World Life Cafe

“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.” ~Jim Rohn Sometimes I feel like I’ve spent the better part of my life chasing after happiness. It always seemed like happiness stayed just a tad bit out of my grasp—somewhere in the future that I could always see, but not quite touch. For instance, when I was a kid, I believed I’d be happy if I got an admission into a good college. In college, I believed that I’d be happy if I got a good job. When I got a job, I believed that I’d be happy if I got a promotion and a raise. And on and on it went. Every time I reached a goal, it seemed like the next goal was where true happiness lay. Sadly, this affected my personal life as well. I thought, “When I find a great guy, I’ll be happy. Wait, to be truly happy, we need to first get married. Being married is great, but we need to have kids to find real joy. Gosh, our baby needs to grow up a little so we can really enjoy being w...

                                  Credits: Britannica Throughout Pakistan, as in most agrarian societies, family organization is strongly patriarchal, and most people live with large extended families, often in the same house or family compound. The eldest male, whether he is the father, grandfather, or paternal uncle, is the family leader and makes all significant decisions regarding the family and its members. Traditionally, a  woman’s  place in society has been secondary to that of men, and she has been restricted to the performance of domestic chores and to fulfilling the role of a dutiful wife and mother. However, in the  Punjab , cotton picking is exclusively a woman’s job, and women may keep the money thus earned for their own purposes. In wealthy peasant and landowner households and in urban middle-class families, the practice of keeping women in seclusion ( purdah ) is s...

                               10 things I dislike about living in England:   1. Everything is very expensive!  2. Surveillance society (Big Brother Britain): CCTV (Britain is the most watched nation in the world!) - ID cards/databases; and a plan to monitor the e-mail, telephone and internet browsing records of every person in Britain.  3. Anti-social behavior (hoodies, yobs).  4. Small houses - no built-in closets and most have no basements. Also, even detached houses are built very close together. If you're lucky, your house might have a utility room for the washing machine and dryer. Most houses don't though so the washing machine is in the kitchen. 5. Congested roads, parking on pavement (sidewalk).  6. Awful customer service.  7. Pervasive drinking culture ("Binge Britain").  8. Litter - everywhere.  9. Separate hot and cold water tap...