My Moments # 9

I wanted to write another one in the My Moments series before the university started. Today I will wrap up Kharian and move on. We spent 4 amazing years there. No wonder I remember so much.

I am still recollecting such tiny details from Kharian that I am perplexed sometimes as to how I could have retained such details over a period of almost 22-25 years. I remember the sweet smell of sweet peas my mother grew in her front lawn and that pansies are still one of my favorite flowers. I love the purple flower with a yellow center or the white ones with the purple center. Another type of flower which had no smell and we used to call it the dog flower because they looked like the face of a dog (I did a search on Google and Its also called Snapdragon). I also remember the papaya trees standing in a straight line growing in the backyard. I remember disliking the papaya when it was cut open by my mother. I specially remember disliking so many tiny black seeds. My father got alot of wooden furniture made from Kharian. I remember sleeping on my new bed for the first time ever with the new white bed sheets having blue and pink elephants print on it. I remember the small green light that was turned on in the kids room at night. I always disliked it and I always wanted a completely dark room (even now). I even remember the first time the tooth fairy came to my room and left a 10 rupee note under my pillow. I also remember the coming of the tooth fairy while I was pretending to be asleep and being disappointed that the tooth fairy was no one else but my mother. Yes!! I am amazed at all these recollections, but I have retained all this over these years. I am glad I am penning these down before I forget them all for good.

In 1989, we eventually moved from Khairan as my father was posted to Quetta. Quetta is in Baluchistan and it is a cold mountainous city. Its also quite brown and barren with very little or no greenery. My father left us in Lahore and went to Quetta to arrange for our arrival (Look for a house and unpack before we arrived). My mother on the other hand, came and moved to the house we are currently living in, in Lahore and got us admitted to the nearest school. The image in this blip is the school. I went there a while ago and took a few pictures. I hardly have any recollections of my time here in this school. The only thing I remember was being awfully disturbed by the displacement and of missing my friends back in Kharian terribly. I also remember the feeling of loneliness and the feeling of being completely out of place. All of these I felt during my short duration at this school. I stayed there for a few months before we moved to Quetta. Another interesting fact about this school is that my mother also studied in this school when she was a small girl. She met her friends in this school and I guess that's the only good thing I can write about this school.

I also stayed in touch with my Khairan friends for a few months via snail mail. After that I stopped getting any replies maybe due to the fact that their fathers must have been posted out of Kharian too. It takes 2 days to reach from Lahore to Kharian via road and the journey is very dangerous with the danger of being robbed and looted on the way, so my father arranged for us to fly to Khairan. It was one of my first few air journeys and at that time flying in an airplane was a thrill for us. Me and my brother used to fight over who will take the window seat.

I will now end this and will start writing about Quetta in the next My Moments blip. I have felt extremely nostalgic today writing all this and feeling a bit emotional too. How times change, sometimes from better to worse and sometimes from worse to better. For me it has always been like riding a see-saw. Ups and downs, but I am glad that I have seen and lived a life which very few do in this part of the world and for that I cannot thank God enough and after God, my parents.

Once again, I want to thank everyone who has been going through the bits and pieces of my life with continued interest and for reading such lengthy stories.

If you have just started reading, here are the last eight My Moments Blips:

My Moments # 1
My Moments # 2
My Moments # 3
My Moments # 4
My Moments # 5
My Moments # 6
My Moments # 7
My Moments # 8


P.S. The puppies are doing fine. The mother now moves about freely and I try to feed her as far away as possible from the puppies so that I can hold and pet the little babies while she is busy eating :)

P.P.S. I have not been commenting on all the journals. I apologize. I have been very busy not only with my own work but also with the renovations going on in the house and the wedding preparations. 48 days to go before the big day.