Biography 333: She was stealing

 I was very young. During those days, my mom used to have a permanent housemaid. I mean, they had to live with us and work with my mom. If they couldn't prove their work to a high standard or commit any unforgivable mistake, my mom would send them back.

One woman started working in our house, but we were not happy with her work and behavior. So, Mom asked her to leave. She got ready and said goodbye to mom. She was sweating a lot. At that moment, my Boro Khalu (my mother's older sister's husband) was in our house. He told my mom to check her before she left.

My mom generally doesn't do that, but she checked her luggage and found some household items she was taking with her. Khalu also asked for a body check, but my mom wasn't ready for that. She said, 'Whatever you take, just give it to me; I won't punish you.' Then she brought out some sarees that were hidden in her body. Those belonged to my mom. Anyway, mom didn't take them back; let her take those.

I was thinking, my khalu was very experienced in this matter; he knew exactly what was going on here.

Taken a selfie with a webcam

I took this selfie using a webcam. I was wearing my home dress and no makeup. I think green suits me.

Biography 244: Bedbugs

 I was born and raised in Bangladesh. I have heard about bedbugs and read about them in novels, but I have never encountered them. The first time I realized what bedbugs are was in Malaysia. 

I visited there as a tourist. On Langkawi Island, I stayed in a motel. At night I felt my neck and hand are etching and something is bitting me. I didn't know what it was, but I couldn't stay on my bed. I went outside, and I lay on a wooden chair the whole night beside the sea. It was a horrific situation. I had marks on my body for a long time.

Next, I heard about bed bugs in Canada. May Allah save us. This is a very common scenario over here. People move houses one after another only to get rid of them.

Biography 26: My first home in Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, I have started living in a small village "Alkaseem". I heard, later it became a good big city. I, my older sister and my newborn younger sister started living with our mom in a local clinic. My mom was a family planning trainer, she has to work as a senior nurse. It was a government job. My dad has to work in another city. First, he worked in "Tabuk". Later moved to "Umlej". He was an engineer in the Telephone Department. This was also a government job. I heard from him, that Tabuk's weather was very extreme.

My mom got her living arrangement from the government in the clinic. It was an extended part of the clinic's building, separated by a wall. It was a one-storey building with two (As separated by a wall) big ground. The whole ground was covered by small stones. It is in the desert, so I guess, stones were to prevent dust. The washroom was at the end of the field. The main door was at the clinic's section. A big iron door. Just beside the door, inside our boundary wall, there was a big sand mountain. It was very high that we (I and my sister) use to afraid to climb it up. Later as we tried so many times, the sands fell on the ground and made it easier to climb it up. My sister was the hero in this activity. See, when she does anything, nobody noticed. But when I do anything like that, Oh what a girl.

Our furniture was from the clinic's furniture. Iron bed and chair. the floor was made of concrete. As we were living in the desert, the floor always felt covered with sands. In winter, mom uses to covered the ventilators with plastic. Maybe windows too (I don't remember). But I remember the weather was very dry over there, I felt my skin became toasted.

বেসন কিনে খাওয়াই উত্তম (We better buy lentil powder)

এদেশের ইফতারিতে বেসন একটা অপরিহার্য উপাদান. বেসন কি? ডালের গুড়া. তাহলে এযুগে যখন সবার ঘরে ব্লেন্ডার আছে, তখন মানুষ কেন বেসন কিনে খায়? যতটুকু লাগে নিজেই কেন গুড়া করে নেই না?

এই বিশ্বাসে উপনীত হয়ে আমি অর্ধেক কাপ বুটের ডাল নিয়ে ব্লেন্ডারে গুড়া করলাম. ভালই হয়েছে. কাজ চলবে. ডালের গুড়া বের করতে গিয়ে নতুন বিষয় চোখে পড়ল. ডালে যে কি পরিমান ফ্যাট থাকে তার নমুনা দেখলাম. শক্ত চর্বির মতো ব্লেন্ডারের ছুড়িতে লেগে গেছে. সেটা খুলতে গিয়ে বেশ কসরত করতে হলো. একবার মনে হলো, আমার ব্লেন্ডার শেষ. এবার বুঝলাম, কেন মানুষ বেসন কিনে খায়.... মনে মনে বললাম, আল্লাহ এবার মতো মাফ করে দেও. এই পাপ আর না :)

In our country, Beson (lentil powder) is a necessary element, in our kitchen to make food for Iftar. Now a day, we all have blender at home. Then why should we buy lentil powder from the store? Why don’t we blend and use as much as we needed?

By thinking of these I inspire myself and took half cup of chickpeas and blend it in the blender. It was good enough. When I bring out the powders a new thing came to me. Chickpeas have fat and when I blend it, it all gets stuck with the bled. I had to try many things only to clean the bled. Now I understood, why people by lentil powder… In my mind I said, please pardon me Allah, I won’t do this mistake ever again. J

Shafeen in cleaning action

Cleaning up things is fun, especially if you made that mess; really? Nope. But when you clean up the things, you will really feel some joy. This is priceless. Still I am very lazy in cleaning. I tried to make the cleaning habit to my son. He does happily, sometimes. Most of the time he says, “Please do it for me” or “help me in cleaning”. Like mother like son J

Cost cutting

Whether it is office or home, budget management is somewhat same. When price increases and not your income; you have to adjust it with your expenses. I tried many methods to make it better. Like:

-  Sacrifice me and my son’s many things where I thought we can live without it.

- Stop buying luxury things for both of us.

- Star buying things after it finishes. Like when I knew that within few days my toothpaste will be finished, I use to bought it. Now a day, I wait till it finishes. Because many times I have seen, things goes more than I expect.

- Many times my mom and other relative sends food for me. So if I use it properly, it will reduce my food cost.

- Stopped taking food from outside (like junk food)

- Stopped going anywhere for recreation.

- Stopped inviting and serving food without any occasion.

- Will stop buying baby products, like baby soap, shampoo etc. All of us will use same products.

Lets see how nicely I can manage everything.