I must have laughed the hardest as Wajahat Ali made InshAllah jokes at the MUBANY gala (Muslim Bar Association of NY) last week, and I exhaled decades of pent-up exasperation. If you were there, I was the woman at the front table, laughing long after everyone else had stopped, causing heads to turn. Sadly, it wasn’t my looks.
Before I explain, let me first apologize.
What Is The Predictor of Violence?
An evening with Gloria Steinem
I didn’t expect Gloria Steinem to talk about violence; well, I sort of did, but only in the context of domestic violence. But police violence, wars, & terrorism?
What did she just say?
If It Looks Like A Duck, Walks Like A Duck, But You Think It’s A Pig. . .
On the street corner with Gloria Steinem
“At my age, most people are dead,” she said to a thunderous applause. “I am 82.”
Gasp!
You just took another look at that photo, didn’t you?
I had walked out of the 900-seat auditorium, wishing I could have seen her a little closer. And who do I run into at the street corner!
Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me A Match
Is she pretty? Is he tall?
While in Pakistan, I was hanging out with friends when her phone rang. She excused herself and returning, apologized:
Matchmaker (MM): Sorry, it was a rishta call.
Me: What do you mean rishta call? [Rishta is ‘match' in Urdu]
MM: I am a matchmaker.
Ode To Mummy
Mummy never left me;
She smiles at me through the framed photo on my shelf;
She watches me through my grandson Omar’s oval eyes;
I feel her hair when my granddaughter Asha brushes against my cheek;