Road to Jannah

Yesterday we had a ‘fashion exchange party’ at Raz…elle’s house. Basically everyone who comes should bring 5 or more almost new items that have been washed and pressed to the party. We then set all these things up around the room on hangers. We had over 100 things! Cute long shirts, pants, skirts, pretty tops, little jackets, hijabs, jilbabs, whole desi lengha outfits, sweaters, purses of all sizes and colors, even some boots and shoes! Each had its own little area or section. It was definitely a boutique in there!

Those who came early got to ‘preview’ the items, trying stuff on, checking out what was available. Then once everyone was there, we put folded pieces of paper with numbers on them into a bowl that everyone had to pick from. Once everyone picked their number randomly, the #s were the order people could choose items. (We had 15 girls.) So #1 and #2 went up and chose the items they liked and tried them on, then #3 and #4, etc, and we kept going around from there 2 at a time till we came back to #1&2 again and kept going until we had no more items left or no one wanted anything anymore. (We were supposed to go around based upon the number of items we brought but that didn’t end up happening so I’d recommend having a required least number of items each person has to bring because it might not feel fair to others if someone brings 2 items and brings home 20)

Since most of the girls were size 0s it was hard to find things that fit me, but I ended up with a few nice items including a gorgeous beaded jilbab, a pink skirt, a desi lengha outfit, a purse, a teal sweater dress and a cute smallish top. There were a few other items I was lusting after but others got to them before me, or they didn’t fit But I think it ended up that every girl got at least 1 or 2 things they really wanted.

It was actually a really interesting exercise and a great way of getting new things to wear without spending money and being too materialistic about it. We all have tons of things in our closet that are practically new or even are new! but we never wear or don’t know what to do with. What better way than to give it away to your friends and maybe get something in return. I’d really recommend people try this in their communities.

After everyone was done choosing, we put together all the items that were left to give to a muslim and non-muslim charity. And then we ate some great food and desserts and drank soda and lemonade that Razzle prepared mostly and hung out talking. Somehow the topic ended up on what girls find attractive in a guy. (Don’t ask me how it got there I don’t know either!) We ended up going around each one of us answering, talking, discussing, eating and laughing hysterically until about 1am.

To be quite honest I was really suprised by the answers. Every one of us had a different idea of what we found attractive. Different personalities, like quiet, talkative, outgoing, introvert, passionate, charming, different characteristics, everything under the sun, everyone wanted something different. Even like small little physical things I never would have thought of, like long/short hair/fingernails/artistic fingers/jawlines/veins/sideburns and so on. Just weird… maybe that does mean there is someone out there for everyone??

For a number of future posts I’m going to be using a password. This will be my kitten’s name. I kind of want to write about more sensitive interesting things like my daily life happenings, love life or lack thereof and controversial topics like girls taking off their hijab and stuff i noticed on facebook and deeper spiritual and other things and i really can’t figure out who reads this blog?? Meow

I watched this last night. I’ve been dying to see it since I first heard about it months ago!! There’s so much buzz around it and the premise just seemed so unique and interesting.

It’s a great film, very powerful. It brings home a lot of issues specific to india and the third world like poverty, orphans, slums, prostitution rings, child labour, gangsters, human trafficking, child begging rings, stealing, ripping off tourists, torture. Brought out all these ugly things that should really make this a depressing movie, but somehow the story is actually uplifting. All the actors were excellent as well. Especially the one’s who played the kids.  It’s not exactly a comfortable movie but it is one that will open your point of view and stay with you for a long time.

Some of the things I didn’t like: There’s a lot of bad language that I think they could have toned down. (Understanding the bad language in both English or Hindi probably made it worse for me. Kind of like double expletives.) There were some torture/violence/brutality/vulgar type scenes but I’ve seen much worse and the point is to show how horrible it is over there. Overall it’s still worth seeing if you’re into these types of films. It’s definitely not for everyone. I think people who would like it are those independent film buffs who watch a lot of crazy stuff. It showed quite a lot of India’s ugly underbelly of the abject millions of poor and reminded me a lot of films like Salaam! Bombay and Shadows of Time.

MAJOR SPOILERS:

One thing that I really disliked was that they showed his brother, who is a bad/shady character that works for a gangster praying on a janemaz in a kufi at some random point (probably before going off to kill someone) and then he raises his hands and makes dua like ‘oh God forgive me for my sins’ and in another place he’s like ‘God is great!’ uhhhhhhhhhhhh guess we cant have any type of indian movie without the muslim sterotyping.

I didn’t understand his whole thoughts on his mother’s death? He blamed both “Allah and Ram”? I didn’t really understand the brother’s character until I read some more things about it. I felt the ending was really open ended. Like what happens now?? Would the gangster find them? What would he do with the money? Maybe it just doesn’t matter? And the whole bollywood song at the end…cute but is it in character or out of character…seemed weird. I like how they did it in Bend it Like Beckham, kind of as a joke and funny bloopers thing.

Anyway over all excellent, I’m still thinking about it now and will probably watch it again for the nuances!!