The essentials of a bohri house

Lists are so popular these days that half of my news feed on facebook is links to lists about various topics. Since then my mind has been itching to write a list. More importantly a unique one. 

What can be more unique than writing about my own household :). As some of you know,  I belong to bohra community (yes my faith was written when I was born)

Here is a list of things you will absolutely find in any bohri house and is considered to handicap our house in their absence 

1. The universal oil. The healer. The king of balms and pain relief oils. The axe brand oil aka Abu faas. The Axe effect in this case works!

 

2. The wall filled with pillows. We call them 'khaba na takiya'. The most comfortable back support ever!

3. Tiny boxes of saffron in the egg tray of the fridge. There will be one from every possible country :)

4. The famous freshener and cleanser (also acts as a mosquito repellent sometimes). It is our very own 'bukhur'. These days the bukhur sticks are very in.

5. Jhatakwani pinchi. Beats every highend duster or cleaner. Very economical and easy to customize.

Have more to add to this list ? Add them in the comments section :)

Wake up call!

Its that time of the year when every muslim wakes up every morning (I would rather call it midnight) to gobble some food with the hopes of surviving yet another fasting day. Don't get me wrong, I am  not against fasting, I just find the early morning waking up a little too disturbing as I am not a morning person.
Anyways, back to the point I was trying to make - It's 3:30 am when my phone starts buzzing (alarm!). My eyes still fighting to open and my body still trying to convince me that this wake up call is worth it and its only 25 more days to do this and I am being a good girl by being the best daughter and what not when this massive blood sucking horrendous living being bites me! I wake up in a flash and slap my arm to find a dead mosquito on my palm. Rest of my sehri (suhoor) went singing "Khoon choosne tu aaya khoon choosne
Bloody khooni Monday Macchar kyun aaya khoon choosne" 

What a start to my day! Wonder what was yours?

Work Home - Home Work

As some of you at work might have noticed, I am not seen in office, occasionally offline on communicator, sending emails from my phone, online at ungodly hours and continuously setting up conference calls to catch up. In short - I am Working from home :)

Many of us have the privilege  to keep an office laptop providing the so called flexibility to work-when-you-like at any convenient place. The added benefit to this is the option to Work from Home (WFH). Even though hubby and I are in the same field (IT), employed with quiet good companies (let's just assume this for now) and have similar privileges,  our typical day is vastly different -

My day - Wake up, eat breakfast, get ready, drive (traffic  these days is more stressful than watching a soap on TV) and then get started with work! Numerous breaks (don’t judge me!), drive back, cook, eat and continue with more work until midnight!

His day - Wake up, eat breakfast(not forgetting the gazing at the newspaper), get back to his room and get started with his work! A lunch  and a dinner break and he is back to his spot until I signal my end of day!

Personally, I have never understood how anyone could be productive working from home.  One reason could be that when I am at home, I forget about work from home and instead indulge into working at home.  In addition, my nature of job is to collaborate with people; working from home is simply counterproductive.

Well, that’s just me! The better half however, is the complete opposite. He has utilized the option to WFH to the fullest. Sometimes days, weeks and even months pass by and he would happily sit at home and go click clacking on the laptop!  At one point, I started to doubt if he was still employed ;). Of course the paycheck at the end of the month was very re-assuring :).

No matter what I think about WFH, this option now has come handy when I absolutely need it and whether I enjoy it or not, I do appreciate the importance of this benefit :)