Zahra speaks

Stop living in the future because it is snatching you away from your present. Some people make the biggest mistake of their life by always trying to gape at the future, trying to make it perfect, and in that effort, they miss to look around at the perfection that a moment poses as you live it. It doesn't imply that you should not think about the future at all, I am just trying to emphasis the fact that the future is not promised, and while chasing something that is not certain, why should we lose what we have in hand? Life is very small, it is just this moment that we are living in. What if the world ends tomorrow and all you did today was plan what you would do tomorrow? It would be disappointing, isn't it?  Sometimes all you have to do is give your hundred percent and let the Maker of the world do the rest. I have seen many people who plan ahead of time and I think it's good too because it makes sense. You never know what may go wrong so it's always good to have a pla...

Every picture narrates a story and this picture is one of the most special pictures of my life. It is clicked in front of the Governor's house, Lahore. I went to meet the Governor and convey some of my suggestions regarding rehabilitation and accessible education for the PWD's. This meeting did not happen magically nor I had a connection with any politician. One of my good uncles read my blogs and shared it with the human rights advisor for the Governor. She organized the meeting and was very supportive throughout the procedure. It was one of those events when I felt empowered. In the room that had the Governor of Punjab, his team, and the Human Rights advisor, I felt that I found my voice. Although I was very nervous about the meeting, after all, it was an important personality that I was going to meet and who might have an influence in bringing the change that I am working towards. When I entered that room and I started talking, I felt that much more confident than ever. Even...

I have been gutted from the past few days. It is important to vent, I have a lot of things in my mind and I have to put it out there. Image Courtesy: Wikibio Firstly, it's not about a particular person, it's about the mentality that is widespread on social media and nobody is addressing it. We are the dead-worshipping generation. Nobody talks about mental health when everything is fine but suddenly, every person begins advocating its importance once somebody commits suicide. Why? Why do we have to praise people when they are gone? Why can't we support and coexist when they were alive? Half of the people who are discussing mental health on social media today are the ones who are active online trolls. They go on the social media handles of every celebrity and spill filth. Just lately, Mahira Khan posted a picture of a cup of tea and she was called shameless for doing so. Who is answerable for such people's behavior? If today we are blaming several people who may have pus...

One of the most important relationships in a human's life is friendship. Friends are considered to be a family that a person chooses for him or her self. The unique love between friends cannot be defined in words, however, recently, I heard a real-life story that illuminated the significance of friendship in a person's life no matter what they are going through themselves, the friends will always want the best for each other. Image Courtesy: VideoBlocks Ashfaq and Altaf were best friends since childhood but as they grew up, the professional priorities tore them apart. Altaf had to go to another city for work purposes and Ashfaq stayed back in the home city. Many years passed by and they were not in contact anymore but they missed each other immensely. Altaf got married and had a family, he would narrate the stories of his friend to the kids. Ashfaq, on the other hand, could not find a stable job but got married and had kids as well. Life went on and the friendship rema...

2018 is finally coming to an end. It has been a momentous year in many aspects. The last month of the year, December is here. Every year is packed with events, stories and memories but this year has been exceptional in many aspects. For me, this year has been very special because I started blogging and sharing my work with all the incredible readers who actually read and appreciate me. Finally, I was able to muster the courage to share my stories, thoughts and views with others so I'd call it a year of change for myself. December is everyone's favourite month because of its festive associations and drastic weather change throughout the world. 21 December the longest night of the year.  As the final month of 2018 kicks off, many people have commenced working on the new year's resolutions. The new year resolutions are essentially not obeyed throughout the year but it renders a sense of spirit for the upcoming year. Some of the most common new year resolutions are losi...

We have this constant urge to plan everything ahead of time but when was the last time that everything went just like you had planned? Planning is not something that the humans are made to do and this task basically belongs to the Almighty. Some people may disagree with the fact but this is what my experience teaches me. Spending day and night, thinking about our further education, careers or relationships is simply worthless. This very moment is what you have in your hands. Are you sure that you are going to live until tomorrow or even the next moment? No, then what makes you think that you can plan ahead of time? In this fast-paced life, we have forgotten to live. Living does not include planning for the future but it's about rejoicing the "now." If you are eating something, then completely focus on each and every flavour that you feel on your tongue because, in that very moment, you are interacting with nature through those flavours. Another new trend is to click pi...

Expectations are perpetually painful! As human beings, we expect something from everybody and everything. For example, A wife has some expectations from her husband and when she doesn't get precisely what she expected then comes the feud in paradise. This is the chief reason for countless divorces, isn't it? I am not asserting that we simply stop expect anything but my point is that in order to bypass the burning feeling of disappointment which further leads to frightful closings of so many relationships we should not expect that our expectations will be answered. The expectation is unquestionably a very solid pillar in every relationship but this pillar relies on a weak foundation and if we apply a plenty of tension on it by solely expecting from the other person it eventually breaks down the entire dwelling of a delicate relationship. No human has the ability to satisfy your expectations. It is as simple as that. We waste our emotions and energies in the wrong dir...

Nature is the best teacher. Sometimes we look for answers everywhere but the answer lies in front of our eyes. Look around you will see a lot of miracles occurring every day in front of your eyes but you tend to disregard them because we are engineered to make sense of "everything." The mind always has a dominance over the heart in a never-ending battle between the two but when we decide our team, things get much easier. When we try to contemplate each and everything in our life, our mind presents the facts and figures whereas the heart shows you the faith and courage. Faith is way above the "reality" because it operates on the basis of belief despite the circumstances. God is great and nature is the best manifestation of His love. The Ants are a tiny creature but they provide us with the very big message of believing in God. Once I was sitting in my home near the staircase and a few ants crawling on the floor garnered my attention. One of the ants tried to move ...

The power of words is magnificent, it can either break or make somebody in a matter of seconds. Buddha rightly said, "Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill." It depends on the speaker that how he influences the listener to think and act in a positive manner. Even the general statements that we give in our routine can have a very tremendous impact on somebody. Words are a powerful weapon that can move anyone to the core. While I was striving, I found a very old book in my storeroom. It was the Zahir by Paulo Coelho. I started reading this book and realized that the words were actually drilling into my soul. The plot of this book was love and how it connects somebody with a superlative authority. The storyline revolves around the narrator (famous for his writing on spirituality) who goes on a life-changing journey in search of his disappeared wife. He travels all the way from Paris to Kazakhstan...