sunidhi Chouhan. I think she did a very good job. It’s a must listen! “Aap din ki anjuman me” was good as well.

Outfits:
Outfits overall were very good! They followed the 2013 trend and they were all gorgeous.

The direction, producting, dialogues all were amazing!

As you can tell, I loved the movie (as if I haven’t said that like 3 times through this post)!

love it!

 

Waiting for “Dil mera dharkan teri” next week!

Engagement...

So no need to get confused with the blog title, I am not engaged yet.

But that is what my weekend consisted of, living in Pakistan, you would know how late the wedding/engagement functions tend to end and on top of that, we have 2 functions on separate days for engagements. I don't get thee point of 2 days thing. I mean why not just have one big bash and have the ceremony. That's what I plan on doing when I get engaged. Let's hope that works out for me.

Anyways, on Friday afternoon, I got call from a friend/cousin of mine inviting me to her engagement the next night (Saturday night). So, first thing, what do I wear? Obviously being a girl and obsessed with clothes. I opened my closet and picked out a black dress which I thought would be suitable since it was a dinner.

Now the surprise that I got when I reached there Saturday night. I went upstairs where the bride was getting ready and she told me I had to be her bride's maid (I don't know the proper name for the girls with the bride on her engagement). Shocked? yes! I don't know the first thing about being a bride's maid. There's a first time for everything right?

Well, we walked out to the tent with her, another cousin on her other side. We had help with her duppata (scarf) before she sat on the stage and god knows what else. Keep her gifts with us, check her make up, since it was quite hot that night. Poor girl seemed so exhausted. She had to sit up straight and that wasn't the end of it. The next day, at her in-laws, where the ring ceremony was. We had to sit like that for more than 6-7 hours. It was exhausting and tiring!

Seeing the bride, it kind of scares me because I'm not the kind to be able to sit straight like that for so long. I like to be comfortable and thank god, some families don't think it's a must for a girl to sit like that for so long. I want to be the kind of bride to be walking around and meeting all the guests and having fun rather than being uncomfortable and sitting on the stage like a statue.

Sorry for such a long post, basically what I mean to say is please change your thinking people. We're in the 21st century and gone are the days where the girls have to become a statue, can't move, can't talk! I think the bride's should be able to enjoy herself and sit however she wants. Also, the experience of being with the bride was a good one. Although, it was long but I had fun. It's special to be a part of something like that.

What are your thoughts?

Earthquake.

I'm sure, by now, everyone has seen on the news or read on the internet about the Earthquake in Iran that was also felt in Pakistan, India, Dubai and a lot of different countries.

It is said to be 7.9 magnitude earthquake. As per the news, the earthquake was felt mostly (other than Iran, of course) in Karachi because of all the big buildings we have here.

Me and my sister, Hajra, were just causally sitting watching tv like any other day. Suddenly, the couch started moving. We called out to our mom who was in her room and well all hell went loose. We ran downstairs, ringing everyone's doorbells so that we could evacuate the building. After we were all coming up stairs, back into our homes, we noticed that our neighbor never left his house. He came out and he said he was praying. That's when it hit me, instead of running around like maniacs, we should've been asking for forgiveness for our sins and praying to Allah to keep us safe. It's heart breaking to see that instead of us praying when it's mostly needed, we are looking for our phones and locking our house doors and god knows what else. It never even crossed our minds to at least call out to Allah!

Anyways,  Alhumdulillah, we are all okay and there was no damage done to our building or any others around our building. I really hope everyone is safe! Pray, pray and pray! That's the only thing we'll need when we leave this world and nothing else. Not our homes, phones or anything! Please stay safe and don't forget to pray!

May ALLAH SWT forgive our sins and protect us all! Ameen!

Happy Birthday Missy! :)

Happy Birthday Best Friend!!

I could go on and on about me and you but then this post would be very veryyy long. So.. all I want to say is Happy Birthday Maha! I'm so blessed to have you in my life. Honestly, I have no idea where I would be without you! It's amazing how we started talking and in no time became best friends! I pray that all your dreams and wishes come true. You are my drama queen and I love you for it.

You're always there when I need you, whether it's in the good times or bad. I am so glad I met Touba and because of her, I met you! You're my soul sister and no one can ever replace you in my life and heart! No matter the distance, we'll always be close and always will be there for each other. After all, isn't that what we're here for?

Our stupid convos, our marriship (lol), us hanging out and making the best of every moment means so much to me! All that I've been through in the past 3 years, you've always been my solid rock to rely on, to help me through everything and I hope I have been able to do the same for you.

May Allah SWT always shower his blessings upon you and may he bless you with all the happiness in the world because you truly deserve it!

I love you and happy birthday! <3

Happy Birthday Maha! <3

 

Devil's Point!

Yes, the name Devil's point sounds evil but if you live in Karachi and you haven't been to Devil's Point or Do Darya (2 rivers), you must go! The view is amazing, the restaurants are beautiful with a desi touch and the food there is spectacular! I'm a big foodie! Love eating out too much!

All the people visiting Karachi anytime soon, add this place to your list of places where you would like to go! It's just so lovely to sit by the water and have dinner, the water splashing against the rocks and you can see the fishes jumping out the water too.

This was our third time going to DP (Devil's point). Now there is a lot of choices as per restaurants. There's Creek Inn, Hot Bite, Al-Habib, Norani Kabab House, Kolachi and many more. We went to Sajjad Restaurant last night.

Sajjad Restaurant

Since it was Saturday night, there was a long waiting line, around 30-45 minutes of waiting till we finally got our table. We saw crabs on the rocks below our table too!
Moving on to the food. We've been to Sajjad before too so one thing which is an absolute must for us to order is Dhaka Chicken, it's fried chicken with fries. It's amazinggg!! We ordered steaks there for the first time. The Mexican steak was very good. The salsa sauce, jacket potato, sautéed veggies with garlic naan.

The best time I would recommend to go at is a little before sunset. The view will be amazing and you can actually take pics with the ocean showing up in the background!

Do let me know in the comments if you have been there and how you like it :)

Dhaka Chicken! Yummy!!

 The crabs! (best I can do with an iphone 4) sorry!

Mexican Steak with Salsa sauce :)


Yayyy! My very first blog post!

Hi! Okay, so I finally decided to start my own blog. I've been thinking about doing this for a couple of years now but never thought I could do it. I needed inspiration. I started following blogs than, not the make up or fashion only ones. The regular daily life ones.

Anyways, I hope you guys like my random posts!
I love designing eastern wear, more specifically, Pakistani outfits. I enjoy baking a lot. I love my friends and family.
My blog is life from my point of view. So excited! :)

Thank you in advance for reading! :)