Diary Entry: Hangin’in in There… Barely

Dear diary,

Today, I had an omelette which had coriander leaves in it after a long time. It reminded me of simpler times, when I was a kid. Mum had gotten posted to Jhelum and we had just arrived at our new house that she rented for us. There was no gas so we had to manage with a cylinder. My aunt or mum, can’t remember who because it was over 20 years or more ago, made one such omelette. Supplies were meagre and all our stuff was still packed but the days and nights were cold so we used to huddle together under one blanket. Those were the good times for life didn’t get me down so often then. Can’t say the same thing about now. The taste, the smell and the weather, are the same but life has been bringing more troubles than happiness.

For someone like me, just a few months shy of 30, single female, things don’t get any better when there is no desire for marriage and yet a lot of pressure. The worst thing is, the hands that nurture us as children are the same ones that itch to give us away because tradition dictates or because it’s Sunnah. For my society, the distinction between sunnah(the prophetic way) and obligation is so confused and mixed up when it comes to marriage. Marriage is made to be the only purpose of a girl’s life here. No dreams, hopes or aspirations matter unless they are regarding marriage. Because our girls are taught to be submissive and lacking their own voice. They are taught that their own dreams and aspirations don’t matter and all that matters is that she is a good wife (translation:maid) or a baby producing machine. This royally pisses me off.

We enter the marriage contracts for all the wrong reasons. People keep telling me that a girl needs support, companionship, monetary stability and such. But they also tell me that if I don’t get married, nobody except my mother and perhaps father would support my decision. And then there is the matter of “What would people say/think?” Who cares what they think or say behind our backs? They aren’t the ones paying my bills so who cares what their opinions are?!

Why should I enter a relationship where I lose my comfort and myself for people who don’t matter anyway? Those who marry for all the wrong reasons destroy their lives and the lives of so many others. Why should I be one of those people? I wish there wasn’t such a huge communication gap between our generation and our elders.

Standing up for myself sometimes seems as if I’m being selfish, for it worries my folks. But I can’t imagine a life filled with unhappiness just because I didn’t listen to my own gut and spared the feelings of the ones around me. I don’t know how to end this one on a positive note. I just know I have to hang in there, even if just barely, until I find the one person with whom the idea of marriage brings comfort and delight instead of a deep set anxiety and a lot of apprehension.

Diary Entry: The Downward Spiral

Dear diary,

This year has been a disaster, from the start. The Pandemic tearing the families apart, extroverts being forced into social distancing, introverts being forced to live in quarantine with extroverts around; the recent colonel’s wife fiasco, an elaborate scheme to defame our beloved armed forces; the PIA plane crash just days before Eid; Indians making insensitive comments on social media about both incidents….. I dunno why, it just seems that our end is near. Makes me wonder, where is humanity going? Why is it seeping out of us all?

I would never blame a whole country or nation for the abrasiveness of a few. Pakistan does have some crude people, and so does every country but to be happy on someone’s death…. Well, its downright cruel.

And as for the Armed forces defaming incident, hey! I’m an army brat, and we aren’t what that woman made us to be. We don’t think we are better than anyone. We don’t think that only the civilians need to obey laws or that we are above them somehow. The actions of one sub-standard person do not, and I repeat, DO NOT represent military families. We get disciplined for stepping out of the line, more so than other children. We are taught morals and values and are expected to follow them. Actions of one bad person do not put us all in the same category. Period.

As someone who has been positive even in the face of negativity mostly, I suddenly feel slightly leaning towards negative now. I feel tired. Tired of cruelty the people show each other. Tired of the constant disregard of people towards each other. Tired of having arguments with people around me. Tired of being idle. Tired of existing……

I want to leave. This world of technology and misery, to find some quiet place where nobody would bother me. Where bad news won’t find me. Where I won’t have to look at the cruelty with which we have slaughtered our humanity. Where nobody would think that the more they use profanity and curses, the cooler they are. Where the youth won’t record absurd tiktok videos or waste their precious time playing PUBG.

I want to look for peace, in far off mountains, under dense forest trees, away from all the heartbreak this world seems to be currently offering. The end of this world, just seems around the corner. For some, it came yesterday for some it might be today, tomorrow or the day after…..

I don’t know how to end this on a positive note today. So I can only pray, that the things end well, whenever they do. And that people see some sense before its too late and the damage is irreparable.

Dear diary,

It’s been ages since I last wrote. I’ve lost so much of me. I’m not different but apparently I am different now. Life just seems to be dragging on but I’m also not ready for the death art yet because I have been too far away from the right path lately. I can’t seem to get motivated to do the right thing anymore, even amidst a pandemic outbreak. I know I need to come back to the right track but don’t know how to, anymore.

I’ve got a new job and I still don’t feel satisfied. There are just too many things and ideologies that my employers have that I don’t agree with, which keeps me frustrated from time to time. But I’m just biding my time because it’s better than the alternative of sitting idle at home and going absolutely bonkers.

SIST 2020 was both fun and a bit of a disappointment. They have astrayed far from its original purpose so it wasn’t as re-enervating and spiritually connecting as it used to be. That was a huge disappointment. They took away the age limit this year so that was one positive point. It used to give me a big dose of spirituality and motivation for life, so I’m still craving for it this year because this year, SIST failed me in that department. Perhaps that the reason, combined with several others, that I feel such lack of energy and enthusiasm for life. If I wasn’t afraid of ending up in hell, I might’ve welcomed death. (I said might’ve! I’m still pretty sure I don’t wanna die yet.)

I do realise this post is more towards the negative side than the positove one but I just needed to get things off my chest. I guess we all have some rougher than usual patches in life that we need to endure and make sense of. I’m not any different. But since I have said all that was troubling my mind, I’m sure now that it was the right thing to do and a step towards positivity. I’m sure I would soon be getting better, in sha Allah. I just hope that this is just not a wishful thinking.

Anyway, I’m off to Islamabad and typing in a moving bus is making me nauseous. So, until next time…..

Cíao!

On the roads that lead to nowhere

The way is long, the path uneven.
A lone traveller, tried and driven.
Unchartered roads, dark and dank.
Life’s new chapter, pages blank.
Scared inside, anxious, terrified.
With every desire to run and hide.
A journey taken by so many before,
But the voyager can’t help abhor.
All that this wanderer needs,
To make this journey ever so sweet;
Perhaps, an ally close to the heart.
Dauntless, determined, street-smart.
A constant, confidant, a bestie.
Hand in hand even when life is testy.
A journey with the heart’s consent,
Will make the wayfarer feel content.

Diary Entry: Hope

 

You know one of those times, when words fail you because you are being too emotional?! This isn’t one of those times for me. I’ve spent so long, being miserable when things didn’t go my way or when I wanted to write but a bad case of writer’s block had  my words and senses in a knot. Nothing has changed tonight either. I’ve just mustered up enough courage to write again. Its been so long since I wrote last. I’ve missed this feeling of elation inside. I’ve missed my voice, my words. In real world, things have gone for the worse. My words have lost meaning. I’ve lost a LOT of my positivity and enthusiasm for life.
People keep telling me life is hard. I believe it not to be true. Its the people who make even the simplest of things harder. I’ve made a habit of detoxifying my life of such toxic people but the culture I’ve been born and raised in, doesn’t allow some of those people to be entirely cut off from my life. So, I’m just waiting for a time when I would be able to leave all of this behind and focus ahead without being afraid that someone would put a foot on my cape the moment I got the power to fly.
I know, I know. I’m a dreamer. I dream of freedom. I plan and plan and plan until I’m exhausted. The more I try building myself up, the worse the blows get. Sometimes I get so tired of it all. But I try not to write of such unhappy thoughts.
I have hit the rock bottom of my worse self. I don’t know how to pick myself back up, without losing important parts of me in the process. But looking back towards the kind of person I was even 5 years ago, I cannot help but sigh. All that energy, all that chaos has gone poof! All that remains is a rotten shell that bacteria probably eat away at. Maybe, it would make the bacteria sick or maybe the bacteria would successfully decompose it and mix it with soil to help create new life. Ugh! I can only hope!!!
Okay, enough of the unhinged talk. I just happened to read something I wrote the last time here. I almost didn’t recognise the “me” who typed those words. It felt as if I was writing to soothe myself, which perhaps was the case. I almost didn’t recognize my own words because they were adorned with a light sprinkle of humor. Light within the darkness. This has been me all along. I understand it now. Its a part of me. I just have to dig inside and find it again. I just have to keep faith and hope…

The Downward Up

It’s a wonder, how your body forgets that it’s in pain when your heart starts aching. All other pains seem to numb out when the core, the centre is throbbing. And without a buffer (like your little niece’s adorable smiling face and laughing eyes around you,) you succumb to a bit of tear shedding (secretly of course!) after an immense failed effort to get a hold of those crazy little things called emotions. Yeah well, I’ve had that kind of a day. First part of it sucked totally. But then my cousin came and once we started talking, I started feeling not so awful anymore until just now, when she’s gone and I just happened to see a video of my little niece’s first laughter. I missed it and right now, I hate myself and everyone else. She isn’t home and I miss her so much, it hurts!!!

I just asked my madam to give me something to do. A research related homework. Yup, I’m that unhinged (slash desperate). It’s been a dull couple of months for me. I’ve come home and have been waiting for my research viva to actually happen. My brain and ears feel fried after non-stop proposal talk at home. Either it’s that or compliments from mum telling me how lazy and a worthless piece of junk I am. Sometimes its so hard not to take offense. No matter how true some words are, they hurt like hell. And then usually the rest of the days I spend struggling with my need to be numb and trying to not tell my folks to buzz off when they would continuously disrupt my little world of numbness inside my head by asking things that require for me to answer them back when I just don’t have the energy to think anything to say.

*Sigh*

Yeah, sometimes it’s hard being an only introvert in a family full of extroverts! But no matter how hard they tend to make my life, in the end when I need someone to put a smile on my face, they are usually the ones who are there to cheer me up in their own weird way…..

Ah, the Comeback!

Or rather a little bit of an effort at doing so.

It’s been so long since I wrote last. So long in fact that I don’t even remember when I wrote last time. perhaps a year ago……. I don’t know. And I’m too lazy to check it.

Anyway, a 14 year old motivated me to write again. She’s the sweetest little thing ever! I don’t really know her but it feels like I do. I’ve been thinking of writing again for a long while but its as if all my will to do so and my motivation for writing took a hike. A long one at that!

Its good to be back even though I don’t know if I would be doing this with any consistency. I just wanted to acknowledge the presence of a special 14 year old in my life. Welcome little “Special agent Derek Bobson!” You have been a beam of light in my otherwise dull and frustrating life recently. And I appreciate that more than you can ever imagine!

Closed Doors

“When one door closes, another opens,” I’ve heard it so many times. Oh, I so want it to be true, especially right now. Things have been on a downward spiral for me. My beloved madam left the university and I didn’t even get to meet her before she left. I applied for a job that perfectly suited me (the introvert side of me), I got a call from there today telling me to join them on training on coming Saturday. This news would have been a silver lining to my dark cloudy sky but it didn’t comfort me because my father isn’t permitting me to join.

I spent over half of my life, thinking I wasn’t good enough. Loads of self-criticism can sometimes do that to you. And instead of judging people, I judge myself- A LOT. And then there was my mum, telling me I didn’t do anything good with my life and I couldn’t do anything good because I told her I wasn’t teaching material. Thank to my introversion again, public speaking has never been my thing. I’ve tried and failed miserably. Not including presentations in the class, I used to ace them but that’s not the point. According to her, if I can’t teach, it means I can’t do anything. I always tend to ignore such negative remarks or fight about them but sometimes, in some weak moment, when I hear something like this, it stays with me. Being an introvert has never been easy mainly because nobody else in my family or even in my relatives, is an introvert. So people don’t understand what they aren’t even aware about. After studying about these personality types, I slowly started telling people about them and letting them know that it wasn’t any disorder or disease, that it was normal.

Anyway, I haven’t been able to do any further work on my research, ever since my supervisor told me to increase it’s length. So, my life is a big disappointment for me right now and nobody would let me change it even though I want it to. I applied for a job because I wanted my life to be meaningful. I wanted to feel that my life was worth living, that I wasn’t another average ordinary “female” whose sole duty is to do household chores. I know that’s what my parents want to see- me, married and happy. What they don’t realize is, marriage might never make me happy. To leave one place where nobody wants to let you do with your life as you please and end up in another place where the same thing is going to happen, only the person passing orders would be different this time…..there’s nothing attractive for me in that kind of life.

I dunno what’s gonna happen but I hope all these wrong doors would close on me and the right one would open soon before I go insane!

Diary Entry: Journey

Dear diary,

I’m on my way to home after wasting two weeks entirely. I’ve been procrastinating my research work on peak. I’ve hit the bottom of the pit of lack of motivation. All I keep thinking about is my novel, which I haven’t written a single word of, after completing 3 chapters. The problem with that is that I keep thinking about the climax points of the book. I’m very much clear on those parts. I’ve even thoughts about the dialogues and every single detail for those chapters. It’s the initial chapters that would lead the story towards those chapters that I am having trouble with. I mean, I want to write them as well and like a normal human being, proceed in the right order of the novel, from start to end but I guess, by now, we all know that there is nothing about me that yells “this person is normal!” Yes, I know, I’m not normal. I’m the very definition of abnormal- not even special kind of abnormal.

*sigh*

My next war has already started. I want to join mindbridge; a call centre, for a job that they offered. The job was perfect as it was a written one. Online chats and email related and I totally aced both my interviews but my family wont let me join, which is frustrating. Let’s be honest here. I don’t do the talking. I know I can talk, I can talk really well if I try a little but talking just isn’t my kind of thing. I can write better and I’m sure that my fingers work in sync with my mind but my tongue just refuses to comply most of the times. Mum has labelled it as lack of self-confidence. Perhaps she’s right. But I blame my introversion. Even though I know very well that it’s not a disease but it’s who I am, I still don’t want to come out of my comfort zone when it comes to talking. Mum wants me to take some teaching job back in my hometown but teaching is just not my thing. Talking is a big no for me, duh!

People keep stressing that I should be married by now. But it’s not on my to do list right now. I have to stand once again for a chance at further studies. Yes, I don’t want to quit just yet. I never wanted to study more than ADCP because it was the minimum requirement for joining armed forces and I’ve been crazy passionate about armed forces all my life. I just wanted to end up there, still do. But it’s not enough now. Thanks to my beloved head of department Now I want to gain a PhD and perhaps a post-doctoral degree as well (and people want to kill me for being so difficult and not getting married already)

People have this common notion in Pakiland that those who do a PhD, go partially insane. No worries there as I’m pretty sure, I already am partially insane. Anyway, I know, each step towards that goal- insanity or no insanity- means waging another war at home. But everyone knows its really hard to sway me once I have made up my mind. Let’s see what happens.

I miss my stupid friends very much these days. Been dropping subtle hints in the form of poetic verses but they don’t seem to get the idea. But then again, I feel like kicking them out of my life for not realizing that I’m trying to talk to them. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder, do they even remember me, do they even miss me or am I the only one…. And when waiting for them to get the hint becomes too much, I just feel like throwing them out of my contact list, for abandoning me and leaving me with my stupid toxic thoughts even though they knew fully well that I’m a person who thinks a LOT!!! Hate you peeps for that! I dunno, I might just erase myself from your lives completely because it hurts to see your names and not talk to you but remember all the fun times we spent together. Feels like another lifetime. And I’ve been very loyal to you idiots. I didn’t make any new friends, unlike you guys. I didn’t abandon you guys but you got busy in your own lives and left me behind. My city changed, so what?! Did that mean you had to remove me from your hearts too?! Yes, I’m cross. Very cross indeed! And you know what, if I turn my back, if I turn cold, there won’t be any force that would make me love you ever again. Just sayin’. Don’t you dare say I didn’t warn you, if that happens. Huh! Your silence has always been a loud enough voice for me.

*sigh*

Okay, that’s officially too much “sighing” on my part.

*sigh*

ugh!

The moon is kinda Orangy tonight. And I should wrap this thing up because I have started writing more crap than usual.

 

Until next time!

Diary Entry: Help!!!

Someone, please shut this chatterbox up for a little bit. My senses and my ears are almost fried! It’s my seat mate. She’s been blabbering away on her phone for more than an hour. It’s grown increasingly annoying. I need help! I truly wish that strangling someone annoying was legal. I’d probably do it for free then.

Ugh!!!

Anyway, it rained today, in Lahore. I’m on my way back home. For the first time in my life, I saw a quarter of a rainbow, which was kinda beautiful. Yes I feel that there is a certain kind of beauty in the incomplete things. There is an amazing aura around the people who aren’t perfect.
I got super excited and happy today. My ma’am was on her way back to Lahore from Islamabad and I was heading to Daewoo terminal as well, for my departure to Sialkot. It was such a happy little unexpected meeting and it’s left me so full of energy and excitement that I can barely contain myself; the reason I’m here once again.

My writer’s block has been head-on and strong for past couple of months. I haven’t written even a single word of the novel I started writing. I’ve done pretty much nothing in these past months. Research was going well until today when my supervisor asked me to increase the length by at least 20 pages. I dunno how I’m gonna pull that off since one major reason of delay in my novel completion is my total and utter inability to drag things when they can very well be said in half of the words. Anyway, it doesn’t hurt to try!

Oh, and I wanted to remember three days of this month. First is August 14 and other two are August 20 and 21. 14 because me and my little sister went to see the air show in Islamabad. 20 and 21st because both the company and the destination of that journey were very dear to me. I love them. Islamabad, the city and my Ma’am as the companion for the journey. I love them both, dearly! It was an overwhelming double treat! And the best part is, she wasn’t my teacher during that whole journey. She was a friend. It felt like she was family, nothing less.
I know, I know, I tend to overdo things but the way I feel about her, it’s precious! She’s precious! I would never want to lose that feeling. I don’t know what came over me that day, on our journey back, I almost bared my whole soul in front of her. I guess, not everyone makes you feel the urge to share. And for me, the feeling is rather rare than it’s for most people I guess. But it was liberating and a very thought provoking experience to finally have that kind of a blessing in my life. I’m so thankful for that!

Ah, Alhamdulillah! My neighbour has finally stopped talking. And thank goodness, she’s not reading my laptop screen or she would’ve tried throwing me out of the bus.

Time for me to go as well. I wanna see something fun before I reach my city, so, until next time……!

Cheerios!