My moments # 5

Ofcourse, life is not always as good and smooth as My Moments # 1, My Moments # 2, My Moments # 3 and My Moments # 4. There are many downs in life that I remembered and recalled while writing my recollections. But, I preferred not to pen them down. On the other hand, I have been putting those memories in a box and after locking it up, I have been placing the box one at a time in a cupboard called the back of the mind and throwing away the keys ... forever, hopefully ...

I have not had much time over the whole week to think of the past and recollect memories, but I have to write the next in the series today as I know I will not be able to before next Sunday. That will be a bit too late. I guess I am going to try to recall as much as I can on the fly.

This is a picture of one of my report card from Kharian. The school's name was Toddler's academy which was changed to Kehkashan Academy and it finally became Army Public School. It has the same name to date. I enjoyed going to school at the time. It was very rare for me to want to skip school and I was always liked by the teachers. I was one of those students who always did what they were told and never used to be naughty. I wish that was not the case though ... *CONFESSION*

I remember the times when the new term of school used to start. We used to go with our parents to the only book store in the small town and get our books and notebooks ... we used to call them copies then. My mother used to get brown sheets of paper and plastic sheets. She used to come back home and cover the copies and books first with the brown sheets and then the plastic sheets. This exercise was done so that the books and copies were not damaged during the year. My parents used to get our stationary in bulk. Pencils, sharpeners, foot rulers and erasers (I think Pakistan is the only place on Earth where an eraser is called a rubber ... even now). After this shopping, me and my brother always used to get a pack of Golden crisps and Frost juices. Both the brands Golden and Frost are not available now. Its strange how I even remember the brand names of these things. The ususal flavors were Orange, Mango and Pineapple. Once a new Falsa flavor was introduced and we were quite please with it

One day me and my brother Safee were playing ENEMIES :) in our front lawn and we had marked our own territories. My mother was inside the house while Abba was fixing the car. Safee had an iron nozzle of the water pipe which he was using as a weapon. He threw that bomb somewhere in my territory which came on top of my head. I remember feeling dizzy and then a feeling of a warm fluid dripping from my head. When I realized what had happened to me, my father had seen that too and I was rushed to the hospital and was treated. Poor Safee had to stand in the corner of the room for the rest of the day as punishment. Now that I am writing this, I just cannot comprehend as to what was in our tiny minds at that time which had made us play the game of ENEMIES ... hahaha!! Kids!!

In My Moments # 4, I mentioned our neighbors and playing with them in the evening. We used to play many games together. Indoor as well as outdoor games. I mostly remember the outdoor games which we used to meet, make teams and play. One such game is called stapu or hopscotch. The stapu grid was built on the pavement with chalk. The aim was to throw a small stone in one of the farthest boxes on the grid, hop on one leg in the boxes, pick up the stone and come back. The rule was not to use both the legs and not to step on the boundary of two boxes.

Some of the other games included hide and seek, Freeze, and many others I am not recalling correctly right now. I will explain them as I remember them.

There were times when we used to go to Lahore to visit our grandmother and also our cousins. We always used to look forward to those trips. I remember loading our car with the luggage and heading out on the road. I think Kharian was approximately 4 hours drive from Lahore. Me and Safee used to enjoy the drive quite alot. I have always been an inquisitive person, used to look outside the window of the car and ask Abba many questions which he always answered, sometimes joking with me. I was always asking as to how long our journey is and always getting a humorous reply from him. Whenever we used to reach Lahore, my excitement level increased with every passing minute. Coming from the GT Road (Grand Trunk) and upon seeing the Minar-e-Pakistan and Badshahi Mosque I knew that we have reached Lahore. The journey from there to the house on Temple Road was covered with alot of enthusiasm and excitement. After passing many historical monuments on the Mall Road, we used to turn right and see our house from far away. As soon as the car stopped in front of the house we used to run and race as to who will go and hug grandmother first. She was always delighted to see us. Sitting in her room doing something or the other, we used to get up in her lap and hug her, kiss her and start talking to her. Then came the other relations who were living with her.

Our times at Temple Road were always special, because it meant no rules and scoldings and only fun and games. We used to reach Lahore before Lunch and my grandmother had made special rice for my father called Pulao. At nights we used to sleep on mattresses and watch cartoons and movies. We used to go with our aunt to a video shop opposite to the house and rent videos. One movie that I distinctly remember watching is the Swiss Family Robinson.

As I have already mentioned that I was the eldest grandchild after a long time in the family, I was very near and special for my grandmother and she specially wanted me to sleep with her at night. I remember having sleepless nights as she used to stay up most of the night listening to ghazals all night, or knitting, crocheting or reading poetry.

Our visit to Lahore always included an overnight trip to my aunts house which was full of fun. We were always treated with the best of everything. One thing I cannot forget is having breakfast with my aunt and (late) uncle in the veranda behind their house. I always asked her to make a mushroom and cheese omelet, which was her specialization. She also used to take us to Ferozesons which is a book shop. Oh! we used to go wild in that shop and wanted to buy everything. But, ofcourse we had to select 2 books at most :) After Ferozesons, we used to stop by at the Punjab Club and get French Hearts for tea. We were then transported back to our parents at Temple Road.

The end of our Lahore vacation was always marked with many tears and hugs as we never wanted to leave. Packing our stuff and loading it in the car, we used to bid farewell, buy snacks and drinks for our journey and leave.

This episode of My Moments end here. I will be writing again soon ... Thank you for reading through a yet again lengthy writeup and I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

P.S. My BBQ and Birthday Blip got stuck for approval twice yesterday as the collage did not have a date in it. Quite frustrating but it is back again.