Heels <3

One thing girls love, are accessories.

I recently got a brand new pair of heels, which I adore! And couldn’t resist the photographs.

Formspring and the like

So being off from facebook for about 5 months made me realize that Facebook has exceeded even its own level of stalkerishness.

Those of you who are not familiar with the site formspring, it is a site branching off from facebook. It allows users to ask questions or say things to people (publicly) with either an identity or as anonymous.

Sounds decent enough, right? WRONG. Imagine the amount of rubbish people can type up for you. And do you seriously want people to ask you all sorts of personal questions? HELLO, Stalker alert! I thankfully am not part of this crazy fad, but seriously, are people that desperate to vent about their lives, or question about such deep things? Some aren’t even interested, they’re asking you nonsense just to make fun of YOU. Trust me.

What happened to one’s own privacy?

It seems as the world of technology grows, the more public our lives become. And sadly, upon our own free will. Sure facebook is great to keep in touch, I’m all for that. But there should be a limit to what people post about themselves on the net, no? Sure it’s great to hear that you get accepted into such and such university, or got a really cool present you wanted, but does everyone really need to know about every bug bite you get, or that you had a fight with your friend?

Okay I admit, sometimes it is just fun to update your status about something random like.. I don’t know, “my carpet smells funny”.. or something. It’s all about seeking-attention. You think people who put 100 pictures of themselves are seeking attention? News flash for you, once you’ve made a facebook account, you’ve entered the world of attention seeking.

Well, that’s Facebook for you. Formspring on the other hand, seriously people. Is it not enough that you have your entire community added as your friends, that now you need random people to say things about you? Get a life, please. Don’t waste your time on what “anonymous” said about you.

All those who wish to save their sanity, please, get out with your own real live friends. Enjoy REAL time!

RSVP

I’ve always wondered what that stood for and I have NO IDEA why I never thought of googling it. Or maybe I did?

Anyway, I recently got an invitation and I just went on google and typed, “RSVP meaning” .. after about 10 or more years of pondering over this dilemma, I finally found out what RSVP stood for, as of this very moment:

“The term RSVP comes from the French expression “répondez s’il vous plaît”, meaning“please respond”. If RSVP is written on an invitation it means the …”

entertaining.about.com/cs/etiquette/qt/tip122500.htm

BE SCENE WANTS NEW MEMBERS

Are you a WRITER?
Are you a PHOTOGRAPHER?
Are you an ARTIST?

Do you want to write, express yourself, eat snacks and share laughs?

Do you want to make decisions as to how BE SCENE will look? What will be in the next issue? What pieces should we include?

Do you want to submit to us?

Do you want to join the BE SCENE Editorial Committee?

JOIN US for a brief Introductory Meeting this Monday, June 7th at 3:30 pm to 4pm at the Flemingdon Health Center!

See you there
E-mail us for details/questions/comments at bescenemag@gmail.com

MIST

Muslim Interscholastic Tournament (MIST) is a competition that takes place in the United States and Canada for high school students. On the weekend of May 21^st -24^th was the regional competition which hosted over 33 schools around Toronto.  Among all the students participating was our own, Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute team consisting of over 19 youth.  With their devoted coach, Ms. T. Alam on their side, these students made lots of victories and made not only Garneau, but their entire family and community very proud. This year’s theme at MIST was Lantern of Modesty – Reflecting the light from within, thus all the students had to submit their projects based on this theme. In the award ceremony on Sunday, May 23^rd, 2010, the following awards were given out to our youth:

First came the Quran and Knowledge Competition in which Zainab Bhaiyat, a grade 11 student who is a Hafiz Mash Allah, won third place (bronze medal) for Quran memorization.

Next up were the Group Competitions. In the competition for Short film, Mazin Kanuga, Akber Khan, Obadiullah Khan, Aliza Rashid and Arsa Syed, all grade 12 students, made a film about modesty that filled the audience in laughter. They included various encounters Muslims are faced and labelled them by either a ‘Modesty Win’ or ‘Modesty Fail.’ There film won them second place with silver medals.

The next competition that Garneau took part was Brother’s Nasheed in which students had to create their own nasheed or rap. This included creating the lyrics and melody keeping in mind of what makes a good song. Danyal Wani, grade 12 student, left the audience amazed and the judges in awe.  He wrote a nasheed about and praising the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). “This was a real treat,” said one of the judges after his mesmerizing performance. Especially because this was a group competition which could have had up to six members, but he preformed alone. Danyal won first place for Brother’s Nasheed, receiving a gold medal.

Lastly was the competition for Community Service in which students had to propose a service which would be beneficial for their community. Our Garneau girls, Sameera Amodwala, Hajra Joigat, Rehma Amir, Bisma Amir and Hufsa Akbar proposed the idea of a community magazine which would allow the readers to read about modest topics. This project was approved by the judges and won them first place gold medals.

One more competition took place on the Friday. This was basketball and this also was a Garneau Victory. In Sister’s basketball, Garneau’s team won first place and received a shiny trophy for their school. The girls had excellent sportsmanship and commitment to the team. Their team consisted of Zainab Bhaiyat, Shameela Shaikh, Noura Ali, Aisha Hassan, Tehreem Siddiqi, Hufsa Akbar, Rehma Amir, Sameera Amoldwala, Bisma Amir, Aliza Rashid and Hajra Jogiat.

The entire team of Garneau did an excellent job and we could not be more proud of them. As their school chant goes, “1, 2, 3, COUGARS,” that’s right, GO COUGARS.

Long Weekend – Last Minute

So this Weekend was the LONG victoria day weekend

it’s about 11 : 11 pm

and this is the time I decide to START my homework, that’s right, START.

ALL HAIL LAST MINUTE-ERS

Reality Check.

This is something I wrote a while back, and thought I’d post it:

______________

So here I was thinking I had my life completely set and in order. Knowing exactly where I want to go and what I want to do with my life.

Until today.

I have family friend, ‘Aunty’ we call her, known her for about ten years. You know the usual, Salam, Duaa, how are you’s and meeting up at family friend davwats/get-togethers. Totally normal. Until cancer struck her.

It’s been a year now, year and a half, I really don’t know. It’s been on and off, she’s been gone to pakistan a few times for some herbal remedy and I hear from my parents she’s doing well. Had a function of our own on Dec.24th – she was there. Yes, she was weak and slightly pale, but other than that you couldn’t tell she had this devastating disease.

The next week things got worse. She was taken to the hospital and after fifteen days she returned home a few days back. Mum said she was still ill, but was doing better.

Next thing you know, the day later, she’s rushed back to the hospital – serious condition.

I prayed full hearted-ly and I believe she will be cured. InshaAllah

Today, being Friday, mum and dad planned to go to the hospital again. The aunty’s kids and my sisters are very good friends (the kids are aged about 11(girl), 9 (boy) and 7 (girl)). They were over at our place so after Isha Namaz (around 8:30pm) we all headed to East York Hospital.

I hadn’t seen Aunty in ages, so I was quite eagar to visit her. Mum told me she was asking about me and my sisters when she had been home, so it was a nice feeling.

We (mum, me, sisters, and aunty’s kids – dad had went to go park the car and would be coming up later) made our way up the elevator, the halls were quite deserted as most visitors had left. We walked past the waiting area where Uncle (aunty’s husband) and some of his friends were sitting.

We turned and then entered the room of where Aunty was laying. There were a few other ladies there by her bed.

I was petrified.

She was always a thin woman, but laying on that bed, her lips trembling, her eyes barely opened – was unbareable to see.
And to add to that, when her daughters went up to her bedside, “Assalamoalaikum Mama”, she tired to open her eyes and tired to reply to the salam. And that shattered me.

I ran out of the room, and stood outside it. My tears were uncontrollable and I couldn’t get Aunty’s face out of head. It was a clear, vivid image.

Rafu came out to comfort me, I sent her back in; Mum came out, told me that aunty was acutally a lot better than yesterday, handed me a tissue and asked me to come back in after telling me that I shouldn’t cry because then aunty’s kids will get worried. I wiped my tears and went back in.. though I stood near the door, my mum and sisters around me.

I continued to watch as Shanin and Ayesha (Aunty’s two daughers) spoke to their mum. It was quite the emotional moment, but I kept the water works closed .. until mum says to me, “aisay raho gi to doctor kaisay bano gi?” (how are you going to become a doctor like this?) ..And I welled up again – because I was thinking of the same thing.

I rushed to the other side of the hall.. started pacing, because I just couldn’t help but cry. Then one of the ladies (also a family friend) came up to, held me and said, “you have to be strong, shanin and aaysha look up to you, if you cry, so will they”. I nodded, and then ran to the other corridor.. where thank GOD I found daddy sitting there talking to another uncle.

I ran to him and put my head on his arm. He consoled me, telling me that it’s good that I’m crying and it’s good that I came here to see her because it just gives you a new appreciation of life. He told me how once when he was in University he say saw a small girl getting stitches and he couldn’t bare it(thus he didn’t pursue a career as a doctor). After sitting with him for a while, I went to take a walk.

I walked the halls of those patient rooms – peeking into the rooms of the patients. I thought to myself, “do I really want to be in this sort of my enviroment for the rest of my life?” I thought to myself, if I really wanted to become a doctor and deal with people this way. I thought, yes. As long as it was someone who didn’t have sentimental values for me. I continued to pace the halls, and basically evalulated my life. Part of wanted to pursue medicine, to find cures and treatments. Part of me wanted to become a doctor so I could make treatments myself. Because at that moment, I felt so sad and so helpless. All I could do was pray.

I went to go back and sit in the waiting area. Daddy came and sat next to me. He told me not to worry and that everything will be okay. He told me that aunty was doing a lot better than before. He said, “the doctor had said she may not even survive the night, that’s why they brought her to the closest hospital, but look, she’s better today than yesterday”. This again got to me, and thus began the infamous water works.. and then I heard aaysha coming with one of my sisters so I told daddy not to let them follow me and I made my way to the hallways I’d paced for about 20 times now.

After a while I just stood there, alone, thinking about everyone in my life and how’d they react if I were on a hospital bed (God forbid). Then I heard someone crying, I turned to my right and say Uncle bringing his daughter to the washroom. Then it hit me.

My tears, my saddness was nothing. Nothing at all.
Here was this woman’s husband and child. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what they were going through. Yeah I know aunty, but she’s their wife and mother. I stopped crying then. Because it hit me, that there was uncle, who had to be strong for not only kids, but also his wife.

After a while I went back to the waiting room. The older daughter came there a while later and said to me, “you’re eyes are not as red anymore..it’s so funny you cried because you saw my mom”.
I didn’t know what to say, “I have allergies,” I lied lamely and changed the topic.

After a while, we were all getting ready to leave, I wanted to go see aunty again, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to. Shanin, the older daugher says later, “haha see you didn’t see my mom, ’cause you’d start crying”.. I really don’t know how to interpret that remark, I really don’t.

We got home about an hour ago. Daddy also made a similar remark as mum about how in world I would be able to become a doctor. His exacts were something like, “ghalti se hufsa doctor banbhi gai, to kya hoga” (if by mistake hufsa becomes a doctor, what’ll happen?). It was light humor, I laughed.

I’m glad I went to the hospital. I had a lot of time on my own to think things through. Evalute myself and where I am at this point in my life (Dear God, I sound like I’m 30 or 40!).

Life really is so precious. And I can’t stress enough, how important it is to enjoy it and be greatful for what you have, and most importantly, who you have. Live, Laugh, Love.. is a slogan of something I don’t know what – but it’s true.

All I can say now, if you’re reading this, please pray for aunty.

______________

It is now 3 months since she passed away.

Her memories, her love remain with us.

Raggamuffin Part 1.

Personally, I quite dislike Chemistry, but we had to do this one project which involved us to make a CSI Video type movie things.. here is the first part, enjoy!

Those of you who are confused, basically there is is Robber, Raggamuffin, and he just got free from Prison, but now he is going to rob the laywer’s house who put him in jail. When he is leaving, he see’s that that lawyer gets murdered.

That ends part one.

Stay tuned!

You gotta love flats!

So one random say, my friend and I decided to take some random pictures because we just didn’t want to do any work.

The Pretty Flowers in the Library

Yeah, So, I couldn’t come up with a better title okay!