30 Goals for 30 days of Ramadan

Salam!!!


Ramadan Mubarak!!!

I hope you're having an amazing Ramadan and you're making most of it. As Ramadan is a month of worshiping more ans getting closer to Allah, I thought I should make a list of goals you can accomplish during this month and actually keep doing it during the rest of the years. Here we go!

1. Fast (as long as you're fit to)

2. Pray Salah

3. Pray taraweeh

4. Pray tahajjud

5. Pray voluntary prayers (nawafil)

6. Read Qur'an (hopefully finish it at least once)

7. Hijab/cover

8. Learn hadith

9. Give to charity

10. Help/volunteer in charity

11. Help other people

12. Call family/friends to know how they're doing

13. Be nice/polite to people

14. Invite people for iftar

15. Give iftar to neighbours

16. Attend iftar dawahs

17. Meditate and relax

18. Make dua for family, friends and people around the World who are suffering (Ummah)

19. Ask for forgiveness to Allah and others

20. Do not badmouth people (geebat)

21. Spend your time wisely (less entertainment and social media)

22. Eat healthy (please not pakoras)

23. Do things with a good intention

24. Eat Suhoor (at least a couple of dates, a glass of milk or some nuts)

25. Take plenty of water during eating times

26. Stay rested and calm

27. Forgive and Forget

28. Visit mosque for prayers (if possible)

29. Celebrate Eid Ul-Fitr responsibly  and properly at the end of Ramadan

30. Follow these goals for the rest of the year and not only during Ramadan

Hope you enjoyed it. I kept it short because I know it is a chore to read big amounts of text in such state and will try to keep the posts short through the month. What goals do you have for this holy month?? Let me know below!

Take care

Yours, Nafiza

Basic Food Recipes

Hey!

The other day someone texted in a group chat asking how to make tea. Now, this made me realise that not everyone can cook and I started to feel bad. Fear not, because I am going to list some basic foods and how to make them. If you are someone that can't cook, I am not making fun of you. This is to help you! Think about this, you can surprise your mum by making one of these and you can make it for yourself too.

1. Rice

Basmati:

Take 2 cups of rice grains and wash thoroughly 2-3 times with water. Put 4 cups of water in the rice grains. Put it on the stove in medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes. After 10-15 minutes, check that the rice is soft and cooked. If it is cooked and water has dried off, turn off the stove and cover it. If you have a rice cooker, just put the rice and water and click the "cook" button and done.

Brown (mota chal):

Take 2 cups of rice grains and wash thoroughly 2-3 times with water. Make sure you use a large pot. Fill up the pot with water almost to the top and cook in high heat for 30-40 minutes. Check if the rice is cooked after 30-40 minutes. If cooked, drain the excess water, put the rice back in the pot and put it back in the stove in low heat for 3-4 minutes so excess water is dried. Turn off the stove.

2. Tea/Coffee

Water:

Boil a cup of water. When the water is bubbling, add the tea bag or coffee grains. With tea bag, let it release the colour for 30-40 seconds and turn off the stove and serve with sugar or 1/2 tsp lemon/lime juice if desired. With coffee grains, immediately turn off the stove and serve with sugar if desired.

Milk:

Take a cup of milk and boil it. When the milk is boiled, add the tea bag and let it release its colour for 4-5 minutes. Turn off the stove and serve with sugar if desired. If coffee, then add the coffee grains, dissolve the coffee grains and turn off the stove and serve with sugar if desired.

3. Omelette

Crack an egg in a small bowl. Add a pinch salt and pepper (we add chopped onion and green chillies) and whisk. Turn the stove in medium-high heat. Heat up a pan and add 2 tbsp of oil and heat it up. Add the whisked egg in the heated pan and cook it for 2-3 minutes. Turn the omelette over and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from pan and turn off the stove. Serve!

4. Chapati/Paratha

Take 3 cups of chapati flour (atta) in a bowl (if you are making parathas, add 2-3 tbsp of oil or butter and knead). Add 1-1.5 cups of water. Add the water bit by bit and keep kneading until the dough is soft. Separate the dough into smaller dough balls. Roll them out into thin circles (if you're making parathas, roll them out with a pinch of oil). Heat the pan dry and fry without oil (unless it is paratha, which you should use a bit  of oil or butter when almost done) until cooked. Serve with curry or omelette.


5. Fried chicken

Marinade your chicken in salt, pepper, lemon juice and any spice you may fancy like paprika. Let it rest for a few hours. Crack an egg and whisk. Pour flour in a plate and add salt, paprika and chilli powder and mix together. Coat your chicken pieces with egg and then coat with flour and let it rest. Heat oil to deep fry. Fry the chicken depending on the size of it. Breast pieces should take no more than 10 minutes and drumsticks around 15-20 minutes. Drain excess oil with kitchen tissue. Serve!

6. Jhal muri (spiced Bombay mix)

Chop onions, green chillies, tomatoes and coriander in small pieces. In a big bowl add Bombay mix (chanachur/sanasur), puffed rice (muri), chopped veggies and mustard oil. Mix them together. Serve!

7. Pakora

Grate aubergine, carrot, potato, or any other veggies you may like. Chop onion and green chillies. In a big bowl add the veggies, onion, green chillies, chickpea flour (besan), turmeric powder (haldi) , red chilli powder (lal mirch/moris), cumin powder (jeera), onion-garlic-ginger paste, salt, baking powder and mix. Gradually add cold water and mix until you have a semi-runny batter with the veggies. Heat oil to deep fry. With your hands, scoop out a bit of veggie mix from the batter and carefully drop it in the hot oil. Fry them until golden brown and drain excess oil with kitchen tissue. Serve!

I hope you enjoyed it and it actually helps you. Is there any other food you would like to know how to make it. Let me know in the comments!

Take Care

Yours, Nafiza

When You Are A Guest In A Bengali House

Yo!

If you remember from my post called "When guests come over in a Bengali house", I said and I quote " I will do another post about attending a dawat if someone invites us so stay tuned!" . So, here I am making a follow up post about the same family but this time I am the guest. It is a hassle to be a guest and you will see why. This is what is involved in being a guest:

1. Getting Invited

It has been a while since they came to your house and they call your parents to chat and compliment how amazing it was to see the family and other shenanigans. Not only they call to compliment everything, but they invite you over to their house according to when they can manage it best. Usually it is agreed on a Saturday or Sunday, because obviously work and school.

2. Buying Gifts

It's hard to decide what to get when the lady of the house likes healthy food, has 2 kids and is a typical Bengali. Since she's healthy the choice is a variety of fruits,but that is not as formal. Since she has 2 kids, the choice could be chocolates, crisps and other junk food, but that will only benefit the kids and it is not healthy. Last choice is Indian sweets that almost everyone loves them, and a little bit doesn't harm anyone. So at the end we took Indian sweets and other family members took fruits and junk food.

3. Getting Ready

Not going to lie, it took me 1.5-2 hours to get ready and that was the quickest so far. There are so many things to keep in mind while getting ready when you are a girl. "Shall I wear a long suit or an abaya?" "Is eyeliner a bit too much?" "Urgh the scarf doesn't match the dress!". For guys, they wear a shirt and a pair of jeans and done! Maybe it's just me because my mum takes no more than half an hour.

4. Going To The House

It is a new place so someone (i.e. me in my family) needs to find the way in the GPS or google maps to get there. Not a big deal but when you're in the car, you need to pray that you don't say the wrong turn. If you do, start praying for your soul because the evil stares will start anytime soon... I feel like every time we go to a new house, my dad always drives around the same place 2-3 times because he can't find the door and obviously "my GPS" can't show exactly where the door is. At the end by the grace of the Lord you reach there and they welcome you (if you were back home, you'd be welcomed with flowers and garland or "phool ka mala"), you take your shoes off, get in, seat down, etc.

5. Food

You reach at a time when it is lunchtime or dinner so they will eventually serve the food. The more dishes there are, the longer they will take to serve because they have to heat it up all. Unspoken rule of thumb: Men and children under 15 eat first, then it's the rest of people left. As a sign of respect, a member of the host must seat with the guests otherwise "it doesn't look good". You already have an opinion that the food and their care won't be as good but you are wrong struggle to accept that. Kidding, they treat and serve you so well you can't complain. The dishes won't be like what you are used to eating everyday but it is not bad. "Washing plates". If you are Asian and or at least Bengali then you know that the host cannot allow the guest to wash the plates and as a guest you have to keep insisting to wash your own plate as respect.

6. Chatting

Once the eating and other thing associated with it is done, men will be in a group in a room (living room mostly), women will be in another group in another room (mostly a bedroom) and the kids and other people that do not fit into the men's or women's group in another room.

Now, I am in a stage where I don't fit with women yet because I'm almost 20 and they speak boring stuff and you don't care and they are "doctors of each other". So, naturally I have to be with the kids and I don't fit with them either. I am not lying, it was so awkward because the kids couldn't speak English properly just yet and Bengali was not that perfect either, so they were speaking in Italian among themselves. This leaves me and my brother clueless. The guy tried to ask some questions and so did I but the silence killed. What did I do? Catch up on social media duhh! Some of the kids want to be within themselves but one of the elder hosts will always try to integrate everyone. ¬ ¬

At the end we went to the park. This park:

This is the Ilford War Memorial Gardens. It is really nice and calm, do visit it. It is near Newbury Park Station.

7. Snacks

Normally you get snacks around the evening if you went for lunch. It is either very light or unlikely to get snacks when you go for dinner. You get sweets, fruits, snacks, tea, coffee, etc. Not much of a big deal. Kids get more stuff like chocolates or other junk fried food. Depending how full you are or what state you are in, you will try a little bit of everything. I tried a bit of the Indian sweets and a bit of mango because that is what I prefer after a heavy meal but in very small quantities just to change the taste buds. The snacking only happens if the host is bothered to serve anything else. Very few people in my experience will just get away by serving tea or coffee.

8. Goodbye

This is the most annoying part of the whole process. I am serious, I think I have my dad say "okay let's leave now" at least 3 times and have not moved until probably the last time. Before getting ready to leave, everyone, as in men, women and probably the kids, get together in the living room so everyone has met each other and known each other. They discuss about future meetings and tell the other guests to come over to our house and etc. Everyone says bye to each other before wearing the shoes and coats in addition to some new conversation topics. Again, everyone says bye while wearing them. And again everyone says bye to each other when standing outside the door and finally we leave! It is awkward.


Most of the stuff is awkward as a guest and finally it is over. P.S. afterwards we went to my aunts place to chill and watch the Champions League final.

I hope you liked the part 2 of the other post. Do you want to know what happens in second or third meetings? Let me know! Also, does this happen in your family as well or I'm alone in this? Let me know in the comments below!

Take care

Yours, Nafiza