Saturday, June 13, 2009

~WhEn I wAs A kiD~

14june'09.
"For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;"
Assalamualaikum....


Alhamdulillah I had the opportunity to visit my ancestral town a few weeks back...the place where i spent the best part of my childhood days..
As soon as our schools would be closed for summer vacations in around april we all would gather there (my relatives from all around with kids of all age groups)...
We have Old fashioned , traditional and big havelis connected with the homes of various relatives..so that we need not go anywhere outside to visit someone's place..Moreover the women of our household there don't cross the threshold of the mansion..The men's area is outside where our grandfathr,uncles and their guests would sit in the evening discussing about various topics and we as children (who were not bound by the rule till then and were allowed to venture out there) would play all sorts of bizarre games till dinner time...From morn till night we would play,play and play... at night all the servants' kids would also come and play with us...they had a wide range of unusual and eccentric games..(we would be around 20 kids mashAllah)..
ah! i still remember those moonlit nights, the serenity of the small town,the calmness pervading the air, eating the sour ripe mangoes which came from our fields,reading the Quran in the morning, rushing to our grandfather's bro's place the moment we got the chance (as half our cousins used to reside there)...then till lunch our abode would be the terraces and then in evening we would go out to the menfolks area palying in the vast adjoining field till dinner, the frenzy of action, sitting near the traditional chulha, (a mud stove used for cooking with wood as its fuel) watching the chapatis being made, hearing stories from our grandmother, going (rarely) to see our meadows and fields and eating mangoes,peaches,jamun.....etc.., the small fights and childish quarrels we use to have on petty matters, our younger siblings irritating us...aargh!! it still makes me angry to recall how they would forever tail us and would want entry in our games..i never culd comprehend why they couldn't get to play their own games!! On top of it they would go complaining to our elders who in turn scolded us and also forced us to let those annoying nitwits enter our sacred premises..(ok i'm getting a bit touchy..)


My ancestors all being very practising and pious muslims mashAllah had many rules which were slowly detoriating by the advancement of time..As i told u before the womenfolk of our household don't venture out of the threshold of the women's quarters which comprises of the whole big house..and if we want clothes to buy then a servant is sent to a shop and she brings all sorts of clothes in the house ..then all gather round and select their favourite piece...the money is sent and the shopping is complete...haha...we are so free from the hassles of the outside world there..no need to go anywhere..big mansion sort of houses connected with other relatives places.And in earlier days when my aunts were young they tell us that they would go in palanquins to a nighbourhood followed by a male member of the family..lol...

Television was a rarity as it wasn't allowed..so we would sneak to an aunty's place a bit far off and watch TV there...only on sundays..and tell our elders that we are going to wed our doll with the male doll there...we were so stupid that we thought we fooled them!! Alhamdulillah our home there, here at my place and at my paternal uncle's place still doesn't have the root of evil-the idiot box (television)!


When it would be the time of everybody's departure at the end of summer we would run after the rickshaw of the cousins leaving first and waving our hands like mad as if we would never met again (man .. we were so stupid...............hahaha).( in the pic is the road leading from our door till the far end which we kids couldn't even step ahead) ..and those were the bright days which coloured the pages of my life withe sweetest memories..alhamdulillah.mashAllah.



Some more pix of my recent trip-




these were the pix of one part of women quarters










one of the terrace where we used to play and our cousins when not allowed to join our game would climb up from behind the other adjoining terrace and jump down onto the terrace from the shade visible at the far end of the pic..

the house which we as kids believed to be haunted and never dared to come here alone even in broad daylight...lol.

Freshly plucked peaches which came from the fields..yeah they are not ripe but we ate them anyway..hahaha...

~~ That's all~~

JazkAllah

~Cool Muslimah~

15 comments:

Brishti said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CooL MuslimaH said...

Assalamualaikum dear..

how naive is human soul which is made happpy by anyone acknowledging their efforts..so consequently i'm happyyyyy by your nice comment...thankss sis..jazakAllah..May Allah grant u abundant happiness and success in both the worlds..

Make a guess of where these pictures could be from...think of it girl..hehhe

that national anthem..hahaha..the question just propped up in my profile and i wrote it on a spur..

Yeah you r most welcome to visit my blog sistah.....take care

~Cool Muslimah~

ambareen said...

One word- Wow! :D
and the wordsworth quote-perfect!
And the pix-siiiighhh! Luurrrvvlyyy!
And the thoughts-have heard 'em all endless times, but they stil make me smile.
All in all ONE of your best posts as yet. :)

CooL MuslimaH said...

Assalamualaikum Ambareen mate...

That was the best comment I ever had..honestly..why? becoz they come from my best buddy and i know you have always been sincere in your remarks..*Cool muslimah wipes away a tear*..lol..that was quite corny...hehe

take care

Hamid said...

salamunalaikum.


The blogs' header pic is really cool,creative and attractive.

The ayath that u have put there had made me a think a lot and a lot of my own past, present and future.Enough is one such ayath as a reminder for a sincere muslim.

Fortunate I think I'm to come here and get myself reminded of the best reminder from the best book of reminders-Al-Qur'an al-Azeem.

Anonymous said...

"We were stupid enough"....i think u r still....lol..


Nice pictures ....who took them??


Good one though keep it up.....


Haaza Mukhaliful.....

ambareen said...

Walekumasalam,
wow, best, huh! Glad it made u happy, SP.
Uff, what's happened, flood gates hv opened up quite often l8ly?! :P
is somebody gnna miss me. Awwwww.

CooL MuslimaH said...



Walekumassalam Brother Hamid..

jazakAllah...I like pictures of these kind..old,simple and close to nature.

And i'm truly pleased that the ayat affected you so..You are always welcome..

Thanks for visitng my blog and commenting..MAy Allah grant u all happiness and success in both worlds..ameen.

Anonymous-
Samjhatun Samjhatun...

*ahem*..haaza...I took all the pictures and I mean ALL (except the black an white one and MaYBE the terrace one)..yours are in your Ipod..i wanted you to send them to me via mail but it was quite late night and i didn't want to delay posting or it would have been delayyyyyyed...u know!

JazkaAllah for taking out your *precious time* and visiting this great blog...ha!
-Blog ka malika
hahaha

Ambareen-
nah! mate no flood gates opened...man exaggeration..hahaaaa
i'm still thinking theres a lot of time left in ur departure but today when u said 4 days *gulp*..
we will be mailing eachother regularly...inshAllah...................
take care
~Cool Muslimah!~

ambareen said...

Was jst kidding abt the flood gates thng, miss-no-sense-of-humor!
Yea me too realizd it 2da. 4 more days-*gulp* my sntiments xactly.
Yes wil surely mail rgularly.
P.s. Evn Ur comments are as long as ur posts! (@ above!)
:P

A. Alamgeer said...

"grandfather,uncles and their guests would sit in the evening discussing about various topics" this reminded me of a group of people in Lahore. I used to walk with my uncle every morning and I often saw them there just sitting and talking.

My uncle told me that they are always discussing politics. Whereever they go, they just start a "gol maiz conference" there. (by the way my uncle knew so much about them because those people belonged to our own colony too). Now just imagine how they looked.

All had a dark-brown (indian) complexion not very fair. One of them was fair in color if I remember but not all. They all were wearing totally white dress (shalwar kamees or kurta pajama) and by default they all had totally white hair. They looked so funny see!

I asked my uncle why do they always talk politics (at so much age when (this is what I used to think as a kid don't take it so seriously) they should be remembering ALLAH for the next life and stop thinking about this world's problems)?. Uncle had no answer but just this that it is their hobby that's all. The other question was, what benefit do they do to the community or Pakistan by thinking and talking politics? The answer was: What benefit can they do? they are not politicians!!!

Well anyways, they were atleast a symbol to tell us that someone is always thinking about Pakistan! :)

Anonymous said...

wa alaykkum asalaam, cool muslimah

thanks for dropping by at my blog..
ur writing about ur childhood is quite nice!! the pictures are lovely! although, uve had a totally different childhood, i feel we've still had similar experiences.. only that when u had peaches, i had mangoes and when u lived in a haveli, we were in a 'tharavad'... the trees, the fields and everything else fits in perfectly.. heh. thank you for the good read!! continue takin pics.. will keep visiting...
:) happy writing!

Asmi's Journal said...

Aw, masha Allah, it's nice to grow up and look back at your childhood memories...

I love these contemplative posts, keep it up! <3 :)

CooL MuslimaH said...



Assalamualaikum folks...

Ambareen-
I cant help about the comments..u know how jhakki i am..

Bro Aurangzeb

"just sitting and talking"

hahaha..my family men didnt JUSt sit and talk..yeah i know some people usually who have fields just sit and dicuss politics..

"someone is always thinking of pakistan"

hahaha..good one!

onethoughton

Thanks for your lovely comment sis..BTW what is a "tharavad"??
And we also have mangoes..it was just the "mausam" of peaches..
Thanx for visiting my blog dear...

Asmi
Thankss..JAzakAllah....

A. Alamgeer said...

As-SALAM-o-alaikum!
Aaaammmm.......

Ab BaRi nahi hona????? Mera matlab koi aur post nahi kerni kya???

CooL MuslimaH said...

Walekumassalam...

hahahhaahhaha...

koi mauqa hi nahi deta computer pe baithney ka.....@$%###$%#$

I so much want to post since 15june......aaargh!!!!!!!!