Category Archives: Cattafi

Shabanu Newscast!

JINDWADDA, 60

Jindwadda Ali Abbasi died yesterday. He died in peace. He died because of a sandstorm in Pakistan, and he died a few days later, because of the effect. We can’t be one hundred percent certain, but Jindwadda was very injured during the sandstorm. It’s a miracle that he even survived. He was found outside, and conscious but asked specifically to be buried in Derawar, but unfortunately, his request couldn’t be fulfilled. Jindwadda died in the night about 10 days after the sandstorm. “I want to die at Derawar” his family remember him saying.

Grandpa fought in the war between Pakistan and Afghanistan. He fought hard for his country, and we will take today to appreciate his hard work in the army, and be sure that his death has been noticed.

INFANT, 0

Auntie’s baby died in the womb from technical issues. He was suffocated by the umbilical cord. “It was another boy,” Her sister says after the death. The midwife who tried to help is Shahzada’s sister, who is a family friend of the Abbasi’s. Shahzada used herbs and powders to help, but unfortunately it was too late to save the baby. According to witnesses, the state of the mother was frightening, for the color in her eyes was not visible. After the death of the baby, Auntie was said to have slept peacefully in a green tunic. The baby was buried, and the birth was never spoken of again. According to family, the mother’s pregnancy was unknown to everyone except possibly the father. Auntie did in fact show signs of pregnancy, such as tiredness, weakness and gaining weight. Shabanu did have suspicions about the pregnancy, but thought it might be rude to mention it.

The mother herself is the spouse of a man who works in a government office and makes a very good salary, and sends her gifts. Her husband, Mr. Abbasi, is away a lot, and most people would even say that she’s lonely, but it brings her to joy the few times that her husband does come home. Mr. Abbasi is the brother of Dalil Abbasi, who is the spouse of Auntie’s sister. She is the mother of two lovely sons, ages three and five who are just starting to learn how to do work on the farm. When Auntie was at the age for marriage, she and her father went into search for a good husband. At first, they were unsuccessful, but after searching for a reasonable amount of time, she finally found her one and only husband. Shabanu, Auntie’s niece says, “Uncle comes several times a year, bringing Auntie gifts-quilts, shawls and brass pots. He brings us vegetables, wheat and lentils.”

Shabanu Blog Posts!

I’m Getting Married!

By Phulan

My family and I are preparing for the wedding. We cook sweets, make dresses for the women, and dye turbans for the men. Shabanu drags me out to the fields with her to cut the grass for fodder. Dadi says “Hamir is different from me like Murad is different from Shabanu. He is wild, like Shabanu is. He loves horses and rides them hard.” pg. 152 I’m not allowed to see Hamir until my wedding day. Dadi says it’s bad luck. I haven’t seen Hamir since my cousins wedding last year. I wonder how much he has changed. Dadi says he is very handsome. He is tall like me. He’s impatient and a dreamer. Shabanu says she likes Hamir less than Murad. The cottage for Hamir and I is almost done. I get to see it tomorrow. I hope it is as beautiful as I see it in my dreams. I’ll tell you about the cottage when I see it, but for know I have to go.

How to make Chapatis

By Phulan

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour

All-purpose flour

Salt

Olive oil

Hot water

Fire

Directions:

Stir the the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour and salt together.

Stir in the olive oil and enough water to make a soft dough that is elastic but not sticky.

Knead the dough until it is smooth.

Now make a fire.

Put the chapatis on something and hold it over the fire.

When the side that is facing the fire has brown spots, flip it over to cook the other side.

Then continue with the remaining dough.

I am going to be getting married soon and I am going to have to make chapatis for my kids and my husband. I wanted to show you this recipe because if you are getting married you are going to have to be able to cook. The recipe is easy to make and most people like

My First Poem Of The Year!

Ice cream

Creamy, Sweet

Licking, melting, dripping

Between my fingers

Yum

Recently in humanities we have been learning about poetry. So far we have learned about Haiku and Cinquain poems. We had some time to write during class and I wrote this poem. It is about ice cream. This was my first poem of the year so I chose an easier topic or something not super duper meaningful. I like this poem because it explains my experience with ice cream. If I could re write my poem I would probably try to make it about a harder or more meaningful topic. It was challenging for me to follow the rules of Cinquain. I broke a rule when I said “between my fingers” because the third line is supposed to have a four or five word phrase, but my poem has a three word phrase. It was easy for me to think of adjectives to describe ice cream because there are so many words that I could’ve used. I picked creamy and sweet because I think those words sums up what I think about ice cream the most.

“Who The Heck Are You?” So Far

We recently started a project called “Who The Heck Are You?”. In the project we are interviewing someone of our choice. After we interview them we have to basically write a piece about them. I chose to do my mom’s boyfriend, Noah because he is an actor. My top five choices of people to do were Noah, my best friend Ella, Lizbeth (from LREI), and Elaine (from LREI). I ending up choosing Noah because I thought that he would probably have to most interesting story.

We starting thinking about what makes a good interview question recently. Now I have a list of questions and I am ready for the interview. These are the questions:

When and why did you move to L.A?
How long did you live in L.A?
Where did you live when you lived in L.A?
Did you feel like you were in a dangerous area or did you feel more comfortable than ever?
Who was your closest friend when you lived in L.A?
What is your favorite memory from L.A?
What was your favorite restaurant in L.A?
Who did you live with in L.A?
How old were you when you moved to L.A?
When did you move to New York?
When you lived in L.A was there someone in your life who was there for you?
Were you an actor when you lived in L.A?
Was it hard to make a living as an actor in L.A?
When did you decide you wanted to act?
What inspired you to act?
If you weren’t an actor what did you do?
Is there someone in Hollywood that you hate?
Who is the worst person you have ever acted with?

We also had to think of a theme for the questions. I chose to focus mostly on when Noah lived in L.A because I have already heard some interesting stories about it and I want to know more. I also added some questions about Noah acting because I think that is very interesting too.

100 Balloons

This is an unfinished piece of creative writing. I worked on it last week and I am very proud of it. I am proud of it because I tried really hard to make it as descriptive as possible. I begun this piece a long time ago when Julia wrote a prompt on the board. I’m pretty sure that the prompt was someone hands you 100 balloons what happens? I started this a long time ago and I started to work on it again in my own time.

It was a normal summer day. I was just walking down the dusty, grey sidewalk. I saw the familiar green and white street sign on the corner. Then I saw him. The man was dressed in a puffy, colorful tutu. He was holding a big bundle of green balloons. They looked like they could make someone float away. We were the only two people on the street. Me and him. Him and me. It was just us. I sped up my pace slightly, but not too much because I didn’t want him to notice. “Hey, you.” the man said. I sped up a little more, hoping he wouldn’t notice. “Hey, you.” he said again. I was trapped. I couldn’t speed up again because the man would just call me again.

I walked over as slowly as I could. I was shaking like an earthquake. When I got over to the man he did a small dance to an original song. It went “It’s free balloon day, free balloon day.” phew, he isn’t a scary man at all. “Um…I don’t really want balloons. Sorry.” The man gave me a long hard stare. Then out of nowhere he grabbed my hand. In that moment I had no idea what to do. I screamed as loud as I possibly could, but it was a humid Sunday morning and everybody was asleep. I tried as hard as could to break away from his strong grip. “Take these balloons or I’ll take you.” he whispered in a scary voice. I thought about my decision for a couple seconds, even though it was obvious what I was going to choose. I held my hand out and closed my eyes. I felt his cold fingers on my hand. I opened my eyes and grabbed the light green strings of the balloons.
He let go of my arm. I felt my blood flow back to my hand. Then something weird happened.

My Arabian Nights Story and Reflection

Revision makes good writing great. Revision is edits that are less mechanics and more description. It is making changes about plot, description, character, setting and other things like that. You can make big and small changes in revision. It takes a longer time than mechanic edits.

During my revisions I changed the story inside the story. I made it more realistic to the time period and place. I also made my sentences more descriptive. My partner didn’t give me edits when everyone else did, but after I remember having to read my un-revised an revised piece. They said that they think that my piece got a lot more description and more realistic.

My Parzival Essay

This is my Parzival essay. We read a book called Parzival. It was about a knight named Parzival. I am really proud of my Parzival essay because it took a while to find all the information I needed, but after I found it all I put it all together and I am really proud of it. I learned that writing essays is a really repetitive process that takes a while, but after it’s done it’s really satisfying. A way I can continue to do my best work in the future is working really hard to find really good evidence.

One of many jobs parents have is to teach their child about life. Their job is to teach their child to be honest, but not rude. Their job is to teach their child about religion, if the family believes in one. In the the book Parzival by Katherine Paterson, the main character’s mom doesn’t teach the main character, Parzival anything. Parzival’s upbringing hindered him in life because he had to waste time learning things he could’ve already known, he could’ve gotten punished for not knowing about religion, and he was too honest to the point where he was rude.

Parzival’s upbringing clearly hindered him in life because he had to waste time learning things he could’ve already known. Parzival had to go learn from prince Gurnemanz because his mother didn’t teach him anything. On page three the book reads “In the ancient days, when Arthur was king of Britain, there lived a boy who had never heard of the great son knights. The only home the boy had ever known was a cottage in the wilderness of Soltane, and the only parent he had ever known was his mother.” On page 32 it says “Prince Gurnemanz also taught him proper manners. He urged him to be humble and discreet among nobility and to be compassionate toward the poor and needy-to hold ladies in high esteem and to temper daring with mercy.” This proves that Parzival’s mom didn’t teach him anything. Since Parzival’s mom didn’t teach him anything, he had to go to Prince Gurnemanz to learn about chivalry. If his mom had taught him he could’ve been doing other things in the time he was learning from prince Gurnemanz. That is one of the reasons why Parzival’s upbringing hindered him.

Parzival’s upbringing hindered him in life because Parzival could’ve gotten punished for not knowing about religion. In Parzival’s time religion was one of the most important things in life. If you didn’t know about religion you could be punished. Parzival is really lucky that he didn’t get punished, but he definitely could’ve because his mom didn’t teach him. On page 8 the books says “‘Fool!’ they cried. ‘Do you want to be killed?’ But the boy was not offended. ‘Tell me,’ he said. ‘Are you the one called God?’” Parzival was almost killed because he thought a few knights were God. If his mom had taught him about religion that wouldn’t have happened. On page 97 the book reads “The old man greeted him in return, but with a rebuke. ‘I see, sir, that you are a knight. Why is it then that you do not observe this holy season? Why in God’s Holy Name, do you ride armed, when you should, indeed be walking barefoot?’” Parzival didn’t know enough about religion. The people he encountered were really nice to him about it, but if a lot of people found out he could get in trouble. Parzival’s upbringing definitely hindered him because of this.

Parzival not knowing anything hindered him in life because Parzival was honest to the point where he was rude. When Parzival went away from home he encountered many people. In the beginning of his journey, before he knew anything, he was very honest. Almost too honest. He was really rude to people. He even stole things. If Parzival’s mother taught him, he wouldn’t be rude. On pages 13 and 14 the book reads“‘And to take a ring from a good lady if the occasion arose.’ The duchess was so frightened she hardly knew how to reply. She begged the stranger to go away and leave her alone. But he took her ring and helped himself to the brooch he found on her gown. Then he began to complain of hunger.” On page 15 the book says “‘This is the knight I loved more than life itself,’ the poor maid said. ‘And now he is mortally wounded.’ ‘He looks mortally dead to me,’ said Parzival.” Parzival was so rude to those two ladies. He misunderstood what his mom told him because she didn’t explain what she was saying, she only told him what to say. Since his mom didn’t explain what she was saying, he stole a ring and a brooch from an innocent lady. Then there was a maid who was depressed because her husband had been really hurt, and Parzival said something really rude to her. If his mom had taught him, he wouldn’t have said something really rude. That is another reason why Parzival’s upbringing hindered him.

Parzival’s upbringing hindered him in life is because he had to waste time learning things he could’ve already known, he could’ve gotten punished for not knowing about religion, and he was too honest to the point where he was rude. If Parzival’s mother taught him about life when he was young, then Parzival wouldn’t have had to spend a lot of his life learning. Parzival also would’ve known not to be too honest. Also there would be no chance of Parzival getting in trouble or hurt for not knowing about religion. It is clear that Parzival’s upbringing hindered him in life.