Our mornings at office would start with a conversation, which we had as religiously as most people have tea or coffee. This conversation would later continue on a messenger (usually gtalk) till the end of the day. We’d, of course, meet for lunch too. For table tennis. For foosball. For ice-cream or chocolate. For a short shopping trip to the mall. Or some place else. For one crazy thing or another. Meet the best buddy one can ever ask for: Lubna of Naqsh-o-Nigaar and this is my tribute to her as she celebrates her birthday over 7000 miles away.

She’s a wonderful person. I can’t stress this enough. Beautiful, creative, compassionate, kind, intelligent, elegant and if she’s ever clumsy, then she is so in a very graceful manner.

She is still the most popular girl at the workplace. Unarguably. I must add. And why shouldn’t she be? It’s so easy for her to win hearts with her kind, generous smile and caring ways. Arranging birthday parties for her friends and bringing together everyone with luncheons. Making really beautiful cards and showing appreciation for smallest of things.
Plus, she has her own special way of untangling the most complex personalities and making them feel at ease. All her friends would agree that she’s always there for them!

I’ve had such good times with her that I still find myself smiling occasionally thinking about the moments we shared at university and workplace. We’ve shared many adventures, which I really can’t mention. I miss her a lot here because she’s such a rare gem of a person. I used be the type who kept everything inside but Lubna taught me to trust people. This is perhaps her greatest gift to me, and I’m forever grateful.

As I write this, I remember how I once made a very healthy meal, which smelled awful and tasted like cr*p. During lunch time, I just sat there staring at my food perhaps expecting it to transform into something else. Something better like butter chicken. But no. It did transform into a sandwich though. Lubna swapped her lunch with me and to this day, I don’t understand how she could stand it and her face didn’t show any trace of disgust as she devoured the yucky meal (of boiled vegetables). I just looked on in amazement. Needless to mention, that was the end of my resolve of cooking and eating healthy meals.

There’s so much to say but not all can be said. She’s an amazing person, which is the essence of everything that has to be said. I wish her a very happy birthday and I hope I will be celebrating the next one with her. And before I end the post, I’ll just make a small request to Lubna: Please, pick up the pen again. You’ve the most amazing ideas and it’s always a treat to read your writings, which we all miss doing so.

They had a plan.

I had a plan too.

I was to make some snow creatures, avatars of my best friends in Pakistan. A snow table and a snow cake for my snow-friends and a real cupcake for myself. That’s how I thought I would celebrate my 25th birthday but that’s not how I ended up celebrating it because they had a plan I wasn’t aware of.

They who?

My friends in Pakistan and my future self, which needless to say has now joined the ranks of the past selves. And I’m sorry if I don’t make sense. I’m getting old. You must understand or at least, try to or pretend that you do. Thank you.

My friends’ plan was to surprise me with things most dear to me: Memories and kind thoughts. So, when I reached home a couple of hours before my birthday, I got a surprise treat from the Pakistani family I’m living with and found a package (mailed from Pakistan) waiting. I was waiting for this package too but I was expecting just a magazine in it. This magazine is a treasure chest of memories collected at FAST-NU. I still remember the amount of stress we faced and the amount of hard work we put into it. Danish,  I’m sure, used to have nightmares about it. He was, after all, the in charge of it all. I was foolish enough to not include a copy of the magazine in the luggage and Danish was kind enough to mail me one. But along with the magazine (surprise, surprise!) he included this giant birthday card with messages from some of my dearest friends. There was a felt fabric card crafted by Sheza and a beautiful handmade card from Lubna, the naqsh-o-nighar queen. I am indeed very grateful for such thoughtfulness. My love and thanks to you all for making me feel so special. If it hadn’t been for my stone heart, I would have cried for sure

So, the plan of the (now retired) future-self was to hang out with friends. This city is full of amazing people and five months is long enough a time to make great friends. So, when I was speculating about a snow party, I wasn’t aware what future had in store for me. I wasn’t expecting that I’d find great friends but I did. So, we had lunch at Carlos & Murphy, a very good Mexican restaurant here. For cakes, we headed to Baked Expectations. I messed up the table by scratching lottery tickets gifted by Asagi, the art freak. Freak in a good way, I mean. She’s really artistic. Anyway, I wasn’t really lucky and didn’t win anything except another lottery ticket. It was a good experience though. Oh yeah, cakes. Erum , the uber cool dudette, once introduced me to Baked Expectation’s chocolate delicacy. I could never bring myself to try something else ever again (“ever again” here is actually the “second time” as I’ve been to Baked Expectations only twice as of now ). And yes, Erum graced the day with her presence. One always has a rum time with Erum ^_^! My day, of course, couldn’t have been complete without Soo Soo (Phoebe), crème de la crème! I met her at the World Vision booth, which was set up to raise funds for victims of Pakistan’s floods. Then we ended up attending the same workshop, and that’s when we become really good friends. Sweet. No?

Another highlight of the day was tasting crab meat, courtesy of Phoebe. We had dinner at this place near university. I was really full but when they put the crab on the table, I just had to taste it, right? And it was really, really good. I can’t let go of any sea-food. So far, I’ve had almost every type of it here.

I’ve skipped many details here but this should be good enough a reference for me. Someday, I know, I’d want to know how I celebrated the “silver jubilee” and by reading this post, would relive the moments again. It was an amazing day with some really funny moments, which I’d rather not share here!