I would bend white light for you
Summon my shadow to dance for you
Draw blood in honour of your name
I would crush gravel for you
Steal the glow from the stars for you
Lick fire to keep you from pain
I would blend all the colours for you
Plant a thousand tulips on mountains for you
Memorise the lines that compose you, each verse and every vein.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
the things we do for love
Posted by qk at 10:31 PM 4 comments
Labels: him, unsung song
Friday, November 7, 2008
Yummy, yummy, yummy, I've got love in my tummy
Young adulthood entails a lot of things for girls – hormones, hot guys, female rivalries, sweet infatuations, regular rebellion, pimpled foreheads, fun and frivolity. But if you’re a Muslim girl, you’ve got one additional thing to master, aside from how to lie convincingly about why you got home past curfew on Friday night: culinary school.
Posted by qk at 11:04 PM 6 comments
Labels: early lessons, food, mum's kitchen
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Oh! Oh! Obama!
- "I want everybody to hear loud and clear that I'm going to be the president of everybody." -George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 18, 2001
- "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe - I believe what I believe is right." -George W. Bush, in Rome, July 22, 2001
- "It's my honor to speak to you as the leader of your country. And the great thing about America is you don't have to listen unless you want to." -George W. Bush, speaking to recently sworn in immigrants on Ellis Island, July 10, 2001
- "They misunderestimated me." —Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000
- "I'm oftentimes asked, What difference does it make to America if people are dying of malaria in a place like Ghana? It means a lot. It means a lot morally, it means a lot from a -- it's in our national interest." - George W. Bush, Accra, Ghana, Feb. 20, 2008
- "Removing Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency, it is the right decision now, and it will be the right decision ever." - George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 12, 2008
- "Information is moving -- you know, nightly news is one way, of course, but it's also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets." -Washington, D.C., May 2, 2007
- "This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table." --George W. Bush, Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 22, 2005
- "We're concerned about AIDS inside our White House - make no mistake about it." -George W. Bush, Feb. 7, 2001
- "You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." -George W. Bush, interview with CBS News' Katie Couric, Sept. 6, 2006
- "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." — George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
Posted by qk at 3:33 PM 4 comments
Labels: change, hope, obama, us elections
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
pauses (,) and periods (.)
I remember my four years of university in scenes, some prosaic, some profound.
A night during O-Week, lying on a beanbag in some guy’s flat whom I had never met before. People strewn around the floor like sweet wrappers, a hookah pipe travelling around the room like a prostitute among desperate men. Strange music, strangers everywhere, pretending they – we – are already friends. (We’re still not).
Getting back my first Media Studies essay, bludgeoned by a red pen and a confidence-crushing 58%. Growing a thicker skin there and then, appreciating the lecturer’s acerbic wit over my own “Modernity is a multifaceted term that refers to a period in the....” jargon. (I still don’t understand what modernity is).
Watching the first ever episodes of Desperate Housewives in a marathon session, all six of us crammed on or at the foot of my friend’s single bed. I&J chicken fillets roasting on an illegally imported mini-grill that could get us expelled from res. Stolen posters from the cinema for wallpaper. Eating off paper plates instead of dinnerware, sitting on overturned boxes instead of dining room chairs. No curfews, no rules of decorum. Such small but sweet freedoms.
Walking to Pick ‘n Pay on a Sunday morning to get breakfast. Watching with bemusement as a dude runs out of the pub in his birthday suit, flashing cars, and high-fiving strangers. After seeing people diving into bushes “for fun”, and racing in the “naked mile” after taraweeh, nothing short of phenomenal displays of stupidity can surprise me anymore. (I do still appreciate Chuck Norris jokes though).
Interviewing Akin Omotoso over lunch; my first big journalistic assignment. He bought me juice and gave me ten pages worth of story in between bites of pasta. What began as a textbook interview became an earnest conversation between absolute strangers that is as rare as it is rich. (The only thing I did wrong was forget to ask for an autograph.)
Putting together my final multimedia portfolio over the past few weeks, all the while love-hating the exhilaration of getting technology to adhere to my whims. Each menu button, each edited video clip is a tiny, pathetic, necessary victory. Slave to the machine, I eat jelly tots for supper, curse like a truck driver and press the proverbial pause button on my life until it’s all over. (It is and it isn’t).
Now is that time in my life when people start blurting inanities.
“You’ve finished university. Now you have to enter the real world,” they say, equating my last four years and all its lessons to a measly pair of fake Pumas.
“It’s the end of the road for you. A new journey begins,” they philosophise, as if our past, present and future are separate highways.
I am not overwhelmed by this “end” because I don’t really believe in it. Life is just a long string of sentences, each experience separated by commas, until God inscribes the big fat full stop.
Posted by qk at 10:26 PM 7 comments
Labels: endings and beginnings, life, university
Monday, October 13, 2008
the tentacles of time
Posted by qk at 9:25 PM 4 comments
Labels: death, fear, life, my late grandmother, time
Friday, October 10, 2008
if you were not...
Posted by qk at 3:40 PM 2 comments
Labels: him, love, out of rhythm, unsung song
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Asking for it
The next time someone, however naively, asks if I am "forced" to dress this way, I will reply:
"Yes. My dad will disown me if I expose my arms and my husband will smack me around if strands of my hair are showing. I am as oppressed as you assume me to be. Want a pic to go with that?"
If only these budding journalists-cum-activists would fuck off and find real oppressed women to liberate.
Posted by qk at 10:58 AM 4 comments
Labels: abaya, muslim woman, oppression, stupid journalists