Complacency

God Dammit people! Get off your ass and do something about it. If there's something wrong, and you know it DO SOMETHING.

I'm so sick of people just passively taking what comes. Passive is not even the word to describe it, as someone so aptly described a person in a bad situation, "not being passive, but actively doing nothing"

if this describes you, then i say, 'what the hell man?'

ASS-umption

Assumption makes an ass out of u and me. I’ve heard that lame joke so many times. It rings truer today. I on the other side of the teaching desk, and there is so much perspective to be had on both sides.

There are countless situations and relationships where you probably don’t know the whole story. Parents, teachers, bosses, peers, and many others. I interact with people who fall into these categories. What I think I know affects these relationships.

Consciously, I wouldn’t think I knew the whole story, but I think this experience has taken a layer of subconscious ‘ass making’ right off.

Time

I’m still thinking about complaining, more specifically what is everyone complaining about. A big one is not having enough time. For once, I feel like I have so much time, and even more fortunately for me is that I realize it and am not wasting it.

Not unlike many I imagine, work has become little more than a means for me. It’s a means to be here, to be learning about myself and giving me so much time. However difficult or frustrating a day at work can be, I’m still home (and with Zahra!) by 3:30 with the whole day stretching ahead of me. I have more time to be with Zahra, read, think, and do other things that have always been a lesser priority then ever before.

Happy

I don't understand why so many people spend all their time (or what seems like) complaining. Even if there's nothing current to complain about...just bitch and moan on and on about something that in the past or something that might happen in the future.

It's as if they've signed a contract promising to be unhappy...everyone could complain about something if they wanted. Being unhappy is as much a choice as being calm, or being angry, or being...happy.

Community

Jamaat- the simple translation would be community. Chicago is my home, and I like to think I’ll always be a part of the Chicago jamaat.

But here, in Bangkok, I belong to a new jamaat, and this one is markedly different from any I’ve been in before. First it’s not Indian. It’s 3 or 4 generations Thai. The first language here is Thai. The people are Thai. The food is Thai. From it’s inception 120 years ago, this jamaat has flowered in seeming isolation from the global community. There is a translation of the majalis in Thai, and they even pay homage to the royal family of Thailand at each function.

It’s very different, but when you walk in the masjid, it’s still unmistakably Bohra. And though it’s like any other Bohra experience I’ve had before, I’ve gotten a sense of community that I feel should be at the heart of any jamaat.

One difference is that the Amil doesn’t sit on a thakat, many feet off the ground, rather only a few inches at the audience’s level. During Vaas, the Amil asks questions, takes jamaat member’s names…talks to rather than at.

I am a new member and am not privy to many of the unspoken obligations and gossip and history and hierarchy that goes along with being a part of any social or cultural organization which is quite possibly just below the surface. From this distance, however, it feels how a community should…like a family (I know this must be a slight exaggeration, but that’s how I feel right now)

Audience?

When I started writing this, it was for myself. Though over three months, a few people, to my surprise, have told me they read my blog. Reading what I’ve written, my writing has changed from the introspective way it began.

Perhaps three people isn’t actually considered a readership. But, consciously, I want to turn inwards as when I started.