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The Chai Files - Pakistan

Sugar and Spice…

December 9, 2011 by Imaan 7 Comments

The Dad Man’s passion is learning about healthful and organic foods. He is the voice of conscience that reminds us of the evils of the fried fare that the rowdy ruffians and I cannot seem to resist. Mars loves savoury food, while Bear cannot resist anything sweet. Both love potatoes and declare, the minute they step into the markets at F6 and Jinnah (F7), that they can smell delicious french fries cooking.

There are many vendors selling these chips – I keep meaning to take a photo, but it’s just one of those things I keep forgetting. These hawkers have little tables and deep fryers. The fries can be bought spiced (a mixture of chilli, pepper and other masala) or simply salted and are cheap at 10 to 20 rupees a pack. (The packs are pockets made out of brown paper or pages of old phone books… how’s that for recycling?) The vendors also have jars of chilli sauce that you can spoon onto your chips if their masala isn’t spicy enough for your taste!

We now make most of our snacks at home and try to come up with healthier alternatives (we’re trying, Tea, we really are!), but we do enjoy strolling by the markets once in a while to see how local delights are prepared. There are more upmarket bakeries, but these stalls I photographed last year are so much more fun! They make brisk business and are just bustling with activity!

I’m not a fan of Pakistani sweetmeats – or mithai as they are collectively known. These little cakes like burfi, gulab jamun, laddoo and sheera are a little too rich and sweet for my taste. I cannot eat more than a bite usually, but they are a big part of Pakistani culture and I can certainly appreciate their charm. People give them as gifts and serve them on festive occasions, when celebrating good news and at parties.

The one sweet thing I do enjoy in Pakistan is jilebi :) In the hands of a talented cook, these are really really good… trrrrust me! A batter of flour, yoghurt, water and baking powder is piped in piped in concentric circles into hot oil. When golden and crisp, these spirals are dipped into a syrup flavored with rose water. Sinful? Yes, most definitely!

Oodles and oodles of jilebi!

Hawkers boiling milk. Apparently folks dunk the sweet jilebis into a bowl of warm milk and eat the mixture like cereal. I’ve never tried it myself!

Like Mars, I much prefer the savoury and spicy food in Pakistan. Mars especially loves samosas. Back in Singapore, my family would make samosas with thin springroll skins (it is like filo pastry and mainly used by the Chinese) and minced meat filling. These would be small flat triangles with crispy, flaky crusts. In Pakistan, the samosa pastry is made out of flour and shaped into much larger almost pyramid-like shapes. These are stuffed with a variety of fillings like ground beef, mutton or chicken, potatoes, peas and even lentils. There are even meetha (sweet) samosas – these are stuffed with halwa. The most popular however are those filled with spiced potatoes. This filling has a spicy flavour with a hint of tartness, courtesy of ground pomegranate seeds.

Samosas and springrolls… it was all I could do to walk away without a bagful of those gorgeous morsels.

Now, you can’t live in Pakistan and not love pakoras! My mother-in-law calls these rainy day food – she loves eating pakoras with a hot mug of tea when it is pouring out :) It is also a must in most Pakistani homes in Ramadan for the break of fast meal. Spoonfuls of besan batter mixed with spices, onions, potatoes and spinach are deep fried. You can also dunk other vegetables to get these delicious babies. Some people like making green chilli pakoras, but we like eggplants, which taste so lovely and creamy when fried. My friend Tahira, who makes the best pakoras in all of Islamabad, adds some chopped tomatoes in her mix for a sweet-sour flavour. The trick is not to make the batter too dense or the fritters become too heavy and chewy. She uses just enough to coat the vegetables so the flavours and crispness are retained.


Pakoras were the first local things I ate when I went backpacking in India waaay back when. I didn’t know what they were called then, but I found them scrumptious!

I’d better publish some homeschool posts and book reviews before I cave in and fry me some pakoras…

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The Chai Files - Pakistan

Still more craftiness

December 5, 2011 by Imaan 11 Comments

It has been a tremendously exhausting week – the girls and I had to roll up our sleeves and tidy up our living area. It was a chore I’d kept putting off mainly because there was so much to do. Thanks to my procrastination, what was a difficult task had morphed into an overwhelming gargantuan undertaking. I really didn’t want to tackle the job, but needs must…

We managed to get a great deal accomplished alhamdulillah and it looks like we are slowly overcoming the issues with rain and leaks. We are making lots of du`aa that the repairs we invested in will help us move our library out of the girls’ room and back into the extension we built. My girls have been very good sports but I know they would love a comfortable place to hang out in.


Just a minute fraction of the mess I had to clean up … the pleasant part! Some of my crafty supplies that needed organising and destashing. Anyone need any supplies?? :)

Anyway, I feel that it is high time I put up a few schooley posts and believe me, they are floating about in my head and my ever-growing drafts section in WordPress :P In shaa Allah, when I regain some energy and time. For now, another fluffy post on some less schooley things we have been doing :)

We went to Karachi Company again. (Yes, UmmeYusuf… AGAIN! Now that I know that place has burlap, I may have to schedule yet ANOTHER trip LOL!) This time, we went with my mum-in-law’s helper Anees who can smell out a good bargain like no one can and who knows just about every nook and cranny of Karachi Company and Jumah Bazaar. Anees is an amazing crafter ma shaa Allah. She is from Faisalabad and back home at her village, she had learnt how to make leather shoes and sandals as well as how to crochet and embroider. She is recently engaged and embroidered an elaborate bedspread and pillow set for new home. It took her some 6 or 7 months and is really quite beautiful ma shaa Allah. (I must remember to take a pic of it!)

Anees got the pattern for her bedspread from one of the stores at Karachi Company. These stores have catalogues you can choose designs from and they will transfer the pattern for you or your embroiderer to stitch. Anees had hers transferred onto white fabric. The man below is transferring a floral pattern for a lady who wants her kameez (blouse) and dupatta (shawl) embellished. Since the fabric is a darkish colour, the pattern will be in white.


Horrid picture I know… totally out of focus. I had a hard time keeping up with Anees who was whizzing about the market a mile a minute!

Over the years, I’ve wanted to get heavy linen to stitch on – I love the colour and texture – but I haven’t been able to find it in Pakistan. I’ve had a hard time explaining to the store owners what I really meant. Some kept showing me a type of printed fabric called “lilen” or lilin” – I am really not sure how to spell it or what it really is, but it is a cotton blend, I believe. It has a smoother texture though and is very comfortable to wear, but does not crease as easily as pure cotton.

I settled instead for karandi… I love this fabric to bits. It is usually sold and worn in winter as it is slightly thick. I love the feel of heavier fabrics – they have a nice ‘fall’ and don’t cling to the body. As such, I often get long, flowy skirts made from karandi that I wear even in summer. When you first buy it, it has a stiff, nubby texture much like linen, but it softens nicely after several washes. I bought two pieces to stitch on… I think the white would be lovely for redwork. My kids have ideas for the darker cloth – they want to make bags they can embroider in shaa Allah.

So far, we have been stitching with embroidery floss – as you know by now, we have a sizeable stash :P We found some balls of perle cotton (Size 8) in the house and Mars experimented with them. Perle cotton has a more ‘ropey’ appearance and a pretty sheen – I like the effect that this thread has, especially with the stem stitch that we favour. I bought a few more colours and am going to try embroidering a piece using only perle cottons in shaa Allah. (For some strange reason, the store seems to have NO stock whatsoever of red perle cottons!)

Remember the redwork patterns I treated myself to for `Eid? Well, alhamdulillah, I’ve managed to complete one! It isn’t perfect, but of all the pieces I’ve worked on, this was the one I enjoyed most, for many reasons :) It is a picture of stacked tea cups…


Tea asked me which stitch I normally use. I like the stem stitch … it looks like a little coiled rope and very easy to do. (I can’t do a decent back stitch for toffee!)

I am almost always doing redwork. Anees is quite bewildered by this and and has asked me why my stitchery doesn’t have other colours. My Urdu is terrible so I have not been able to explain to her adequately that it is a traditional art. Actually, I normally only do redwork for two reasons – (a) I genuinely like this type of embroidery and (b) without a colour guide, I am completely useless at matching up colours. It may be part of my constantly overthinking things, but whenever I choose my own palette, I am never satisfied with the end result. I am trying to challenge myself though with this piece I am working on…


This is something I hope to frame up for the kids’ room… I wanted something vibrant and colourful but already I am regretting my colour choices :( I don’t think they are nice at all – it looks like I am trying too hard!

We are doing a lot of reading and notebooking this week in shaa Allah, so I think stitching will be relegated to the odd evenings when we are free. If you are doing anything crafty, please share!

I pray you all are enjoying the fruits of your `ibadah during these blessed days of Muharram :)

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The Chai Files - Pakistan

Karachi Company

November 22, 2011 by Imaan 11 Comments

It had been a while since we’d gallivanted, so Bear and I dragged the Dad Man out to Karachi Company at G9 while Mars was at her Arabic class. I’d always wondered why a market in Islamabad would be nicknamed Karachi Company. It turns out that back in 1978, a construction company from Karachi built the apartment complexes in that sector.

My kids LOVE this crazy, chaotic market. There are numerous stores and makeshift stalls that sell anything and everything for much cheaper than elsewhere. Take my floss hunting for example – last week, my kids and I were practically busting out of our skins with excitement when we’d found embroidery thread going for 12 rupees a skein in our neighbourhood haberdashery. That’s S$0.17/US$0.13 per skein – a HUGE price difference from the S$0.80/US$0.62 that we normally pay in Singapore! Then we went to Karachi Company where the floss was EVEN CHEAPER at 8 rupees a skein! Needless to say, we began entertaining insane notions of buying every colour they had in stock. (We managed to contain our lunacy, don’t worry… good thing we made the supplication for entering the market!)

Here is the haberdashery that unleashed the stitching madness in us…

This is one section of the store – you can see shelves of lace and a bazillion threads all lined up against the wall. It is funny, but I have not been able to find cotton sewing threads. (I’ve been told that it is best to use cotton threads as it does not ‘eat’ into your fabrics.) This country produces cotton and most people I know prefer wearing cotton, but the sewing threads are all made from polyester.

Here is another section of the shop, with even more lace and beads that can drive you to dizziness and distraction!

These haberdasheries are known simply as “lace shops” here as it is essentially the lace that the womenfolk flock to them for. Practically everyone here wears the shalwar kameez and while there are boutiques that sell ready-made ones, most people get tailor-made ones, be they for everyday wear or special occasions. A great deal of effort goes into getting these outfits made – buying fabrics, designing the the outfits and choosing the trimmings. Sometimes ladies employ dyers to get their outfits and shawls to match *just so*. I’m often asked why I don’t wear the shalwar kameez. While I rather LIKE it and used to wear it on occasion, I find it all too bothersome (and costly!) to do all that shopping.

In addition, the world of shalwar kameez fashion evolves constantly! While it may seem to outsiders that one outfit looks much like another, nothing could be farther from the truth. Trends change every season. Last winter, long, streamlined blouses were paired with straight cut pants. By summer, the blouses were even longer (almost ankle length) and voluminous and pants were cut even wider, palazzo-style. This winter, it looks like the churidar shalwars are in fashion – these are pants that are bunched up tightly along the lower calf. Even laces are subject to fashion trends – at one time, broad ribbons were popular, then heavy elaborate laces were in vogue… it’s all too much for me!

My rowdy ruffians love clothes but they can tolerate only so much lace hunting :) They much prefer checking out knick-knacks at stalls like the one below.


This makeshift stall, located just outside the haberdashery, sells henna, bangles, ear-rings and hair accessories. If your daughters tend to lose scrunchies and hair pins like mine do, then buying them for cheap at these places is the way to go :)

We walked on and I remembered the food stalls I had seen a couple of years ago. I remembered an entire section of the market teeming with food stalls selling kachori (a round pastry filled with meat or lentils), jilebi, samosas and other sinfully scrumptious deep-fried fare. Unfortunately, those food avenues are only set up in Ramadan – the vendors operate at their smaller shops the rest of the year. We did find some other places selling food…


Here is a section of Karachi Company selling meat, poultry and fish. Back in Singapore, we had a good supply of fresh sea-food but in Islamabad, a more inland city, it isn’t as popular. Check out the man carrying the strange duster at the end of the stall – the stick with the long wispy ends. His job is to flick away the flies! Many store-owners own those witchy looking things – very useful to smack away pests and also dust.

Round the corner, we saw a traditional medical hall. This shop reminded me of the Chinese sinseh in Singapore. There is of course a strong Islamic tradition in Pakistan and so homeopathy, herbs and other remedies recommended by the Sunnah are very much in use here. Most people who suffer coughs and colds will go for honey, ginger and the ubiquitous Joshanda!

Drawers and drawers of herbal goodness.

The head honcho surrounded by remedies.

Then there are the fruit stalls… we don’t have a plethora of choice like in more developed countries. Supplies vary according to season, so you have to exercise some patience if you want mangoes in winter or oranges in summer. The fruits and vegetables here don’t look very pristine – they look quite small and brusied even at times, but trust me, their appearance belies their beautiful taste and flavour. It must be because the produce here isn’t chemically altered… pretty much organic!


Oranges, pomegranates, bananas and guavas are pretty much standard winter fare. We have apples too but other than the imported Fuji apples which are quite pricey, most of the apples are not the crispy sort. I just make apple sauce out of them!


Dried fruits and nuts are also very popular snacks here. This vendor has raisins, dates, walnuts, almonds and peanuts that you buy by weight. He also sells packaged nuts that are encrusted with sugar and sesame. I love pine nuts – they are absolutely delicious, but a little more expensive. There are strings of dried figs at his store too, hanging by the rope if you look closely.

When we got back to our car, we saw this vendor at the parking lot. He doesn’t even have a stall – he just sells his wares right off his bike! He is the Pathan man in the white cap sitting a distance away. Bear was so taken by the woven baskets that she begged for a small one. The large flat tinselly ones are often used by fruit vendors I believe.


Bear was eyeing the ones on the right – the beige ones with the brown designs. She eventually settled on a basket that came with a lid, which looks like one of these. They look a lot like the kind snake-charmers use! We just use them for our toys or needlework supplies.

That was the end of our giddy-gaddying, as we like to say it. Mars was awfully sorry she’d missed the outing but I assured her that in shaa Allah we will go back :)

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The Chai Files - Pakistan

Out and About – Part 1

November 20, 2011 by Imaan 2 Comments

I promised my friend Asrina from Singapore pictures of life in Pakistan. They are LONG overdue to say the least. I thought I would look into my stash of photos and revive “The Chai Files” category of this blog :)

Pakistan is very different from where I come from and the places I have been. In Singapore, I think the favourite national pastimes are eating and shopping. There are numerous hawker centres, food courts and restaurants there and a major shopping mall in every large neighbourhood. You get the same thing in Pakistan…

Well almost :P

There are lots of eateries and shopping areas, but they lack the cultivated veneer and polish of Singapore’s. If you want a brutally honest opinion, they look a right mess. LOL! Oh, there are many upmarket restaurants and stores, but they are little islands in a sea of litter and poorly maintained buildings. Still, what these places lack in appearance, they more than make up for it in charm :)

My kids love going out and are always thrilled to find bargains and curiosities. During `Eid season, we typically go to places like Karachi Company (more on this later) at G9 and the khussa shop at F10. Here are some scenes from last year:


We saw a row of women offering mehndi/henna services. They sat on the ground with makeshift tables made out of boxes whereupon they placed their supply of henna and stamps. This lady has just stamped the girl’s hand with a design. Like the other henna ladies, she was poor and had a little baby that she was rocking to sleep under her shawl.

Just ahead of the henna stalls were the choori stalls – I had written about glass bangles before in an earlier post. You can purchase them in various stores at any time of the year, but I think people have so much more fun buying them during `Eid when there are so many more stalls to choose from.


Here are Mars and her sister (OK, Bear’s a little cut off :P) looking at the bangles. Just ahead is a stall selling children’s clothing – at Karachi Company, the clothes are much cheaper than elsewhere. You just have to have the stamina to fight the crowds and the stomach to tolerate the litter!


Another view of the bangles… they come in all sizes and colours.

I have a headache getting shoes for the kids come `Eid if I am in Singapore – Mars has trouble fitting into kids’ shoes, but is not quite ready for adult sizes (she is getting there though ma shaa Allah!) while Bear seems to have a hard time choosing (I tell her she will be the Imelda Marcos from Islamabad if she isn’t careful). In Pakistan though, I have no such issues. We just head to the khussa store at F10 – the shoes are fancy enough for the ethnic clothes here and so much more affordable than Mary Janes and what not from Singapore! (The kids’ shoes cost between S$5-$10! Talk about sweet!)

OK, these are a little too ethnic for my taste :P I threaten my kids that I’ll buy these for them if they don’t make up their minds quickly.

Here are the shoes that Bear really likes – they are open at the back so they are easy for kids to wear. Matched with the right outfit, they look nice and swanky :) The soles are wooden so you’d have to get rubber ones fixed onto them to prevent slipping. Mars likes the open-toed sandals made of leather, which look nice with both traditional and modern wear, but I don’t have a pic of them.

More pics to come… stay tuned :)

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Yesterday, I had a sobering chat with my friend wh Yesterday, I had a sobering chat with my friend who is a member of a minority group here. (I am keeping things vague for her safety and mine.) She has a relative who is also a friend of mine. 

In both my early encounters with them, I’d always sensed an air of reserve and secrecy. I understood that we had different beliefs, but I could not understand what I perceived as fear. Not being a native here in Pakistan, I’d had my share of bewildering and unfathomable encounters, so I’d left things at that. Maybe I’d understand in time to come, I thought.

They had always been very kind to me and I tried to reciprocate as best I could. For all our (acknowledged) differences in opinion and belief, we found some common ground and focused on doing some good. My friend’s relative donated science kits as well as books for my homeschooling gang and I’ll always be grateful for that. 

I read news yesterday about how my friend and her people do in fact live in danger. She told me how she fears for her husband’s life every single time he leaves home. She jumps every single time her doorbell rings. She worries about sending her daughter to school for fear of bullying or worse… Target killings of her people are a reality.

It made me feel so ashamed because this is tragic and downright disgraceful for any country, but even more so for a Muslim one. 

It’s OK to disagree. It’s OK to debate. It is NOT OK to terrorize and it is NOT OK resort to violence. It is wrong and it is unjust and it is EVIL to do so. When dealing with people of different beliefs, can we not be civilised? Can we not be HUMAN? Can we not behave the way our deen taught us? 

We need to find a way to make things better. It is not right to allow people who know precious little about Islam to desecrate it. 

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#islam #minorityrights #knowyourreligion #pakistan
Journalists say this time it is different. Rushdi Journalists say this time it is different.

Rushdi as-Sarraj, Yasser Murtaja’s friend, told Al-Jazeera, “This task is difficult under normal circumstances, so you can imagine working under a fierce offensive that does not distinguish between a journalist, a civilian or a military leader.” Israel is working hard “to silence the image and voice, and to ban any news or information that exposes its crimes”.

He also says, “My family doesn’t stop calling me, fearing that I could be harmed. It is an endless circle of fear and exhaustion. But we must continue sharing our message.”

Praying for Muna El-Kurd @muna.kurd15 , her brother @mohammedelkurd and all the journalists putting out the truth. 

#palestine #freepalestine #freemunakurd #freemunaelkurd #savesheikhjarrah #savesilwan #savelifta #savemohammedelkurd
«THROWBACK, Summer + Winter 2019» «We returned «THROWBACK, Summer + Winter 2019»

«We returned to the park after the lockdown earlier this year… sadly our tree for all seasons is no more 😢»

FOREIGN LANDS by Robert Louis Stevenson
Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.
I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.
If I could find a higher tree
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the sea among the ships.
To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive.
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#throwback #pakistan #islamabad #lifeinpakistan #lifeinislamabad #homeschool #homeschooldays #homeschoolcoop #homeschoolinislamabad #homeschoolinpakistan #naturediary #naturejournal #science #charlottemason #charlottemasoninspired #charlottemasoneducation #charlottemasonnaturestudy #charlottemasonliving #charlottemasonhomeschool #cmnaturestudy #cmnaturejournal #naturewalk #natureramble #naturestudy #naturejournal #homeeducation #outandabout #ilookisee #islamabadhomeschoolers
A couple of you asked me to make a post of my stor A couple of you asked me to make a post of my story in response to LV’s despicable use of the keffiyeh design. Pictures in this post are from hirbawi.ps and @palestine.pixel … 

EDIT: yes, my second slide should have been edited and it is bugging me. I repeated 1930s… sorry! If you want a more polished version, DM me. You get my meaning anyway, right? 
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#palestine #freepalestine #keffiyeh #gaza #jerusalem #savesheikhjarrah
«YET ANOTHER THROWBACK, Jan. 2020» I was feelin «YET ANOTHER THROWBACK, Jan. 2020»

I was feeling a little out of sorts (again) – I’d left the house a mess (again) and the boy and I were in a rush to get to the Art Co-op. Habiba @ourlivinghomeschool was doing a session on Wassily Kandinsky that day. 

We were delayed by a massive traffic jam and our stress levels rocketed when an obnoxious motorist kept sounding his horn repeatedly as if to shoo other cars out of the way. What was everyone else to do but wait for the jam to ease? 

We made it just in time though…barely! As we ran towards the gathering, it was as if a huge weight was lifted away. This gorgeous view greeted the boy and me, alhamdulillah. When we got down to studying Kandinsky, we felt more than fine.

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#pakistan #islamabad #lifeinpakistan #lifeinislamabad #homeschool #homeschooldays #homeschoolcoop #homeschoolinislamabad #homeschoolinpakistan #naturediary #desidiaries #charlottemason #charlottemasoninspired #charlottemasoneducation #charlottemasonnaturestudy #charlottemasonliving #charlottemasonhomeschool #cmnaturestudy #cmnaturejournal #naturewalk #natureramble #naturestudy #naturejournal #homeeducation #outandabout #ilookisee #islamabadhomeschoolers #artcoop #artoutdoors
«THROWBACK, Mar. 2019» Once upon a time before «THROWBACK, Mar. 2019» 
Once upon a time before Covid.

The calm before…

We had our Monday meet up again at Fatima Jinnah Park. The air was cool and crisp and the skies sunny when the nature gang got together. Then, it was on to a jolly game of Simon Says – Katelynn’s @_k8erpotater clever way of teaching the kids about body parts and how they move.

The kids did their usual tree climbing and exploring. Then, the dark clouds started rolling in. We took a while to decide whether or not to leave – the park literally looked dark and ominous on one side and cheery and bright on the other. We only started rushing for home when lightning split the sky. The kids were not to be hurried, however. They felt little pellets hitting them and stopped to investigate… hailstones!

Our ramble was cut short and I got cold and wet, but I think it was a gorgeous day. We got to learn about nature in a very real way.
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#pakistan #islamabad #lifeinpakistan #lifeinislamabad #homeschool #homeschooldays #homeschoolcoop #homeschoolinislamabad #homeschoolinpakistan #naturediary #naturejournal #science #charlottemason #charlottemasoninspired #charlottemasoneducation #charlottemasonnaturestudy #charlottemasonliving #charlottemasonhomeschool #cmnaturestudy #cmnaturejournal #naturewalk #natureramble #naturestudy #naturejournal #homeeducation #outandabout #ilookisee #islamabadhomeschoolers
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