corner view: coffee companion

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more coffee companions
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mama i you...

all this while i had been waiting for him to say "mama, i love u"....
how could i not see what i needed to hear was already being said

p.s: he has started saying the words too now
"mama, i u"
and love is in the actions

pics courtesy of Nariman Ansari
firefly photoworks

6 years and a Nyle later...

......i love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. i love you straightforwardly without complexities or pride; so i love you because i know no other way
--pablo neruda

6 years ago there was so much to say...
6 years later there is less said and yet so much felt....

heres to us,
heres to love & marriage,
heres to so much more.

when the girls get together....

there will be journeys of the hearts: image kelly rae

there will be Coco Avante Chanel,
there will be drinks and gelatos with warm chocolate syrups.
there will be talk of world and religion,
there will be talk of love and marriage.
there will be talk of inner conflicts and sorting thoughts
there will be talk of birthing miracles and raising kids,
there will be talk of fashion and shoes
there will be dreams shared and uncontrollable laughters with tears
there will be a full night of binging without a care,
there will be pumpkin pies
and sleepy eyes
and above all there will be good times well shared!

this was a weekend dedicated to the girls
and as girls will be girls there was all of the above and so much more.
Thank God for good friends!

corner view: dreams

dreams are brains way of building a cartography of thoughts, images, emotions, ambitions
and mapping them out in the sub conscious. i use dreams to list and store and
return to them one by one, from time to time. i then let the conscious sort them out
and find ways of making them possible.
i believe all dreams can come true, you just have to push yourself that extra mile and the next thing you know you are LIVING your DREAMS

talk of dreams always brings this tune to my head.
enjoy dreaming...
and find more dreamers here

corner view: love

love is...
...in post it notes where you least expect them
...in memories that always bring a smile
it is where the heart is...


there is more love to be found at spaindaily

this friday....

The first Friday of October has been quiet and mostly spent in the comfort of our home.

rainful and blurry

It has been about a rainy morning and a misty evening

Toronto on a misty night

The in betweens have been mostly pending house chores.

chores big and small
This Friday has been about gaining inspiration from stories around the world, getting a fall wardrobe ready, catching up with friends old and new and looking forward to a weekend of Nuit Blanche.

i think therefore i am

Wishing every one a great weekend and leaving with a thought,
"Simple is hard to do. But, when you get there its so liberating. It means taking away things to arrive at just the right elements"
-Eileen Fisher

happy falling

Summer has been trying to say farewell for a while now and i think it finally has. signs of change were visible in our morning walk today.

All the senses seemed awakened by the rustling of the leaves under the feet, the mellowed sun, the chill in the wind, an uncanny calmness and a general slowing down could be felt in the atmosphere. And much to my surprise, i liked the sight of the world slowing down around me, as if taking a break, allowing the change to seep in, bowing down to the call of nature. Fall is undoubtedly, my favorite

because with fall comes:

• the right amount of cool temperature: tolerable and kind
• a burst of color: orange, rust, red
• my lovely tan shoes
• hot chocolates and more coffee
• shorter days and longer nights
• season of mist and mellow fruitfulness
• visits to museums: a spectular photography exhibition at the ROM, Vanity Fair Portraits, photographs since 1913-2008, to be attended
• a free all night contemporary art thing
• photography in a different
• addition of the number one to my thirty
• scrabble nights with friends
• pink: the national breast cancer awareness month if October
  
• small: because October is all about small is the new big (more on that later)
  
• and a whole lot of loving, laughter and living with the ones we care for

stillness

everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. if we are frantic life will be frantic, if we are peaceful, life will be peaceful.
-Marianne Williamson

hapy October and happy fall!

i found "a beautiful revolution"...

....and i had to share

Reading this message (which has now found a permanent place on my blog to your right)i realized how easy it is to get wrapped up in things, material things, labels, achieving, struggling to achieve, goals we set for ourselves, the race we put ourselves up to, one after another and yet another. And in this struggle to climb higher, to win, to battle, to prove, we keep getting sucked in deeper and deeper in this abyss, this well that we dig for ourselves. And we get devoured. And we forget.

We forget what it means to just be ourselves. To truly be ourselves and not what other want us to be or how we want others to perceive us as. We forget to look within, to find inspiration in the simple, to find inspiration in ourselves, to have the strength to face our fears. We forget to have the strength to speak our own words, our own language, to speak words that are truly our own.

Here’s to being ourselves no matter who we are. Here’s to recognizing others for what they are no matter who they are. Here’s to writing words of honesty, and here’s to a beautiful revolution!

Note: im a little peeved out about something and at someone today but since i promised myself to stay positive i thought ill vent positively as well. Here's to staying positive !!

silent contemplation

I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy.
-
anais nin

need i say more...

celebrations

I have always been big on celebrating customs and traditions. But somehow this year we celebrated with more fervor, more eagerness and a lot more love. Maybe it has something to do with little N’s arrival.

Maybe it has something to do with us being home but so far from home, so far from the people we love, so far from the family and friends we have grown up with.

And maybe that’s why it is a blessing to have F’s family here. And maybe that’s why it is a blessing to have friends who are like family, to have family who are like friends, to share bonds with, to make memories with and to celebrate with.


Happy weekending to every one and very happy Eid celebrations to all our friends and family around the world.

Red punctuation

When life throws a punctuation at you

And nature follows suit.

Don’t just drive by.

Break the rules, turn around and catch it before its too late...
before the light is gone...

and you are left with nothingness.


a sunset caught just in time.
may we all catch our sunsets in time. have a happy, sunny weekend!

weekend wanderings

After a tiring week we decided to end the Labor Day weekend by indulging in simple pleasures like

Watching artists at work at the Artisans crafts show in our neighborhood




See what we see everyday a little differently
play with my Nikon D40 till the battery died on us
Bask in the sun
Sip coffee
Watch the sunset
Stay still and enjoy the peace and quiet of a long week ending...

Summer freshness

Last evening I spent doing what I love doing the most: Cooking, feeding and entertaining. I love cooking. I find it to be very therapeutic and relaxing. And I cook in big quantities. So there’s always a lot of food and only two stomachs to feed. This takes me to my second passion feeding and entertaining. I love having people over, cooking a big meal and making sure all my guests have eaten to their stomachs content.

Yes, I am one of those annoying hostesses who will not eat when every ones eating. I will hover making sure their plate is always full. I will float in and out of the kitchen refilling and reheating. I will not let anyone into my kitchen to help before the meal is served. I will set the table myself, because it’s already pre-set in my head. I will expect help in cleaning up. I will serve dessert even if it’s not home made. I will serve tea with cinnamons and cardamoms because I love the smell it produces (I’ve never had tea myself). I will laugh and talk profusely because I love to see my guests smiling. And I will expect them to shower me with compliments. And this round of applaud will surely win them their next invitation.

So last night was a night of politics, world and the future. It was when little N kept everyone revitalized on a weeknight. It was a night of laughter and memories, prayers and togetherness. A night of open windows and soft winds. A night of celebrating sunny days and long summer nights. A night of summer freshness with the smell of fall around the corner.

Hope everyone had a good night

object of my affection

In the Architects and designers section of Architectural Digest I came across this very inspiring piece discussing “what is one accessory, piece of furniture or design element in your home you cannot live without?”

It got me thinking of the object of my affection in my home, that one piece that is so very dear to me. The accessory that I cannot live without, the one design element that makes my home very close to home (my homeland). And it brought me to this group of sepia prints that hold sentimental value for me.





The three images, from left to right anti-clockwise are of three different cities of Pakistan, Peshawar (Qissa Kahani Bazaar, transl: story-telling bazaar), Karachi (Tollington Market) and Lahore (Badshahi Mosque) photographed towards the end of the nineteenth century. The fourth piece is a post card in the most beautiful Arabic calligraphy of the Ayat-ul-Kursi (verses from the Quran).

One would question why these particular pieces. Well for one, the three photographs were originally part of a calendar that someone had heartlessly thrown in the garbage at my architecture school back home. Now I’m no garbage digger, but as I saw the grandeur and serenity of the Badshahi Mosque magically captured by an unnamed photographer through his camera lens and stored forever in this image, I could not help myself. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. 7 years ago when I had pulled it out of the trash I had no idea what I would do with these images or how I would use them. But here they are 7 years later framed and cherished. The objects of my affection, a constant reminder of home, seamlessly bridging the gap of nostalgia, shedding light on childhood memories. My companions during the day and inspiration at night fall.

As for the postcard, it is part of my father’s wide range of postcard collection, that I unquestionably inherited (my siblings dare not put up a fight). Seeing these pieces everyday make me positively reminiscent and make my house a home.

I hope you enjoyed my object of affection. What is yours? Please do share

a changed perspective

There is something in the warmth of the morning light peeping through the curtains, the sparkle in the eye at the break of a smile, the beauty of a wrinkle around the eyes, the age of a brick through its color, the smell of coffee through the steam it produces, the rusting bench sitting at the corner of the street.

I’m seeing all this and so much more since i befriended a Nikon D40. A new journey has begun. A journey of unraveling the simple joys of life, capturing moments, faces, emotions, spaces, cities. Learning and seeing. Clicking and observing and clicking some more.

I wish to master this art some day. I wish to speak through my lens. I wish to communicate all that i cannot through words. I wish to share the world through my eyes, as I see it. I wish, I wish, I wish...the wishlist is endless. But till then here(pictures in this blog) are some wishes that I’ve captured. I hope you enjoy them!

this Girl

This girl is deep orange-red and blue seas. She is crashing waves and the smell of rain. She is green leaves, earth and wood. She is lightness and laughter and all things so.

She is autumn not winter. She is daisies not roses.

She is streetcars and subways. She is breakfast and Sundays.

She is patios on a sunny afternoon and jazz with the girls at night. She is dancing not yoga. She is friends and joy.

She is antique markets and beauty that catches her eye. She is stones and silver not diamonds and gold. She is breathing and alive not dead and cold.

This girl is winding roads and spider webs. She is silence and screams, contradictions and dreams.

She is lost and yet found. She is surrounded and yet alone.

She is urban and chic. She is brick lanes and coffee beans.

She is oil paints not watercolour. She is camera lens and detail lover.

She is cooking not baking. She is entertaining and swimming.

She is textures and maps. Doesn’t forgive and forgets.

She is books and bookshelves. She is Wizard of OZ and Alice in wonderland. She is Nin and Frida, she is Hepburn and Amelie.

She is moments and memories. She is nostalgic and naive. She is impulsive and creative. She is chaotic and wild.

She is making mistakes. She is trial and error. She is a mother and married to her high school lover.

She is trekking through the self, she is discovering on the way. She is black and white with no shades of grey. She is living and learning, clicking and noticing, she is fashion and design, she is architecture and all things fine. She’s searching for balance and looking to pause. She is happy she found sweet indigo life. She feels inspired and revived. This girl is everything me!!

Who are you?