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I was away on an overseas business trip from 3 February, and arrived home only last night. Drowned amidst hectic schedule I could, nonetheless, steal a few moments to watch the traffic in Ishtarria. Observing all those wonderful hits from my visitors, particularly from those who made multiple daily visits to my blog, thrilled my heart and wiped out all the exhaustion that I experienced during my trip. While I was away, and precisely two days ago, Ishtarria turned one month old. My wonderful precious baby is growing fast. And I would like to seize this opportunity to thank profoundly all the visitors and particularly those who left their wonderful comments on the pages of my blog. I'd love to see more comments though, as it would make those much appreciated visits registering on my site meter more palpable and pulsing with greater liveliness. I would also like to apologize for the delay in posting that occurred during the last week. Now that I am back to my normal daily routine I ...

Though quite cognizant of my intention of enjoying a six-month minimal gap prior to picking my way ‘cautiously’ in the world of employment, Frieda urged me to apply. She reckoned that the opportunity of working at such a prestigious establishment was not often obtainable and too good to miss. She further spurred me on with the information that she had spread the news among our “group” and they were all keen on applying. ‘So what do you say, lazy bum, would you go for it, or do you want to give some more time to resting?’ She asked teasingly. ‘Sounds interesting’, I replied when she had finished reading the ad to me. ‘When did you say you were going?’ ‘Tomorrow at eleven’. She told me that she had arranged for the girls to gather at her place, and that Sumer was to chauffeur us all in her car Albeit I had to acquire the parental consent first, yet I hung up promising Frieda attendance at her place next morning around ten-thirty. Then in a mood of gaiety, I bespoke a lavish breakfast of ...

It was only two weeks following my graduation, around mid-July, at the climax of the blistery weather in Iraq. ‘General Summer’ was ruthlessly invading the Iraqi soil from north to south, mellowing the proudly hanging clusters on towering date-palm trees, quenching his thirst with the Mesopotamian immortals, the Tigris and Euphrates, shoaling their waters and disgracefully baring their banks, and proclaiming his elemental scorching dominance through the obdurate and relentless bronzing of bodies, thrown into relief by the pale rims emerging from underneath watches, rings, and clothing. I was too deeply immersed the night before in a novel to notice the hour verging upon three. A habitual late night sleeper on holidays and weekends, I would never turn in earlier than two or three in the morning, and therefore woke up only when the sun was amply high in the sky. The long nights went mostly in devouring a book whilst enwrapped in the tranquillity and peacefulness of the deep hours of the ...

While avidly engaged in maintaining their commanding manly posture in the social, cultural and domestic arenas, our society’s stronger sex usually tended to submerge the feelings of the heart, and behaved with reserve rather than with open intimacy towards their other halves. Demonstrations of love and the public display of emotions were disagreeable to the older generations. Affection and tenderness were believed to soften the heart and weaken the whip hand, undermining thereby the social standing of men and imperilling their pre-eminence in the household as well as inviting scorn from their own gender for being less manly. Though conventionally married, my parents turned out, however, to be great lovers. Two lovebirds, whom I hardly ever saw fighting or even upset or angry at each other throughout a whole life together. Mum was an adolescent of only sixteen when she was given in marriage. This was not unusual at the time. Marriage suitors, in fact, were never keen about females beyon...

IRAQ … MESOPOTAMIA … Dawn of civilizations… Reverberating voice from time immemorial that defied demise to remain a living attestation of a great heritage from greater ancestors who bequeathed to the world the first script and the first wheel. Sumer, Babylonia, Nineveh, Ur … names canonized in history’s memory for thousands of years. Homeland of two munificent immortals, the Tigris and Euphrates, as well as being, according to tradition, the land of Abraham, and beyond him, the Eden of Adam and Eve. A land hallowed and no less damned, where one prodigious civilization followed upon another, and one war birthed another. Homeland of the Assyrians , the Sumerians , the Akkadians , and the Chaldeans , yet also a land racked by a notorious totalitarianism unparalleled by any other in recent history. And a hapless nation ruled by a vicious megalomaniac who ‘excelled’ in producing three wars and pulverizing every link to civilization in every side and corner of what used to be a country on...

He’d never done it, even when I was a kid. He was neither hardhearted nor callous. Quite the opposite, as he never tended in nature or character towards violence or cruelty. It was the first time, however, in my entire twenty-nine years that dad slapped me—so hard as to knock me off balance. it was also the last time, and he got my two brothers to promise not to ever coerce me into it: “She’s the flower of this house, and my wish is that she remains so. Take good care of her when I’m gone. Love her always, cherish her and treasure her as much as I do. My soul will never rest in peace if she’s ever forced into a marriage against her will or desire, even if she prefers to remain unmarried for the rest of her life” This was what Auntie Dina unfolded to me two years after my father’s death, providing the clue to the unusual tolerance my household was displaying towards my obdurate refusal of countless marriage suitors. Given his failing heart, Dad somehow sensed his days were numbered. And...

Politics, religion and traditions have been and, perhaps, will remain, at least, for the foreseeable future the major factors impacting upon, shaping and intensely gripping the Middle-Eastern region, and ultimately bearing down momentously upon the lives of its people. Political terrorization, to be precise, was instrumental in granting Saddam utter dominance, thus rendering the Iraqis totally submissive, captive, and incarcerated in a huge metaphorical prison that had been set up by the dictator and the overwhelming fear he had long established. Fear was the repulsive companion that adhered indivisibly to the minds and hearts of the Iraqis irrespective of time or place, and it survived yet notwithstanding the demise of the dictator or the efforts they made to extricate themselves from it. Being Iraqi, I wouldn’t be any different. The dictator has gone, my fears haven’t. The dictator has gone, traditions still exist. The dictator has gone, religion sustains, still, the upper hand. And ...