Zainab's Writings

Here's the second chapter of the short story I'm writing ( click here to read Chapter 1 if you haven't already). Those of you who often read my short stories will by now be used to the frequent food references in my writings (yup, I'm a foodie, and what my protagonist had for lunch is as important to me as my own lunch, lol). In some of my recent writings, though, I have been resisting the urge to include anything food-related but in this piece, I finally gave in (maybe I even went a bit overboard). :D Anyway, I do hope it did this chapter some good. ---- Chapter 2: Halwa Fareeha pressed the bell. She waited. It seemed like the old lady was taking longer than usual to open the door. Pressing her ear to the gate, Fareeha listened intently for the sound of footsteps. She could hear none. Should I ring the bell again? she wondered. Just then, she heard the front door swing open, snapping her out of her thoughts. As she stepped into the kitchen, Fareeha could...

Dear Karachi, I love you. Everyday, they tell me how terrible you are, with your overpopulated neighbourhoods and filthy streets flowing with sewage, they tell me tales of your unreliable, almost nonexistent transport system, of poverty and power outages. Till not so long ago, I used to read in the paper; stories about corruption, robberies and the government’s lack of attention thereof. I don’t read the newspaper anymore. I know there’s more to you than what the news reports say. There’s good in you, good which I see everyday when I step outside. I love you for all your sincere people, people who care and are willing to make a difference. I love you for the fact that despite all your industrial growth, traditional values thrive anyway; you still have not transformed completely into a modern capitalist society. I love your diversity; your people which originate from different parts of the subcontinent creating a wonderful distinct culture, each with their own set of ideas and bel...

This is the first chapter of a short story I'm working on. I will hopefully post the other parts soon, or as I get done with them. ----- It was an early Sunday morning, and after a hectic week of work, the neighbourhood slept uninterrupted. Everything was still and silent; everything except for the branches of an old neem tree that swayed in the wind - and the sparrow that lived on it - which went about their usual business, oblivious of the fact that it was a Sunday. Next to the neem tree there was an old house (the oldest on the street, perhaps even older than the neem tree itself). For years the house had stood alone next to empty plots on the street, and it had seen the deserted region grow into a neighbourhood that buzzed with life. But now, it wore a tired look; it seemed like it no longer wanted to carry on with life. The yellowish paint on the walls once used to be white, but now it was peeling off; it seemed as if the people around had stopped caring for it. In...

At school I was always the high-achiever ; although I seldom worked hard at my studies. There were occasions when I wouldn't feel like doing the work I was supposed to do, did it half-heartedly, and still received a 'Well done!’ comment from the teacher. One such incident from kindergarten is still fresh in my mind. The class was doing a Picture Composition - a  writing activity which required us to write and draw about a picture of a seal performing in a circus; taped to the blackboard. I happened to be in a bad mood, and purposely gave my worst to the task; making sure I coloured outside the lines in the picture I drew. However, to the teacher it was quite satisfactory, and I got a smiley-face for it. This was one of the first impressions the school gave me: you had to satisfy the teacher, your own standards of satisfaction were irrelevant and unimportant. Although I was mostly a very obedient student, bitter experiences happened to me as well, some of which still stick...

This was a poem I wrote for an online poetry course I completed a couple of months ago on Coursera , called Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop offered by CalArts (California Institute of the Arts). I must say it was a wonderful course. I learned a lot from it and I would really recommend any poetry enthusiasts reading this to enroll...this is one course you won't regret joining! :) Anyways, so this poem was one I wrote in response to a prompt for a conceit . The prompt was called ' You Are So Conceited: When A Metaphor Isn't Tough Enough '. A conceit is basically when you write up a comparison between two totally different subjects and is a kind of extended metaphor.  I chose to write a comparison between men and sheep, and in my poem tried to highlight how similar they both are in the way they choose to walk in a herd and follow the rest of their kind instead of thinking for themselves. (Later on, however, I realized that this comparison was too simple, hehe...

So here's the last part to the story! This one is 509 words long, making the story a whopping 2268 words long! (this is the first short story I've written that actually made it to the standard short story length! All my short stories are generally too short, even for a short story!) Apologies to anyone who I've kept waiting! :) Click here , here , and here to read Parts 1, 2, and 3. ----- I felt like I would faint any moment. My head was throbbing with pain from standing out in the scorching heat for so long, my throat was prickly and dry, my shirt was still stained and there were merely nine minutes to go until the interview began. The drive to The Prestige Bank’s Central Branch would easily take fifteen minutes, and that too if the roads were clear, which they would certainly not be at this hour of the day; when majority of the city’s population were commuting to their offices. I sighed. I was defeated, and I knew it. Out of nowhere, a tear appeared on th...

What do schools teach kids? A typical answer would be; science, math, languages, history, etc… I don’t quite agree. With my limited experience of schooling, here’s what I think schools teach kids :       1.       How to be mean to themselves When a child enters the school building for the first time, he has a strong sense of self worth – he respects himself and demands to be respected by others as well. But by the time he reaches primary school, he no longer has any self-respect left in him.  He listens to people humiliating him, reprimanding him, blaming him for things he never did, scolding him for being too intelligent, that he stops standing up for himself. In fact, now he’s part of the gang who is insulting him and telling him he’s worthless. He curses himself all the time; for speaking up in class, for being too cheeky, for being himself.          2.       How to be mean ...

It is Ramadan and the weather is getting unbearably hot. There are over a 1000 heatwave deaths in Sindh and Karachi.  Almost everyone wonders why there is a sudden rise in temperatures! Why is it getting too hot???? Why are we always freezing or boiling? Global Warming is the answer. Let me explain this thing to you. There is a protective layer outside the earth called the Ozone Layer. All the pollution has caused a hole in the Ozone Layer. The Ozone Layer used to Protect the earth from the Sun's harmful rays. Now the sun shines right through the hole. We cannot patch up this hole!!! All we can do is to stop it from getting more hot. But we're not doing much, are we???? "Factories cause Pollution!," you'll say. "We're completely innocent!" Or are we? We are not. We have a fair share for causing Global Warming! The Air Conditioners and Heaters we switch on whenever we want are helping it to warm some more. If you ever look at the back side...

  In our society, advertising plays the key role for excessive buying. The ads that our media presents urge people to buy products of a particular brand. The companies that make the stuff we buy have a strategy: They advertise the things that are not our needs. There is no need to advertise for our needs! We have to get our needs, no matter what. They mainly advertise for our wants our secondary needs in the papers and T.V. The companies do their best to make their ads flashy. They include people like film stars, cricketers, doctors, scientists, cartoon characters and statements, music and actions, anything that would appeal to their targeted customers.  Advertising is simply a trap. They get us in their cycle only to earn money. Often, we fall in to their trap of the ads and buy the unnecessary stuff. Their job is to get their stuff sold, while our job is to prevent ourselves from buying them.  Though what we really do, is buy their stuff. Whenever we go to the...

Thousands of Animals out there in the world, Are hopeless-starved to death, And although we're pretending not to know, We're giving those animals a threat. A threat for hunting and shooting them out, A threat for making them die, A threat that means to destroy their homes, A threat that's mean and sly. We aim to cut down all the trees, And hope to dirty the land, We try to make the earth polluted, And now it's getting out of hand. But what we're starting to forget is, That the animals live here, too, It's not their fault but they are too, Suffering with me and you!!!

In the 21st century, handwriting is given almost as much importance as writing. If schools are preparing kids for the future,  well, then, in the future, there will be no such thing as writing on paper. Handwriting is useless. There's no point in spending precious hours of time writing letters in neat, small,handwriting. It is said that writing should be done for yourself, not others.Well, then handwriting is done for others, not yourself!!Handwriting should be understandable, that's all. If Parents, Schools, and Teachers keep telling kids how their handwriting should be, and what they've done wrong, then kids will start focusing on their handwriting, too, and forget about writing, which matters more. For example, If  kids who have good writing, but not so good handwriting, are badgered so much about their handwriting, then he'll start focusing on handwriting, not writing. If you ask a group of people, to write a single letter of the alphabet on a piece of paper, an...

Many people say,"Technology is fast. It makes life more easier and practical." Well, in a way, they are right. Technology does make life more easier. But technology makes life soo  easy that it makes you stop doing anything by yourself. Everything is available on the TV or your tablet. Working hard, is something we're trying to avoid! Patience is disappearing! You don't have to wait the postman to bring you your letter, you can get what you want by emailing or simply text messaging. In order to get what you want fast, you stop moving your arms and legs and you turn into a couch potato-that's exactly what technology is doing. Technology is slowly taking over our lives. Cooking and Shopping are chores that can be done through technology. Soon, nobody will be cooking and shopping by their own. Many people think that they don't need to go out in the fresh air for entertainment, as the games available in there gadgets are more fun and appealing. As a result, obes...

Books affect your personality, very, very, much. How? Read on! How books can affect your writing When I was 7 years old, and in Grade 2, I loved to read stories by Enid Blyton.  I'd borrow them from the school library, or read the ones we'd had at home. I faintly remember reading the books, and trying to write exactly like her. It was sort of like an inspiration-  wanting to do something like somebody.  I believe, what you read will affect your style of writing; you'll sound like a mixture of authors you've read, and somehow, you've developed your own style. Not only will it affect the style, but it will affect the content- it'll affect WHAT you write. So read the books by the authors you want to sound like. How books can affect your perspective and thinking Each book has a perspective: of how you view the world around you. (The perspective of a book is actually the Writer's perspective.) Tragic books with sad endings make you feel that nothing's g...

How smoking will affect your health-that doesn't only mean lungs. Look inside to learn how.

As technology is developing,now almost everybody has a smartphone. Even children, are often seen playing mobile games/computer games/or watching T.V far too much. What I believe is that any child under the age of 16 shouldn't have a personal mobile phone, because it is not at all healthy,leads to danger and can damage the brain. I have noticed that the kids who play far too much computer games, are not ready to play any of the traditional  games like Oonch Neech, Barf Pani, Pakram pakrai, and so forth. They think those games are boring, but the thing is that their mind set has changed according to the amount of mobile/computer games they play. It's just a time waster. If playing these type of games is one of your habits,then it is least likely for you to stop doing it. But if you have not started yet, then please be careful to save yourself from these technology dangers. But if you're already caught in this trap, I'm sorry. There's not much you can do. If you have a...