Category: Thinking Out Loud
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Empire’s Desperate Chokehold
People don’t become zealous without good reason. Fanaticism is born of years of deprivation, years of rights being systematically trampled, and years of watching others live comfortable lives while being indoctrinated to believe they are lesser beings. The colonial projects spanning centuries across the world have been demonstrations of unadulterated raw power concentrated in the…
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He Loves Me
I am struggling to find the balance between adopting technology that causes ease versus what breeds dependence. Our reliance on natural means of life is diminishing at an accelerated rate, making our bodies and minds weaker, easing the path to relying on paths laid out for us by other flawed human beings and dulling our…
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The Vigilante’s Burden
After having my second child, I realized that my emotional competence had limits. As he grew older, I began understanding that every child requires a different parent. Having two children meant that I needed to have two versions of myself. Not only were they two unique individuals, the gender difference further broadened the range of…
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Log Kya Kahengey? (What Will People Say?)
“Log Kya Kahengey?” is a clichéd expression overused in Urdu/Hindi-speaking households. It has shaped much of who we are as a community. As I grew older I realized that this phrase has its own local variations across communities worldwide. We are taught to fear the opinions of people. On the whole, this phrase and its…
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Beyond Happiness
Of all of the things I am grateful to Allah for, the one I am most thankful for is my sense of reason and cognition. I also like to believe—although I suppose people around me would be better able to tell—that Allah has given me a fair share of wisdom. The wisdom that Allah has…
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Introspection
The 30s are an understated blessing—a decade of self-learning like no other. You understand many “whys’s” and you also understand why each “why” cannot be answered yet. You come to terms with life’s curveballs and you make peace with individuals around you. Especially those who may have negatively impacted your life. It is also now…
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Balance
For some, genius erupts through chaos. My daughter always uses her messy room as an excuse to justify her intellectual abilities. Smart people don’t have time to clean up. Smart people become absorbed with ideas. Smart people are consumed with their thoughts. Hence smart people simply do not see clutter! For others to shine, everything must…
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Celestial Pearls
Ramadan 2020 The issue with achieving prosperity and recognition is that you begin to believe yourself invincible. Many a people have come before us in every corner of this beautiful earth, who believed the heights they achieved were insurmountable. Only to be proven wrong. We don’t run this set up—there is a higher power running…
Farheen Anwar 