Symbiosis

This is my friend, Baba Aziz Miyan.  He sits in the same spot everyday.  This is as much his kitchen table as it is his bed.  This is where he sits hour after hour, pondering about the world's most difficult questions - questions like why do we have enough money to throw the prime minister of Pakistan a lavish banquet during a convention, but not enough to get Baba Aziz a warmer headpiece for the winter.  I pass by him often, sometimes stopping by to share some scraps of food in exchange for his philosophical rant about how exactly the system needs to be changed.  He's a generous fella, this Baba Aziz.  Sometimes he lets me have a swig of that strange, inebriating liquid he keeps in that green thermos of his.  When I sway a little, he laughs.  I brought him a discarded pomegranate once, and he didn't mind when I sat down with him and ate from my own gift.  People in their cars watched us as they drove past.  I spat pomegranate seeds at them.  They just rolled up their windows and looked away, judging looks plastered on their faces.  I really don't care what they think.  I've watched these people too, walking about with an air of arrogance.  They think they've got everything they can possibly want.  They don't have what me and Baba Aziz have, though - true companionship.  Baba Aziz doesn't judge me for who I am or for the way I look, like all these haughty people do.  In return, I give him what he craves the most - someone to talk to.  I listen to his stories about the days when Karachi's streets used to be washed early in the mornings.  Stories about trams that took passengers from one end of the city to the other.  All this area we now know as Defence and Clifton used to be an unpopulated barren ground, famous only for its clean beaches and expensive restuarant, or two.  Look at all these houses and buildings now.  Baba Aziz always shakes his head at this part.  He's also told me about his family, and how each member met his or her end.  His wife went first.  Her liver failed, the doctors had said.  She left a son and a daughter behind to take care of Baba Aziz, but the son ran away with his thug friends and last he heard about him was that he'd gotten shot by the police after a drug bust raid.  His daughter's story was the most heart-wrenching.  She was the younger of the two children, and cared well for Baba Aziz.  They lived in a small room under the stairs of a building.  It was just big enough for the two of them, but even then Baba Aziz would try to spend as much time outside of the home as possible, to give his daughter her own space.  One day he'd come back from his walk and seen a crowd gathered around his quarter.  Dread had its claws tightly clenched around his heart as he tore through to the center.  Baba Aziz always pauses at this point, takes off his glasses, and pinches his eyes dry with his right hand.  After resettling the glasses on the bridge of his nose he continues to tell me what he saw that day.  The building above their room was new, but not built right.  It had collapsed that morning, while Baba Aziz had been on his daily cigarrette walk.  His only child had been buried alive under a rubble of concrete and iron.  Baba Aziz had lost his home and his family that day, but it's never stopped him from being optimistic.  He's made the streets his home, and everything that inhabits them his family, including me.  I'm glad to listen to his stories and theologies.  I don't care who sees us and what they think.  I like Baba Aziz, and he likes me.  Well, he likes me most of the time.  Sometimes I try to cheer him up but it backfires.  My latest failed plan was when I took his glasses and hid them in a tree.  I thought the silliness of it all would make the old man laugh, but he's blind as a bat without them, and didn't like it one bit.  He took a long stick and poked around in the tree until his glasses fell out.  You see that bandage around his glasses?  That was my fault.  He'd taken that stick and whacked me on the head that day.... "Stupid crow! You're as foolish as you are black!"  He'd yelled at me, as I flew up onto the tree for safety.

 !!ہم کالے ہیں تو کیا ہوا  دل والے ہیں  

Redder than red

You know how Civil Twilight talk about a day when the sky's going to break and everything will escape?  Today was that day.  The season I wait for all year has officially arrived, as heralded by the thousand mile stretch of clouds and crisp wind.  As I stepped into the car and rolled down my windows (which I haven't done almost all year), I let the atmosphere inspire me.  The air carried a faint scent of Islamabad - of calm, of cold, and of winter trees.  Leaves never turn vibrant colors in Karachi, which is a shame.  Imagine the depth the city can achieve with that kind of palette.  Nevertheless, leaves fluttered down from every other tree in swirls of light brown splendor.  The clouds interlocked their wispy extremities to form a white blanket in the sky, like troops threatening iminent rainfall.  It never rained, of course, but just the faint possibility of it made me want to get out of the car and walk the rest of the way.  Of course, you don't do things like that in Karachi, so I just tried to grab my bit of fun from my car window. 
All this nature and its glory...... and then I saw something that sucked the life out of my moment.   I saw two things, actually.  First, this guy on a motorbike ate something out of a gold plastic sheet and threw the wrapper up into the air like he owned the wind.  I wasn't sure, but had an inkling of what it was he had consumed.  Two minutes later, as we very unfortunately traveled together on the same route, he turned his head to the right and spat out a familiar, red projectile.  The wind carried red droplets everywhere, including onto the windshield of the car.  The spit had literally hit nature's fan, and I ducked, not wanting to become a part of the nasty, red mess, but not before seeing one large, red, drop stretching past the window in a background of white clouds.  Being a dentist, I've always advocated a ban on "paan", but besides the damage it does to your physical health and appearance, I absolutely HATE the fact that "paan" has tie-dyed the roads and buildings of our nation from head to toe. I mean seriously, people!  What did they invent spittoons for?! 

               

Another thing I just don't get is why it's so easy for people (and I speak for the majority here, trust me) to throw their trash in the street.  Garbage cans, another awesome invention, are obsolete in this city, it seems.  Even if there's one two feet ahead, people prefer to drop their wrappers, tissues, half-eaten bananas, red spit, and such right where they're standing.  I've cursed anonymous litterbugs countless times after stepping into a wad of greyed chewing gum.  Needless to say, I've never littered myself.  I carry my trash with me until I see the proper disposal space or I take it home and put it where it belongs, but save one time, I've never, EVER littered.  That one time I talk about was when I aimed for the trash from a moving vehicle and miscalculated the physics of it.  My gum landed on the ground somewhere instead, and I was blanketed in shame for the rest of the day.  Some people are pathological litterbugs.  They habitually litter, not just the streets, but homes of other people.  When I was little, I always found a ball of tissue paper stuffed between the sofa cushions, usually after a get together with our family friends.  I always thought it was another kid, but only a few years ago did I learn it was an adult.  Shameless, really.  I may be lazy about making my bed or putting the laundry back in the closet, but a polluter I've never been, and I won't let my legacy be one either.  Yums holds on to her wrappers too, until she can find a trash can that's within her height limit.  Thank goodness for that, right?  So, somewhere at the beginning of this post I mentioned being inspired.  That's right, even though I saw some nasty things at work today, I was still inspired.  It was my khala's anniversary today, and I'm sure she was missing her husband who's in the land of deserts doing what he does best, so I decided to try and cheer her up - with red velvet cake.  My first attempt, and not a bad one either I guess because she seemed to enjoy it.  I think I might've finally convinced my other Khala to place an order with me *wink wink*.  I apologize if my red spit imagery has been mortally embossed on your brain and will be associated with Red Velvet Cake for the rest of your life.  Maybe someone will finally start working on that "paan" ban seriously now! 

Why are there so many songs about rainbows?

*Sigh* That was nostalgic... nothing beats Kermit doing punk rock, hehe.

I felt really ambitious this week, and I wanted to do something extra special for my little princess, so I decided to make a six layer rainbow cake I saw on Martha Stewart once.  It turned out good, but not exactly as I had hoped - it resembled the leaning tower of pisa.  I had actually forgotten to trim up one of the layers (the darn yellow one!) and realized a little too late what the consequence would be.  I tried to hide the slight discrepency and ended up deviating from my plan for keeping the deco on the outside plain.... oh well.  It was a birthday cake for a very spirited and colorful two year old so it all worked out in the end.

 Also this was a recipe I followed from the internet, and I was quickly reminded why I don't like doing that - the frosting was a new experience, it wouldn't set (should've stuck to my trusty buttercream), and also the sponge would've all gone down the bin had I not tweaked the recipe according to my experience!  Growing up, I always complained to my mother that she never followed any recipe to the T, she always took a written recipe and did her own thing with it.... now I understand that that's what EXPERIENCE is.  My mother's cakes ALWAYS turn out perfect, and that's because she doesn't trust any one else's judgement except her own when it comes to recipes.  So yeah, never going to the internet for another recipe again.  Not my best work, but Yums didn't care, she was happy anyway!

The goodie packs were awesome though... I got pre-made boxes and filled them up with chocolates and lollipops and added two crazy mini cupcakes.  In keeping with the "rainbow" theme, I adorned the cupcakes with multicolor buttercream. The whole time I was working I kept humming the tunes from Yo Gabba Gabba's "Birthday" episode.  That show is so addictive... Yums and I both have most of the songs memorized.  Hmmm... maybe I should've done a Broby cake!  There's always next year though!

So three cakes, three dozen cupcakes, a kilo of butter, and God knows how much sugar later I can finally relax.  I had two birthday celebrations for my gorgeous two year old, and she totally deserved it.  What I really want to do now is just get a good few hours of shut-eye.  *yawn*  I totally deserve it too, don't I? :)

Happy Birthday Little Miss Muffin

Another birthday's come and gone, another year's passed by way too fast.  Some people have entered stage right, and some have exited stage left.  I feel different about a lot of issues today than I did this exact hour last year.  Time heals, they say.  Last year, I would've agreed and continued to aimlessly hope.  Today, I say you heal yourself, time just keeps ticking by :P  Worrying about the nitty gritty of things - the how, the who, the when, and the but - is totally tedious. It kind of adds up, like sleep debt. Last year, I would've asked myself a million questions and driven myself into a hysterical stupor.  Today, however, starting from the first day of my new year, I'm going to be all about not sweating the small stuff.  Hell, I won't even sweat the big stuff.  I don't know how long that'll last but at least I'm not scared of failure anymore.  Que sera, sera, n'est-ce pas?  Okay I officially pulled the foreign language version of a turducken right there, but I think you get my point.  In keeping with this new year's resolution, I'm going to launch the logo of my cupcakery today.  This is it.  This makes it real.  There's no turning back now!  Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you...

Coming soon.... very, very soon :)

Yum's Favorite Bedtime Story

Once upon a time there was a Baby Red Panda that lived in the forests of the Himalayas.  Baby Red was an extremely naughty girl and she was always off doing one mischief or another.  Baby Red had two really good friends, a pink Tee Cat and a baby Fawl Bear.  When the three of them got together it was mayhem all over the forest.  Baby Red would distract Mr. and Mrs. Snow the leopards while Tee Cat and Fawl Bear tied their tails together.  The three naughty kids would sneak up on Monk Ape while he was enjoying a banana and send him screaming into the trees, banana peel and pulp flying everywhere.  One day Baby Red decided to stay in their favorite abandoned temple while the other two rushed home before dark.  She was so busy collecting crane flies, she never noticed when the sun reached the edge of the horizon.  It was a cold night and Baby Red certainly didn't know her way home.  She snuggled up under a small tree and stifled her sobs in her big bushy tail.  Just then she heard a low hoot..."Whoooooooooooo".  Baby Red hid her face in her tail and shuddered with fear, or maybe it was the chilly breeze, but it didn't matter.  The hooting continued and seemed to be getting closer.  "Whoooooooooooooooooo".  The next hoot was so close Baby Red almost jumped.  She looked up and there was a big furry owl sitting right in front of her.  "Hello, Baby Red.  Lost, are ya?"  Said Mama Owl.  Baby Red remembered how the trio had hidden Mama Owl's nest and made her weep and worry before handing back her nest with her precious eggs in it.  Perhaps Mama Owl had vengeance on her mind.  Baby Red hid in her tail again.  Mama Owl rolled her eyes and whistled to her babies.  Down flew four little baby owls, and the fluttering of their tiny wings made Baby Red look up.  "Hello, Baby Red.  Lost, are ya?" The four of them said in unison.  They didn't seem so intimidating so Baby Red replied with a quick nod.  Mama Owl said, "Well, we know where you live, we'll take you home."  The four owlets followed suit and repeated their mom's sentence in unison, once again.  It made Baby Red giggle and she wasn't scared anymore.  Baby Red nudged Mama Owl with her ear and then lowered her head - her way of showing remorse over past deeds.  Mama Owl laughed and patted Baby Red on her little fuzzy head.  "You should see what these four come up with when they're at their best!" She laughed.  Again, the baby owls repeated the sentence together.  Baby Red giggled again.  Mama Owl flew up into the air, her owlets tailing behind her in a line, and Baby Red followed them.  All the trees looked the same, all the winding paths led everywhere but home.  "Be patient, Red!"  Mama Owl (and of course the owlets after her) called from up above.  Finally Baby Red saw the big hollow tree that was her home.  Her mother was passed out in front of the tree, tired and drained from all the crying.  Baby Red ran to her Mama and jumped on her tummy.  Mama immediately woke and wiped dry tear stains from the fur under her eyes.  She encircled Baby Red in a tight panda-hug and kissed her between the ears.  Mama and Baby Red both thanked the kind owls and offered  them a gift of novelty bamboo.  "No thanks, we're strictly non-vegetarian!" they said.  The five of them winked at Baby Red and flew away into the darkness, back to their own cozy homes probably.  Baby Red stayed in Mama's embrace all night, and swore not to be naughty ever again.  Obviously she forgot all about that the next morning!  :P :P :P

I did say this blog was about anything and everything. What did you expect to find here anyway, recipes?  :P

Chocolate, Coffee, SATs, and Life...

Nothing wakes one up better than the scent of freshly brewed coffee, right?  I beg to differ.  I had to conjure up every ounce of strength not to break my diet after taking the picture seen above - my version of Starbucks Caramel Mocha, in cupcake form of course.  I used decaf in these so my daughter could nibble on them if she wanted to, but I imagine these would jump start you into action on a cold Monday morning if made with 100% caffeinated coffee.  I love coffee.  A little over 8 years ago I used to be an addict, the "Hi, my name's Sahar, and I'm a coffeeholic" kind. Not only did I have six cups of coffee a day, I put coffee into everything I consumed.  I sprinked granules into my cereal, stirred them into my ice cream, and even had a secret stash of Kopiko for those AP Bio all-nighters.  The stash never lasted all night, obviously.  One night at the dinner table one of the girls pointed out how jittery my hands were, and called for an intervention.  Many years later here I am, no more jitters, and completely cured of my caffeine fix.  In fact it doesn't affect me anymore.  I have to think of other measures when I want to feel awake, because coffee just doesn't cut it.  Here's why, though.  It isn't because I haven't had a good, honest cup of coffee in a while.  It's because I've been dosing myself with caffeine in small amounts, unknowingly.  Caffeine isn't in just tea and coffee, man, it's EVERYWHERE! Who doesn't like chocolate, huh? Well do you know how much caffeine you're consuming in a single bar?  I'm a dark chocolate fan - nothing less than 60% cocoa.  Hey, it's supposed to be good for you! That and green tea, which I'm again a very heavy consumer of.  There's the other source of caffeine in my life!  Anyway I'm railing off the subject here... the point of this rant was to tell you how the cupcakes came into being.  So the other day I was missing a bunch of things I had to let go on this diet of mine, the most important being chocolate.  It's excruciatingly hard to open the freezer (yes, I like my chocolate frozen rock solid), see all that left over Ghirardelli, and walk away.  My fingers were itching to bake and all I needed was an excuse.  I found one, in the form of my cousin.  She had to travel all by herself, for the very first time, to a different city in order to take a standardized test.  I hate those so much, by the way.  I was never a bad student, but standardized tests just aren't my forte - I kind of get creeped out sitting like a robot in such a controlled environment,  reminds me of a creepy Bryan Adams video. ANYWHO so my cousin's back and what better to treat her with than chocolate and coffee?  Coffee for all the nights she probably put in studying for a standardized test (Come on, cuz, really?) and chocolate because thats what I like to celebrate with!  That's how I came up with these... coffee infused dark chocolate cupcakes, filled with homemade caramel, and topped with coffee buttercream, oh and more caramel.  In fact I think these are good enough to celebrate life... it's a bittersweet symphony anyway, isn't it?  

Write it cut it paste it save it... technologic!

The reason I haven't written in a day (or is it two?) is because I didn't encounter anything inspiring enough.  My parents went back home leaving me and Yums clutching onto a short but wonderful thread of memories from the last ten days.  Why must holidays be so short!?? I shouldn't be complaining.  I think Pakistan is right on top of the list of countries that have the most number of national (and unannounced) holidays in the world.  So what inspired me tonight?  Well, I'd been looking for my daughter's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD last week, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  As a result she'd been watching all her shows on my laptop, since I had all of them uploaded as back up.  I put up with it obviously - I try my best to minimize the number of tantrums. With my parents finally gone, I was desperate to find that DVD.  I searched in all the drawers, in all the empty cd cases, and even inside the pillow case (yeeaaaahhhh trust me, sometimes I find the strangest things there), but no luck.  Yums strolled into the room, rubbing a red wad of playdoh between her fingers, and stopped short when she saw all the drawers and closet doors open.  I threw my hands up in the air in submission and said "Yums I can't find your Mickey Mouse DVD! I just can't!" I turned back to rummaging through the closet after my child replied to my declaration with a puzzled stare.  Five seconds later two tiny fingers tapped my leg and I turned around to see Yums shoving a cd in my face.  There it was... never had I been so happy to see the rainbow glare of a cd before.  She'd found it!  I hugged my daughter, threw her into the air, twirled around with her, and laughed like a nut job.  When I asked her where she found it she wouldn't tell me.  After much persistence she finally said, "Mama lapot!" Oh. My. God.  The DVD had been in my laptop all this time, but that wasn't why I was in awe.  My almost two year old had taken out her cd from my laptop with the ease of a chipmunk cracking a nut.  I don't know if that seems like a big deal to anyone else, but when I was two I was probably either stuck under the bed with my big head or breaking my older sister's barbie into five pieces.  Kids these days are so technologically aware, I wouldn't be surprised if the next Steve Jobs is a 10 year old!  I think it's a good thing... and if there's any remote chance that that ten year old could possibly be my daughter, I'm going to let her get technologic! Full throttle! Oh and while we're on the subject... Daft Punk - awesome.  Tron Legacy - more awesome.  I wish I could see it in 3D some day, with that awesome awesome soundtrack blaring at its loudest.  I wonder what Yums and I would look like with DP helmets on.....Oh well.  Maybe next Halloween.