Zahra speaks

Summers can be pretty harsh especially if you are a resident of Pakistan. The temperature rises very quickly leading to some very annoying health issues. The heat generated by the body can be highly irritating and it gets very difficult to manage the excess heat. However, it should not be left untreated as it can lead to some serious consequences especially for the children such as heat stroke Here are a few home remedies that might help you beat the summer blues. Life gives you lemons? take them!  The incredibly delicious lemon is a high source of vitamin C which is required by the body to function properly and it also provides essential supplements to the body such as Riboflavin, Vitamin B, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorous and many proteins and carbohydrates. It maintains the heart functioning and controls the blood pressure moreover it can also be highly helpful in beating the summer stress. Just squeeze a lemon in your water bottle and keep sipping on it throughout the da...

If you can move your feet and walk on your own then you should be very thankful for each moment in your life. We don't realize the importance of such small blessings. When something is taken away from you, it is exactly the time when you realize the worth of that thing. Operating your legs or walking may seem very casual things that you do in routine but trust me these things are worth being thankful for each day. Everyone has a story to tell; my story revolves around the turn of events that turned me into a fighter. I found happiness in the most difficult time of my life with the divine intervention of The Almighty.  I could have been a normal carefree teenager but God had other plans for me. I was 16 years old when a complex diagnosis declared that I had tuberculosis of the bone. The doctor suggested some. Without any delay, I began the course. Naturally, the term tuberculosis scared my family and so without taking a second opinion, we opted to start the medicine. It would ...

IMAGE COURTESY FETHIYE TIMES. With the rise in temperature, the intake water becomes extremely crucial. The outdoor summer activities can drain the body's energy so it becomes extremely important to increase the water intake as the body loses more water. It causes the body to dehydrate. The major symptoms of dehydration include darker in colour and reduced urine, dry skin, tiredness and confusion & lightheadedness. Mild dehydration can cause uneasiness but severe dehydration must be addressed properly as it can lead to some major complications. It can take a toll on your mood and energy overall. Here are a few clues to identify dehydration: 1. Bad breath 2. Fever 3. A severe headache The elderly children are at a higher risk to be dehydrated as their bodies are more sensitive towards the change in temperature. Upon the detection of any symptoms of dehydration, it is extremely advisable to take the doctor's advice as soon as possible, however, prevention is better ...

A few months ago, I was invited to participate in a conference. The forum was on the national level for the women with disabilities. As the conference was held in Lahore I decided to partake but when I reached the venue I was extremely shocked to see that the venue was not wheelchair accessible and had more than 7 stairs on the entrance. When we enquired from the staff, they bluntly asserted that they will lift my chair up to the entrance of the hotel. Although everything was fantastic in that hotel. It was extremely shameful that despite being informed about the nature of the conference beforehand, the management did not arrange anything to facilitate the people with disabilities who were about to participate in the conference. The conference was aimed to address the issues faced by the people with disabilities in the society and the very location where we were discussing the problems was itself wheelchair inaccessible, the irony is unmistakable! Recently, it was my sisters birthda...

After my first surgery, I was in a very crucial state as my vertebra was not completely supporting the activity of my neck due to its incomplete structure. At that time, the young doctors were on a strike and all the activities of the hospitals were abandoned so my crucial surgery was delayed due to this issue. At this point in time, the doctor himself stated that a little mismanagement with the movement can cause a collapse so in that span of 2 weeks we were continuously living on the edge and additionally I was discharged from the hospital as my next surgery was going to occur in a government hospital. As I was discharged, a very difficult phase of my ailment began. I had to lie straight on my back so that any unusual movement would not happen to result in any collapse. I was always a very active teenager and I never thought that there will be a time when I will be confined to my bed doing nothing but look write up on the wall to discover fascinating artworks from the cracks in th...

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...

Confinement is merely in one's mind because one can find anything that they look for if the intentions are pure. I was in a need to find the meaning of my life. With the enormous support of my friends and family, there were certainly some more things that made me able to grasp beyond the walls of my house. Cricket which might be just a game for a few people but it was not just a game from me as it helped me get a direction out of the darkness that prevailed my life at that time. I first fell in love with this game in the year 2009, when Younis Khan brought the T20 World Cup Trophy home. He was and still remains my favorite cricketer although he was later joined by Misbah Ul Haq in my favorite cricketers' league. When I went in for my surgery, I still remember the world cup 2011 was going on and my mind was struck by a very important match Pakistan was playing that day. It dimmed the effect of a very hard event that was going on in my life. The semi-final of that particular wo...