my daughter’s birthday 2017

may is the most beautiful month of the year for me – both my loulous were born in may. today is my daughter’s 17th birthday. the baby of the family has been driving her own car and doing a pretty good job of being her witty, socially conscious, and academically engaged young person. always patient, thoughtful, and meticulously fair. love u forever little one.

my son’s birthday 2017

22 years ago my life was transformed forever when my son was born. he was always a little bundle of energy and brightness. i remember that in elementary school his classmates’ assessment of him was that he’s very good at math, and that his jokes are hilarious πŸ™‚ he will be graduating from college in a couple of weeks. so proud of u, puppy. may u always be successful in all ur adventures in life, may u be kind and just towards all people, and may u have the time to be quiet and happy in a very busy world. love u.

trip to VA

in VA visiting my sis and her family. drove down here with my daughter and our little pup phoebe. such a beautiful drive. today i got to meet the brilliant Anu Ramdas, whom i had met many years ago in ithaca. we talked about feminism (within quotes), racist/casteist structures and patriarchy, islamophobia, the hijab, BLM, our work and fam, and much much more. i always wish i had taken notes after our conversations because they spark so many ideas. am thankful for all the wonderful people (and pups) in my life πŸ™‚

family wedding, lahore style

pakistani artist salima hasmi’s witty tribute to the couple – she used “the scream” as backdrop and then painted them on top of it.

pool area decorated beautifully with strings of flowers.

driveway transformed for mehndi.

stage for mehndi dance and music.

my daughter’s mehndi

our fam on wedding day

bride and groom on wedding day

New version of #MuslimBan

As we were preparing to travel to Lahore for a family wedding, we kept talking about the risks associated with new executive orders that might be issued in our absence and how they would impact us. Well, here we go. Our flight route is JFK to Doha to Lahore, and back. We carried our laptops with us on the way here, just a few days ago, and now we’ll have to check them into our luggage on our way back. After reading tweets of despairing journalist friends in the Middle East, Laleh Khalili’s thoughts are that the laptop ban is not about protectionism, or a stealth #MuslimBan, or related to “security.” It’s about providing security services access to the data on people’s laptops, which will now be sitting comfortably in checked luggage.

lovely weekend

wonderful weekend. trip to ithaca on saturday morning to visit our son and have lunch with him, then off to the little theatre to see “i am not your negro,” followed by ethiopian food at zemeta with a couple we love. on sunday, dinner at our iraqi american friends’ house – delicious home cooked iraqi food, comforting tea in beautiful teacups and then a game of table tennis to wrap things up. couldn’t have cared less about the glacial weather.