Little Thoughts

Here is to better days, sleepy nights, and tea-time afternoons. about me recommendations twitter last.fm

Attention NOVA tumblees!

There is a great FREE program that’ll be going on in July at Washington Irving Middle School. It’s goal is to teach students about Pakistani Culture and some basic Urdu. Right now, the program is more geared towards Pakistani-Americans so the class will be taught only in Urdu (sorry).

 Here is the website and here is the flyer:

The program is being led by Dr. Moazzam Siddiqi. There are a bunch of fun things being planned for the 3 weeks the class will be held including: learning about the different regions of Pakistan, eating delicious (free) food from those regions, and learning about how to get around Pakistan using only Urdu.

This class is perfect for those who would love to get in touch with their roots or work on their terrible pronunciation of Urdu words!

My mom is going to be teaching one of the classes for the program and we (both me and her) been working really hard to help make the curriculum and class plans fun! 

If you do end up applying to take this class, it would be great if you could say that “Kishwar” was your referrer (just in case they would like to know how you heard about the class). It would also be great if you guys could spread the message about this as well, everyone from this program is working really hard to make it as awesome as it can be.

peterpeterpeterpeter replied to your post: summer break isn’t as relaxing as I wish it…

Beside the crying because of hormones, my first three weeks of summer vacation have been just that.

hahaha, lucky! That’s like the epitome of summer. My summer so far has been headache filled, getting unwanted licks/kisses, and wiping a whole lotta tears (i work at a child care center).

Add in your own language

  • English: I love you
  • Slovak : Milujem ťa
  • Finnish: Rakastan sinua
  • Slovenian: Ljubim te
  • Danish: Jeg elsker dig
  • Portuguese: Amo-te
  • Tagalog: Mahal kita
  • Punjabi: Panchod chup kar
  • Arabic: Ba hebik
  • Hindi: Panchord loda chuss
  • Bangla: Tumi ekta gadha
  • Farsi: Madar jendeh
  • Punjabi: Fitte moo tere
  • Polish: Kocham Cię
  • Urdu: Kutte ki aulad

summer break isn’t as relaxing as I wish it would’ve been. but i guess at least i’m not wasting my time being bored out of my mind. 

 though i really wanted to lazily spend days eating nothing but popsicles, wearing tanktops and homemade shorts, watching weird movies, and making ugly paintings while crying about everything because hormones.

My favorite gif in the whole wide world (that doesn’t have to do with cats).

imgur link if it’s not displaying correctly

kajal:

queerhairyvag:

faineemae:

Liam Hemsworth is set to play Ali Baba!!

jonesydaking:

Yall we really need to protest this shit foreal. This is actually really really racist. This Anglo-Saxxon, Blonde Haired Blue eyed, Australian is going to play a Middle Eastern person. A Middle Eastern folk hero!! There are plenty of great Middle Eastern actors out there that would be perfect for the role. There needs to be some kind of backlash from this. This is Hollywood white washing the history of the Persia. There are no people in that part of the world that look like Liam Hemsworth. If he gets to play Ali Babba, then the next King Arthur better be Idris Elba, Abraham Lincoln should be played by Will Smith, and the next Jesus should be played by Jackie Chan. Sometimes I really hate you Hollywood.

omg this isin’t about RACE this is purely about the ACTING SKILLZ and PERSONALITY of the actor it is purely coincidence that the actor chosen happens to be WHITE eventhough the story has nothing to do with white people. gawd you guys are so SENSITIVE I CANT EVENNNNNNNN!11111111111

My favorite part about Hollywood is the fact that if there’s a terrorist in a movie they’ll use a middle eastern person

but if it’s a movie about a middle eastern hero they use a white guy

that’s totally cool.

All the girls of my class love coloring and each time they color, they decide to make the character they are coloring have blonde hair and blue eyes (unless of course they are certain disney princesses). Always. Each of the six girls who are coloring choose those features. And only one of the girls has those same exact features, the others have equally as beautiful brown hair and/or eyes. 

I asked them once why blonde and blue and they replied that it’s because it’s pretty.

Children live-action tv shows these days almost always have a white protagonist or if by any chance they are a poc, they are the only other poc (except for family members) in the show. And if there is a popular girl, she is almost always white (and of course blonde).

Anytime there is a poc on a show, they are the token poc. If they are south asian, they have a stereotypical accent and talk about bollywood, make references to spiritual things and karma… it would just be nice to have more poc characters on Disney children’s tv shows that weren’t so stereotypical and the token poc.

On Thursday it happened again.

Two girls at work were teasing Sharon (one of the two poc kid in the class) about her skin. Saying that it was “yucky” and “dark.” She was just sitting there, tears were streaming down her face. 

No one should ever hate their skin tone, let alone a little four year old girl.

The bratty girls immediately got in trouble with the head teacher and I tried calming Sharon down by telling her that she is beautiful and so is her skin. I also tried to make the other girls realize that it’s not okay for them to say that, I doubt they really understand, but I just told them that I was disappointed in them each time they asked me to play with them. They looked guilty, but who knows… four year old girls these days are pretty terrible and catty.

This whole situation was horrible and it made me so upset. I was angry at those girls for saying that, but I had to keep my composure since I was their teacher and my boss was in the room. I just want to make sure that other girls like Sharon never have to feel that they are not pretty or amazing just because of how terrible people can be. 

mehreenkasana:

I grew up hating my skin color while in Virginia because I was told by society, by the people around me that being white means you’re flawless, you’re perfect. I was told that dark skin looks rough. That white skin looks delicate and gentle - “like a woman should be.” My mother was called ugly by young white American girls in the playground because she was an Asian woman. I have never seen my mother look so ashamed of herself while trying to take me away because I was angry, I was yelling at those girls. I don’t want any woman of my race to be ashamed of her complexion. I don’t ever want my children or my siblings or my students to go through the same. I love my skin. I love the richness of it. I love how it isn’t white.

I love how it’s a big fuck-you to everyone worshiping and supporting Euro-centric ideas of white beauty.

(Source: natazilla)

(Source: omocat)

“WILL SMITH!”

— my 4 year old nephew when Snoop Dog appeared on the tv screen.

remember that time when i followed this one girl’s blog because i had a crush on her cousin (this guy from school)?

goldenlocket: Matthew Gray Gubler’s list of reasons to stay alive.

goldenlocket:

Matthew Gray Gubler’s list of reasons to stay alive.

(Source: gublerheaven, via hungryhungryhiba)

“You might be polite about hiding the pain of it but I won’t, I can’t. I’m tired, I’m lost, I call out to Allah in this global isolation. Being a Muslim in a post 9/11 era has killed me on the inside, Mehreen. I have found myself apologizing again and again for things I would never do, for things my religion has never taught me. I have literally waited for people to call me a terrorist while I walk down the pavement in crowds. Your father has been questioned. I have been questioned. We’re scrutinized. We’re spied on whether we’re in USA or out of the country. It doesn’t matter if you’re Arab or if you’re Asian or if you’re African or if you’re European. You’re just a “Mozlem.” And “Mozlems” are bad. I don’t watch TV anymore. I don’t read the newspaper anymore. It’s either us getting killed for being “suspects” or us retaliating and then everyone starts calling us cavemen, barbaric savages. You know how it feels but you hide it. You’re polite about it. You’ve cried about it. Your father has. Your mother has. How does it feel to be subjected to constant paranoia, distrust, hate, xenophobia? Where do I go? Back home? The home that America wants to engage in war with? Do I stay in America? The place where my identity is no more than that of a “bearded terrorist”? Where do I go? Home is where the heart, right? My heart is crushed, Mehreen. There is no home. There is no peace. I call out to Allah after every prayer and weep in sajda. I ask him, Ya Rab, why us? Why? How long do we suffer? When will these people understand that it’s not you, it’s not me, it’s not him, it’s not her, it’s not Islam, it’s just a few bad people. I see our Muslim youth grow old before time with worry, with hurt, with this alienation. When will it stop.”

— My friend just emailed me. My heart has broken into a thousand pieces. Every single word of this hits so, so hard in the core. (via mehreenkasana)