writer

– Lemony Snicket

Literature

“I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering loves to make everyone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment. I will love you until all such compartments are opened and discovered, and until all the secrets have you gasping into the world. I will love you until all the codes and hearts have been broken and until every anagram and egg has been unscrambled…”

The Beatrice LettersĀ 

Aleppo’s Lost Children

Current Affairs

The face paint of war: blood and ash.
We have created a generation of war children whilst condemning them to a life of neglect.
We throw around the words blame and shame, any kind of self-justification for sitting by and doing nothing.
We twiddle our thumbs; her baby sister lost her right leg in that recent blast.
We uncomfortably shift our gaze from left to right; his father went blind from the toxic gas.
500,000 lives lost already and nothing to show for it other than a
thousand-yard stare.

Anisah Hamid

HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2017!

Life Updates

2016 has brought us a whirlwind of emotions. It’s felt like a bloody long year too!

From restarting my degree at the university of my dreams, to meeting some of the truly wonderful people I now hold dear to me, it’s been a crazy year that I wouldn’t change for the world. It’s also taught me how important it is to keep your loved ones close: to cherish every second you have with them, because life is far too unpredictable and we just cannot know when our time on this earth will be over.

Strangers have become best friends. Best friends have become family. Family ties have grown stronger (in some cases, mind!) 2016 has been a year of life lessons, too. I’ve learnt that people will come in and out of your life, but those who are supposed to be in it will come back to you eventually. Those who don’t come back, well, for the briefest moments, they were in your life for a reason. All we can do is learn from what they’ve taught us, and move on with what they’ve left behind. Life is too unpredictable to hold grudges and negativity against those we once cared for.

I look forward to a year of positivity ahead of me. As cliche as it sounds, I’m very much looking forward to leaving negativity behind me in 2016, and moving forward with those who stuck by me relentlessly this year, bringing me nothing but happiness and filling my life with love.

Happy 2017! Let’s make it a good one.

“In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”Ā – Unknown

A x