Never Remembering

How do I go from here to there

How to remember the various odd things

How to hold on, and never forget

Getting out of hands, my memory needs fixing

(Sheen-April2019)

It was last week, before the unfortunate mishap with my left foot. Son needed to have his wedding photos developed for his wife’s visa. I went along with him. I shouldn’t have gone. It’s never a good idea to go to shops. One buys unnecessary things. I had time to browse while I waited for Son, and that was my undoing. It was no excuse for my buying spree.

Coming out I was following Son. I’m a slow person, taking in the view, while Son takes gigantic strides. He gets ahead so quickly that I had difficulty in following him. A couple of people came between him, and me, while I was focusing on them, and how to pass through, I lost him. I couldn’t see where he went.

I kept looking for him, forgetting where the car was parked. We had come in his vehicle, as he wanted to fill his car’s tank. His irritated call soon came, asking where was I? Anyway we found each other.

My sister has found the solution to my forgetfulness, and that is : the moment I get down from the car, I should take a photo of the location.

A False Vibe

The light yellow in the sky heralding the appearance of sun.

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This is the color of sky to the west of the building. Here is the brighter yellow unlike the pale yellow on the right side.

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With the Fall season the trees are shedding their green color. Yellows appeared first giving an illusion of sunlight, whereas the sun had long ago dipped into the horizon. In the mornings the same illusion persisted that the sun rays were trying to reach out, whereas the sky would be grey— no sun outside.

A Year Wait

IB

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When IB (grandson) was going back to Houston, after a month’s stay here during the summer holidays, I kept getting more melancholy 🙁 day by day. Sunshine was going to be missing from our lives till he got back to us next year.

A friend told me to get more photos of him to last me a year of deprivation (as if that could suffice). She thought the photos could last me an year of not seeing him.

For the first month after he left, I would look at the videos, and photographs, reliving each moment again. Slowly my heartache dulled. The photo above is a favorite one. It bounces to life on my iPhone, when I click on it. IB smiles before the photo stills.

Terminal Changes

The picture Naming Things hangs at Boston Logan Airport.

The airline people did a complete turn around. At the last minute the terminal changed from 18 to 29. There I was ready to board the plane from La Guardia to Fort Worth when Son came back to tell me my terminal had changed. We rushed from one end to another. I would have missed my plane. Son took me to the correct one, and then took leave to catch his plane to New Orleans.

Brooklyn, New York. A view from above.

Flushing- Queensboro Hill, New York from above.

M1, and M2 (grand daughters) reached our place in New Bedford at midnight. They had started from Washington DC. M1 had enlisted M2’s help in getting her things from storage there. It was M2’s first visit to us here. M1 had come to collect her stuff which she had left with us. The freezer contained some of her frozen food too. Son, and I were going to leave at seven in the morning. It was quite a hectic beginning of the day. Son helped both the girls in loading the truck with M1’s belongings. We managed to leave on time to catch our bus to Logon Airport. Son, and I were traveling together for the first part of our journey, and from La Guardia in New York, we went in different directions.

Son will be visiting his children in Houston after New Orleans. After that he will Insha’Allah come to spend the morning of Eid with us at Dallas, and then leave for New Bedford before noon. The plan for me is to spend two weeks with Nola (daughter). Initially I wanted to leave with Son, but Nola didn’t like my plan at all for a short stay. Nothing will please her more, till I come to stay permanently with her. That can only happen if, and when Son marries. I hope it happens soon.

Skateboarding

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Son had promised IB (grandson) that he will take him to the park for skateboarding. IB’s stay with us is coming to a close. I feel sad already, wondering when we will next see him, and that is probably next year. Feeling, I must grab the moments spent with him, I got ready to go with them.

Meanwhile, IB the couch potato he is, tried his best at dissuading his father not to go out, insisting that the park where his father was taking him wasn’t meant for skateboarding. IB is totally addicted to his iPad, while we wanted him to get a few hours of air, and sun outside.

Popes Island had the children’s park. Alongside was the boat’s arena. Lucky people having their own boats. Children IB’s age were playing, but IB insisted he was too old to play there. Son, and I sat on the seesaw, while two energetic children- the same age as IB (twelve) sat beside us to push the seesaw up, and down. The boy was sweet, as he later came back again to help us in seesawing.

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This park was in Fair haven, MA. On the other side of the bridge constituted New Bedford.

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We went to Livesey Park, trying to ignore IB’s protestations that the park wasn’t meant for skateboarding. There were all sorts there — grown ups who were walking briskly on the side walks, children and grown ups cycling, teenagers playing volleyball.

IB skateboarded on the side walk till he was tired, and wanted to go back home.

Acushnet River

Distant

Coming August will mark the fifth death anniversary of my late husband. With passing on of the years my late husband is becoming a distant memory. I feel more of his presence in both homes in Peshawar, and the village home than here in Houston.

One reason can be that his photos hang in my own homes. They keep his memory alive. The photographs mark happy times in our lives with no shadow of death looming over them. They evoke happy times. The one hanging in the hallway shows him dressed in his military uniform, and looking totally handsome, and beguiling. The other one has both of us, covers a wall in the large kitchen in our Peshawar home.

My Quran teacher said that dead people’s photographs shouldn’t be displayed in our homes. That is one reason there is a small photo of my husband only on the fridge which son has pasted, and I have not hung any others here. Anyway the home I share with son is his, although all the furniture, and things belong to me.

I am not going to remove the photographs in my own homes. It maybe wrong according to my religious teacher, but I can’t deny the comfort they bring to my heart when I look at them. Maybe God won’t disapprove, and look over my misdoing.

…

DAILY PROMPT

Distant

Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/distant/

Lists and Me

I don’t do lists. I used to write them, and lose them. I could never hold onto them. My list used to magically disappear out of sight. After reaching home I would remember what I needed.

Top of ten foods I like: 

Mutton Rice preferably made with (young goat’s meat, which doesn’t smell), chick peas, raisins, and almonds.

Chinese food: GenTso, Chicken Wings, and Chicken Soup.

  
Chapli Kabab.  

Home made Icecream.

Nuts like Almonds, Pistachios, Walnuts, Pine Nuts.

Fresh Fruit. Top of the list — Lichees.

  
And other fruits.

  
Vegetables: I love to eat vegetables. My son doesn’t like turnips, bitter gourd, and butternut squash. If he spies the above mentioned vegetables, he turns in a second from a genial person to a very disappointed, and annoyed person. Back in the days when he was a student, and living at home, I used to take extra care in making another dish of something he liked, and put the smile back in his face.

All photos: Thanks to Google.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/the-satisfaction-of-a-list/

The Satisfaction of a List

Who doesn’t love a list? So write one! Top five slices of pizza in your town, ten reasons disco will never die, the three secrets to happiness — go silly or go deep, just go list-y.

Three Sunsets

  

  

  

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/weaving-the-threads/

Weaving the Threads

Draft a post with three parts, each unrelated to the other, but create a common thread between them by including the same item — an object, a symbol, a place — in each part.

Not Decided



I wanted to go, and visit my sister in Long Island. It’s still four months short of two years since last I saw her. It’s so cold out there, which puts a damper on my longing to see her.

She is unwell at the moment. She is unlikely to feel glad at my coming. No doubt, if I mention a visit from me, she will brush away my excuses, or any assumptions I have.





Thinking of ice, and snow makes me glad that I am in Houston. I love snow for short duration. I will like it from far away.

At the moment here, it’s either cloudy, or it is constant rain. Last night my son, and I were going for a walk, when he looked out, and found it was raining. I had already put on my shoes. I took them off, and went upstairs to retrieve my umbrella. My son went on a quest to find an umbrella for himself.

This year four new umbrellas were bought. They are all missing. They have disappeared. The only one is mine, which I guard, that’s why it’s still with me. This morning I saved it from disappearing (for forever) when I remembered leaving it in the hallway to dry off, after coming back from the walk. I collided with my son (with my rush to get down) on the stairs, while he was coming up to say “Salam” to me in the morning.

So, I was the only person to venture out in the rain to walk, and my son went back to watching some old sitcoms of his childhood.



https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/study-abroad/

Study Abroad

If you were asked to spend a year living in a different location, where would you choose and why?

A Guide to Peshawar

Local Flavor
Write a piece about a typically “local” experience from where you come from as though it’s an entry in a travel guide.

If you visit Peshawar, don’t forget to sip green tea (at the end of a meal, or if you feel like taking tea). You will never get the same taste any place else in the world. Although I am by birth a Pathan, but I have never been able to emulate that taste in my home brewing session of green tea.

“How bad! How sad!” My favorite expression of lamenting anything gone wrong.

Then another thing! Get yourself a pair of Peshawari Chappals (footwear). They are simply unique. Order them to be made exactly for your foot size. You can wear them throughout summer. They don’t cost the earth. You will be surprised at the price you can get them. Do try three-four shops to find out the real price before you decide. Don’t forget bargaining.

Ladies can buy themselves Khussas.

Another typical fare is Lamb Tikka. Simply delicious!
A must to eat are Chapli Kababs. But you must first ascertain that your stomach is up to digesting them. Just joking!

Don’t forget to buy Chitrali Topi as a headgear for yourself.

Hope you enjoyed the local fare.

Sadly the “War on Terror” has brought only terror to Muslim countries, and death, and destruction to Muslim people. A nightmare which is fueled by hatred, religion, and greed. The ones who are killed are Muslims, and the ones who are suffering are Muslims, and Alas! there is no end in sight.

Photos Credit: thanks to Google.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/local-flavor/