Book Review: Guilty Wives - James Patterson.

The first thing that I loved about this book was that it was from a prisoner's point of view. Most of the books that are usually written on crime are from the good guy's point of view. The story starts with four friends, Abbie Elliot, Serena Schofield, Winnie and Bryah going away for a vacation in Monte Carlo, France. All these women or their husbands are involved in extra marital affairs. The wives just want to get away from all the drama in their life. What they didn't know is that there is a lot more drama to come.

The four wives are charged with the murder of President Of France and his bodyguard. Abbie Elliot finds herself in jail along with her friends for a lifetime for speaking the truth. They all are tortured. Abbie is the weak link in the chain because her strong headedness is what stands in between the people who framed them. She is the only one capable of proving her innocence along with her friends. She proves it but the people she never thought are the murderers who framed them.

There are a lot of twists and turns and I loved every single one of them. The characters are defined in a very profound manner. The story itself is something that will challenge your mind. In the start even I for a second didn't think who the murderers are until the book spoke itself.

In short James Patterson has definitely reached my list of favourite writers. His crime fiction is not only different but at the same time very thrilling. One writer every crime fiction favourite should read. This book was no less. Not only his concepts are very different from every book that he writes but the characters too. One writer to watch out for.

P.S. I hate the cover of this book. It doesn't matches the standard of the story inside.

...SAP...

Some Crazy Times.

I asked my Nano to oil my hair. This is me and Nano time. It is the time when I have a chance to bond with her. I love her. She is one strong women. She has been through so much in life. If I would have been in her place I would have given up a long time ago. Okay. I diverge from a topic in seconds. Anyway, she was oiling my hair and talking to me about her old and golden days. We were gossipping around talking bad about everyone. I know it sounds bad because it was bad. I think that this is the beauty of having grandparents. That you actually get to learn from. You get all the love and care from them. From all the relatives to our old neighbours in KSA, we talked about everyone. When people say that they know things from experience and they have lived more in life than us. Trust me your elders are not lying. They really know more than us.

So I was eating an ice lolly while we gossipped. I noticed some writing on the bottom of the stick and I got really excited. Because every time I buy an ice cream from the store, there is a gift sign on it that says win a trip to Disney Land if your stick has something written on it. And every time my stick turns out to be empty. So I remove my thumb very excitedly from the stick thinking about what gift is it. And guess what is written on it. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. I am like can I kill myself ? Tomorrow even the guy who picks up every body's trash will say like me on facebook. This facebook mania is annoying at times.

 

Not the only surprise of the evening. My younger brother saw the last Batman movie without me. And I knew he will not rest until he ruins the surprise for me by telling me all the twists. He goes like Batman dies. I am like WTH ? I curse him as bad as I could. Then my elder brother tells me after an hour, Sumaica, how can Batman die? It does not happen. And I am like, Muaaz, you are a DOG. Ugh. I can't believe I fell for that. I fall for it every time. Either he is very good or I am very bad.

...SAP...

Quote Of The Day !

SMILE ! Because it is a brand new day. You may change somebody's life.

My Pen Is Silent !

 

My pen is silent. I am silent. I don't know what to write. Maybe it is because I still can not process the fact that one second you know someone and the next you hear that they are gone. You blink your eye and the people you fought with or teased are no more there. Death is what takes them away from you forever. And you are just left with their pictures and things to look back and remember those moments. They go but they leave behind a void no one can ever fill. Everyone forgets them after awhile, remembering them on friends get together or  a reunion but their family never does. Every step of the way, a mom always hope that her son will return. A sister thinks that her brother will get her the doll. The father imagines his son taking his place and being his right hand. But that never happens. Because the person who was suppose to do that is gone. The candles have been blown out.

Two days ago four guys passed away in a car accident on the spot in Jeddah. I knew all four of them and two of them were our family friends. Shehab Chaudhry and Shahbeez Shaukat. I used to call Shehab Motto (Fat) and say that he is like that because his dad owns a sweet shop and he is always there eating sweets. Shahbeez, his mom never even let him out of his sight. He was an only and adopted kid. He used to call her before stepping out of his house to let her know. He only had permission to come to our house.  He was very bad in studies. I absolutely hated Shahbeez dressing, always saying that you dress like you just came from a village. They redecorated their house. And his room was painted yellow and bright pink. I stood there making fun of him and calling him a girl.  I used to tease them so much. They were both older than me, yet I acted as if they are younger than me. Its been 6 years since I even saw them. When I was moving Shehab said, chalo one crazy girl is going to be less in this country. Now it is one crazy boy less in that country. So many memories and yet they will remain so.

I know that all I can do is pray for them. I am silent.  Four families were destroyed in one second. Four house holds will always be silent wishing, hoping and praying for these guys to come back. Their mothers will look their way. They will never be the same again. My words are nothing in front of their pain. And only they know the loss that they have suffered. Death leaves a heartache no one can cure. I pray for them that may Allah give their families the patience to endure such pain.

http://www.arabnews.com/4-pakistani-youth-killed-horrible-taif-accident

...SAP...

Expectations !

When my mom got married, the first thing that my dad ever said to her was, "EXPECTATIONS KILLS RELATIONS".

It is true. It is not very romantic but it is a very good advice. We live our life expecting different things from people when deep down in our hearts we know that we will not get it. And when you expect something you ruin not only your life but the person that you expect from, his too. You know how we all expect rain when it is monsoon season and there are clouds in the sky. Sometimes it rains but sometimes it does not. And end result is that we all are disappointed. Expectations are like that. Sometimes they are fulfilled but sometimes they do not.

In life we expect more than we deserve or more than the other person can deliver. Every parents expects his or her child to top in every class, couples expect each other to be perfect, friends expect friends to give up everything for them. And the expectations go on and on. What we fail to realise is that what we have  is perfect enough. Your average kid should be the topper in your eyes, your partner wearing the wrong shirt is the hero for you, your friend who gives up a class is yours.

In this cycle of expectations, you just go round and round and round. And the cycle never ends. We all just keep on taking that ride instead of getting off it. It is time that we all stop enjoying that ride. So stop living for expectations towards yourself or living your life within expectations for others. You will see life differently.

...SAP...

Quote Of The Day.

Start by doing what is necessary, than what is possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible. -St Francis Of Assisi

Forgive And Forget. Part 2. To Hell With It.

TO HELL WITH IT ALL. Seriously, you will feel the pain and at times you will choke over things. You will stop and blink and wonder what could have been? You will feel like crying at all times. You will feel like your life has been destroyed. At first you will not believe it. Then you will cry like a baby. Then at times you will curse them. You will plan revenge. You will feel the anger. You will blame yourself for their actions. You will take out your anger on others.

 But it will get better. Your wound will stop bleeding. And then it will heal. The pain and hurt will eventually go away. There will be a time when you will be yourself again. You will say, yaar it is a long story. Someday you will tell your kids about it. You will tell a stranger about it and it will stop mattering to you.

The best part is that as time goes by, karma will take care of it all. Remember Allah is always there. He will take care of things for you. You will watch as they get a piece of their own medicine. You will not enjoy it. You will want it to stop but it will all make you feel better. You will look back and realize that what you did was right. If you had not forgiven them, then today there would be no difference between the two of you. You will learn from the experience and hope that you never do anything like that to someone. 

It is in your hands to move on. It depends on you to forgive them. Move on. Let it go. Hold on to the good times. Life is beautiful. It still will be without all them. Just believe in it and let go.

P.S. You go through all this drama and at the end you are like, What The Hell? I wasted so much of my precious time.

...SAP...

Forgive And Forget. Part 1. What To Do?

You get hurt. You hurt so badly that you do not know what to do. It is like you lose your consiousness.People forget all the years that you have spent together. All the times you offered your shoulder for the tears and made jokes to make them laugh. All the times you were there for them and all the times you stood by their sides. The surprize birthday party you threw for a friend, the pendent you had custom made for her, the money you loned them and never asked back. The moment you left your meeting to make sure you do not miss her first steps, ditch school so you could go retail therapy shopping, cancel plans to stay at home with a box of chocolates and tissues and your shoulder for her to cry on. Everything is forgotten.

You think about getting back at them. At doing what they did to you. But thing is that sometimes you simply do not have the courage to do it. You do not have the strength to see them go through what you did. To be responsible for it. So you do the best you were born to. And that is forgive. You forgive graciously and pretend that everything is fine. But you know its not. Its not fine and it never will be. Your wound will always be raw. It will always hurt to remember all the memories. And at times you will never want to travel down the memory lane.

You want to get past all this. So you forget. Or atleast try. You stop thinking about all those things that make you remember about them. You become oblivious. And for a period of time, you actually forget. But all that is still there deep down. Every step of the way you ask yourself, what to do? You do no want to be reminded of the pain and hurt that you went through. You do not want your wounds to bleed again. Enough blood has been shed. You ask yourself, how? How? Will it ever go away? Will it ever be okay? Will you ever be the same again?

...SAP...

It Is Just A Word.

Sometimes saying sorry does not mean you are wrong. It means you value your relationship more than your ego. -Unknown

SORRY. One word. Five letters. Yet this one word is so hard to say for some people. This one word has ruined lives, broken marriages,  forgotten friendships and just lost the value of relationships. Husbands do not say sorry because of their macho man ego. Wives do not do it stubbornly waiting for the husbands to do so. Friends forget their years of friendship, the memories that they have shared together. Families do not talk to each other. Friends become strangers. You walk past them without noticing their presence. Just because of a single word. In this ego match, other people are also affected.

Think of it like this. Sorry is like this peace contract. Just sign it and everything will fall into place. It is like this bitter chocolate that you have to eat it and you will feel the warmth. It is like a heart breaking video, just watch it and there is a happy ending. It is like medicine for your bruises and for the others too. You will feel the sting for a while but the after effect and relief will be all worth it.

 You do not need to bake huge cakes, cook elaborate dinners, buy chocolates and huge bouquets or empty your credit card. Just say an apology straight from the heart and mean it. Do it before it is too late. You may be able to renew your ego but you will not be able to renew friendships, marriages, relationships etc.

Truth is saying sorry does not mean you are wrong. Sometimes it means that you love and care about the other person. That you do not want to loose them. What is ego infront of years of friendship, decades of trust of marriages, generations of family bonding? Ask yourself, is it worth it? Having a bruised ego is better than having a ruined life.

...SAP...

Quote Of The Day.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you are ahead, sometimes you are behind. The race is long, and in the end, its only with yourself. -Baz Luhrmann

It's Too Damn Hot.

Wake up, go to the bathroom, open the tap and burn your face with the HOT water. Step outside for a second in our porch and be burned by the scorching heat of summer that we are living in. Sit in the car, it is hot. It is like everything is hot. Literally everything. All I can think about is cold water, PJ's, ice creams, and winter, winter, winter.

I wish I could be a lolly and live in a freezer. I would come in so many different colours. Red, blue, yellow, green and even black. I want to eat a black lolly. I have never had one. Or be a Baskin Robbins ice cream. I could be snow in Antartica or hot black coffee in countries that are cold. I wish we all could be like birds so we could migrate in summers and come back in winters. Problem solved. But life is not so easy.

Advice people are giving to each other and I am going to give it you. Drink loads of lemonade. All kinds of punches. Pinapple punch, mango punch, strawberry lemonade. Just make simple lemonade and you can add any kind of fruit in it to enhance its taste and not get sick of drinking the same lemonade every day.

Okay. People, here are my warnings. And helpful suggestions.

• Do not step inside a room which does not have AC on for the past hour.
• Do not step outside of your house or you are danger of either getting a black tan or being scorched. If you like sun burns then its fine to step outside.
• Open the tap and use the the water for the first minute otherwise you will be torture by boiling water.
• Do not sit in a car which has been standing idol for the whole day.
• Do not wear your hair down. You will end up with frizzy yucky hair.
• Do not wear jeans because honestly it is summer.
• Roam around in your house in PJ's. It is the most comfortable clothing. Trust me, I speak from experience.
• When somebody asks you to do something, just make an excuse of how HOT it is.

Okay. That is all for now. It is my humble request to the dear not so adorable sun to come out a little less. And you do not have to shine and shower your energy on us. We are fine with less energy. Please give your brothers like clouds more chance to come out and shower us with their blessing i.e.rain. If you do, I promise I won't whine so much.

...SAP...

Screw Life Or It Will Screw You.

You are walking on the road going to a place that you want of our choice, all of a sudden the road divides into two turns. You know that your choice lies at the right turn but when you start going there you see that there is a huge boulder blocking your way and you do not see any other way to take that turn. Now you do not have a choice but to take the left turn. You stand there thinking where did your choice go? Where did your will go? You were suppose to be the one making your own decisions and choices but now somebody else is doing that for you and you have no choice but to take the left turn and end up somewhere you do not want.

We all like to think that in this life we ourselves do everything. That we live on the motto "Freedom of Choice". When infact there are times that even we do not have that choice. Sometimes it just is not there or you do not see it.

Life is like an apple pie. Sometimes you want to put pears in it instead of apples but it forces you to put apples because it is an apple pie not a pear pie. At the end you do not know whether putting pears in an apple pie will make it more tastier or will ruin it. You still have a choice in choosing apples or pears. But you know that you have to choose apples. You do not want to risk making a disgusting pie. You want a delicious one. But what if you make a disgusting pie and you love it? What if you love it the way it is? Burned from the edges and pears all gooey?

You know what I say? I say to hell with it all. You want to put pears. Do it. You want to take the wrong turn. Take it. You want to have a messy room. Have it. You want to wear black all the time. Wear it. You want to be a punk. Be it. Be who you are. Do what you want.

At the end of the day only you yourself will care of what you do, what you eat, what you wear or whatever you are. So it is better to be who you want then to be what life wants you to be. Screw life because otherwise life will screw you and you certainly do not want to end up without a choice.

Do not let life give you a choice. Instead give life a choice.

...SAP...