Blogs

Understanding Dudu Corona… Wash your hands is the default instruction to my daughter Maaha Zainab. Her eyes beseech the skies in farce frustration. Wash your hands, we tell Jae, Zainab’s best friend as she enters home and before every meal. She’s home with us at least three times a week, giving cheer to Maaha Zainab,…

Khojasville It’s been almost three weeks since I moved to Khojasville located in Magnolia Park, Sanford, FL. This alcove is where about 40 Khoja families either own or rent properties. These Khojas, whose ancestry can be traced to Gujarat in Western India but once made East Africa home, share a common religion, culture, and food.…

Do Black Lives Really Matter? – Looking Within Me. (Most) of the world watches in shock and repulsion as three indifferent policemen slowly, deliberately, ebb the life of a black man, George Floyd. Floyd has his hands handcuffed behind him, his face thrust and pinned to one side on a street near a curbside in…

Fataakro Our world of over 7 billion people is a series of stories that, like it or not, connects us. All of us have a tale to tell; me, you, the garbage man emptying my trash onto the waste-truck outside, the stern yelling maulana who I have just finished listening to on YouTube telling me…

One of my favorite TV shows is wildlife documentaries, especially about the wilderness of Africa, the continent I was born in. The brutal nature of the survival of the fittest is fascinating. I always root for the younger vulnerable underdog deer, zebra or wildebeest pursued by a mightier hungry cheetah, lion or leopard. My heartbeats…

The holy month of Ramadhan has arrived here, in Sanford, FL, one day behind most of the world. A crescent was supposedly sighted somewhere in Saudi Arabia a day earlier. Strange, no, whenever the astronautical probability of actually sighting a new moon is almost zero, Allah miraculously bestows a miracle (only for Ramadhan and Eid…

TamuTamu Since I’m not allowed to meet others, go for sit-down dinners with my family nor meet my friends at Masjid al Hayy here in Sanford because of the accursed Dudu Corona, I ask Allah to bless the soul of Alexander Graham Bell and use his brilliant invention to chat with my pals sometimes. One…

Since I do not have much to do during these trying days, I have the luxury of taking leisure naps. My favorite time is after zohr. I can be watching CNN berating our honorable President when deep slumber takes over. Yesterday, I had a fascinating dream. In this reverie, I meet Dudubhai (dudu means germ/insect…

I know I wrote about the coronavirus in my previous blog but still, I need to talk about this dudu again; its impact to all our lives is too monumental to be left alone. Imagine, it has about 25% of the world’s population under lockdown! By Allah, I’ll talk and gossip about it until it…

It is not funny, this coronavirus business, sitting on my shoulders like the angel of death, malak al-mawt. It is sapping my energy just keeping abreast of the rapidly changing and fast shrinking world that was so open and free to traverse not too long ago. Chic and prized cities of the world, known for…

It should probably be a sin to have so much fun and adventure in life… But with my travels for Comfort Aid International, there are no shortages of escapades. Alhamd’Allah. So, thus this Blog, on my recent travels through 5 African countries spanning Senegal, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. I hope you enjoy reading…

The Divided And Broken Khojas – 2020 was a time, in recent history, when seeking and holding public office was an honor and prestige. The primary motive was to serve, for the pleasure of Allah, of course. People jostled for a primetime audience at local jamaats, pitched their candidacy and the best man, generally, won.…

One sure way to experience the pain of abject poverty is to be in Sirsi, Uttar Pradesh, India in January. Sirsi is so removed from modern urban India, the ancient and overloaded power gridline works as efficiently as the national airline of India. The persistent power fluctuations make any heating appliance at the risk of…

Amina and Zulfiqar Alikhan from College Station, TX are some of the most strident supporters and well-wishers of Comfort Aid International. So when they requested that I take on their son Aabid with me to the next ‘safe’ CAI expedition, I had no qualms about it. I invited him to visit the Philippines with Sohail…

Unity Games – Dubai Dubai is bustling with humanity. Again. The balmy weather, spectacular New Year’s fireworks and the irresistible itch to splurge at the soopa pricey malls in this city is too much of a pull. I suppose. The hotel I usually stay near the airport costing around US$70/night has shot up to US$360/night…