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The Nice One.

Another oldie-un-posted post.
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You can guage the extent of a person's humility simply by the way he walks.

For instance, there is a guy who works at the place where I am doing my
inernship. He is from my college, and graduated a couple of years before I
did. I'd never talked to him in college - he was one of those who keep to
themselves, and never do anything even remotely attention seeking. If it
weren't for the fact that I remember each and every person (seniors atleast)
from college, I probably wouldn't have even realised that I'd seen him
before.

So I went for my first day of my internship. I took along my own laptop
since every computer at the office was currently in use. I had to install
the program that i was going to learn, and so I asked them for a cd. After
rummaging about in every drawer without finding it, he decided to burn it
from the hard disk onto a cd. I tried installing that - didn't work. He then
got up, went outside, got onto his motorbike, and went out. I didn't think
anything about it until he came back with a brand new cd in a plastic bag
that he'd just purchased from somewhere. I tried installing that - didn't
work either. Then he looked all over the office and finally found an old cd.
I tried installing that - STILL didn't work. We both gave up then. The next
day I brought along my other laptop with thankfully had Autocad already
installed in it so I didn't need to bother him anymore.

But the fact of the matter is that he did this all for some silly little
internee who had just landed herself in the office, and really had no idea
what she was doing there. He, on the other hand, was an office employee, and
actually had proper work to do, but he left it to help me out.

And it has been like that for the past six days that I've been here. He
takes time out to teach me the program step by step everyday. Whenever I'm
stuck somewhere, he leaves his work and comes to help me out. When he is
sitting beside me, explaining, he doesn't even look at me, but has his eyes
on the screen at all times. And he is one of those teachers who can explain
something so well, and so patiently, that you immediately understand it the
first time around.

There are other little things too. Everytime he answers the phone, he starts
off with a salam to whoever is calling. When we sit down to eat at my desk,
he's the one who sets the table and chairs. He makes sure that the females
are the first ones to put food on their plates. And when he is finished, he
picks up his plate and glass, and puts it to the side, instead of expecting
someone else to pick up after him.

And to top it all off, he's been sick the past few days, yet is still coming
to work, and actually went off to Peshawer for work as well. His level of
politeness, or manner of talking, is not influenced by the person he is
talking to - he presents the same face to the person, whether it his boss,
or a mazdoor from the site.

Its been so long since I've met a guy who was so truly NICE (There's no
other word for him), that just interacting with him makes me feel like I
must be in some other world. Because in the world that I currently live in,
there are very few who actually know the meaning of manners, and especially,
values.

Insomnia.

 

Since I seldom find the time or inspiration to write these days, I thought I'd post some posts I'd written years ago, but never gotten around to posting.

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I am an insomniac.

Ever since I can remember, I have had trouble falling asleep. On a regular day (night?), it can take me anywhere between half an hour to up to three hours to fall asleep. Usually though, after three hours of constant tossing and turning, of trying various conventional methods ranging from counting sheep, to counting backwards from a high number, to saying goodnight to each and every part of your body (don't ask me about the last one), I admit defeat and accept that my body has no intentions of falling asleep anytime soon. Then its back to the book I was reading, or to flipping channels on the TV.

In college, most of my friends were hostelites. And every one of them had the amazing ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat - whether it was in somebody's comfortable bed, or on a bumpy bus ride to out of town. They never thought much of this super power, but to me, it was a wonderous, unexperienced phenomenon.  Not only could they fall asleep at will, but they would stay sleeping through the noisiest of conditions. I suppose living at our college hostel conditioned them for this previously-unheard-of power. A place where the concept of an intercom system was made use of at its very primitive form. Messages were communicated to the upper floors by screaming out from the ground floor central space - Amna, 3rd Year, Guest! Responses would then begin streaming down, Which Amna?! And so the conversation ensued until the required Amna was found .

Screaming was not just limited to the students; in fact the Warden herself was the primary exponent in this practice. She would start at breakfast time, and continue until the last student had retreated to her room. Every word that came out of her mouth was a shout, whether it was to scold the Mess boy, talk out a student's problems, take attendance, or just generally start complaining about the conditions of the hostel to whatever poor soul happened to be within her range of view. She was the supreme manifestation of the word 'Nag', and I doubt I will ever find anyone else so unbearable. Even me, someone who can manage to sit through any sort of conversation, no matter how boring, wanted to start pulling my hair out the few times that I had the misfortune of having to talk to her.

And so the Hostel was forever a place of noise made up of the Warden's unending complaints, giggles and discussions taking place around the dining table, different genres of music blasting from students' rooms, sounds of wood, plaster or whatever material was required for an assignment at that time, being smashed about with the appropriate tools. The girls therefore had to resort to a sleep-or-suffer lifestyle if they wanted to survive at the hostel.

Maybe a year at the hostel would have been good for me. Not only would I have learned to be responsible and independant, but sleep would not seem like such a formidable task every night.

In fact I KNOW it would have been good for me, especially in terms of self esteem, which is at its absolute low whilst trying to socialise with strangers. Perhaps I wouldn't have felt like an outsider most of the time; or as they called it, 'Day Scholar".

Rain Rain, Here Today, All My Troubles Get Washed Away

Rain rain, beautiful rain. :)

 

Its completely pouring in Lahore right now, 9:47 pm. I am so glad I woke up early for once, and came into office just before the storm came. Although there had been tell-tale signs of good weather when I woke up.

 

The bajra, milk and catfood must be washed away by now. Let's hope the animals got to it before that!

 

There are waves of water below where I work, creating patterns like ripples in sand dunes with the dust collected since the last rain.

 

The monsoon is here! :)

Till We Meet Again.

Why do we so easily forget those who were such an integral part of our lives before they left? When they were here, it was difficult to imagine life without them, but now that they're gone, life goes on.

 

I wanted to make you both great-grandparents, but we knew there was never enough time for that.

 

I have no one to call Dada and Dado anymore. I miss you. I love you.

The Feeding Ground

The bowl of birdseed was empty when I went to check on it this morning. :)

 

I refilled it, went back in, and peered out the window to see that a cat had come sniffing about the bowls.

 

Tomorrow I'm going to get another bowl and some cat food.

 

And no, I won't place both types of food together. Different stokes for different folks! :)

-

My husband is the nicest, warmest, handsomest person I could ever want in my life. When he looks at me with half closed eyes and a serence smile on his face, I just want to envelope him in huge bear hug and somehow just absorb him within myself. I love him to bits. I want to express myself in all the ways that I love him, but somehow, all that comes out is I Love You.

Two Little Dickie Birds...

Outside our bedroom window is a lush garden where birds, mainly sparrows and woodpeckers, come every day to peck at the ground in search of food. On my mother-in-law's suggestion, I bought some bajra (bird seed) and two shallow clay bowls, to make things easier for the birds.

 

I put them out today, and went to the window excitedly to watch. But sadly, no birds came. Maybe it was too hot? Disappointed, I left the window.

 

When I passed by again, there was group of birds near the bowls, pecking about, but not going to bowl of bajra. They'd hop about, but not approach the bowl. Finally, one mustered up the courage, hopped up on the edge of the bowl, pecked at some, and flew off. Then one by one, birds started hopping up on the bowl, picking at the bord seed. One even went and sat into the bajra! Then there came two birds. One would stay a distance from the bowl, and the other would go up, pick up some birdseed into his beak, hop back to the other bird and feed it! It did this again and again, and I have no idea why the bird was too shy or scared to go up to the bowl herself, but the other bird made sure it didn't get left out.

 

Sometimes animals are so like humans in so many ways, its incredible. The world would be a dull place indeed without animals!