Star

A Star that could have been .. A Star that is! (1)

They say it is not healthy to live life with the 'could haves' attached to your everyday thoughts because if those 'could haves' had to be they would have been. I, happen to hold a different belief with a perspective regarding that theory which shall be discussed in our next piece of writing. 

For now let me introduce you to one of the stars in my family, my father. He has been a passionate cricketer for as long as I can remember, that includes memories of seeing him ball in the cricket ground in his white cricket uniform while I sat in my pram ..Yes! but his cricket journey started way before that and today I will share that journey with you along with the newspaper clippings he has kept safe with his name underlined in blue in every news article.  :)

Khalique Imran

Like many of us would do, to add seriousness to his passion, he became a member of his school cricket team and later got selected as the captain of his college cricket team. After college cricket, he played club cricket for Islamabad GymKhana as a captain from 1981 till 1995, place that gave him ample opportunity to take his game ahead. 

In 1981, he played for Quaid e Azam trophy and gave an astounding performance. In 1982, he got nominated to play for All Pakistan Cricket and later got elected as the very first team captain of Federal Board Cricket Team.

 'Daily Muslim' and 'Pakistan Time' 

1983 gave him a chance to enjoy cricket at various fronts. It started off with being selected in Patron's Eleven Pindi Division Cricket team that chose him to play against India for Patron's Eleven Under 19 in Rawalpindi. Later, he got selected for touring Australia as part of the Under 19 cricket team. 

Under 19 team named 'Daily Muslim' and 'Pakistan Times'
     

Khalique Imran (right) - Australia

The same year blessed him and he scored his very first century in 1st class cricket against Quetta cricket team in Karachi while playing for Patron's trophy, Rawalpindi Division. 

'Pakistan Times' and 'Daily Muslim' praise him for scoring a century

Next step for my Dad was to join Pakistan Army Cricket team as a professional cricket player ..

                          

                                                                                                                     

  (to be cont'd)

                                                                                                       

Winter Sun

Winter Sun : A Cosy Blessing 

The sedentary life style that we become a slave of and the 'gora rang' obsessed society that we are a part of seldom let us fully enjoy the very blessing of nature that is the 'winter sun'. 

I talk about winter sun and not just sun as there is certainly a difference of intensity in heat of winter and summer sun. Scorching heat of summer sun makes it unbearable to live by the day without regular ample water intake whereas soothing heat of winter sun brings unparalleled calmness to nuisance of life.

For me, sparing a good 10 to 15 minutes sitting in the sun equals to be able to avoid starting up a world war at home or at work (no jokes). Knowing the fact that the warm rays of the sun in this cold season are only going to bestow significant health benefits adds more calm for my nonstop thinking brain to feel.

Let us quickly extol the virtues of the winter sun

• Vitamin D, Vitamin D, Vitamin D - sunshine provides us with 90 percent of vitamin D and vitamin D is equal to healthy bones.
• Pausing the hectic routine to sit in the sun provides us with a well deserved break from the usual stresses.
• Getting back to routine with a fresh recharged mind increases productivity at work. Trust me, it does!
• Recent research found that exposure to UV rays helps release Nitric Oxide that slows development of obesity.
• Vitamin D through sun exposure has an antidepressant effect.
• Going out in the sun for 15 minutes, early morning helps shut off body melatonin production, hormone that makes us drowsy at night. This helps us maintain our body clock, in other words known as circadian rhythm.
• Blood pressure levels drop significantly for one hour after being exposed to UV rays for two 20 minutes sessions.

Relaxed mind, healthy bones, normal blood pressure, what else does one need to live a content life? (a million dollars? .... we shall talk about that later..)

Concluding with a humble request to every individual reading this that instead of scaring one another with opinions like 'kaali ho jao gi dhoop mei/you will get darker sitting in the sun' or 'why waste time sitting in the sun?' we must encourage each other to spend atleast 15 to 20 minutes everyday enjoying the cosy blessing of the winter sun and all the above benefits of nature, that too for free :D

                                                                     

                                               

Begin

Where to begin with?

Where to begin with? How to begin? The very words that keep us company every second whenever we decide to start
something new in life. It can be a new activity, new project,
new business or anything that we have not been involved in before.
When the intensity of yay or nay elevates in our head, we start to question ourselves, reason out with ourselves in an attempt to reach a conclusion. 

The very same thing happened with me when I decided to start a blog. I agreed with myself to do it one day and disagreed the next. I spent numerous days and nights reading about blogging and various bloggers, asking myself what has not been done before, what has not been written before.

Staring at my writing pieces that I have been writing and collecting since a few years pushed my pendulum towards, 'let's do this!'. I would pick up a pen and a diary to get on with it when my pendulum would be pushed in the opposite direction by thoughts like,
'Will I be able to do justice to blogging?''
'Will I be able to be regular?'
'What if no one reads what I write?' (I always wanted to highlight the positive out of reality and that felt like quite a task, in my head)
And there I would be, dropping the whole idea altogether ..

After filing my nails a hundred times, maybe fifty, oiling my hair and washing them and eating 13071508 fries (juz kidding, who counts fries while eating :D) I told myself, 'what the heck? Why not? What is there to lose?

Even though the thought of having no guidance and tons of 'what ifs' kept me worried, the 'it's new year, let's give it a try' streak won over. So here I am starting off with this blog today. I will not call it starting today as  something has started the very moment the idea of it takes birth in our head but yes the physical form of it is starting to take place today. 

Keeping it as close to reality as possible ..

FloralRime: A blog that I wish to feel like a cat to pet for all of us when we do not have one ;)