One Lovely Blog Award

I got nominated to do this by Jenna at Sparkly Kid and this is the first time I got this award *-* so yes, I'm pretty excited to do this (: Jenna is a fellow TBC blogger who's also joined our Google+ group! If you're a TBC blogger, join the group too!

This blog award is pretty brief. Here are the rules!

Seven Facts About Me

1. I am bilingual- I speak English and Urdu quite fluently. However, I aspire to learn more languages. Arabic, German and Chinese have made it on my list!

2. I love reading books and I really wish libraries existed in my city. Unfortunately, when the British decided to colonize India, they didn't bother about building libraries the way they built railroads. A pity.

3. The first thing I do when I open my browser is open blogger. Want proof? Here.

Blogger, Bloglovin, Tumblr, Google, Facebook, Med Studentz, Kick Ass Torrent, Twitter.

4. I am totally fangirling over The Legend of Korra! The animation, the characters, the plot, the tension, the action! I love it all to bits! In fact, I'm planning to take out all my fangirling in a total #TLOK blogpost xD That's how much I love it.

Bruh the Avatar is back in business and better than ever! 

5. I'm also fangirling over the latest Naruto chapter- I don't know how many of you guys watch or read Naruto, but sorry for mega spoiling BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ANYONE TO TALK TO ABOUT THIS AND THIS IS SO IMPORTANT LET ME SHOW YOU.

Read from Right to Left.

<-----

6. My mom wants me to write tons of stuff and mail them around but I don't tell her I've got a blog because I'm afraid she's going to mega stalk me and read every single post. So that's why I'm going to make a side blog where I'll write everything she wants me to write so she can be happy xD the blog is currently under construction by Emily at Lynde Avenue ^^

7. Today is the last day of October! And tomorrow is going to be November! And November is when the Shifa merit list is going to be out! I hope my name is on it QnQ

Okay, next part of this award is to nominate fifteen other bloggers. Let's see how far I go..

Cloudy Dreams

Perks of Being a Reader

Waking Moments

Lynde Avenue

Cranberries and Crescents

A Little Yarn Blossom

Ink on Paper

Maine Lyn

Almost Completely Mad

Inky Quill and Paper 

I think ten is enough @.@

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a great start to November!

Expedition Trail 6

Trail 6: one of the many man-made trails made for tourists to scale the sides of the Margalla Mountains located outside of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Situated between the beautiful Faisal Mosque and the scenic mountains, the trail has it's own parking lot which is closed off and on a Sunday with lovely weather, is a perfect cricket ground for visitors. Trail visitors are greeted by trees planted in memory of individuals of the Marker family (whoever the heck they are) followed by a Visitor's Information Center and a sitting area with swings and a bird watch tower (which looks more like a small tree house).

Faisal Masjid, with it's scenic background- the Margalla Mountains and the sky.

Trail 6 passes through the Kavani Valley and leads all the way up to Chak Jabbi in four miles. The trail includes a smooth track for mountain biking as well as sitting areas for hikers. A stream follows some part of the trail as well, so during your climb, you can listen to the gurgling of water or decide to take a break and dip your feet in too.

Cause dates are cool and posting articles as evidence makes you look professional.

My family and I had set out to conquer this trail and reach Jabbi. We started this expedition with the clothes on our back, the shoes on our feet and a bottle of water. The start of the trail was smooth, easy rise and had several signs along the way asking visitors not to litter and to carry back their garbage. Further along the trail came a sign saying "Jabbi" and leading to another trail and that's where the rise became a bit steeper and the environment gave off a feeling of being in a jungle, isolated.

Nice sitting area, right?

The trail was quiet with birds chirping and was shaded by trees all around. The weather was good too so hiking seemed pretty easy and relaxing- coupled with the fact that we were stopping at every sitting area and stream to either: take a couple of pictures, have a hydrating drink or take off our shoes and socks and stick our feet in the running water.

My brother took off just one shoe.

We had crossed the 2.0 kilometer mark when the trail became really steep and climbing became tough business- especially since we lost the company of the trickling stream. We stopped and had a voting: Go on the last 2 kilometers and see Jabbi or head back? Majority voted on going back and ending the expedition. On our way, it was time for Zuhr and we could hear the adhan coming all the way from the masjid.

Doesn't this look tropical? Don't be fooled, this is in the middle of a mountain forest.

It was a great trip and an amazing experience. Even though the expedition turned out to be a failure since we didn't achieve our aim, we still had loads of fun! For anyone who is planning to be a tourist in Islamabad, you should definitely visit Faisal Mosque and swing by Trail 6  for some exercise too!

The Ideal Blogger (#3) Common Courtesy

I'll admit, this is a pretty delayed post, but I have finally written it and thus conclude the end of this blogging trilogy *-* I hope this helps bloggers out there a bit or inspires them. Here's a post I read this week by Kat @ (Almost) Completely Mad which talks about getting readers too!

Let's talk about what exactly courtesy is. Courtesy means excellence of manners or social courtesy. So we're not going to talk about "nice things to do" but "extra super duper nice things to do" cause we're going to aim for the absolute best!

Your post should be in a font that is large and clear. Don't use one of those fancy chic fonts that are great for titles but horrible for the actual post. It makes it hard for your readers to get through and will probably scare them off. Additionally, your font color should contrast to your background. Black text on white backgrounds is a good idea and pretty popular- that doesn't mean you can't deviate! Go ahead, pick out something totally new but make sure you check if it's easy on the eyes.

Everyone need to blog-promote every now and then. Most do it through comment spam. You'll find that same comment stamped on several inter-related blogs with absolutely no mention of the post or blogger in question who they are addressing. If you want to blog-promote through comments, READ the post you decided to leave a stamp on and add a personal line or two. Make people who see your comment feel like you're easy to approach and human, instead of a spam bot.

Comments you write on other people's blogs should be free of profanity. Just because you like being profane doesn't mean you can go spew whatever you want on someone else's corner of the internet! That's wrong and gives off a horrible impression. So remember, no profanity! Also, if you disagree with something written in the post, be polite about it! In fact, what's stopping you from writing a response post? That way, you could share your views more productively than in a comment- and move a potential war zone out of someone else's blog!

When you give out social media, for example your email, twitter, facebook or instagram, you should actually check it and look out for your followers. There's nothing readers like better than the occasional tweet or mention on social media from their favorite bloggers. Here's your chance to turn follows into friendships!

Teenage bloggers love adding music players to their blogs. It makes the blog look professional and personal at the same time. However, for link-clicked reader, it might be a turn off to suddenly have loud music playing from your blog window. Most people take the quick route and shut down the tab so stop the music- and that's how you've lost a potential reader. So what can you do? You could either put the music on an extremely low volume (like soft background music), giving your readers the option of turning it up themselves, or stop the music entirely and hope your readers think about turning it on themselves. I suggest the former.

When you hand out people link awards, there's quite a possibility that your followers decide not to read that post. Awards aren't that fun to read when all you're doing is answering random questions (unless you add lots of cool gifs and pictures, then your awards are super awesome) so if you tag people, they might not even know about it. Solution? Leave a comment on your nominees' blogs telling them about what you've done!

My Shifa Interview

I had to make an entire post for this because it was really interesting and lots of people wanted details and it's a little difficult typing out the same thing to different people again and again xD So I'm just going to write it down altogether here.

The interview is basically called MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews) and the introduction given by the college is as follows:-

The college will conduct MMI as a part of its admission process. These will consist of 8-10 interactive stations of 7-8 minutes duration with a single interviewer at each station. The stations will focus on the following domains.

-      Critical Thinking

-      Ethical Decision Making

-      Communication Skills

-      Knowledge of Health care system

Final eligibility for admissions will be decided by the admission committee according to the applicant’s performance in all area of assessment.

My interview was conducted on the 22nd of October. The time they gave for me was 11:30 am but since I'd been spending my days in the hospital since Monday, I was there since 9:30 am and went to the college around 11:00 am. I was the first person there but right after me, two other girls came and the three of us settled into a nervous conversation about the ordeal we were about to face.

We waited until almost 1:00 pm- that's when the interview was officially starting. The first ten people to arrive were lined up and sent into the corridor which contained the rooms having the different stations.

Station#1: My first station was the rest station, where I spent my first seven minutes sitting in the corridor.

Station#2: "You are holding interviews for a job position and one of the applicants says that due to his father's ill health, he was unable to complete the application in time. He is now asking for an interview. What would you do?"

Station#3: "You had an argument with one of your classmates. Your teacher has divided the class into groups and both of you are in the same group. You want the groups to be changed. Request your teacher for this"

Station#4: "What qualities should a good doctor have? Relate an incident which shows that you possess this quality"

Station#5: "You run a tertiary government hospital which is supposed to provide free medication. However, you have a shortage and patients have to end up paying themselves. What would you do?

Station#6: "You were exiting a car parking when you hit the car next to you and break something. The security guard sees and informs you that it is Doctor Y's car and he has been told of this incident. Call Doctor Y and tell him what happened"

Station#7: This was a rest station. I sat down in the corridor again.

Station#8: "You are a drug addict and you really want to get admission into a college. The college is conducting screening tests. What would you do?"

Station#9: "Here is a table of a survey conducted by an ice cream company who wants to launch a new flavor. Look at the data and explain which flavor they should launch"

Station#10: "Why do you want to be a doctor?"

The result will be out on the first of November. I'll repost these questions and share my answers and responses then xD. Have a nice day ^^

TBC 2014 Birthday Tag!

Click on the button to see the original post for rules and requirements.

What made you decide to take up blogging and what inspires you to write till today?
Well, I started blogging after my friend Kashaf introduced me to Blogger. We made a joint blog and it's still here, but we've stopped posting on it that much. After that, I made two or three blogs before finally settling on this current one. I've invested too much here to scrap this blog- especially after working on it for two years and having Morning design it for me. As for my current writing inspiration, it's my readers! I'd write whatever I want whenever I want, but it's seeing your views and comments that makes me put in extra effort and more creativity. Thank you!

How did you find and register on TBC? Did you find it helpful and worth recommending to others?
It took me a long time to find TBC. I remember finding Maine's blog by myself and I loved her style and content so I thought "why not follow some more teenage bloggers?". I combed through several posts and several comments before finding Teenage Blogger Central- and let me tell you that this site is definitely worth it. I joined in May and ever since then, I've followed a lot of blogs, read a variety of content and made my own blogging buddies here and there (: TBC is #KanraApproved!

What awesome blogs have you found through TBC? Link them up!

1. Picking up the pieces
2. Sunsets and Sundays
3. The Fence of Stars
4. Smiles No Matter
5. Good Morning, Morning
6. A Little Yarn Blossom
7. Feed Me Books Now

Seven is okay, right *-* 

What do you liked best when you connect to bloggers your age?

I like finding how everyone has different perspectives about different things. Bloggers are like those strangers walking down the street- except you can tap into their brains and see what they're doing and if you like them, you can just follow and be permanently tapped in. Freaky? Try it out xD

What do you hope to achieve through your blog?

A personal record of my life that I can turn into an autobiography easily if I get famous B)

How do you say "Happy Birthday Teenage Blogger Central!" in your language?

Saalgirah Mubarak, Teenage Blogger Central! (I have no idea what Blogger or Central would be in Urdu. I also think Teenage would have to be translated into something along the lines of youth or young people)

*Other Updates*
I'm going to finally post the third and last part of The Ideal Blogger Series next week-ish.
I have another medical college interview on Wednesday.
I've signed up for helping out at a teaching program for the duration of next week.
I think that's all for now (:

Picture Perfect Memories #2

Picture Perfect Memories is a monthly meme hosted by Envy at Picking Up the Pieces. I thought this was super interesting to do and now, I've finally decided to do it. Basically, you just share a picture or two that are associated with a share-worthy memory and the best part is, you don't even have to be in the picture! (how cool is that omg xD)

LET ME EXPLAIN FIRST

Weddings are a really big affair in almost every culture- Pakistan isn't an exception. This is an event which excites people from every single age and class because weddings mean shiny new clothes, jewelry, big get-to-gathers, food and excitement in the air. Well, my family hadn't attended a wedding for quite a few months so all my little cousins decided to have a wedding of their own- with dolls.

From Left to Right --> Bride's sister, Bride, Groom, Groom's sister.

It was a full-fledged affair, I tell you. There was a four foot tall mother-in-law fussing with the bride's mother (bth of the moms were sisters, btw) and people bringing gifts for the couple (usurped by the little mommies again) and then all the traditional customs being carried out- including a marriage document being signed .__. (Gudda and Gurya respectively)

My favorite one is the part where the bride's family steals the groom's shoe and the poor guy has to sit down and haggle with his in-laws over the price for getting his shoes back. This part was taken over by the older cousins and there was a whole play about it- where the bride is like "Give him his shoe back!" and the groom is like "I'm just a doll! I don't have any money!" and the bride's sister is like "Pay up 2000 rupees or your shoes will never see the light of day!"

After all that festivity, it was decided that the bride would have to be handed over to her inlaws (or, in the care of the elder sister) but the bride's mom (younger sister) didn't like this one bit and spirited the bride away to give her a bath and wash her up- which of course, ruined all the care taken into making sure the bride was spic and span for her wedding. This caused a great uproar between the elder sister and the younger sister and the mother of both (my aunt) had to resolve this issue.

This was literally, a one of a kind wedding and it was absolutely hilarious. I loved this memory, and that's why I decided to share it with you (: