-
Guatemala Diaries Part- II
The climb to Mount Pacaya was steep and I was sweating like hell, though this time it was not out of working my way up but because of the hot land of this volcanic mountain. The trek was hell black with volcanic rocks, where few months back the eruption destroyed seven hundred houses nearby. It was just 20minutes on the trek and one can already feel the heat around.This was my second visit to Guatemala after two years. Nothing was changed. For some reason I was remembering my dialogues with her two years back. Your theory of natural abundance and connectivity makes sense, i said, but what if people donot…
-
Hammam… Human dirt, Wars
It was a hundred year old Hammam building, in the middle of a nowhere town in eastern turkey. Dirty, rusted, tiled up with old bricks, and like all Hammams had that distinguished smell of decades of dirt coming out of thousands of souls, scrubbed, massaged and cleaned to purity every day. As per the owner of the hammam, business used to be good in old days but now people seldom come. But today was Baiyram Night (Muslim Eid festival) and alot of people , mostly living in big cities were here to re-cherish their roots and identity. The town itself is called ‘Kangal’ and as the name suggests have nothing…
-
“Woofy”…
It was my second day in the cold, sunny Johannesburg. I was staying in a big old estate turned into a guesthouse, with alot of zebras, horses, birds and different breeds of dogs wondering around . A nice place to rest and be with nature. I saw her sitting on the stairs, staring at the birds. Beautifully white, shiny sad eyes, with an unforgettable personality. She was totally unlike other dogs. I took her as a Canadian Husky in the first place. I said to the owner of the lodge, “What a nice dog you have, so beautifully white” And she smiled, ” Its not a dog, its a wolf,…
-
Hopes , fears, love , guns ….. Choices.
“I dont know how it happened that I the admirer of logic and rational thinking became obsessed with the world of feelings and hopes and love and beauty” I said to Ertyass. She smiled and said ” And you still worry about taking this decision? ” We were sitting in a beach bar in a nice big costa rican’s resort enjoying tacos with Guacamole dips and black bean souce with Zacapa. It was my first trip in the Caribbeans and i was already feeling at home in the lovely world where Marquez’s butterflies were flying, Neruda’s cherry blossom was happening and every created thing looks like Octavio’s fountains of water……
-
Traditions… Gender…. Equality
Last week we had good discussions on gender equality and how it affects traditions and at the end I was thinking we both were talking about two different sides of the same coin. She was talking more about fighting for one’s rights and I was more of romanticizing the imaginition-practices one associate himself with, and though everything is fair in love and war but that doesn’t mean love and war are the same things. She was insistent that women should be given even opportunities, and in sweden still most of the C-level and management level positions are held by men. I was of the veiw that although women should be…
-
Women… Fiction… stockholm… More coffee..
” You know, a gentleman always allows a lady to maintain her own fiction” she said It was an unusually pleasant sunny day in Sweden and we were drinking coffee in one of the street cafés when we saw a woman passing by with tears for obvious and only reasons and Ertyass commented on her, in her usual unique style. “Come on! Give me a break” I said, “are you suggesting women live their lives artificially, knowing that they are living in fiction?” I asked. “Well it’s a matter of perspective; fiction can be as real as reality depending on how much feeling or tangibility you can give to it.…
-
First week in Ghana
People selling things on the traffic signal, traffic rush, city with churches and mosques ………isn’t this all sounds pretty familiar or say pakistanish? , But its not………………….Dozens of men and women selling, bread, tissue papers, biscuits etc etc on the traffic signal as if you are moving through a grocery store…… hours and hours of waiting in traffic jams,……. churches of every god-dammit type (mehodist to catholics to “Lambs of god” to 12 apostles and jehovahs) and mosques of Ahmadis and other sects…….and above all you being treated as a white man, one can easily say Pakistan is doing quite fine. But that was just the space around. The real…
-
The rain attack
As if summoned by the tribal witchdoctors chanting some ancient voodoo call, the majestic rain army comes down with all its pride, sounds and fury……. The big palm trees shivering in fear just by the sound of these tiny soldiers …the Commander in chief totally in control of His army…..the water-brigade totally in sync with the wind battalion and the thunder snipers ………..rivers of dead rain soldiers flowing everywhere with the same gruesome dignity fulfilling their motives of momentary life. A big thunder strike and I found myself woke up in utter darkness, with the rain soldiers still dancing and laughing, rushing towards their own end….….. Whatever it was….. a…
