Zahra speaks

Creativity is a gift and when you embrace it in your life, everything seems clear. You realize the beauty of the simplest things like the amazing blueness of the sky. You get a new pair of lenses to look at things around you including the people who are closest to you, how they look or talk or behave. You notice. An artist has a mind of his/her own. They have something to say through their work as poets, they convey messages of love, hate, betray and even patriotism. It is like a code that is cracked by the people who conceive their work with an open heart. Either its a painting, poetry, film, story or any other form of art, each represents a part of the artist's soul. They are generous, not everyone dares to share a part of their soul with others. Being a writer, I feel, I notice stories around me. Simple yet profound. There are such great stories just out there, waiting to be told and known by the world, however, I fail to pen them all down. I don't know if I

Supporting Pakistan had been my priority ever since I started watching and following cricket, 10 years ago. I've witnessed some eras of the legends like Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi and Younus Khan. The energy and intensity that these legends showed on the field was eye-candy for the true lovers of the game. However, there has always been a lack of planning within the board which drove to a lot of blunders in the past and it was somewhat the reason behind our team's elimination from the World Cup, 2019. Image Courtesy: ACE NEWS The Setbacks This tournament suffered the biggest set back in the form of weather. Many of the matches were washed away and our points were compromised. In the match against India, however, the case was entirely different. The team's body language was very blue and that demotivated everyone. It wasn't about the performance or the dls, the team was very downhearted, for some reason. Rather than blowing up controversial theories, I'd on

We have to distinguish between education and knowledge. Any school or institute, however great or marvellous it is, does not always render knowledge. There is a clear difference. A person establishes the personality in educational institutes but knowledge comes from experience and it does not necessarily involve education. Children, nowadays, are so stuffed up in studies that they don't get any chance to get any real exposure to the world. The new technology introduced advanced video gaming which officially ended the physical gaming. This is one of the darkest aspects of technology. Previously, people used to send their children off to play various sports or learn talents in the summer vacations but now that has stopped too. The school applies too much pressure on the children in the form of holiday's homework. According to my thinking, this practise should stop. The children should be encouraged to learn new skills or sports for the holidays. The schools can even organiz

Khud means self in Urdu. They are tirelessly working from 3 years to change the lives of underprivileged children by equipping them with digital skills and crafts. There is a persistent educational crisis in Pakistan. The main and immediate problems include the lack of schools and teachers. However, Khud is exploring alternatives by providing the children with a proper self-learning environment that gives them a fighting chance to compete in the modern, highly digitalised age. Their focus is to interject a digitalised approach to education in Pakistan. They have designed a number of digital curricula for various subjects. It facilitates a project based self-learning experience to the children harnessing the curiosity to learn. Khud aims to have over 500 kids graduate from their digital program and by the end of this year, the digital curriculums would be made public to reach the kids even from the remote areas. To give these underprivileged children a fighting chance for a better

HAPPY RAMZAN! Here's wishing all my readers a very happy and prosperous Ramzan. May all your deeds, prayers and fasts get accepted and rewarded. Ramzan is a time when you ponder on the blessings of Allah by fasting the whole day. It isn't about being deprived of food and water, the idea of fasting is much broader than that. It demands us to purify our souls from all the negativity that surrounds us throughout the year. Being hungry and thirsty is not enough, you must thank the Almighty for all the blessings that He has bestowed upon us. Water, for example, is a hugely magnificent blessing but do we realise it? Fasting makes us embrace God's blessings the way they deserve to be cherished. Gratitude for the smallest things purifies our soul and brings it closer to the Maker. There is a very popular reference that Satan is caged in this month. It is true but in reality, our own inner demons become dominated and even more powerful in the absence of "Satan". I

Ageing is astounding, from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and many more stages that we cover throughout our lifetime. Nevertheless, the most precious and best face of our life is childhood. Marching into adulthood is always fascinating but experiencing being an adult is completely different from our expectations. We all have been there, done that. Every individual faces this phase where he/she looks back at the childhood and desires to be a child again. Childhood is the time when we don't worry about things, our future and it's planning. It's the time when we only worry about being happy and doing what we want to do. In the process of becoming a mature adult, we forget these two important portions of our life: Gathering happiness out of the smallest things and doing what we want. As adults, we keep our happiness on the back foot while following the norms of society and doing what others want us to do. We become busy in setting our goals, following deadlines and

After a prolonged winter season, we are finally moving into summers, this transitional period is known as the spring season. It is one of the most celebrated time of the year because the flowers have blossomed in this era. We see beautiful colours and magnificent fragrances everywhere. The weather is also reasonable because along with the blistering sun, the winds are also prevailing. This season does not continue for a very long time, especially in Pakistan but we love this season and try to celebrate it to the fullest. Basant is a festival that was widely celebrated in this season but because of certain aspects it is not celebrated anymore but there are a lot of flower displays and Basant Melas throughout the country. This season also comes with a lot of mental health issues. It is scientifically proven that changing weather can affect your mental health. Many of us face a lot of mood swings during this season and we don't understand why we feel anxious, angry or depressed.