SURAH MURSALAAT

...coming soon... Insha Allah!

"I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk or your life on a bus or in a car or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul.

People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on a winter's night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've received your test results and they're not so good.

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and them to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone and I meet them for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre, at my job if those other things were not true.

You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are. So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon or found a lump in your breast?

Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around. Take money you would have spent on futility and give it to charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will never be enough.

It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to take for granted the colour of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is so easy to exist instead of to live.

I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the back yard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy.

And think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived."

VACANCY
A Position exists for an Assistant Accountant for a company based in Wadeville. Preferably with a B Comm degree. A minimum of 5 year experience in a similar position.

DUTIES: Preparation of monthly management accounts + Monthly general ledger reconciliation and analysis + Assist in stock control.

JOB COMPETENCIES: Self-motivated with the ability to work independantly + Ability to work within tight deadlines + Excellent reconciliation skills

PLEASE FAX YOUR CV, INCLUDING RELEVANT CERTIFICATES TO 0866271694

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Nicholas Sarkozy, says more troops will be sent to Afghanistan. Sarkozy was addressing the House of Parliamentarians in Britain as part of a two-day state visit.

Clashes between the Mahdi army and US backed Iraqi forces enter its third day today. Several people are in critical condition aftewr fighting along the Green Zone in Baghdad continued.

Morgan Tshangarai will do his best to revamp the country’s ailing economy. Zimbabwe's main opposition leader says he will do his best to revamp the country’s ailing economy.

The number of sexual crimes where children are the perpetrators are increasing. As of September 17 last year, 480 children had been sent to jail for sexual or violent crimes. A further 1 213 children, most of whom were awaiting trial, are in detention.

Unions have called on the government to place a halt on electricity tariff hikes or face protest action. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says government cannot expect the poor to pay such high [prices for electricity.

KEEMA PARATHA
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Dough
4 cups flour - 4 Tbsp thick ghee - +- 1 ¼ Cups cold water - Melted ghee for basting - Flour for dusting.

Sift flour in a mixing bowl. Rub in the ghee. Add water and mix. Knead into a pliable dough. Cover and leave dough for 1 hour. Knead again. Divide into 12 portions. Roll out each thinly into a circle 15cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and fold in half. Brush with ghee, sprinkle with flour and fold again. Fold in from the long ends until you get a 6 cm squares. Dust lightly with flour and roll out into 10cm squares. Place cold filling on each square. Cover with another square and press the edges gently until sealed. Toast on a griddle while basting with ghee until both sides are cooked and crisp.

Filling
500g mince lamb / chicken - 1 tsp crushed ginger - 1 tsp crushed garlic - 2 tsp garam masala - ½ tsp turmeric - 1 tsp crushed green chillies - 2 Tbsp tomato puree - ½ cup mixture of mint and coriander, chopped - Salt to taste.

Simmer mince until moisture has evaporated. Add the remaining ingredients and stir – fry until cooked.

REVEAL NOT YOUR GRIEF
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A merchant, having suffered loss of a thousand dinars, enjoined his son not to reveal it to anyone. The boy said: 'It is thy order and I shall not tell it but thou must inform me of the utility of this proceeding and of the propriety of concealment.' He replied: 'For fear the misfortune would be double; namely, the loss of the money and, secondly, the joy of neighbours at our loss.'

Reveal not thy grief to enemies
Because they will say 'La haul' but rejoice.

[SADI]