Hi Everyone!

Isn’t the weather just perfect these days in Pakistan? I’m loving every minute of it. It is a time for picnics, drives and enjoying your garden. So, due to Covid19 and the weather, I’ve held my art classes in my garden. (It feels strange calling it a garden when it is without any grass – just potted plants.) It is also the right time to do any special renovations inside one’s home, before the summer arrives.

Use different route to your goal:

So, finally I’m getting brick walls inside my home, in a few selected parts. It is something I’ve been dying to do for a long long time. Suddenly, I thought I better go for it. By going about it in a different way. So, I rang up a brick layer named Bashir. He immediately agreed. This is also the perfect weather to fulfil one’s dreams, before the harsh summer arrives.

Art classes:

Actually, I started my art classes quite by accident. It was after I met Joe, who is new in Islamabad from London with his wife. They own a cocker spaniel too, and our meeting at the vets, lead us to these classes. Soon a few more joined in.

Sadia, also joined in and so did Joe’s wife Chloe. Lucky for me, Sadia is a brilliant baker, so invariably she brings some tasty goodies. Azmat and Saba the other two young artists also join in. So, our art class itself and then the tea afterwards are something to die for! 🙂 Happily, my student from previous classes, Danyal also comes along whenever he gets time.

Brick walls:

Being a Lahori at heart, I’ve always loved bricks on walls. The famous ‘Chaye Khana’ restaurants in Islamabad brought back that love for bricks in rooms for me. So, I’ve been playing with the idea, but my painter often gave me very high quotations. So, I’d just shut up. Suddenly, I decided to call a brick layer of mine whom I had known about nine years ago during my hard times.

When I called, he remembered me. He said, ‘I remembered, because you had offered me cold drinks while I worked, and had shared your story. The same happened to me later, as my brothers got me out of my parents’ home too.’ He said, ‘I thought of you a lot, as you too had faced same issues.’ 

So, he came over, and gave me a nice quotation which was palatable. I could see he was trying to help me cut costs. When Waliya heard about it, she said, ‘just do on one good wall rather than bits and pieces here and there. Made sense. So, we got the main wall behind the tv in lounge done.

Then Nadiya, my daughter in Canada wanted to gift me cooking pots. I told her my staff cooks for me, she knows I cook only occasionally. (She saw the condition of my cooking pans, from a video I had shared on Instagram as a joke.) I had gifted my new cooking pans for the bridal project last month! ‘So, what would you like?’ She asked. ‘I want a contribution in my brick wall project! She happily agreed. I’m so THILLED, now I can have bits and pieces of brick walls in other parts of the house too! 😉

As I tap away here, I can hear the guys banging at the walls while being at work. So EXCITING! I’ve always wished for it. ?

Originally, my husband and I had wanted our house to have a brick façade. However, when the time came, we were hard up and I was totally emersed in debts, so no question of that brick façade.

I’m realizing, having bricks inside the house is better as you can enjoy it all the time. Isn’t that much better?

Go for your dreams:

I guess, what is important is to go for your dreams. You have it in you to find a way to achieve them. Stick to your dreams and keep looking for more doable ways to achieve them.

Choose a different route if needed:

Just change the route and explore different ways to achieve the dream. Don’t give up your dream. (Maybe the route you were choosing was making it impossible.) Basheer is helping me find ways to get the work done in a more economical way. These people are geniuses. He had also worked at the Islamabad airport. So, he really knows his craft.

Now the project is complete. Bashir wants to do something else for me as a gift. I told him, ‘you don’t want to stop coming to my house!’ He nodded smiling, saying ‘yes, that is true!’ So, I’m excited, as he has some more ideas for me with the few bricks left over.

Napolean Hill said that whatever gives you a thrill and happiness, just go for it. If it gives you that boost in your life that you need, do not care about cost or ‘what will people say,’ just go for it. That is what I’m saying to you now.

Now, sit back and think what dreams you have, and how can you achieve them?

Stay blessed!:)