I Am Thankful

What is it that makes us thankful ?

My dad always says that its that time when someone whacks you in the kneecaps with a hammer, and you are forced to fall down on your knees, that is when you see your feet in shoes. And you see the pavement underneath it. You don't think about the workers who put that pavement together in scorching heat with bruised hands.

Living in Jeddah, we all had our own rooms which we decorated according to our taste which meant having bicycles in the bedroom.

I never realised the luxury of it till we moved to Qatar and I had to share a room with brothers. Those were the times when I wanted to study, they wanted to sleep. I wanted to talk on the phone, they wanted to watch a movie.

Its the sound of that Aayyat, in your head that gives you goosebumps, while you shiver with the thought of all the blessings that are laid upon our feet.

And which of your Lord's bounties will you deny ? Surah Rahman (55, 13)

It gets me every time. Not just once or twice, but every time I hear it. And you start looking at the little things in life. Like the fact that you can buy a phone without giving it a second thought. Instead of choosing between paying the house rent or getting food in tiny hungry bellies, we get to choose between rows upon rows of shoes.

So I thought that I need to reflect on how the year has gone by and make a list of things that I am not only grateful for but also thankful.

1. I am thankful to be a Muslim and to be born in a Muslim family.
2. I am thankful for good health, good families and good food. More importantly the food.
3. I am thankful to have an incredible guy in my life whose contentment makes me envy him.
4. I am thankful for the chance to be my own person and to do what I want.
5. I am thankful that I got to travel a lot this year.
6. I am thankful for wearing Black on my wedding day and doing everything the way I wanted.
7. I am thankful for amazing friends in my life who I can never replace.
8. I am thankful to be the only girl in the family.
9. I am thankful to have, not just one but two bedrooms.
10. I am thankful for a wardrobe full of clothes, shoes, bags and rubbish I don't really need.
11. I am thankful for the increase in my pocket money. I mean, who does not ?

In short, I am grateful that I have had the life I did. Not many people are that fortunate.

And I am thankful for that.

...SAP...

Coffee Rants # 2

The best thing about not being in school anymore is that when the clouds decide to have mercy on you and shower themselves, you get to ditch your class and go Salsa in the rain.

Every year, that one day would come when it would rain in Qatar and we would be sitting in class studying Orbital hybridization. We would beg our teacher to let us go out and enjoy the weather but that day rarely came when the teachers were generous enough to understand our melancholy. Instead we would sit there looking longingly out of the window, listening to the drip drip of water calling us towards itself while the teacher went on and on and on about formation of Blastula. Once it rained in our half hour break and to say that the school went crazy would be understating the obvious. It was a little like giving free Ice Cream to a bunch of 5 year olds.

Today, however, I went crazy. Yes. We are that crazy people who dance (its like watching clowns hop around)  in the Winter rains while a little afraid of being struck by lightning. Although I have always wanted to get some sort of super power. So there I was playing football in rain while shivering to the core. And just having the time of my life. Have you ever attempted to drink rain water ? I did and ended up choking.

And then came the water fight. A sane person would think that why would you have water fights in rain. But its a tradition in my family. When we lived in Pakistan, after the rain, everybody would get their water guns and hunt down every damn bottle in the house. Then came the die hard decision of making teams. And cheating your own team. It was just another thing to have that kind of fun with all your cousins and all you had to fear were your mothers kicking your butts.

So right now, I am sitting here, drinking coffee, while going down the memory lane and being thankful for all those wonderful times and the beautiful weather outside. For us thunderstorms are a sign of good weather. And I know that by now, all the roads of Qatar are going to be submerged in water, the only time I appreciate Land Cruisers.

I hope everyone has a day as amazing as mine. Drink loads of coffee and be thankful for the life you lead.

Adieu !

S

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