Category: Book Review

The last blog on Powerful weekly plan.  received a good response. Yes, I’ve used the weekly plan for many years, especially it took me through tough times. I found it extremely effective.

You must be wondering how I got to it? Well, actually it’s an amalgamation of several theories, and then making some adaptations to make a good fit for today’s life style. Having lived through a time when you either bought a book or went to the library for any solution of problem. You all have had it much easier today. Still, the problems of managing one’s week is even more vital now, so you can satisfy all your needs from every important point of view.

I’m a big reader, and  while reading  I  try to incorporate the stuff into my life. Whatever clicks. Anything that makes sense. Then I give it a little time, analyze it and make amendments. So, those of you who have read the Stephen R. Covey’s block buster book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you would remember the ‘weekly plan’ in it.

So, I tried it. But then I realized, it is literally impossible in Pakistan. Hardly anything is streamlined here, if you are well organized, then no one else is, so really, it doesn’t work. But then even when it does work, there are issues in applying it in our country. Here, we do not put our parents in homes, nor do we put our children in day care. So, we take those responsibilities very seriously too. So, when he wrote about the roles in life, that really clicked.

Continue reading “How the ‘powerful weekly plan’ happened” →

 Shireen Studio’s first book is published! – My friend tells me, “Now the real work starts!”

The most EXCITING thing in my life is the printing of my first publication: yes, Allama Iqbal’s Tulip of Sinai, illustrated and published by Shireen Gheba Najib.  It contains the first two poems from Iqbal’s Persian book ‘Message from the East’ (Payam-e-Mashriq).

Don’t get scared, its easy reading in English. You will find that your heart will skip a beat several times as you go through it, as mine did. There is that ‘eureka’ moment, when you say, “Hey, that’s what I feel too!”

Imagine, Iqbal published this work when he was 46 years old. The work was obviously done in the preceding years – most probably during the later thirties and early forties.

I’m so excited, because Muhammad Qasim of Printo Graphics, did a great job of it. The quality of printing is just as I wanted.

All the time, people were telling me “you are being rooked!” I’d reply,

Continue reading “Allama Iqbal’s Tulip of Sinai” →

(an article of mine printed on February 7^th, 1997 in The News:)

Iqbal’s poetry gives purpose to one’s life. Shireen Najib discovers self after reading the English translations of the poet of the East.

I was never touched by Iqbal’s poetry. – Simply because I never understood it. No English medium person can. Our education system has ensured that!

But what intrigued me most was …. the way Iqbal’s poetry affected my father. My otherwise martial father, a true Piffer , would be totally ignited by the poetry of Iqbal. Hearing a verse would send him into a trance. I too would try to feel the power of this poetry, and meekly ask:

“Daddy, what does Khirad mean?” He would look at me from far away. Then focus on me. And all he saw was my ignorance. This would send him into a fury.

“You do not know the meaning of khirad? What kind of Urdu do they teach you? How can you be so ignorant??!!”  In all this process of post-mortem of teaching of Urdu in English medium schools in Pakistan … Iqbal would be left far behind ….

Time passed. I was not much affected by the lack of understanding of Iqbal. I had plenty else to do. There was my art, my studies, my friends, my writing, my husband, home, and time consuming children. Where did I have the time for Iqbal?!!

In any case… my father always said “In order to understand Iqbal, you have to have complete knowledge of religion (and not only your own,) Urdu, Arabic, and some Persian, history, and geography.”

Now, tell me, where would I get the time to start learning all those other subjects before I got near Iqbal? Since it was impossible, I forgot all about it.

But there was always something missing in life.

I could not pin it down. I could not understand it. You could call it an in-completeness, a lack of satisfaction, a feeling of being all alone, or a feeling of deprivation. Like a ship without anchor in the storm of life. Sometimes I drifted in one direction, sometimes in another. Restless. Furious. Frustrated. I felt the fire of emotions I felt alone in my quest for understand of myself and my fellow human beings.

Continue reading “Allama Iqbal and  I” →