Roti, a pre-industrial food

Roti is a traditional bread which is eaten in Pakistan and India. People from all regions in Pakistan and India eat Roti (aka rotli, phulka, fulka), an unleavened bread. Every household also has it's own Roti recipe.

In the olden days it was very hard to make them, but currently we have a great deal of industries where they make different types of rotis. All you have to do is to go to a grocery store, buy them, microwave them, and serve.

The way of making rotis in the olden days

1. 2 cups flour/whole wheat2.Water3.Salt4. Canola/vegetable oilMaking the Dough1. Add water a little bit at a time while kneading the dough2. Gather the dough into a ball3. Divide the dough in eight parts; roll each into a ball, each ball will be one roti1. Roll out the dough into a 6' disc about 2 nickels thickFrying the Dough1. Heat the griddle2. Place the rolled out dough on the griddle3. Leave it on the griddle for about 45 seconds while sprinkling a little bit of oil4. Flip the dough on the other side, and sprinkle oil5. Flip the bread about 4 times for 45 seconds each to make sure it is well cooked.

Antique object

I have always been fascinating about the antiques. I don’t say that I have a great deal of antique items, but I do have some collection of antiques. One of my favorite antiques I have is the bronze statue of Gladiator. I searched a great deal of antique stores to find some antique object and one day I ended up in a pawn shop and found this statue. I bought the statue and brought it home with me. I cleaned it and put it in the living room. I believe that the statue is very lucky for my life changed ever since I got the statue. It means a lot to me. I have searched about the statue I have and found out that it’s the statue of a soldier who was the protector and life saver of the noble families of Holland. The statue I have is the copy of the actual statue that is in the museum in Holland. The soldier would protect the noble families in the fifteenth century, so I believe that the statue I have has something to do with the good changes that have occurred in my life recently. It’s the best antique object I have ever seen because I’m mentally very attached to it.

Laundry

I woke up at 8 o’ clock in the morning on a Sunday morning to do the laundry. After having my breakfast, I watched TV for about half an hour to watch the news. After watching the TV I went to my room and took all my dirty clothes out of my closet and out them in the laundry basket. I went downstairs in the garage where my washing machine is. I put all my clothes along with the washing powder in the washing machine and then turned machine on until the process was completed or the machine stopped. Then I took all my clothes out of the machine and put them in the dryer for sixty minutes. After the machine stopped, I took my clothes out of the dryer and took them in my room and hung them in my closet. The entire process of the laundry took almost an hour and it wasn’t hard for me at all as my cousin helped me with it.

I have done laundry in Pakistan which was way different from the laundry that we do here. We don’t use machines in Pakistan and everything is done by hands. First, you have to put all the dirty clothes in a bucket and fill it up with water. Then, take clothes out of the bucket and put it in a tub that is half filled up with water and detergent. Rub the clothes with each other and then put all the clothes in the third bucket (used for rinsing) that has clean water in it, so that the soapsuds can get out the clothes. Next, you have to squeeze the water out of the clothes and hang on the cloth lines, in the back yard or outside the house where sun light can dry the clothes.

Camp Primitively

Camping has always been a fantasy for me ever since I was a kid. I never dared enough to fulfill my fantasy because I was scared to leave my house and sleep in open. I am grown up now and I don’t have to keep my fantasy as a dream as I am young and not scared of anything. (That’s what I thought before leaving my house for camping, even though I was very scared). Last Saturday shall remain in my memory for the rest of my life. As on this I realized how beautiful my life and the world are. As far as camping is concerned, I had a great experience of life. I experienced night out camping in my life with my friends. We all acted as seasoned. We already brought wood logs with us, so we started making fire place. After we got done with the fire place, we all started to build the camp. Then, we took out everything out of the car and started barbeque. We all had different jobs to do and then we got busy with keeping this up. After everything got in place we started eating, playing, dancing, singing, and telling each other joke. We all went to sleep in one tent because we all were scared, even though one tent was pretty small for all of us, but we managed because we were very scared. It was very scary for us to sleep in the tent because we were scared of snakes, but it was all fun and one of the unforgettable moments of my life that I can never forget.

Immigrants roots of my family

My uncle, Muhammad Muzaffar Ahmed, migrated to the U.S from Pakistan in 1985. He worked very hard and saved some money to buy his own gas station. It was his first gas station in Tomball. He got lucky and started saving to buy some more gas stations. He bought a great deal of gas stations and then started a food business. He became very rich by the grace of God. His siblings were in Pakistan and were going through a great deal of financial crisis. So he sponsored all of his siblings one by one. It wasn’t hard for family to understand or speak English because they all went to a British school in Pakistan where speaking English was mandatory. The language spoken in our family was “Urdu”. I can speak my language very well and I don’t even have an accent. It’s important for us to know our religion, culture, tradition etc because it’s our identity. I will teach by children in his childhood about our identity by practicing in front of him and making him practice. There a great deal of traditions still practiced in our family. For example, Eid, Bakra Eid, Ramadan, Basant, Holi, Shabba Raat, independence day, etc.

My family's story

My great grand father, Haji Muhammad Turkey, was born in Iran. His father was the captain of a noble tribe. He had seven brothers and he was the youngest kid. His father got sick and was about to die. His mother realized that my great grand father’s brothers might kill him, so she gave him twenty five packets of gold coins and sent him to Hyderabad Deccan, India, on a ship. He landed at the harbor safely, but the problem was his language. Nobody could understand his language as he could only speak Arabic. He stayed at the harbor for few hours until he met a son and father who knew Arabic. My great grand father told them his story and how he ended up in India. They were very nice people, so they took him to their house and gave him a room to stay. After some time they asked him if my grand father had enough money to start a business. He showed them the cold coins that his mom gave him. They helped him a great deal by starting a business with his gold coins. My great grand father had good luck and soon became rich. He got married and had two kids Muhammad Abraham and Muhammad Ahmed. Muhammad Abraham didn’t get married and Muhammad Ahmed was my grand father. Muhammad Ahmed got married to Yaseen Begum and had ten children. They were one of the richest families in India and were very happy, but they couldn’t stay happy for a long time because Hindus and Muslims started fighting for their own land with the British. Britishers had to leave India and give them their own separate lands Pakistan and India. The Muslims had to leave India and go to Pakistan because both the nations started fighting with each other because their religion, customs, traditions, etc were different. They realized that they both were different nations, so my family had to migrate from India to Pakistan for the search of their own land. They had to go through a great deal of problems because Pakistan was like a forest at that time and my family wasn’t used to it. My family struggled and bought their house and started living how they used to live in India. My uncles and aunts got their education in Pakistan and got married in Pakistan. My uncle, Muhammad Muzaffar Ahmed, came to the U.S for a better future because their lives and wealth wasn’t safe in Pakistan. He started a business here and became rich. He sponsored his siblings along with their families and our family moved here.