When journalism overshadowed the meatballs

25 May 2011 1 Comment

by shazia in Thought of the day

Is it about me, or the story?

I have a bundle of mixed feelings, going through my posts dating back to 2008.

Who is this woman talking about meatballs and tunafish, alternating the posts with life-changing movements? In one post I am teaching people how to make a channa chaat, and the next moment I am defending Marte Michelet? I sure was multi-tasking… layer-thinking.

When too much is happening in your head…can the outcome be good? Are such people even sane?

Well…love my insanity. Even if it is exhausting…

But I am sure there are dozens of lovely people around me who don’t. They are fed up by my world-saving mission.

“Get back to those meatballs, Shazia! For heavens sake…. I want my wife back”. Cant blame him…my husband.

But hey, once a journalist, always a journalist. Its a disease, and I am badly effected. If you know the cure, please feel free to share. Is there a off-switch for the braincells working overtime? The delusional notion that your words and thoughts are saving the world, changing lives?

A lot have changed since my last post. 

I am a journalist now, a good one I believe (who said girls cant brag)…

But journalism has robbed me of my humor. That free-flowing pen. The straighforwardness. I did not weigh and measure my words before putting them down. Now I have to think through everything I write. It has be to short, clear, to the point, humorless, non-personel, not stepping on any toes. Because as a journalist you are supposed to hide your personal opinions in order to preserve your objectivity. It is suffocating. For an expressive person like me.

But I guess my thoughts and pseudo-wisdom is not as important as telling the real story. Journalism is powerful!

Will I post an other recipe? Without being the laughingstock of my journalist-friends and others who don’t know this “soft” side of mine…? I dont know.

Maybe that girly-girl, super-cook Shazia will win over this no-nonsense, no-fun Shazia from time to time.

In the meanwhile… the feminist-Shazia is having a field day with the superbly path breaking feminist book “Uncovered” . 19 muslim women, 19 stories, 19 she-roes.

Three cheers to the fun, crazy, brave, beautiful, smiling, sharp muslim women of Norway.

Maya Angelou: my rolemodel, my inspiration, my beacon…are you seeing this? They are grabbing the world by the lapels…

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.”
— Maya Angelou