As Jane Eyre says, Reader, I married him. Or should I say, I married them? After all, we are three — I, my husband, and our daughter, little Lemon. There is much to write about our marriage, our new home, the life we are settling into together. I will get to all that in due […]

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The better to stab you with, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
My colleague ducks his head through the doorway this evening on his way out of work and calls out, “Bye, Jasmin!”
“You call me that again, and we are not going to be friends anymore,” I mutter sourly, without turning my eyes away from […]

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I want a vespa the color of tangerines, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Missed you much, Blogistan. Going through my Drafts folder now, and finishing up old, half-written posts I had never got around to publishing. Here’s one from last month; excuse the slightly disjointed nature of it. More are coming. I promise.
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13 April 2008
We returned from […]

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Evening at the Berkeley Marina, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Back in mid-January, my friend A sent me a very short, simple note with the subject line reading, Salaam, crackstar, telling me his father had recently died.
Doomed to be forever affiliated with my disgruntled, fist-shaking references to “that poetry slam we never went to,” A is one […]

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Hands in supplication, by yaznotjaz
Last night, the Pakistani satellite channel, ARY-Digital, showed the Hajj pilgrims, a sea of white, at Arafat and Muzdalifah. I watched the television while eating dinner, the volume turned up loudly so that the pilgrims’ invocation echoed throughout the house:
Labayk Allahumma labayk, labayka la shareeka laka labayk. Innal-hamda, wa’naimata, laka wal-mulk, […]

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A child’s shoes on Muir Beach, September2005, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
At the start of every single week, I think to myself, Let’s go to meditation this week. The last couple of months, I have had to defer my personal Wednesday evening preferences in favor of work-related meetings and events. Last Wednesday was different: Today is […]

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We are like these things, impermanent and unpinned; originally uploaded by yaznotjaz. [Click here for larger view.]
A few things I have been grateful for, so far this week:
one. …That so many of you took the time to read my last post about Imran Saithna. And that, for once, my commenting system seemed to cooperate […]

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Courtyard of Lions, originally uploaded by Imran Saithna.
And we meet…to depart,And then depart -Just to meet again. *
The problem with - and the beautiful gift of - the internet is that I always fall a little bit in love with everyone I interact with. I refer mainly to blogistan and flickr, since those are the […]

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Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.

Please take a minute to send some love and prayers to the beautiful Momo, whose brother-in-law passed away last week after a difficult struggle with cancer. He is survived by his wife and their two children, 6 years old and 13 months old. I can’t even begin to imagine […]

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Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
Islamic Relief has recently been sponsoring a series of six dinners around the United States, in order to raise funds for continuing support for the victims of last October’s earthquake in South Asia:
The earthquake which devastated the South Asian subcontinent in October has affected millions. Islamic Relief is working hard on […]

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After the rain, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
MotherCan you keep them in the dark for lifeCan you hide them from the waiting worldOh mother
Driving across town a few days ago, I came to […]

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Really, I have no words. So I’m copy-pasting what I just sent out in an email. Background here.
The car of Dr. Zehra Attari was removed late last night from the Oakland Estuary. She was a pediatrician who lived in San Jose and maintained a clinic for low-income families in Oakland. Dr. Attari disappeared on the […]

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Feeding the birds, Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA, originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
[You can find all my photos from this day here. They’re more fun when you view them individually, so take the time to click through one by one, if you get a chance.]
Three days ago, I stepped inside the County of Alameda Administration Building […]

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Candlelight vigil for Dr. Zehra AttariOakland, 11/11/05 Originally uploaded by yaznotjaz.
A recurring theme in my conversations over the past two weeks has been how much sadness this year has contained. And, again, we never really stop to think about it long enough until it hits close […]

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Requesting your prayers and good vibes for one of my favorite Blogistanis, Binje the biryani-wala and ice cream-lover extraordinaire, whose father passed away on November 14th. All I’ve got going through my mind, in light of recent and cumulative events of the past year is, “This year is on crack and I hate it: why […]

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