Fatima's Archives

On Saturday, 15th September 2018, I had an experience like no other I have ever experienced before. I attended the ‘sema’ in Konya. For those of you who might not be familiar with it, the ‘sema' is a performance of whirling dervishes. It originated in the thirteenth century and was founded by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. The event was to be held at Konya’s Cultural Center (Mevlâna Kültür Merkezi), and was free and open for the general public, without requiring any prior booking or reservation. We found out that this event was held every Saturday evening in the indoor auditorium (which could seat 3000 people, by the way) of the cultural center. Additionally, there was also a performance every Sunday afternoon in the outdoor hall of the center, plus one every Thursday evening in the courtyard of Rumi’s mausoleum. We all were pretty excited and eager to attend the program, as this had to be one of the most important things of our trip to Turkey. I had first read and heard about the...

Since the last four or five months, I have developed a new interest, that is significantly different from all of my other interests and hobbies. Soapmaking! If you aren’t familiar with the concept and idea behind it, it might sound very strange to you. But that is why I’m posting this: to tell you about it and how simple it is, my own personal experiences regarding it and the challenges I faced, and also, to convince you to start soapmaking as well. If you’re interested, please read ahead. I had been interested in the idea of soapmaking for at least a year before I learnt how to make it, and started making it. I think my initial interest in this area arose after our family’s transition to natural hair care, which was about two years ago. After reading a number of blog posts on natural living and even attending a couple of workshops on the topic, I found myself determined to try out soapmaking. I had tried making a few DIY natural beauty products before as well, such as face scru...

Hello readers! I haven't posted for a pretty long time. There was a lot of stuff going on, plus I had been busy in some office related stuff (where I volunteer), so I wasn't getting a chance to write and post. Although I had a few topics to write on in mind, and had begun writing on them as well, I wasn't able to conclude the writings well enough so I didn't just post them.  Anyways, back to life. I have just completed my O levels successfully, alhumdulillah, as a private candidate. Although I did face a few challenges, I'm glad that I've finally completed it with reasonably satisfactory grades. :) I have decided to do my A levels privately as well, instead of going to an A level school or college. I've picked social sciences for my A levels, (Sociology, Psychology, and English Language) instead of pure sciences. (Why I chose social sciences over pure sciences is another topic I'd like to write on sometime.) Anyways, I do hope I manage to do my A lev...

This morning I had my last O level Chemistry exam. While going through my books for one more time a few hours before the paper, I was swept by a wave of emotion as I realized that after today, I wouldn't be reading them again. My favourite way of dealing with all sorts of emotions is to write about them, so before long I was writing a letter to Chemistry. It may sound weird, but well, that's the way it is. So here you go. Dear Chemistry, I’m gonna miss you. Today is my last O level Chemistry paper, and believe me when I say I will miss you. The ten months we spent together were a quite enriched experience for me. From knowing almost nothing about Chemistry, I have now acquired an understanding of and an appreciation for it. You were never as boring as Physics or as difficult as geography. In fact, you were quite interesting and made sense – at least most of the time. The concepts and formulas you taught me were logically appealing and were things I could easily re...

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I was working on an article and would post it soon. This topic had been bothering me for a long time; I started writing this several weeks ago. I had nearly completed it when I got distracted by something else (don't remember exactly what distracted me, this happens to me all the time), and I lost focus from this work. Then I got really busy in some other work, so busy, in fact, that I nearly forgot about my blog. But of course, I couldn't forget it for long, and here I am, back with this new article on age restrictions. Basically, it is an argument that young people should be given the same rights, and opportunities as adults. I'd like to know about what you think about this. Do you agree with this perspective or not? It would great if you could take out the time and leave a comment below. Thanks a lot! :) In most countries of the world, an individual is considered to be a ‘child’, and not an adult, before s/he reaches the a...