Who named me? I did!

So I belong to this country Pakistan which is very dear to me but unfortunately, a huge population of this world is just familiar with the negative face of it. Don’t we all have a negative side, don’t we all have flaws? Well we do! And do we like being recognized and known for only this part of ours? Don’t we like to be acknowledged for the good we have? I think we all know the answers.

Getting back to Pakistan, there are people who think that my country is full of conservative people, strict parents who control everything, girls are not given their rights AT ALL, young adults are forced to marry without their consent and sometimes even without seeing each other. I am not going to deny the fact of their existence, but would like to make clear that this happens only in few parts, and few families of the country. But in all other cultures, all the parents are equally liberal, I am afraid not!

I am going to quote my own example to show that how cool brown parents can be! So people think that we are not allowed to make our own choices. Let me tell you what I was even offered to pick a new name for myself had I wished so. Now how many of you named yourselves?Bingo!

Let me give you some further details. When I was born, I was given the name “Iqra”. No doubt a beautiful name with a beautiful meaning that is “Read”. It happened that during those days, it became of the most common names in our neighbourhood and family.

I was almost 5, and preparing to start school. (Ohfor some people starting school at 5 may sound quite late, like these days innocent children are being sent to school at I guess 2 years of age. Well on a lighter note, I suppose my parent were not in a hurry to get rid of me :P ) My dad came to me one day and asked if I would like to change my name. He suggested this name “Saba” which means “Soft morning breeze”. I was a just a child, don’t know why but this name sounded pleasant to me and decided to change my name to Saba. In all my official documentation it is also Saba. There are people who sometime and come and tell me,”Did you know your name used to be Iqra”. My parents say that I am special for I picked my name myself. After all not all kids get such opportunity! 

That tiny thing in the picture is actually me!

Years later I came to know that I had a sister who died few hours after birth and they actually had named her Saba. May be we shared some kind of bond that’s why I preferred this name over my old one.

To some, the introduction to this blog might not seem directly relevant to what I shared later on, I just wanted to share that we are like normal people same as others in the world, we also have healthy family relations, we also enjoy our lives, may be our means are different but not the ends. I am sharing some random pictures from Pakistan which might help understanding what I tried to express.

Photo gallery