How it was...

graduate student housing college station tx

All that Glitters is not Gold...sometimes its shoes

Here is the short detail…In April 2007, my husband and I came to Qatar for a 4-day recruitment interview for a job, leaving the kids with my sisters in the US. On our way back, at Houston Airport, we were denied entry and our visas were revoked. Why, how, no one knows and it is still a mystry to us. We were in status, our papers were complete but as my sis-in-law says they did not like the color combination of the clothes we were wearing so they decided we should not be allowed to re-enter. Anyway, the homeland security people decided to deport us back home without our kids. Only 15 minutes before the departure of the flight back home they decided to give me a months time to get the kids and then leave for home. My husband went back and I went to CS. Disposed off all the stuff in a week and took the kids and came back to Pakistan in less then 2 weeks.

My husband got the job and we moved to Qatar in July 2007. We had to come here by August anyway, but the homeland security people pushed us to come here early. It seems so easy to write it all now but at that time it was worse then a nightmare. And we found out later that we are not the only ones who had to face this, there are thousands of people being detained and deported without any reason. Because of all this my husband's Phd got delayed. He was to defend in the Summer of '07 and thanks to the homeland security it will now be later this year inshallah.

I am extremely grateful to my family and friends in the US and ofcourse to my husband's freinds at the university, who were there with me during that horrible time.

test post

hello there!

I'M ALIVE :) and so is my blog ;)

Hello from Islamabad

Details later

A Monster in our House

My 4 yr old drew this a few days back and told me that she saw this monster in the window of her bedroom.

Visual DNA

I found this at Truth and Beauty It was really fun doing it.

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Window

I did this pencil sketch from a photograph by Leandra Machado

Desi Restaurant in CS - A Major Disappointment!!!

A few months back a friend of mine gave me the news that a Desi (Pakistani/Halal) restaurant is opening in CS. We all got so excited and started counting the days. This restaurant was going to be the first one in our area. We used to go to Houston or Austin to eat when we didn’t feel like cooking at home and when we got tired of eating pizzas and Mexican food. It felt good that we will no longer have to drive a 100 miles to have decent food but, little did we know.

After waiting for about 2 months or more the restaurant finally opened and I guess we were one of the first few customers. The first time they kept us waiting for more than an hour for our order but the food was good. The second time it was ok and the third time we couldn’t even eat it and had to throw it all away. It was a take-out and maybe they thought we’d not be able to complain about the food once we reach home. Well, we did not complain but we won’t be going there ever again, its better to drive a 100 miles than eat at this place.

One thing which I just don’t understand is that the desi restaurants do not maintain their quality. It could be the same with other restaurants too but it is a very prominent feature of all the desi restaurants especially in Houston. You go there once and have great food, you go again and order the same thing but it won’t be the same. I have finally decided that we will have the desi food at home and when we feel like eating out we would go to our all time favorite Persian and Mediterranean restaurants only. The ones we normally go to, have always maintained the standard and we have always enjoyed eating there. For those in the Houston area Kababi Darband and Ranosh are highly recommended.

Cousins II

Open Sesame

Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

I made this one from a photograph downloaded from the flikr blog of a professional photographer but can't remember or find which one. My hunch is it another one of the masterpieces from Jawad Zakaria but am not sure.

Cousins

Chicken Tikka

Positive Parenting

I had a very interesting exchange of comments with some 'jammie' and you can see it here . I wanted to share it with all of you and see what you people have to say about it. I usually avoid political discussions and I created this blog to share my photographs, paintings and some interesting episodes from my day to day life. However I am interested in knowing your views on the limits of parenting. My own views are clear on this topic from the comments on that post.

Carpenter Ants

I took dozens of pictures when i went to Pakistan last year. I could not access my blog from there and therefore could not share any of the pictures. Here is one taken in Capital Park aka Fatima Jinnah Park Islamabad. The kids were distracted by these carpenter ants. They stopped playing and observed these ants for quite a while.

Gardening

Our back yard was in pretty bad shape when we moved to this apartment. It looked like a dirt field. The girls and I worked so hard everyday, raked leaves, made borders and planted flowers and grass. The winter stayed longer than usual this year. It rains every other day (which I am starting to hate) I had a feeling that the plants must’ve been destroyed but despite all the freezing rain and cold weather the grass blades have started to shoot. They look so beautiful, and I feel so happy to watch’em grow. The flowers will take some time, I think.

I had never done gardening before and knew nothing about it until now. I enjoyed doing it but also realized how tough a job it is. I thought about all the maalis (gardeners) we had when we were back home. It made me feel a little depressed that they work so hard and get paid so little. When we move back to Pakistan someday I will make sure that I pay our maali what he deserves. I have so much respect for all the hard work they do to make our lawns, gardens, and backyards look beautiful.

Blue

16" x 20" Oil on Canvas

I am going to make a new blog only for my paintings.

and one more

9"x12" oil on canvas board

I still feel that i need to do some final touches to both the paintings but am not in a mood....have one more unfinished of Rohtas Fort in oil. Only God knows when i will finish it. Will be starting a new one tomorrow, a new painting every saturday ;). I'm enjoying working with my new instructor. You can see some of his work here.