Z is for Zero, Zodiac and Zindabaad!

And this would be the last ever post of the A to Z challenge for the month of April 2014. No, not just because its the letter "Z" but also because I hope I really am the last of the last people posting the last post for this challenge.

Z is for zero. How I wish to understand you, the mysterious zero. A single zero has the power to make our hearts sink if it shows up on the balance of our bank account while on the other hand, we would like to have loads of them following any number between 1 to 9 on our paychecks. "00:00 AM" marks the end of yet another day of our lives while simultaneously asking from us to be prepared for another one ahead. In my eyes, zero is the perfect enigma for me. I have never felt so strongly for any other number, believe you me! Zero is the gray matter between the black and white.

Y is Yesterdays,Yoga and Yeats

This is it! My last entry for the AtoZ challenge.


The Letter Y.

X is for Xanax

Despite an A* for English in my last qualification, trust me, I tried really hard to find a word starting with an 'x' other than "Xanax". At first attempt, my genius of a mind offered me these choices:

1. Xanax (but lets think of other words!),

2. X-ray - reminded me of two of my 'favorite' accidents in life. The most serious one involved a broken chin and a cute doctor flirting with me. Ting!,

3. XXX - If you are thinking of something socially inappropriate, dude/dudess, this is a child friendly blog and you may be a bit of a pervert. This 'XXX' is a decent and actually very cute symbolic representation of "kisses"! What were you thinking of?

W is What, Why and When

 

Day 23 of  the AtoZ challenge.

The letter W.

V is Vacations - 5 places to see for Me

Day 22 of the AtoZ blog challenge.

V is for virtue, Victoria (pretty name), vicious, vengeance, virtuoso, virile *cough*pnrheroes*cough*, vendetta, vanity,volleyball (love playing this, suck pretty bad at it), Veronica Lodge and Veronica Mars ( I want to be her when I grow up, except I'm pretty much all grown up already), vision ,victory, vanilla, Valkyrie(Kresley Cole anyone?) and vagina or as Bailey would say, Va-Jay-Jay.

V is also for vacations.

U is Ulloo Ka Patha!

5 more days to go! AtoZ Challenge 2014 almost over.

So here we go with U.

T is for Tequila, Tintinnabulation & Them

If you are reading this, my trick to lure you to this post has totally worked! *high five in the air*. Well, I do have quite a few things to write about today which starts with T but for the title's sake, Tequila seemed like a much fancier option. I mean who wouldn't read a post on Tequila?!

Just to make sure you guys will carry on reading this, I will make a little confession concerning Tequila (or all alcoholic drinks in general). Yeah, I am that girl who can't handle her alcohol. My only desire to drink arises when I am having a great time in a friendly gathering or when I am extremely nervous (Come on, I have done live television shows of up to 8 hours duration on an International TV channel on a subject I didn't feel much confident about but hey, I got messages afterwards telling me how confidently I presented them. Ting!) Tequila in particular has given me some cherished memories (or stories of me narrated by my friends ) involving sleeping on the top of the shiniest (read: latest model) car in the parking lot and later puking on its tyres, crawling under people's legs on a dance floor and bumping head on with someone else who probably got inspired by my original style and was attempting the same from the other direction. I swear I heard a "Crash"! I don't remember what happened after but I am glad none of us ended up in a hospital with head injuries. Although sometimes I feel this strange sensation in my skull but It has nothing to do with that collision, right?! Ummm, just in case, I think I should bring this up to the doctor during my next appointment.

S is Sanity (4 ways to keep it)!

S is for sandwiches, sandbags, sunsets, sabbaticals,sacraments, sacrifice, saddlebags( yes, I have them. No, I dont ride horses), saffron, sunflowers, salary ( it's s few days away still),story telling,sapphires,salsa (love the dance..meh' on the condiment ) and last but not least S is for Samosa!

Today S is for Sanity! .

R is for Riddle Rumble

Here comes the R!

R is for Radio - the industry and a particular channel back in Pakistan being that one true institution for me which taught me so much throughout the entire period of my affiliation with it. Those lessons and experiences are the very basis of who I am today as a person.

R is also for Retinol which I think it's about time I should start integrating in my skincare routine. I welcome all your suggestions on retinol based products for a beginner like me. Do you guys think that there is any particular age to start using retinol based products?

And here is the deal of the day: R is for Riddle Rumble.

Q is for Qawwali

Day 17 of  the A to Z challenge. And the letter today is Q.

At first look, Q seemed like quite a challenging letter but then Zuri's "Q for Qawwali - A style of devotional music associated particularly with Sufism" helped me get started. I may not know as much about qawalis as it's real appreciators do but I do know some classic qawwalis and enjoy listening to them when my soul requires some peace. Talking of qawalis, one name that immediately pops up in my head is that of the Legendary Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The qawwali titled "Dum Mast Qalandar" was released in 1992 and since than whenever there is a discussion about qawwalis in a gathering, it's almost inevitable to not mention this one.

P is for Pakistan

P is for potatoes, pakoray (deep fried sub-continental snacks) and pretzels (my new favorite snack in France.), sub-continental pickles with chillies, carrots, garlic, lemon and baby green mangoes, palak-paneer (spinach and cottage cheese curry), pink (the color), polka dots, pastel colors and Les Pains (french generic word for all kinds of delicious breads). P is for pinnacolada which is one of the few drinks I don't like. Somehow I am not fond of the coconut taste infused with pineapple juice.

While P is also for Paris, today P is for Pakistan, my homeland!

I always say that going out of a country for a trip is a totally different experience than immigrating permanently to another land. I never went out of Pakistan for the entire 24 years of my life and finally when I did, it wasn't a vacation or an adventure trip. It was a long term, almost permanent move.

O is Oprah and Orphan Black

O is for oranges, orangutans, oaks, oatmeal (dont like it!), orbit,obscure,observant,obsession(perfume..love it!), obtuse, object,octogenarian and oddballs.

Today O is for her royal majesty, Oprah and Orphan Black !

N is for Nine things I love

N is for my Nail colors collection (matte, glitter, crackles, professional manicure kits, nail art kits and even nail stickers). I may not regularly wear a nail color but I can't resist the temptation of purchasing a pretty nail color.

N is for Noodles.  The typical two minutes noodles with the spice mix in the packet. It was the first ever thing I cooked independently in the kitchen when I was 9 years old and felt like the master chef. But even today, its my savior on the days when I am not in the mood to chop and peel.

M is Mangoes and Monsoon

Day 16 of the A to Z challenge! Wow.. only 10 more to go. And the real tough ones are yet to come ( Im looking at you, U and Q).

Anyways, today it's M and M for me represents my mom, magic, music, movies, m n m's, mocha lattes, macaroni, macaroons ('meh on these ) , Macross (sci fi mecha anime, old school.. I loved it and still do!) madhouse (that is my work sometimes), Megatron (who for some reason I think is kickass),Maleficent (scared the bejeebus out of me for years till Ursala came along) and so on so forth.

For today though, I'm gonna talk about Mangoes, the first fruit we desis fall in love with and Monsoon, the season we all look forward to.

L is for Learning

Learning is my word for the day. Not the conventional kind of learning but that which is inevitable, unenforced and natural. Amidst the hustle bustle of the world, we maybe picking up new skills, diplomas and/or certifications but I wonder if we really learn anything for real. The learning that will make us feel like we are living a life and it's so worth it.

Last 2 weeks gave me a chance to sit back and re-evaluate my life. Life was a bit mad at me. It wanted to go wild, laugh freely and breath deeply but I was forcing it to exhaust itself in pursuit of  unattainable ideals involving other people. As I wondered how can I make life feel alive again, I soon found all my answers within me.

K is for Knowing

2 weeks down! 2 weeks and 3 days to go.

K is for Knowing.( no, not the movie)

J is Jericho Z Barrons!

Day 10 ! J is for jams, jellies, jokes, jojoba, jabberjays ( hellooo hunger games!), jewellery, jungle, jukeboxes, justice,Japan,jaywalking, Jezebel (which is a pretty pretty name even if it's associated with all kinds of bad!), Jetsons(the cartoon), jodhpurs( I do not like those) and so on so forth.

But today. J is for Jericho Z Barrons!

I is for Introspection

Day 9 of the A to Z challenge.

I is for Introspection!

H is for Hmmmm..

Today is all about H. Day 8 of the AtoZ April challenge.

G is for Greetings!

I always wanted to learn different languages. Alas the only forward momentum I ever made in that direction was to learn the very basics of french..and then proceed to promptly forget all about it!

But I still know that hello in french is Salut for informal and Bonjour for daytime informal! ( the r make a gg sound that is very very subtle in this case). Ahem, see Lala, I still know at least this. ;-)

So in preparation for the grand world tour I will be treating myself to on my 40th birthday( hey, my currency drops and never rises, so it will take me years and years of frugal living to start even planning my European odyssey) here are some hellos form across the Europe.

F is for Friendship!

Hey everyone! F has plenty of words I wanted to write on, but those topics would have required longer posts and I'm trying to theme my AtoZ challenge towards mostly lighthearted topics.

So today it's about Friendship! Specifically some of my favorite quotes regarding this relationship that none of us is born into but all acquire during life.

Dedicating  this to my best friend,who is the reason I still expect the best from people.

E is for Enchanted Wood/Forest!

The Enchanted Forest books by Enid Blyton are hands down, my most fav childhood books of all time. They were my first introduction into the wonders of magic and fueled my imaginations for years. Infact, they still do.

D is for Disappointed! HIMYM Finale

HIMYM finale.

I'm Sorry. But what the hell?? He meets the mother. They have kids. They get married.She dies. He ends up back with Robin. What a neat way to give Ted's the kids he always wanted and Robin never did and make these two end up together anyways! Wow.

C is for Confessions!

C is for Confessions! Nothing very dark or deep though, coz I live by "be who you are on the outside ,what you are on the inside". In other words, what you see is what you get.

1. I'm a klutz. I can trip while wearing flat slippers on smooth tractioned roads.

2. I fail miserably at catching social clues. End up playing the unwitting fool because I can't catch the underlying currents and hidden motivations in peoples conversations. This results in me withdrawing from social  life and getting all cynical for periods of time.

3.I dip my biscuits in tea. Yea, not a big confession or anything, but just one of those little things.

4. Sometimes I don't pick up the phone when someone calls and then feel guilty about it...

5. Only 3 days in the AtoZ challenge and I'm feeling like I'm using the "short post" thing as a cop out...

That's all for my Confessions for now...

Share some of yours!

B is for Blog Hop!

Yay! So B is for blog hop! Im taking part in my first ever blog hop, the Totally Awesome Blog Hop hosted by the lovely Chantilly and it's a bimonthly thing! So kinda excited about that. Then I went and just hopped onto the A to Z challenge without any planning or forethought ( yea, that's just how I roll sometimes). So this month , Im goin a' blog hopin'!

I'm looking forward to finding more fun blogs and make new blogging friends hopefully and also get into the practice of the whole community building.

Ps: The A to Z challenge is bursting with writers, future authors and the likes... eek! feeling outta my depth here, totally!