I, My Slingshot and a Broken Wing

It must be summer; I’m sure of the time. Those were the only times I remember being able to live for an extended time in the embrace of nature. The river runs wild, trees thrive towards the skies, while grass and flowers bloom freely. It was where birds soar to the heavens unmolested, singing their chirpy songs of freedom. 

I must be no older than 9, as I would engage in more enterprising activities during the summer in later years. I shine shoes in the market – call it my regular source of income. Still, when opportunities came along, I would sell fruits on the sidewalk or vend peanuts, cigarettes, candies, and PX (brand of chewing gum) at political rallies. Wherever there was a gathering of people for reasons I couldn't care less, I would engage the crowd in an enterprising way.

Lumbayan-a-Gui is a small village that can be reached by walking less than 2 km from the highway. The unpaved road was always muddy. The village name literally means “where tall grasses blossom.”

The story is long, and I have already outlined its narrative in my book about how we came to live in this village, which has not so many houses. The following narrative happened long after we abandoned the fields of green grasses that blossom to a man’s height, fields of corn, and shrubs of wild sunflowers.

My eldest brother married into the village, prompting him to make it his home. We would come to spend weekends and, in summer, spend a longer time helping him tend to his farm and graze the animals, especially the Philippines' quintessential beast of burden—the water buffalo.

I left my beast to graze, but it was always a stone's throw away in case the animal sauntered to the newly cultivated corn fields. Idling the time away, I would aim my slingshot at any object I fancied that crossed my field of vision, but birds - that would be a dream shot for a budding hunter of my age. It was late afternoon. Birds, many of them, were hopping in short flights between grasses. They were near and far, constantly in motion, hopping, always in flight – a moving target that was hard to hit.

I froze; I thought I hit one. With adrenaline rising, I ran towards my fallen prey, leaping over the grass. I have never been so thrilled in my entire life, at least of what I have lived so far, that moment, something like 8 or 9 years. Anyway, my excitement was indescribable—euphoria would be more appropriate.

The grasses blossomed to about 2 feet in height. It took only a few minutes to find what I thought was my first hunting trophy, but my thrills turned to horror. A tiny bird with a broken wing was caught between the stems of the grasses that I needed to nudge aside. My heart sunk to a halt; I thought my heart skipped a bit from absolute grief. It was moving. It was alive. Gently, I picked it up. Probably in shock, it showed no resistance to my handling. It was so fragile I thought I would hurt it even further by a simple touch. I held it in my palm like I was holding water that would slip off between my fingers. It was the cutest thing I ever had in my hand. Except for the broken wing, I could see no other injuries. If I took it home – I thought, it would certainly die.

Growing at both sides of the country road were wild sunflowers that were so adapted to the climate; they bloomed so wildly beyond human heights and in clusters, creating undergrowth one could actually take shelter under it. Lanao is most probably the Philippines’s wettest province. It is no myth that if you cast the seed of the fruit you eat in your backyard, you will find it growing a few days later.

I waved aside the sunflower’s thick foliage and crept under the shrubs. With so many insects and tiny worms in the undergrowth, my tiny bird would have a better chance to survive without the benefit of flight. The foliage serving as a canopy would also protect it from the elements of nature. I wanted to nourish it back to health, and I knew that only nature could provide the healing.

Every morning, I would wave aside some of the flowers and look in the undergrowth. The bird with the broken wing seemed to be recovering fast, hopping among the Flowers' overgrown branches. On the third day, it wasn’t there. I searched the ground for what I hoped I would not find: a dead bird. I like to believe that, given there was no body of evidence, it fully recovered and took flight to freedom.

The horrific experience was a turning point in my childhood because it would unconsciously define what I would eventually become, an MD. 

https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ

NK

Nishreen: THE GOLDEN GIRL…

For the nth time, I examined the tip of my index finger. It has been deformed by the pen grip following years of writing prescriptions. MDs write as much, if not more, than clerical employees of any office on the planet. Technology, in fact, has made the lives of secretaries and other clerical workers simpler. At the same time, MDs are forever confined to the basics of writing on paper, not to mention record books, reports, and insurance papers to fill out.

Yesterday, I saw more than 30 patients. It is the first time in as many years since I returned to Saudi Arabia that I saw that many patients in a single day, a throwback reminder of my days at the town’s general hospital, where I used to see an average of 50 patients a day. The most significant number I saw in a day was – 280 patients. You’ve got to be a super-doc, but maybe I was in a different era when I was young. With nostalgic fondness, I can recall those days when so many patients would swarm over me, some pulling at my sleeves while others were pulling at my hair; “Doctor, ana aw’wal” (I am the first).

Whenever my colleagues (in the private clinic where I am now) quarrel with our manager/owner, I end up seeing more patients. With the pediatrician having to go on unscheduled leave, 30 patients will be the order of the day in the days to come. In this town, people call me the “Emir of doctors,” and for some, they call me “al Barraka” or “the miracle worker.” Very flattering indeed!

“Nish won the gold again,” my wife’s text reads.

I was unable to absorb what it meant for a moment. I was so busy that it took another hour before I could steal a precious moment to read the rest of the messages. Nishreen would inform me days before she entered any competition for obvious reasons—there is always some amount to pay. The following few texts, however, made it clear that they were at that very moment in a gym in Pasay City where Nishreen won the gold—again.

As a parent, there is no moment sweeter than news of your child or children's triumph in their chosen field, whatever that field of battle might be. We have called Nishreen a lot of lovely names, from a “miracle baby” coming at a time when her mom and I were past our prime, to “angel of joy” to “Kikay” as she starts to interact with her surroundings in a blissfully happy way. The age difference between her and her next sibling is 16 years, meaning her 3 sisters and only brother are all grown-ups; they treated her like a precious gem. It’s no surprise, therefore, that she keeps her siblings always alert on their heels, attending to her every whim.

Her mom, her siblings, and I didn’t demand that she excel in her academics, but she seems to be born with a natural talent that is obviously not your average kind. While still in the process of learning to talk, we demanded that she speak in English just for the heck of it, but amazingly, she adopted it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.  Her kindergarten teachers shied away from her talkativeness because they could not catch up with her English – LOL!

Kids with access to the latest communication gadgets are exposed to accelerated learning. Like Nishreen, they tend to be fast readers when singing on a minus-one sing-along or when they sing along to a YouTube video with lyrics. When they tinker with their myriad of gadgets and play video games, they read and follow instructions that further boost their mental growth.  

Although her first bundle of medals came at the end of her kindergarten, where she delivered the valedictory address at age 5, she got a few more after that when she moved to RG Montessori as an outstanding pupil. Her chase for more medals took a new turn when she joined a karate club where she receives lessons 1-2x/week. She won her first gold medal six weeks into her classes, followed by a silver four weeks later. Before the end of 2013, she won one more gold medal. Yesterday’s gold is her 4^th in less than a year, which began last summer. She is so good at what she does (without really trying) that her club promoted her to skip one belt to a higher level. “Karate” was meant to keep her away from spending too much time with her bundle of electronic gadgets, including an iPad, a PSP, a Samsung Tablet, and a Samsung Galaxy mini, not to mention laptops, around the house.

I hope, though, that her interest in the sport will not affect her academic standing much.

https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ

BUBBLE GANG Valentine's Day Gags 2014

Often times I wonder how these geniuses that create
hilarious gags never runs out of ideas to make people laugh. As a loyal fun of
Bubble Gang long before they even moved from ABS CBN (it wasn’t Bubble Gang
then) to GMA; I can’t remember a single time they repeated the same joke for
laugh. They produce a variety of the same laughable scenes but I don’t remember
an audience complaining of the gang mouthing the same pick-up lines for a
laugh. (6 minutes clip)

'via Blog this'

ELEVATOR CCTV: Cedric kissing Deniece…

If not for the CCTV cameras: Filipinos known for their love and respect for women would very likely sympathize with Deniece. Lucky Vhong; if it has been Deniece words against the playboy Vhong – the public would have taken the side of Deniece and I think that was what Deniece and Cedric were expecting. Vhong; since you did not have time to probably even kiss Deniece – I adivse you to kiss the CCTV cameras that saved your a**

STAR GATE AND THE QUR’AN: key to the secrets of the universe…

I have always said, and I will repeat it, that the Qur’an is the key to the secrets of the universe: time travel, the Big Bang, the origin of life from water, the forever-expanding universe, multi-universes, and other life forms that God scattered throughout the universe. A few days ago, I may have discovered another mind-boggling key to Science’s most puzzling question of our time: dark matter and dark energy, the Qur’an’s “smokeless fire” in which the spirits (Jinn) are made of pure energy. The scientific community refers to it as “dark matter” and “dark energy” because it is invisible and unmeasurable, despite comprising 85% of the universe, which is precisely why Jinn or spirits are neither visible nor catchable. 

Saddam Hussein rebuilt this Temple that allegedly housed the “Star Gate” of the Sumerians. It is for this reason according to conspiracy theories that Bush went to war in Iraq. The Americans allegedly dismantled the machine and shipped it to a secret location in USA.

This one is neither fiction nor the product of conspiracy theories. This is the real “Star Gate” to space and time. This is the cave where a group of youths and their dog where time transported by God 309 lunar years into the future. It is one of the most elaborate stories ever told in the Qur’an.

Although there are many Time-Travel documentaries you can find on you-tube; not many of it does make scientific sense. This one however is exactly what it says it is; unsealed conspiracy that leaves your mind wondering long after it is ended. What if it is true that Bush went to war to snatch away the “Star Gate” (from the Sumerians) that Saddam was about to unlock and what if it is true that USA dismantled and shipped it to USA. What if Hitler invented the time machine the proof of which landed back to Earth 20 years after? The inventor of that machine likewise gave USA the rocket-science technology that spurred the space age.

Qur’an 18:9-26 a group of youths and their dog were TIME TRANSPORTED by God 309 lunar years into the future. It is one of the most elaborate stories ever told in the Qur’an.

Qur’an 2:259 God TIME TRANSPORTED a doubting traveler 100 years into the future with his donkey, food and water.

Arabian Winter / MYSTERY IN THE ARABIAN DESERT

11 February:

Brrr! It’s really cold. I woke up to the end of winter but hey wait; is it the rain of winter or the first sign of its departing. If winter comes, can spring be far behind (Shelly), but why so f**king chilly – no; it’s frigid.

Last night, I kept the heater on. Whenever I switched it off, I would wake up minutes later with the discomfort of chills despite the two layers of blanket and two layers of winter bedtime clothing.

I used to sleep out in the morning to my heart's content, but that seems ages ago, although, well, a few months ago. My duty hour has been changed. If I used to sleep the winter morn till my back aches (my work begins at noon), I have to; this time, respond to my cell phone alarm with the precision of a trained soldier as if my life depended on it, but c’mon; don’t we all, like obedient servants, respond to our gadgets? We; like it or not are slaves to machines big and small that we create. We become programmed robots while our machines become the command posts that guide our everyday lives, dictating everything from bedtime and wake-up times to lunch and dinner. We used to be real humans with brains that organized our lives – not anymore. We cannot even do simple computations without fishing our gadget from either the inside of our pockets or inside of our drawers. One day, the human brain will atrophy due to misuse. If and when ETs invade planet Earth, all they have to do is disrupt our communications, and Earth will be a planet of the apes: ETs will be intelligent monkeys, and we, humans, will be brainless homo-sapiens.

In the Arabian Peninsula; winter is the best time of the year and despite the cold, love it actually – it’s sad to see it go.

I received this 3-minute video in my email. The people nearby were unbothered by doing whatever it was they were doing at the time. Those driving by just kept on driving, while some people were even enjoying the scenery. This video was obviously taken with a cellular phone. To this day, nobody, not even the government, has had a rational explanation of what caused the desert to geyser sand with tremendous force. If I were there, I would have run as far away as I could. The desert could have exploded like a dormant volcano.

THE JINN: Exorcism in Islam

Although Jesus is the New Testament’s top exorcist (there are many others in the Old Testament), the Bible is unclear in the full definition of the spirit.

Every Christian, even those who have not read the Bible, must have at least heard the famous story of Jesus, the exorcist. One of Jesus’ disciples, unable to talk the spirit out of a man’s possessed body, approached the master and told him of his futile attempt to exorcise the man. It turned out that the man was possessed not by a single spirit but by a legion. The spirits told Jesus they needed other bodies to possess if they were to leave the man, so Jesus asked the man’s family to bring a thousand pigs; consequently, according to the famous Bible story, all possessed pigs ran into the sea and drowned. 

Comparatively, Islam has a far more transparent view of man’s invisible enemy. It has, since the dawn of creation, not only tempted man to commit horrific crimes; it has misled humanity to worship all sorts of idols molded from gold, bronze, and silver, idols carved out of wood and rocks. It has misled men to worship the living and the dead, the obvious and the unseen. It has tempted men to worship power, fame, and fortune.

‘Iblis,’ alternatively called the ‘Satan’ in Islam, is no fallen angel. Iblis is favored among the Jinn, whom God created from a smokeless fire, compared to the angels, whom God created from light. Because of his devotion to the creator, God favored Iblis to sit among the angels until he became arrogant. When God commanded the angels and Iblis to bow before Adam, the angels, although they questioned God’s wisdom in creating a being who would spread mischief on Earth, bowed as commanded, but not Iblis. Why will I, created from smokeless fire, bow before man that is created from dirt – Iblis protested. He became God’s competitor ever since.

The Jinn created from smokeless fire (Qur’an) must be pure energy, which surprisingly syncs with the scientific concept of the spirit. Although most scientists don’t believe in its existence, those who do suspect the spirits to be energy, which will explain their invisibility and power to move objects—poltergeists.

The Qur’an’s “smokeless fire” is probably the invisible “dark energy” that scientists now believe is accelerating the expansion of the universe and virtually tearing our world apart.  

One chapter of the Qur’an is devoted to the “Jinn,” God’s creation that lives exactly like humans without a physical body. They worship God, eat, procreate, build families, and like men – some are good while others can be as bad as the beast among men, and yes, they can possess the body of willing humans, and yes, they can be exorcised. They are not entirely invisible to the naked eye, as they can appear to some when they choose. I saw them in broad daylight, always assuming the physique of someone I know, and I heard them laugh and giggle – happy spirits.

And verily, We created mankind from sounding clay of altered smooth mud and the jinn, We created from smokeless fire.

Qur’an 15:26-27

I created Jinn and Mankind only so that they might worship Me.?

Qur'an 51:56

The 3 types of Jinn are as follows:

1 Amir: (Resident Jinn) used to mean that he is one of those who live with people.

2 Satan: Used for a Jinni who is malicious and has become wicked.

3 Ifrit: Used for a Jinni who is stronger and more potent than Satan.

The Deen Show Video…

https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ