Monthly Columns

The world has slowed so you can rediscover yourself As the world sees a major shift in habits today, it has also giving us the opportunity to slowdown, re-assess priorities, and reflect. Past few months like most of you,some days everything seems exceptionally tough. I have tried everything- a face mask, a good book, a cup of coffee, some chocolate, crazily baking, hot shower. But nothing seems to work on some days. Truth is that such kind of days have been on and off like this. I find myself fatigued and drained…

On May 26th 2020, I started presenting symptoms of Covid19. As the family of a respiratory physician fighting Covid19 on the front line, for us, it was a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if.’ It would be an exaggeration to say I was surprised, as I was expecting the worst and had already played out numerous scenarios in my head since end of March –when my husband had his first encounter with a Covid19 positive case. But like most things in life, you have a hard time accepting the difficult truth. I knew it was inevitable, but…

Ola! 6 months passed this year - pandemic - and unfortunately some of us have lost our jobs due to this pandemic. This is a serious post especially for those who live in Malaysia and Saudi. Maybe some ideas will help to suit your situation. 1. I lost income 3 times moving around with my family. First time in Indonesia, I started my own business and became entrepreneur. I used to teach business and management. You can survey the market back home, what people want or need, and start to ask around. I sent back French lace, the…

Mantı is Turkish version dumplings. This recipe was carried along the Silk Road to Anatolia by Turkic-Mongol people. Making mantı is a time consuming and not an easy dish. For quick easy mantı meal I use supermarket ready-made mantı packages; obviously freshly homemade is the best and worthwhile. For the easy way to make mantı we need: Ingredients 1 Ready-made mantı package (500 gr) 1 cup of yogurt (500 gr) 4 minced Garlic 6 tablespoons olive oil or butter 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes 1 tablespoon red…

Ola! Hope it is not too late to wish everyone Eid Mubarak. For the first time in history, we were not allowed to celebrate Eid outside our house. This month I am writing on our Quarantine Eid, to allow people all over the world to read, how we celebrated it at home in Saudi Arabia. It is our 9th Eid abroad. I have written before that we used to live in Indonesia and Brazil. The first Eid in Jeddah was simple as we just arrived about a week. My husband’s staff in the office asked his wife to cook wonderful briyani for our Eid…

Our mind keeps on thinking day in day out, without any break. The stream of thoughts goes on and on from selecting dress, to deciding about what to eat, or commenting on the color of shirt of a passerby and etc. Interestingly, the thought process does not even stop when you go to sleep. During sleep mind start dumping unnecessary thoughts out of consciousness, while focusing on some important ones, that may appear in dreams. Another interesting fact about our mind is that only 5% of our thought process is conscious. The…

God created Adam and placed him in paradise, the most beautiful place one could ever find. Yet Adam began to feel lonely and bored after a while. God has been watching His creation closely, so He created Eve as Adam’s partner, who can provide companionship to Adam. Humans are inherently social being and have a strong urge of belongingness, and when this urge is not satisfied, they feel unappreciated and unaccepted. Everyone experiences loneliness from time to time, but for some, feeling of loneliness is far too distressing.…

The month of mercy is finally here.Let the arrival of this blessed month reach all of us in good health.Even though this year if very much different fom our previous ones,i know we are in mixed emotions, lets try to make it the best out of it.Let us try our best to learn from our mistakes, to be true in our repentance and honest in our intentions. May this month see us strengthen our faith, by praying more, reading more- and serving our gratitude in a way that shows to all the blessings we have around us. And let…

The holy month of Ramadan is around the corner.And we know that this Ramadan is very much different from the ones we had previously due to the COVID19 pandemic.That means we will be going through lockdown,no tarawih prayers and no iftars and no Ju'mah and no Eid. Every year during Iftars we  have adapted eating so much unhealthy eatings, moving further and further away from the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah, so this year let us stick  and revive to the sunnah. Whatever foods and eating habits outlined in the Holy Qur’an…

Ola! I thought this month I will write about all our experiences during this Covid-19 pandemic, so that one day when we look back, our grands will know what we went through. We have been living in Jeddah for 2 years now Alhamdulillah. There was no better place than this and I have been writing about this thousand times. Until Haram was closed, and the airport was shut down. Slightly inside, I was panicking. What if my dad was sick or my business requires me to return to Malaysia? Last year ironically, I was blessed enough to…