BARAJOU NO KISS MANGA

Barajou no Kiss is a Japanese comic and anime having an alternative name as "Kiss Of the Rose Princess" and has an awsum story and excellent characters.

Most girls are crazy about jewelry, but not Anis Yamamoto. Not since her father gave her a rose choker as a child, claiming it was a protective amulet which would safeguard her from harm; however, if she ever took it off (a feat easier said than done!), she would be afflicted by a “punishment” of some sort. But after a certain incident causes the choker to disappear, she realizes that this punishment her father spoke of might have been a bit more than she bargained for!

Now she is stuck with being the dominion of four knights , who she could summon anytime and who would absolutely obey her any command . What will Anise do, and who will she choose among her rose knights as its in her destiny to end up with one of the knights. The Knights namely....

                                           Mitsuki Kurama (the black rose)

Kaede Higa  (the red rose)

                                 Tenjou Mitsuru (the white rose)  

      

  Asagi Seiren (the blue rose)          

THE FAISAL MOSQUE

 The Faisal Mosque in Islamabad is the largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and one of the largest mosques in the world. Faisal Mosque is conceived as the National Mosque of Pakistan.

The Faisal Mosque is named after the late King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, who supported and financed the project.
The mosque is located in the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad. It is situated at the north end of Faisal Avenue, putting it at the northernmost end of the city and at the foot of Margalla Hills, the westernmost foothills of the Himalayas.

Faisal Mosque has the third largest capacity of accommodating worshippers in its adjoining grounds after the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca, the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina. Each of the Mosque's four minarets are 80 m (260 ft) high (the tallest minarets in South Asia) and measure 10 x 10 m in circumference. The speciality of this mosque is that it lacks the traditional Dome structure that represents basically every mosque in the world.

ISLAM AND TERRORISM

Why are most of the Muslims fundamentalists and terrorists? This question is often hurled at Muslims, either directly or indirectly, during any discussion on religion or world affairs. Muslim stereotypes are perpetuated in every form of the media accompanied by gross misinformation about Islam and Muslims. In fact, such misinformation and false propaganda often leads to discrimination and acts of violence against Muslims. A case in point is the anti-Muslim campaign in the American media following the Oklahoma bomb blast, where the press was quick to declare a ‘Middle Eastern conspiracy’ behind the attack. The culprit was later identified as a soldier from the American Armed Forces.

A fundamentalist is a person who follows and adheres to the fundamentals of the doctrine or theory he is following. I am a fundamentalist Muslim who, by the grace of Allah, knows, follows and strives to practice the fundamentals of Islam. A true Muslim does not shy away from being a fundamentalist. I am proud to be a fundamentalist Muslim because; I know that the fundamentals of Islam are beneficial to humanity and the whole world. There is not a single fundamental of Islam that causes harm or is against the interests of the human race as a whole. Many people harbor misconceptions about Islam and consider several teachings of Islam to be unfair or improper. This is due to insufficient and incorrect knowledge of Islam. If one critically analyzes the teachings of Islam with an open mind, one cannot escape the fact that Islam is full of benefits both at the individual and collective levels.

Today the moment a person uses the word fundamentalist he thinks of a Muslim who is a terrorist.

Islam is derived from the word ‘salaam’ which means peace. It is a religion of peace whose fundamentals teach its followers to maintain and promote peace throughout the world.

Thus every Muslim should be a fundamentalist i.e. he should follow the fundamentals of the Religion of Peace: Islam. He should be a terrorist only towards the antisocial elements in order to promote peace and justice in the society.

CLOUD STRIFE

Cloud Strife is a fictional character introduced in the anime Final Fantasy 7 and is basically the lead character. His original design was created by Final Fantasy VII character designer Tetsuya Nomura. Cloud's appearance is marked by spiky blond hair, striking blue eyes, dark clothing and his Buster Sword, which previously belonged to his friend Zack Fair. Cloud is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai in Japanese. Cloud is a cool and aggressive type of character and is hardly friendly to anyone. But, in interacting with Aerith, (a flower girl) sole survivor of an ancient race, Cloud's character is further expanded upon. 

He shows increased signs of good-natured humor and protectiveness, as opposed to his antagonistic use of sarcasm with Barret (Clouds travelling companion) or comparative coolness to everyone other than Tifa that he has previously spoken with. Aerith, in turn, reciprocates this attitude, offering her assistance to lead Cloud back to Sector 7 and to rescue Tifa in Sector 6, despite Cloud being her bodyguard and the danger present. Aerith also inquires about Cloud's romantic life, and, depending on the player's dialogue choices and actions, could be one of several characters to take Cloud on a "date" at the Golden Saucer, an enormous amusement park, along with Tifa. This love triangle aspect between Cloud, Tifa and Aerith is primarily focused on in the first disc, and at times is used to humorous effect.

HADITH (Sayings of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H))

  The Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) stated that;

"Allah the Almighty is good and accepts only that which is good. Allah has commanded the faithful to do that which he commanded the messengers, and the Almighty has said: "O ye messengers ! Eat of the good things and do right". And Allah the Almighty has said : "O ye who believe! Eat of the good things wherewith We have provided you"
Then he mentioned [the case of] a man who, having journeyed far, is dishevelled and dusty and who spreads out his hands to the sky [saying]: "O Lord! O Lord!" - while his food is unlawful, his drink unlawful, his clothing unlawful, and he is nourished unlawfully, so how can he be answered!"
[Related by Muslim]

On the authority of Abdullah bin Abbas, who said:One day I was behind the Prophet and he said to me: "Young man, I shall teach you some words [of advice]: Be mindful of Allah, and Allah will protect you. Be mindful of Allah, and you will find Him in front of you. If you ask, ask of Allah; if you seek help, seek help of Allah. Know that if the Nation were to gather together to benefit you with anything, it would benefit you only with something that Allah had already prescribed for you, and that if they gather together to harm you with anything, they would harm you only with something Allah had already prescribed for you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried."

PAKISTANI TRADITIONS OF MARRIAGE AND COURTSHIP

There is no tradition of dating in Pakistan. Which I think helps teenagers to avoid a disturbed state of mind by not getting into messy relationships, instead we have arranged marriage system for people there, believe that,

                                                       “Its better to love the one you marry rather marry the one you love”

One thing why we don’t date is that our religion does not allow it. To prevent that schools don’t have co-education but even in some universities, where there is co-education girls and boys always are seen in separate groups and classes.

The responsibility to marry the children resides with parents and usually they choose the perfect match for their kids. Pakistani’s marry their children approximately at the age of 20-26 for girls and for guys until they get a job to support their future wife and kids. Mostly in a married couple women younger in age than men by two or three years, they can be the same age but I have never seen wife being elder than her husband.

 Although a person can choose for himself but he needs his/ her’s parents’ approval. Usually what happens when parents decide that its time to marry their kid is that they start looking for a partner and if they find someone suitable they go to talk to the parents of that person to discuss the matter and try to know more about the person they had chosen. So in the first steps children are not involved. But parents can’t marry without the child’s consent of course and after introducing them to the other partner they ask for their opinion and don’t just impose some one on them.

  Eventually if they find some one on which both parents and child agree on, they decide for the date of marriage. Also the girl and the boy are allowed to meet before marriage but not without an elder.

                    

The marriage ceremony lasts three days in which the night of the first day is kind of the girl’s night called Mehndi. A huge party is held at the brides house where only girls from both bride and grooms side are invited to have fun. They dress up the bride, do henna on each others arms, sing songs and tease the bride.

The next day is called “Baraat” when the groom and his family are supposed to meet the bride and her family in a hotel where food is served while bride and groom sit together on stage where they sign forms and drink milk from the same glass (silly tradition not Islamic). There is also a tradition of exchanging rings but its not necessary. At the end of the ceremony groom is supposed to take the bride to his house. And on the third day bride and groom together are invited to party thrown by groom’s parents where bride’s relatives are also invited. This ceremony is called Waleema.

Due to all those reasons in Pakistan divorce rate is very low, personally I had never heard of one while I Pakistan. Therefore we have strong family system where parents and child live together until the children are married.

MY FAVORITE ANIME CHARACTER

Kuran kaname from Vampire Knight anime is the most handsome and cool (also vampire) anime character.  Vampire Knight is a shoujo manga and a Japanese anime series written by Matsuri Hino. My love for reading mangas led me to read Vampire Knight when I came across it over the summer. Kaname is actually one of the most powerful characters in the series, revealed to be one of the original vampires and founder of the Kuran family. The story is very complicated and the setting is a boarding high school (Cross Academy) in which there are day classes and night classes for humans and vampires respectively. The dorms are situated at a distance from each other to prevent dangerous situations. Yuki is a human girl who is in charge of making sure that the students from both dorms don’t meet so the secret of night class being vampires remains safe and is obsessed with kaname who being the dorm manager of night class sees her occasionally. The reason that I like kaname is that he is wise and polite, he never over reacts and maintains calm posture. He spends most of his time trying to protect Yuki and other humans from vicious vampires which basically is the purpose of the academy. Later Kaname's inexplicable attachment and gentleness to Yuki is finally explained when Kaname awakens her true nature as a pureblood vampire and as his supposed sister. Both Kaname and Yuki had a bloody past which Yuki discovers as the story continues. Vampire knight is ongoing and the characters and drawing of the manga are superb that makes it the best manga I ever read.

                                                        

SCHOOLS IN PAKISTAN

                                    Pakistan is my homeland and I came to the US for the first time about 6 months ago. The difference in culture and educational system surprised me a lot. I remember my first day in school that was two weeks after coming here as a complete shock. I have never been to a co-education school before and the thing that most surprised me was the level of education and discipline.

                                   Institutions in Pakistan up till high school level are never co-ed and always have uniforms and strict discipline. Before coming here when I was in 10^th grade I went to a private school which taught English and Urdu (national language) both from first grade. Science is given the most importance as a subject and curriculum is like totally excluded from school but some schools still have a bit of sports. In Pakistan there are no computers in school, music and drama is something that kids don’t know about at school level. A class consists of 30-35 students and they sit in particular arrangement in rows not just randomly anywhere also students sit in the same class all day while after every period a different subject teacher comes to class to teach her subject. Students stand up as a gesture of respect when the teacher enters the class and sit when they are told to. We are not allowed to enter class or speak in class without the teacher’s permission. There are strict rules for proper uniform and we used to have assembly every morning where we gathered in the grounds before the start of the day to recite Holy Quran, then we are given a golden piece of advise (like a quote) for each day by our Principle (who by the way had so much dignity that students literally were afraid to face him). The assembly lasts about 20 minutes.

                                 School mostly starts at 8:15 and each class is of 45 minutes and there are 8 periods each day. From first to 4^th grade my subjects were English, Urdu and Mathematics. Some schools include social studies and religion or stuff like geography or drawing till middle but we didn’t have any of it as a subject. We read a bit of social studies in English and religion in Urdu and arts in free periods. After 4^th grade we just add science along with the three subjects but even with four subjects it’s pretty tough. Teachers although strict know each student personally.

                                 Students do written assignments and have to cram huge books (creativity is not much involved). Science is pretty advanced and we study things in 7^th grade that I did here in my junior year. From 8^th to 10^th grade we have 8 subjects which are Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Maths, English, Urdu, Islamiat and Pakistan history every year. That’s where we graduate from high school after that we go to 2 year college and than later universities.

                                 Students in Pakistan don’t do jobs of anytime, part time or full time until they graduate from university because parents are responsible to provide for everything their kids need. Frankly it’s not a burden on parents because they can earn a decent living to support their family easily.  So basically all Pakistani students have to do is study till they graduate from university and get a job.