Let me start by saying, I am a ‘little’ nervous and ‘VERY’ excited at the same time about this blog thingy… and it was totally my bff’s idea that I should blog.. so here I am.. If you are wondering about the name of the blog.. visit the about page.

I was born and brought up in Karachi and now living in Qatar for the last 12 years. Here is my story in short(read ‘Not so’). I am a qualified Software Engineer who loved programming (Once upon a time in Karachi) working for a software house. I got married to a wonderful but verrrrrrryyyy (you can’t even imagine how very) quiet guy and moved to Qatar. I thought I’ll chillax now and enjoy life but little did I know, that after 6 months of staying home I was bored to death! Of course, my husband’s silence was not helping either. So I started working again in a local bank’s IT Department as a System’s Manager…Life was busy (VERY) again. I had major responsibilities and a lot of work pressure, which I loved as I perform well under stress. Life was good once again…

But then another struggle started… We had issues conceiving a baby.. so there came the hospitals, appointments, tests, procedures and endless waiting game in our lives..  and after a long ‘Game of Patience’ (not thrones 😉 )we were pregnant with a baby girl. We were over the moon and my maternal instincts took over my career aspirations. Hence I decided that I want to be a hands-on mother and not rely on nannies and daycares.. and there I took the step… I resigned!! The ‘plan’ was once she is two and starts going to a nursery, I’ll come back to work. I told my boss how I have planned everything and he said to me… “You know my wife said the same when we had our first baby, but then she never went back”. It hit me … but then I quickly shrugged it off… “Nahh, he doesn’t know me, I WILL come back”. My daughter ‘Amna’ is 7 years now and I am writing this blog.

I was so optimistic about the planning that I registered for a PMP (Project Management Professional) Certification Exam. I thought I won’t get the time when the baby comes so let me clear the exam before her birth. And I did!  I got the date for the exam 6 days before my Elective C-section. It was a four-hour exam that I sat through and cleared while Violet kicked the hell out of me… I should have known that she was probably kicking me to get up and leave… “You won’t need this Mama!”

I had a wonderful time with her, I was totally a hands-on mother and enjoyed every moment of it, but 6 months later I started getting depressed of the whole “endless” feed, burp, diaper change, feed, burp, diaper change cycle (I just realized, that I have a contentment span of 6 months – I get bored after that). My husband suggested that I need to do something for ‘myself’ and hence I registered for a Cake Decorating Class on the weekends while he took care of baby Violet. I loved it, it’s a form of Art and Art is my passion… I finally found something to keep myself busy with (other than feed, burp, diaper change routine). To make things even better my best friend from University moved to Qatar. Her superpower is baking and we started a homemade cake business. Life was just Purrrrrfect!

Amna turned 2 and my ex-boss sent me a job offer again. I was once again torn between having this Cake Business ‘fun’ at home, my adorable little toddler and going back to the Corporate world (which btw always gives me a high). The decision was tough but yet again the motherly instinct won and I turned down the offer. Time flies when you are having fun …I was having so much fun chatting, laughing, gossiping with my bestie while working on cake orders.. but as my husband says “You have no contingency planning in your business..” We both got pregnant around the same time and that was the end of the cake business for me.

Then came our second baby Hamza, a very calm baby boy. So calm and such an easy baby that when he was only 3 months old, we found out that we had another one on the way. I panicked!! (Obviously!). And 11 months after Hamza’s birth, we had another baby boy Hassan. I was saved from a lot of embarrassment of having two babies within the same year by only 11 days as Hassan was born on Jan 12 of ” the next year”. Phew! Though, I did have a contingency plan this time. I told my husband if Hassan was coming the same year as Hamza, I would tell people(who didn’t know the inside story) that they are twins (of course, once they start looking almost the same age -Duh!). I had two boys under 1 year of age in my home!

To conquer the chaos we hired a live-in nanny and time flew between a lot of diapers, burps, sleepless nights… My husband (he is great with kids- like unbelievably great!) and I would keep one baby each with us at night. We did DIVIDE and RULE!! I was so busy that career took a backseat (like the last seat on an aeroplane which is like right at the tail). I didn’t have the time to even miss my work life. But now my little one is going to the Nursery 5 days a week, and the other two go to School leaving my mornings free (Yaaaay!!! we did it!). And to add to my empty mornings, my bestie relocated to another country :(.  So the battle of motherhood and career has started again.. and hence the blog.

Well, that’s the shortest I could do. People who know me well would agree. I get this gene from my father who loved telling stories too and we would count how many times we have heard the same story. (People now do that to me too 😛)

Stay tuned to find out where and how have I have been using my Project Management skills since I quit my professional career…