Rukhsana Khan's Blog, page 13

Keeping things in Perspective…

Just deleted my first hate mail/comment just now.

It feels so weird to think that someone would be so irate that he’d take the time and energy to leave a hate-filled comment on a blog like mine.

In a way though, I kind of see it as a bit of a triumph.

What did Gandhi say? First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win.

So when you start getting attacked/made fun of, it means you’re entering a new phase of the game. They can’t afford to just ignore you any more.

It reminds me of how I felt when I debated this anti-Muslim ‘Muslim’ a while back. I was invited onto a TV show to respond to her accusations about Islam. And just sitting out in the waiting room, waiting to enter the studio I realized that with the way things are going, these kinds of attacks on Islam are going to become more frequent. And it’s not like in years past where white ‘Orientalists’ would do the attacking. People are savvy. They’d get other Muslims to do it for them. They’d prop them up and promote the bejeezus out of them and attack Islam left right and centre, and that’s precisely what’s happening.

And up till now they were ignoring me too.

I’ve had a few incidents. Nothing much yet, alhamdu lillah, and they’ve all been unnerving but very very educational.

And whenever it happens I’m always kind of naively shocked that these people attacking me, don’t like me! LOL

And I remind myself over and over again, “Get over yourself honey, NOT everyone is going to like you!”

Even though another part of me replies, “But why not? I’m a nice person!”

LOL

Oh well. What can you do.

I submitted some proposals for a conference coming up in the States. And I finally got my paperwork ready for my trip to Pakistan.

I had to ask myself, “Wait a minute! How many authors these days are lucky enough to be getting invited to international conferences, and getting paid for it!!!” I really am fortunate alhamdu lillah.

And I was chatting with a friend in America and she was saying how some Muslim editor she’d been talking to admired my work and I asked, wow, she knew about me? And my friend said I shouldn’t be so humble. That I was the first ‘real’ Muslim author and she’d admired my work for so long.

And I thought okay, wow.

Sometimes you’re so deep in the trenches just trying to work out the hiccups in your next project that you don’t see that hey, things are pretty good! Masha Allah.

Perspective.

 

Impact…

Some times you’re so busy just trying to write the next book that you forget that your work is out there in the world.

Someone might be reading it even as I’m writing this and it’s having an impact. Insha Allah it’s having an impact.

It’s not like I haven’t received fan mail over the years.

And I often receive it at a time when I’m feeling low, my confidence isn’t at its best.

But this time was special.

I had just begun a new novel, and it wasn’t going well. I kept getting stuck, which usually means I’m not coming at it from the right angle.

So I was writing bits and pieces that I thought were quite good and then reaching dead ends, when I received a lovely email from a mother of four children.

And she told me how much my book Muslim Child had impacted her children who were mostly grown up by now.

And then she sent me a video link of her daughter doing a TED talk for a private affiliated group. I guess TED talks have a new category where private groups can use the format or something.

But her daughter had quoted from Muslim Child for her TED talk, and boy was she ever cute! The video brought tears to my eyes.

This is such an up and down biz.

I also got news that I received my visa for Pakistan so the trip is definitely on insha Allah. I’ll be keynoting the Children’s Literature Festival in Karachi and also going up to Islamabad in the second half of February. I’d received a travel grant from the Canada Arts Council for the trip and the locals will be covering my ground expenses.

So everything is good!

Here’s the video of the girl Maryam Elassar. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

 

“I’ll forgive you Donald Trump…”

“…if you forgive me ISIS.”

This is a sentence I wrote to a friend of mine Brent Olsen (a former pig farmer) who I’ve known for decades, and who, out of the blue, emailed me on New Year’s Eve to wish me a happy New Year. He’d been reading one of my books, not sure which one, to his grandkids and just got the urge to reach out to me, and boy was I delighted.

He said he felt extremely embarrassed about Donald Trump and he actually apologized for him.

While reading those words, I laughed out loud!

I decided a while back that I would no longer apologize for the actions of crazy Muslims. And Americans sure as heck don’t need to apologize for Trump!

Our actions are our own, we are not responsible even for what our parents or children do.

And that is a good thing.

Spent all day reminiscing over 2015.

It was such a difficult year, I’m really hoping this year will be better.

And as the years add up, they go faster and faster, whoosh!

Insha Allah this year I’ll have time to actually get some writing done. It will be interesting, if nothing else.

And I’m finding these themes are making their way into the words I’m writing.

But I do warn whoever might be reading this, that as the writing gets better, the blogging gets worse. It seems there’s only so many words I have, so much creative output allowed.

I spent New Year’s Eve finishing up a fascinating series on Netflix called Making a Murderer. I thought it would delve into the psychological evolution of a person inclining to crime. Instead it turned out to be an addictive documentary series about how this poor bloke in Wisconsin got railroaded by local police not once but twice, and it was surreal to think Steven Avery, who’s about my age, spent 28 out of his 53 years of life inside a prison for crimes he didn’t commit.

Basically a real life version of Les Miserables, where law enforcement kept hounding him.

Depressing.

But strangely satisfying at the same time.

I think we live in a time when the authorities have gotten drunk with power. They’re using the little man as their personal toilet to dump all over.

So sad.

God tests people according to what they can bear.

And on that cheerful note… I’m off.

Good writing in 2016!

And remember, just because the world is going to pot, doesn’t mean you have to be.

“Wanting to have written”

I read an interesting article about the creative process recently.

I’m always curious about other people’s processes, comparing them to my own, trying to imagine how they came up with an idea and then how they developed it so the story was properly executed.

So I came across this article written by a person charging an exorbitant amount for a book on the creative process. Not surprisingly the book went out of print quickly but the crux of the advice was around the idea that many writers are guilty of ‘wanting to have written’, not actually wanting to write.

They tense up too much.

And they don’t apply the discipline of ‘butt in chair’.

Even if they preach it to others. And I thought, “ooh, I’m guilty of that!”

During the residency workshops I told this aspiring author to just keep writing, don’t go back and edit. Finish. Give yourself permission to write a really lousy first draft and yet what do I find myself doing?

Thinking about themes and where the story is going even before the story is fully fleshed out!

And it’s so true, I want to have written! I want to have gotten that moment where something unexpected happens in what you’re writing and you think, “Wow!” but I don’t necessarily want to be doing the work to write it!

Silly, silly, silly!

Recently I was telling a good friend who’s finding it hard to fit regular writing into her busy schedule, “Ah, that’s because you’re realizing it’s work!”

Ha, ha. I felt so superior when I said that!

All during the residency I was so busy with workshops I didn’t have time or energy to write. And yet now, that my schedule has opened up somewhat, I just feel like farting around!

But no, I started a project, especially since I wasn’t blessed with another residency grant for next year, and I thought what better time to write? So I’m busy with that! But oh, it’s hard.

I want to have written!

But never mind. I’m not complaining.

Just finished a couple of pages that seem to be working, and it feels real good!

Alhamdu lillah!

I keep telling the critic at the back of my mind, I’m not trying to write a masterpiece! I’m not trying to write a masterpiece! I’m just having a little fun. And it’s worked. He’s quieted down for now.

Rocking back and forth in the perpetual rocking chair, squinting at me suspiciously from that dim corner of my mind.

While I play with words.

That’s all.

;o)

When the kids surprise you…

I really wasn’t planning on blogging again about the Downsview Public Library residency, but after what happened yesterday, the last day of the residency, I simply can’t resist.

I did the last two workshops with the kids yesterday. At 1 pm, we did the writing workshop. I’d begun with an imaginative scenario that the kids basically brainstormed under my guidance into a nifty little story. Yesterday we did the conclusion of it.

Oh it was fun!

And the kids were yelling out suggestions, and two of the parents were sitting on the side, just watching, and smiling, I think, though I didn’t really look over at them. But you know how you get the ‘feeling’ that someone in the room is smiling? Well yeah, that.

And then at 2 pm, we began the finale of the public speaking workshops, it was the COMPETITION!

I always like to end the children’s public speaking workshop with a competition. Because all this time that they’ve been learning the skills I’ve been teaching, they need to enact them within a scenario that actually does have some pressure involved. There needs to be something at stake.

What was at stake was a prize for the best speaker. They could choose any of my books. (I had previously offered them a choice between books and candy and they’d opted for having one of my books as a prize.)

In the end though I did buy some candy as well, as sort of consolation prizes, just for participating.

Well did I mention that at the beginning of the workshops there were a couple of girls in particular who were painfully shy!

I’m not talking about the one who was dragged in there by her mom and eventually asked to come on her own. These were two girls who were brought by their parents and both of them wrote me testimonials saying how public speaking would make them cry (one of them said the mere thought of having to give a speech would make her cry for days!!!).

I always mark the children on three aspects of their presentation. First is the story. Did they choose a good story that was appealing, that made sense and was fun to listen to? Second is technique. How did they tell the story? Did they incorporate the techniques I’d taught them? Had they been engaging? And thirdly is how good an audience they were being when the others were telling their story. Are they listening respectfully? Each is of equal weight and I always tell them the easiest marks to get are for listening!

Guess who won???

I had originally vowed to have only one winner, but the problem was in terms of marks, three of the girls were tied with perfect scores. I really couldn’t find anything sufficiently wrong with anything they did to deduct any marks! (And I’m not the kind of anal sort who won’t give a perfect score!) I also can’t help but take into consideration where the kids were when we began the process. So there it was between three girls.

And then I did something kind of interesting. I asked the audience who they thought won, and sure enough it was unanimous, one of the shyest girls I just mentioned won, the same girl I was leaning towards. They all thought so. She was just a titch better than the other two, even though they all had perfect scores.

And because the other two with the perfect scores were honest enough to put their hands up in unison to say that the shy girl had won, I thought I just had to let them choose a book too!

So long and the short of it is, that two of the shyest girls were among the winners!

Wow!

It’s so humbling and amazing to see such a phenomenon! I never would have pegged either of them to have improved so much!

And I told them so. Basically I told both of them, “… I am so proud of the way you’ve improved! Look at you! Good job!”

And you should have seen the way they smiled.

They practically preened!

And then it was a total surprise because one of the mothers of one of the kids in the program gave me such a lovely gift! And two beautiful cards thanking me for helping her son and wishing me a wonderful holiday season.

Subhan Allah!

 

It’s the last week of the residency…

And I’m already feeling nostalgic.

I’ve come to know so many of the people, the kids, the teens, the adults, the seniors. In each program there are a few people that have really stood out!

I look at the progress I’ve seen in the teenagers from the time they first started the public speaking program. I wonder if some teachers observing my techniques would have been shocked at the way I spoke to them. Bluntness, honesty, but praise too, when they had genuinely earned it.

When one of the teens was giving a powerpoint presentation he kept waving his arms after making each statement and when he was done, I asked the other two teens, who were part of the audience to give him critique. We always start by saying something they’re doing well. Sometimes that’s hard. ;p

But this time the teens said he was nice and loud. It was easy to hear him. And then, yup, one of them honed in on the hand motions. He said they were distracting. I asked the boy bluntly, why he was ‘flailing his arms around like that’? And he laughed, good naturedly. He knew intrinsically that I wasn’t insulting him. I was trying to help him.

And then I demonstrated what it looked like and he laughed again, he got my point. They’ve all learned so well that if they fiddle with their hands, if they sway side to side, if they tap their toes, all these things distract from what they’re trying to say. The audience will focus on their hands, or the way they’re swaying or the tapping of the toes. They need to guard their actions. They got it!

And then both he and the girl gave me testimonials, and in his he said how he’d taken other public speaking courses but mine was the best. He’d actually have paid to attend it. And that I’d helped him improve a lot. And the girl, oh my goodness, when she first came, she could barely speak loud enough to tell a story, she was so shy. But by the end she was vastly improved! And she said in her testimonial that I’d helped her more than I could know.

It really warms my heart.

And then there’s the lady who always dreamed of writing, who said I inspired her to go for it! When I was supposed to end the adult writing workshop sessions, I didn’t have the heart because darn it, I wanted to hear what she wrote next! So we continued the sessions!

I will miss her!

And the lady who was writing about the time she took a bus to Vancouver when she was 19.

And the seniors with their memoirs and their fascinating stories! So spirited! We explored the themes and patterns in their lives!

And the newcomers, teaching them how to manipulate the inflection in their voices so as to come across with more authority.

I’ll wrap up the residency on Saturday December 5th with a storytelling concert at 11 am and then the kids’ writing and public speaking workshops.

And those kids! Oh the fun we had with story creating!

In the past few sessions I took my oldest granddaughter.

I told a pretty funny story at the end of the session, to demonstrate something or another, and when I asked her how I did she said, “Well…you did make a couple of mistakes!”

Omigosh! She actually noticed where I’d stumbled on a word or two!

It was nothing! I swear it was nothing! The average audience wouldn’t even have noticed but she did.

Ha!

I created a monster!

LOL

Don’t play the race card!

Don’t go there! Even when it’s pretty obvious that there’s racial bias involved.

Even when you’ve done a particular presentation hundreds of times, with no complaints, and this one teacher decides to get a bee in her bonnet and take offense to one particular sentence in an hour’s presentation because she probably can’t find anything else wrong with it but it makes her feel uncomfortable that you’re telling stories in a way that makes Muslims look too human–too relate-able.

It’s like they want you to be good–but not TOO good!

God preserve me from malicious ‘liberal-minded’ people! I much prefer OPEN AND HONEST bigotry! At least you know where you stand and they don’t try to insinuate the dagger in between your ribs, they stab at you openly and you can block it with your arm.

And when she is rude to you after the presentation, in front of her students but not in front of any teachers who could bear witness and decides to mischaracterize your entire presentation and attribute words to you that you never said DO NOT  lose your temper and call her on her sneaky and conniving nature! Don’t refer to her as a ‘fly in the ointment’ even though it’s such a funny term and that’s exactly what she is.

It’s a ‘he said, she said’ situation and don’t you know that the white person will always have the most credibility because hey, us darkies are sensitive don’tchaknow??? We’re easily offended. Prickly. And we like to play the race card!

No wonder white people would rather only hire other white people. Then they don’t have to deal with any of this nonsense.

What you should do is collect as much data as you can to show that she’s completely wrong. That all the other schools where you did THE EXACT SAME PRESENTATION not only loved the said presentation but found it completely appropriate for the exact same age group that she’s objecting to.

Don’t worry. Most people will see that this one black mark does NOT reflect on your integrity or your competence–that same integrity that you guard so diligently!

And chalk the entire incident down to experience.

Know that in this day and age racism is not gone. It is only underground. And people will not openly vilify you because of your color or your creed, they won’t dare. Instead they will find something else. Something minuscule that even if it’s not offensive in and of itself, they will twist it and turn it, and repackage it, making up what they have to, in order to paint you in the worst light possible because they don’t like who and what you are. And they will sound oh so reasonable in the process.

You need to expect this.

The more successful you become, the more you can guarantee this will happen.

Toss these people to the wayside. Do not even think of them. Do not let them take up space in your head.

But at the same time, don’t forget the lesson.

They’re out there.

Be warned.

Ahhh–who am I kidding???

I probably should regret blasting her in that email. I was told I should not have put the words on a page, and that’s probably true.

But somehow, I don’t regret it.

If it stops her from doing this to another immigrant she thinks she can easily bully, then maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Let the chips fall where they may.

I’ll live with the consequences.

 

What a week!

I had been dreading this week! Six days, non-stop. Not easy.

I’m still processing it.

On Monday I visited a small town outside Toronto. No Muslims in the school that I could see, only one or two brown kids! Part of me wondered if they’d cancel, considering the devastating attacks in Paris the Friday before. The world was still reeling from them. But no, they didn’t cancel, and I resisted the urge to apologize for anything because why should I? They have nothing to do with me, just like the brutalities of Abu Ghraib have nothing to do with average white people and they don’t feel the need to apologize! So why should I?

Yeah, yeah, it’s a sensitive subject and I dealt with it in my little book published by Pearson Educational called Not Guilty.

Anyway, it was while in the staff room, having a cup of coffee that one of the teachers started talking about the Paris attacks, and how the students were scheduled to go on a trip to Paris in April some time and it should be okay by then, and then she glanced over at me, like she was acknowledging the presence of ‘one of the enemy’ and I felt SO uncomfortable. Then she looked away, and continued talking and that was it. I’m sure the other people didn’t even notice. And there was nothing for me to say. She didn’t SAY anything. And with all the attacks on Muslims happening, I thought hey, if this is the worse I get, I’ll count myself lucky.

And I thought of it from her perspective, and I couldn’t even blame her that much. Why wouldn’t she be scared of me? And then I found it depressing.

Because this is the kind of crap I have to face every single day.

And then on Wednesday night I went to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre TD Awards gala, and it was the usual, crowded space filled with authors and illustrators and bankers funding the award, schmoozing and drinking wine and beer and other nonsense but the food was good and I hadn’t been for a LONG time! I was wondering how the scene had changed. It was great seeing old acquaintances, and yet unnerving too because everyone looked so much older! (Which shouldn’t have surprised me and yet it did.)

I ended up meeting a LOT of people! One teacher I’d met at one of my favorite schools Wilkinson P.S. even sought me out and we had a lovely conversation! In fact it seemed a lot of people sought me out, touching me on the arm to get my attention and we’d chat about how we were doing!

When the awards part of the evening began I ended up sitting beside an old white guy. What it is it with these old white men that they feel they can just spread themselves out into the next seat, and me trying to avoid physical contact, so I had to scrunch myself up and lean away from him all night? He ended up falling asleep during the ceremonies and his wife or whatever nudged him a couple of times. At least he didn’t snore.

So I was looking at the program and as the faces of all the jurors came up on the screen as each award was being announced, lo and behold I started to notice that ALL the jurors were white! Whitey white white!

Every single one of them!

And then I looked at all the entries, and I could find only three books with non-white characters on the covers, one was a native book and two had black faces and the two black ones were written by white authors!

Only the native book was written by natives, I think. Or I assume.

And I probably would never have noticed this before but this time I did because of the movement #weneeddiversebooks . Guess all the stuff I’ve been reading has sensitized myself to it.

And I thought wow, Canada really needs to get its act together!

And then I started thinking of all the people at the awards. There was diversity! At least fifty people who were non-white in a room full of 600, that’s something! But I mean go into the majority of schools in the big cities and they’re mostly diverse!

But again, it was depressing.

Came home feeling like a loser. And started imagining all the reasons why my agent will reject my newest project.

Sigh.

By the way, the native book didn’t win.

Only white authors did.

And yet, on Thursday afternoon I did my last workshop for the tween public speaking and the little boy who’s been coming regularly asked me to continue to the end of the residency. He said that this workshop was so much fun and he wanted to keep coming! And I told him that I’d already taught him everything I could, it was just down to him practicing. But it did feel good to have a boy tell me how much he enjoyed working with me!

So I guess that’s something.

 

 

Downsview residency cont’d: When a kid offers to pay you…

Last week I did two out of town trips in one week!

I shouldn’t be surprised that I got sick, sick, sick, as a dog!

The first trip was down to Windsor, to one of my favorite schools: Al Hijra Academy. I tried something new, did a workshop on my new book with Pearson Educational called Not Guilty.

The second trip was to keynote an ESL teacher’s conference in Calgary! (One of the participants told the lady who invited me that he could have listened to me for another two hours!).

It’s always hard to develop a new presentation. It’s just so much easier to stick with what’s tried and true. And both trips involved me creating new presentations!

But developing new presentations, or shows, is imperative to growing yourself as well, as an artist.

I did go over some familiar material.

But, and this is probably my tendency to be over critical, or maybe it’s my husband’s critical voice in my head, but I felt like I rambled a bit.

My husband is a very good public speaker in his own right. He does excellent lectures that are full of information that he’s basically compiled from other sources.

But where we differ is that I try to explore and develop original ideas. Stuff that I, myself, might be struggling with, or more likely, conclusions that I’ve come to over the years.

The difficulty lies in trying to figure out the process, how did I come to these conclusions? And then try to replicate the process in the workshops I develop.

Well that’s what the Not Guilty workshop was all about.

I definitely had the kids’ engagement during the whole hour. And afterwards a bunch of kids came up to mob me, which is always a good sign! But I was feeling kind of tentative, and I asked the kids what they thought. Many of them said they loved it! One of the boys even said, “It was mindblowing!”

And I thought, “Good!”

And then I asked the teachers and got some very good feedback on how to improve it. So there’s work to do!

In the second keynote I did at the Calgary conference, I wanted to impress on the teachers the biggest challenges their students, as ELL/ESL learners faced, and one of the things that wouldn’t occur to them, as part of the teaching establishment, is that they, as teachers, need to respect the roles of their students’ parents. And I talked about how I’d seen a very stupid science teacher unintentionally belittle my father.

I remember watching her and my father shaking hands, and thinking it was all wrong. She was very tall, and very gawky, and she did stupid things to try to be ‘innovative’ and get our attention. My parents were at the school because I was graduating and on impulse I had introduced my father to her, and the way she bent over, every so slightly and took my father’s hand, with a stupid condescending look on her face, still makes my blood boil to this day! And the way my father showed respect on his face when she deserved none!!! Well! I thought it should have been the other way around! She should have been honored to meet my father! And that’s what I talked about!

It went over very well. I think perhaps it opened up a different world to the teachers. And there was talk of inviting me back next year.

All in all very successful, but very stressful so that as I boarded the plane to return home last Saturday, I could feel the cold coming on, and I’ve been hacking and sniffling ever since.

And in between those two trips I had two days at the residency.

I have a few very dedicated teens who come to my teen program on Tuesday evenings. They’re each about fifteen years old and they travel a LONG way!

I’ve been doing writing and public speaking workshops for them, and boy, it’s so cute how appreciative they are! And so polite!!!

But the residency is starting to wind down. I can feel it.

And one of the teens, who dreams of being a public speaker one day and raising the profile and challenges of single parenthood (because he has a single mom) has made some incredible breakthroughs. I asked him what was the most important thing he learned from the workshop so far and he said that for his purposes it was more effective to relate personal experience instead of doing a ‘powerpoint’.

I couldn’t agree more!

Last week I actually did my Roses in My Carpets powerpoint for them. I let them see me in action. Mind you, this presentation was developed over seventeen years!

And I’m proud to say that I would pay to watch it!

Tomorrow night I intend to go through and show them the techniques I used, and we’ll discuss why it works.

At the end of the session, that teen says to me, “I discussed it with my mom, and after this workshop is done, we’d like to hire you to tutor me further.”

Well my jaw just about dropped! From everything he told us, his mom works really hard, they don’t have this kind of money to spare! And so I told him the truth, that he couldn’t afford me. And I told him that it wasn’t a good idea. Not when he could get me for free, through the residency. And I have indeed applied again for next year.

Basically what the residency has come down to is really assessing the needs of the people I’m working with. Really figuring out what it is I need to teach them and then doing it in a way that really engages them!

Tomorrow morning I have a workshop with newcomers and I’m going to develop exercises for them to do, to practice their verbal skills. I’ve developed scenarios they might encounter and I will teach them the right inflection and intonation to use so that Canadians will take them seriously. Language is such a huge barrier these newcomers face and it isn’t just about learning to ‘talk’ English. It’s about learning to ‘speak’ English. Two different things!

This residency is such a learning experience even as it’s been physically exhausting!

I’m giving them everything I have!

But forget about writing! I’ll have to wait till it’s all wrapped up.

 

It’s just amazing!

When you see the light go on in the eyes of someone whom you’ve been guiding along on a process!

Today I feel like I had not one, but two breakthroughs!

One of my sessions at Downsview Public library is attended by one boy mostly, who’s been coming pretty darn regularly. When he first began I worried about being able to keep his attention.

Today! I had the idea of getting him to write about his favourite video game or movie character, as if it was him!

Wow!

So he wrote as Michael Jordan, and at first he only wrote one page. And as he read it back to me I started to ask him questions. Try to get him to imagine more details. What about the fans? What would it really feel like to be Michael Jordan and there was only say eight seconds left of the game and your team and the fans were expecting some sort of miracle?

As I teased some more details out of him, he started writing again, and this time, he was so intent, that he finished three pages easily. It was amazing to see this boy who had always been easily distracted, getting so intense in this writing exercise! He wrote for a good solid ten minutes! And at one point I asked if he was done. He answered, “Nope. Not yet.”

I just thought wow!

And then during the adult public speaking program, a very determined lady came by, and I was just amazed at the improvement in her storytelling skills.

She wanted to focus particularly on some issues, but she said that whenever she tried to address these issues with friends and acquaintances they got angry at her. I told her to couch each issue in the form of a story. Some sort of anecdote she’d observed. She’d already been able to do that with the idea that children should be more caring towards their parents! Last week she’d told a very moving story about an old woman and her pig!

I told her she needed to treat the other issues in the same way. Nobody wanted to be lectured. But if you couched what you wanted to say, in a story! Well! Everyone loves a story!

And just seeing the look on her face…

It was priceless!

Can’t wait till next week when she comes back with the stories! Insha Allah!