☕️ Animated Hands and Flying Tea: Introducing ISawStories to Saeed

We met at Shahid Zia’s father’s Quran-Khawani services at the Garden Grove masjid. It was a somber occasion, but Shahid offered a beautiful dua for his father. It went far beyond the generic prayers a religious leader might deliver; it was deeply personal, straight from the heart, and well-prepared.

After the dua, dinner was served in the canteen. On my way to grab a cup of tea, Saeed called out from another table and invited me to join him, which I gladly did.

We started by catching up on family, and he mentioned that bhabhi was away visiting her mother. That naturally led us into a conversation about aging and dementia, and I opened up about how that remains one of my personal fears. I told him I was actively developing a web application to archive and preserve my personal life memories. I explained that while it wasn’t fully ready yet, I was hard at work securing the data and establishing clear boundaries around it. I promised him that InshaAllah, the next time we meet, I would be able to give him a proper tour.

We were standing up as I was explaining all of this with full intensity. Completely caught up in the moment, I made a sweeping gesture with my hand—and in a split second, sent his teacup flying right through the air.

I was absolutely horrified. My initial panic was that I had scalded him with hot tea. The tea did spill over him, but the majority of it landed directly on the floor. I offered a dozen genuine apologies on the spot. We both rushed to grab napkins to mop up the floor, but once the mess was cleared, it settled down to a calmer discussion and the last few sentences before we left the spot.

Later, I kept on thinking about it, and in the morning it became another memory. I am sure that it is a moment we will undoubtedly laugh about every single time we talk about this app going forward!