Its August 31, 2009 and It is Raining!

The paras below are an excerpt from my personal diary. I wrote it almost a year ago - August 31, 2009, that is. Hope something similar happens this year too. I am posting a few photos that I'd taken that day too. Enjoy! :)

Love the reflection of the roof's red shingles on the wet black grill.

''It is raining and I was reading Muhammad Asad’s autobiography, The Road to Mecca a moment ago when my mind started debating whether to continue with that fantastic piece of literature or to pen down how the rain was temptingly inviting me to join it in it’s dance again and again. At first I thought that I should continue partly because the book really was intriguing and also because I wasn’t a good writer in the first place. However, due to reasons I remember no more, here I am sitting on this chair at the door opening to the balcony right under the small shed, with my laptop safely in my lap and my eyes taking brief tours of the scene beyond the balcony, resting on the screen for sometime and then escaping again.

It is the 6^th of Ramadan and I had fallen asleep an hour or so after my Sehri, my consciousness diverted to senseless dreams. And it was around two in the afternoon when my maid woke me up, partly because she wanted me to see the rain and partly and secretly because she would get a chance to go to the balcony with me. It’s been more than four hours since then and the rain has delighted us all more than it ever has because for the past two months or so the weather had been very desirable with a cloudy sky and pleasant temperature and breeze. But as soon as Ramadan began the sun came out from its vacation. And so the heat affected us multiple times because we are not to drink anything till dusk! And on this fine Sunday morning Allah blesses us with such cool water which has not just cooled our bodies but also given peace to our minds which were worrying about the three more hot and hard fasting weeks ahead.

Hence, with all worry gone with the wind, all heat gone from the house and thirst gone from the tongue the only thing on my mind and senses is the rain and of course the absolute beauty it has brought with it, which I even attempted to capture with my Kodak C713 before I had begun with the book, but in vain for a camera can never capture the wholesome experience a human enjoys – hearing the pitter-patter of the intermittent rain, smelling the refreshing fragrance of wet leaves and sand and feeling the clean wind move right through his tired soul."

Billee-Love

My mom never liked animals of any sort. She, like all other moms is that ultra-clean being who shrieks on just the minutest of dirt particles and can not bare even a couple of objects in a room in disorder...

My dad, one the other hand,  like a typical man, is the adventurous, rough & tough and bold one in the family. Now, although I grew up to be straightforward, independent, etc like my dad, I never developed any taste in animals which my brothers very conveniently inherited from him. The whole the-germs-are-going-to-get-you theory suits my taste very well (that's why I wash my hands more than  a couple of dozen times in a day... potential OCD? probably).

BUT...

Recently my brothers, taking advantage of the favourable situation at our home, turned it into a mini zoo...They adopted that starving neighbourhood cat and bought four ducklings AND one baby FALCON from the animal bazaar near Empress Market in Saddar.

Let me not speak of the ducklings and the Falcon for I shall not be able to stop. Getting to that starving cat is of key importance here... The recently turned into a leopard-resembling-creature that I now lovingly call Billaa (Urdu for 'male cat')evolved from a skeletal, weak little thing to a mota taaza ( fat and healthy ) real Billaa haha!

But the one person who is to be thanked for its whole evolution is my mom... She, Allah knows how, over came her disgust of fur and the dirt (and thereby germs attached to it) that feline animals have and fed the Billaa with Chicken all the time! Yes, because it refused to have roti, milk or even fish beyond a certain quantity, all my mom could do was give him chicken that was not fit for us to be consumed such as long forgotten pieces of frozen chicken or especially bought chicken feet (which are usually used to get chicken stock from).

The Bottom Line...

... is that now, in a conscious attempt to not fear germs and to be more humane towards non-human creatures, I have actually discovered cats to just addoooraablle. Although I admit there are the complete opposite of dogs, meaning they are selfish, attention-seekers, self-obsessed, least bothered to please their masters... However, yet they are just adorable. Its as if Allah has put life into balls of fur haha.. MashaAllah!

And today I befriended two new cats!!! :D I found them in my grandmother's garden. Took me less than five minutes to start patting them withing the first eye-contact... Here's a video and some pictures. You'll definitely enjoy if you are a cat lover! :)

Cleopatra animalofied ... 

This kitten is such a Jaaanuu! She literally played hide-and-seek with me! 

The Cat-eyed pose - by a cat hahaha..

WATCH These Cats in ACTION with meee !! :D

Its my right hand playing with the cats, while the left hand was shooting the show :P

That's all for today! :)

Will it Rain in Karachi Tomorrow?

"Maryam Beta, help me get the clothes off from the clothesline ... I just hung them but seems like its going to pour..."

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" ... and Kiran was telling me that it's going to rain but I don't think so... "

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"Hey! They were just telling in the news that a cyclone's coming our way! I hope IBA shuts down tomorrow, but that's like praying for a miracle..."

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When this part of the year - June, July and August, that is - approaches, one of the things that we look forward most to is... yes, you guessed it right, of course, Rain! 

The bundle of our actions preceding the rain are just so exciting... forecasting it, talking about it, getting excited with the very slightest of cool winds, planning to go to the beach etc... But he feeling of just letting yourself get soaked in the rain through and through has no parallel... Feels like being in some parallel universe in which only we and the madly-high-inducing-rain exist. What never ceases to inspire me and heal my soul is the beauty of such thick rain, that doesn't let you see clearly beyond a few yards and makes the buildings, people, trees and things at a distance seem like a hazy dream, such loud rain that doesn't let you properly hear your own self singing out mad and loud, such rain that makes the earth smell like heaven.

Okay, I think I should stop day dreaming, rather, blog-dreaming already now... :/

Well, today I was on the Shahrah-e-Faisal at about six in the evening and the clouds were all gathering up slowly right above us. Had those clouds followed the normal rule, they would have poured down in half an hour or so. But no, they didn't. They just kept gathering and gathering and making the scene turn from bright blue to grim gray. What? Why didn't they pour? Well, because these clouds were hovering over Karachi, a city that has some kind of repelling force against heavy, almost-about-to-pour-clouds. 

As we moved on, I showed my friend a few drizzled drops on the wind screen and said 'Barking dogs, seldom bite'. Yes, because whenever it rains in Karachi, as long as I remember, it has either happened completely unpredictably or as a continuation of an earlier rain. So, as we drove on it got darker and darker though there was an hour left for sunset.

only if I could go hiking on these clouds...

(click the photo to see an enlarged version)

As I was leaving my home for some work, my Nana had warned me about the impending doom-like cyclone that could accompany rain with it. Acting upon his advice, I grabbed my camera along with me to click away and capture the cruelly mesmerizing beauty of the clouds while enjoying the cool breeze sitting cozily at the window seat.

At the Main University Road

(click the photo to see an enlarged version)

All my way from and back to my home all that happened was the gathering of more and more and more clouds. Seemed like it would rain but it didn't and my hopeful heart asked me, 'Will it rain tomorrow?'... 

Cute Monsters in the Dark Corners of my Room!

She was walking down the dark alley lost in her own thoughts when she saw it. The very sight of it paralyzed her; her fear froze her. She couldn’t advance, she couldn’t retreat. It was as if one slight movement would set that dark vicious creature upon her. But nature had equipped her with defensive tools and she used it unconsciously – out came a glass-shattering shriek. The shriek, what a kind of one it was. It set the stray dogs in the neighbourhood barking in horror, the baby in the house next to the alley crying and one fine young man rescuing our princess from this creature. Our brave hero found the source of terror, gathered the courage to fight and not to ‘flight’ and gave it a go. And the dark creature was gone in one single stamp of his joggers. Well, it was small lizard right, in the middle of the path, so it just died in a blow.

There was another girl One fine day when she one was washing her eaten up dessert’s dish at five in the morning, she felt something jelly-like under her foot. She raised her foot to find an upside-down turned medium sized lizard lying there dead and all she felt like saying was ‘Ew’. Well, the lizard was dead right, nothing more to worry about, right. But then she thought what if it wasn’t dead, so she shook the mat a little and the lizard actually flipped back in the up-side-up position. So, the girl just left it there and went back to her room.

Well, actually this girl was me, yes, me. Oh please, don’t give me that disgusted look. Of course, I know lizards are dirty creatures but I think we see and touch far dirtier and germy things in our day! So what’s so horrible about poor lizzie baby? Are you scared? Ohh, Okay, THEN, I can’t help you sorry!

But hey may you can help yourself. Look at these pictures I have taken of my dear darlings. Well, I don’t really like them, but just because the cruel society discriminates and marginalizes them all the time, I feel pity for them and feel like speaking up for them as this society can really understand the tongues. So here we go: enjoy the photos! They are meant to show you the beautiful side of my loves. Well, yea, the beautiful side :P

This dear maiden was found right behind the door of the room behind mine, in which no one lives. So one day, when I went there to vacation for a while I found this really old, wrinkled lizard wasn't even moving when I was photographing it! Or may be it wasn't old, perhaps, it just sensed some how that taking photographs is not a mean or offending act as throwing chappals or screaming is, something people do when they spot her.

This dark and handsome fella is frowned upon the society because he is a 'naali ka keera' (Urdu for drain's insect) and he wonders quite often in solitude, what his fault is if his Creator has made him that way. He also takes pride in the fact that his race is one of the oldest on this planet and that the fact that they only had become 'naali kay keeras' After naalis came into existence. Before the humans came, his forefathers used to be happy living in the jungles with ants and their other, seemingly less repulsive-looking species of his race, such as the flying cockroach.

Err, this is just a fried fish's head. If you find this weird or scary or spooky or whatever, then you should get your head checked, seriously!

PS : pictures by the author