A koonj is a seagull or crane. In Punjabi poetry, the koonj cries in pain because it has strayed from its flock. The image is similar to one in Rumi's poetry: the reed, that sings of separation, the soul that sighs for the One.

teflon, coke, bottled water - & spiritual worlds does nature make families? the frugal FOB we missed you today, ahmed Whoa - what just happened? Move to shabanamir.com/koonj NOW!

I’m moving there! So I waffled and waited about moving to my domain, right. And then it occurred to me that the number of blog entries at both koonj.blogspot.com and koonj.wordpress.com are multiplying. Let’s face it - I am nothing if not prolific. Masha’allah. Okay, I really mean, [Blush], I have no life to speak of. (And AbulJude, [...]

You suspected there was a conspiracy? There! Left to Right: Koonj (Shabana); Akram’s Razor (Svend); Qunoot/Fall of Icarus (Zahir) and Alt-Muslim (Shahed), weaving the muslim Web together. Credits: Shahed’s nifty graphics; Shabana’s camera and idea

I don’t think Chhoti is going to like cooking. Or maybe she doesn’t want me too cook. Everytime I cook, I get this nasty constant poke in my right side. “Stop that, ammi, just stop it, I hate cooking, stop it, stop it, stop it …” It actually hurts. You know that bumper sticker Practice [...]

There’s this woman who works at the cafe where I spend every minute of my life (on my laptop) that I don’t spend at home. She’s very nice, and everyday asks me exactly the same questions. (Note, she’s an immigrant and speaks verry little English). Khadija: “How are you?” me: Alhamdulillah. Then she says, “You okay?” (I suspect [...]

What’s the world coming to?

One thing that bothers me - every V-day, Christmas, wedding season - is how the diamond industry plays upon the connections between gendered consumption, class, status, and romance. I’m proud to say that Svend never gave me anything in diamonds. Allahu akbar! No, I don’t think that’s something to be embarrassed about. Inshallah, if some day [...]

Danya has a really great Judeo-Muslim appropriate Valentine’s Day card. By the way, Svend remembered to bring me a card. I mean, I’m not happy with the commercialization and all that, but when you’ve been married a few years, a card is a nice thing to get, and I still get happy about it. But man - [...]

So I cry at movies. I cried at the end of Monsters, Inc. I cried at the end of Titanic (I am more ashamed of that than Monsters, Inc.) I cried the other day at Evita. No, not when Eva dies. I cried at the sequence where Eva is commanding a crowd of the populace [...]

Please pray that the bank and the law can catch the chor-ka-bacha who fraudulently charged our account with $600+ to some kind of wireless phone business and so we can escape the charge. What terrible timing too.