The young generation these days lack respect for their elders in most societies. Ask a question, and you get either a sarcastic, cheeky response or they’d downright ignore you.
I have a special peeve against this sort of behavior. Subconsciously, I compare them to myself at that age. Our generation was trained or rather drilled in having good manners. Please, thanks, excuse me were the words that were essential in our speech.
Now everyone is addressed as “man”, people think it’s a waste of breath to say, sir or ma’am. And if you ask them to repeat something, it never goes well. As for the cheek, they show, it is unacceptable for people of my ilk.
Why have the teaching of polite manners to our children has been given a backseat?
This week we are asked to share some of the celebration/ holiday meals from our past.
The celebration in my culture are usually centered around the two Eids and birthdays and anniversaries.
For Eid, we would go to our parent’s house for lunch. And when my in-laws were living, to their homes. But when they passed away, we used to be the hosts for both sides of the family. Now we only invite our children and their families for Eid lunch.
I have mentioned food in one of Share Your World posts. We are big on traditional cuisine on festivals.
Our food is rich and revolves around meat/ poultry and fish. It’s also influenced by the weather. In summers, we go for light easily digestible dishes while in winters, the dishes are richer and more calorie-rich.
A typical Eid lunch menu in summer would have a variety of biryani or pulao ( rice cooked with chicken or mutton), some gravy made of meat or chicken, kebabs, haleem or karhi ( curry made of yogurt, chickpea flour with pakoras added in the end) salads and for dessert, we have kheer ( rice pudding in milk) or ice cream.
In winter, the menu would also contain Barbeque meat, paye ( mutton hoof curry with mutton), fried fish, and maybe some Italian dish like lasagna and for dessert, we typically have carrot halwa!
Wherever you have some or all the family together, there’s bound to be drama.
People arriving late and at odds with each other is very common. We have instances where people ( family) were hours late and not talking to each other. People have heated arguments during the meal and then someone would be unhappy at the eidi ( money given as a gift on eid) being inadequate. These were usually children as the tradition is that elders/ parents give eidi to their children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. Older brothers and sisters hand over money to younger siblings too.
I have great fun memories of Eid lunches, from my childhood to recent years.
If you had the power to strike one person in your life permanently speechless, who would it be? (Real names aren’t necessary, vague descriptions are fine… and yes, this is being asked in fun and not to be mean)
My choice is obvious!
I would strike MR DT speechless permanently! And if I have any more of that special power left, I’d strike all politicians semi-dumb. They can only say the truth. And that would practically leave them permanently dumb because who has heard of a politician who says what’s true.
If you could relive your childhood over again, what’s one thing from this modern world today you’d want to take back with you?
What a tempting offer! I think I’ll take a laptop connected to internet back to my school days. I would Google all the information for which I had to spend hours in the library. I’d be a know it all!
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple are the standard colors of the rainbow. Name something you love (or greatly admire/appreciate) for all six major colors of the rainbow! (Sorry indigo, you’re just blue-purple. Hot pink? You’re too flashy!)
Red; Strawberries
Orange; Oranges
Yellow; lemons, mangoes
Green; Emeralds
Blue; Sky, sea/ocean
Purple; Amethysts, aubergines
If you were to open the world’s most accurate fortune cookie, what would your fortune inside it read?
“You will stumble and suffer a lot in your younger days but will find peace and wisdom In your middle age”
Santa’s tired of people leaving him out cookies and milk on Christmas Eve night! If you really wanted to get on Santa’s good side, what would you leave out for him to eat/drink instead? (This question applies whether you celebrate Christmas or not. It’s just for fun, so imagination? Welcome! )
Santa needs to watch his diet. I think he would appreciate low fat milk or cheese cubes, apple slices and perhaps some peppermint gum, too ward off hunger attacks.
GRATITUDE SECTION (Still optional)
What plans do you have for the upcoming holiday/celebration/festival season? 🎅🏻🤶🏻❄
Nothing is planned as yet for the two-week-long break from school but we’ll think of something fun to do. Meanwhile, if you recall my post asking advice from you all regarding the purchase of a camera?
Well………..ta da!
Now I just need to remember to use it!
Thank you so much Melanie for these ultra-fun questions.
I have followed so many bloggers that have quit blogging. I don’t know why they just abandoned their blogs but lack of motivation is one of the reasons. Some of them had some issues which prevented them from blogging.
So while it’s very understandable that life intrudes in the blogging journey, quitting it altogether may not be the only option. Taking a break, a hiatus can be one way of dealing with this. Another way is to reduce the number of times one posts during the day, week, or month. Posting less is always better than stopping completely.
When I started to blog I used to post infrequently at first and then I started to post daily. When I discovered the daily and weekly prompts, I was at times posting 6-7 times a day. This was a schedule that I was finding quite hectic. So to suit my convenience, I reduced the number of posts to 3 per day. And I stopped doing the daily prompts, regretfully. The merging of 4-5 daily prompts into one post/poem was a challenge that I enjoyed but it was stressful for me.
Currently, my way of organizing my posting schedule is to write the posts for the next day, the evening before. Sometimes I leave a slot free for the prompts that will be posted the next day so that I can respond to them the same day. Dr. Tanya’s Blogging Insights is one of them. And so is Melanie’s SYW. The rest of my posts are mostly pre-scheduled. This way I can relax for the day and blogging never becomes a chore that I have to do!
I agree with this quote in context to blogging. Don’t quit but find ways to manage your blogging. Use features like “pre-scheduling” to make life, and blogging easy for yourself. Remember that the community you build with your first post and first comment has taken a lot of effort and when you quit, you’ll lose this wonderful community.
Many thanks, Dr.Tanya for your continued discussion on blogging!
Do you ever feel lonely? And if you do, how do you overcome the feeling?
There are certain times of the year when peopleget together to celebrate. And during those days, sometimes families or friends cannot be with us. At this time loneliness can strike. We feel sad and sort of let down.
I also feel lonely sometimes especially when my family or friends cannot be there to celebrate with me. Loneliness is a natural feeling. It reminds us of the fact that we enjoy the presence of others in our lives.
When I feel lonely, I talk to myself, remind myself of the numerous blessings I have in life and when the feeling is because of a certain person, I remember all the times they went out of their way for me. I find solace in my memories of good times I’ve seen and my feeling of loneliness disappear in the overwhelming gratitude I experience.
What about you? If you feel lonely how do you counter this feeling?
Do share your thoughts in the comments section or write your thoughts on your blog and share the link here. Thanks for visiting and reading.
The surprise is that I haven’t used these two words together, ever!
Now a simple oh suffices when it’s a pleasant surprise and a loud oh no, shoot does it when it’s something I don’t want to see.
Exclamations are a part of our speech that gives it a kick, otherwise a monotonous tone cannot convey how strongly we are feeling the impact of what’s going on in our lives at the moment.
The surprise this morning for me was a monstrous headache. I have no idea why it descended upon me, bringing its friends, nausea, and heartburns with it. So I’m going to take it slow today. If I haven’t visited your blogs today, you know why!
Let’s hope Sunday surprises me again with good news and I will feel fighting fit and able to blog as normal.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “golly gee.” Use “golly gee” or another interjection that displays the same sentiment in your post. Enjoy!
If you’re American, do you concur with my assessment that our country is rapidly going to hell in a handbasket? Or do you believe that everything is hunky-dory and America’s light is shining as brightly as ever?
If you’re not an American, based upon what you’ve read, seen, and heard, do you feel that America has, indeed, faltered? Or do you think that America will weather this storm?
Since I am NOT an American, I don’t know much about the politics in this country. When we moved to America in 2015, Obama was the president. The elections were near and we saw how the GOP selected Trump for their candidate. We never thought that he would be elected the next president. But it was to be so!
I give this context because of the difference I saw and felt between America under the two presidents. In Obama’s time, people were more tolerant, there weren’t any racial slurs cast on us as Muslims and brown people and the atmosphere was way more peaceful. When Trump took power, things went downhill. Open racism was common. People would say nasty things in passing and the entitlement of some white people grew by leaps and bounds.
What happened during the last couple of years of Trump’s rule and after the elections was unbelievable. It reminded me of any third-world country which sees power struggle at the hands of despots. More like what has been going on in my country since we became an independent country.
What Trump did was to unleash all the racism, hatred, and intolerance which some people already had inside their minds but now it became okay to be openly racist. This smells like beginning of the end of the tolerances and acceptability that was a hallmark of American society.
The recent acquittal of a white man for the murder of three people openly was another example of why sensible people feel that justice in America is totally blind and lopsided.
Too many issues have cropped up in recent years and many people are losing hope.
Image courtesy of Paula Light of Light Motifs II Badge is my design
QUESTIONS;
What are some red flags to watch out for in daily life?
I think my cynical side will be answering this one!
People being too nice without reason ( they want something?)
Things too cheap, again no apparent reason ( Faulty, expired goods!)
When the day dawn clear and sunny on a day of an outing
You start from your home in plenty of time to reach your appointment! 😜
What obstacles would you include in the ‘world’s most amazing obstacle course”?
Just navigate around a room where a kid has thrown his lego pieces in a fit of rage.
Who is the best movie or book villain in your opinion? (‘book’ is included because some folks don’t watch movies)
I liked professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes. He was one seriously intelligent guy and quite the planner.
What, in your opinion, is the most beautiful/handsome part of your face? (no dissing yourself please, we’re all beautiful/handsome!)
I’d say my eyes which I’ve inherited from my late father. I am the only one among my siblings to do so.
GRATITUDE SECTION 🦃🕊
Next week on Thursday, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. What are some foods you enjoy for your festive celebration dinners? (Doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving, as I realize the whole world isn’t participating in ‘our’ holiday)
Our festivals are our Eids. We normally invite the family over for lunch. The traditional dishes are;
Chicken biryani
Seekh kebabs
Haleem
Naans.
Kheer ( milk and rice pudding) for desert
Sometimes I make roast chicken (whole) or roast leg of lamb on eid-ul-Adha. ( It’s the eid where we sacrifice a goat or lamb in the name of Allah and distribute it among the poor, keeping some for our use)
We used to eat substantial lunch and dinner when we were growing up. Snacking wasn’t a habit that was encouraged when we were young as it would spoil the appetite for the next meal. And store bought stuff was very rare unless it was a special occasion.
Now the special occasion could be rainfall in summer. In the monsoon season, getting samosas from the market or making pakoras was almost natural. As the only girl in my family, it often was my duty to make pakoras when the rest of the family waited impatiently.
Another snack I was good at making was peanut brittle, made with brown sugar, or “Shakar” as we call the raw sugar. It was ready in minutes and lasted that long too.
Home made French fries were another snack that we made but it was my younger brother who made them. He is very good at it and still makes them for his family.
When I learned to bake, chocolate cake, marble cake and brownies were added to the things we could have as snacks. I had my mom’s cook books and I tried to make as many recipes for which I could find the ingredients!
So I have written about so many goodies we used to have as kids, but these were rare occasions and not everyday occurrences. My grandma was always asking us not to snack in-between meals as it would spoil our appetite. And, ironically, I say the same to my grandson!
Nowadays, I use my snacking habit to replace my lunch. Because with age the digestive system has sloweddown and one can either snack or have a meal.
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Thanks Maggie for reminding me of days long ago and the snacks we ate!
Keep it alive 
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