The Last Word

What Pilates can teach you

What started out as a desire to do more girly things and expand my social settings in order to make new friends turned out to be what feels like if I’m fighting for my life for two hours every week.

Pap smear fear

There is nothing more terrifying to me than going for a routine pap smear check.

Social etiquette

A big part of socialising often involves eating or drinking out and as opposed to intimate home settings which usually  tend to see the guests guarding their behaviour and respecting social cues because of the on my turf like nature of the social meetup.

Death and grieving

Death is inevitable and even though it is sure to knock on the door of everyone, it still somehow manages to deliver an astounding shock every single time; even in cases where it has been highly anticipated due to illness.

We need to connect the dots

After so many countries have plundered and dug through their lands or invited others to do so for them, exhausting their environmental limits and pushing local communities out for capitalist gains, we are yet again reminded that climate change isn’t just a safe cause or talking point.

Ashma in Qutar

Stereotypes

I received so many perplexing reactions from friends when I shared that I was travelling to  Qatar. 

Feminine energy or a scam?

I always hated bras. From the wires, the heat they drive, restrictive feeling and the labour intensive duty to find a suitable one for every outfit, what is there not to hate.

Tips for a smooth holiday season

Holidays are weirdly tortuous when you are an immigrant. It almost feels like an endless marathon, trying to recreate the magic of the holidays that you were once accustomed to,   knowing fully well it will culminate with feeling a profound sense of loss sandwiched in droplets of happiness and disappointment at having yet another season come around and still not managing to get it quite right.

Teachers, nurses and the gig economy

As I look on and observe from an incredibly far distance while the nation’s teachers protest for both liveable wages and decent working conditions, I remember two stories my late Godmother who worked as a nurse in the public healthcare system shared with me growing up.

A look at love

A little over halfway into  Bell Hooks’ book “All About Love: New Visions”, and my mind  cannot stop reshuffling memories of my past relationships, friendships, family dysfunction, and my own shortcomings when it comes to  consistently enacting a love ethic in all aspects of  my life.  

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