Wednesday, October 13, 2004
who moved my magic?they've chopped down the magic tea tree! this is something i have only just realised- i've been very affronted at the heartless butchering of the bamboo grove: the twilight birds are homeless, and the leafy green shade gone. jerry says they chopped them down to minimise deep shadows to make out in (they'll find another deliciously dark shadow, do you leave your brain behind once you step into the admin. office?). the tea tree is in my archives for....two months ago, i should think, a picture and a poem....and now she's gone :( (yeah yeah she'll grow back in three months yadda yadda but it isn't going to be the same :P)
in-the-car musing of the morning
we come to lums via interesting real-life route, which i much prefer to the wider, cleaner, more sterile city-people-in-bungalow route. and there are, as we've discussed, gajillions of donkeys en route, and those gajillions of donkeys are more often than not having their bums whacked regularly by things ranging from reins to thick short pieces of wood. horrible. someone i know- i forget who- once had a go at a rehri-wala for smacking his donkey, and he told her that if they started to love their animals, they'd never survive. so today in the morning i saw a donkey being spanked and it occurred to me that rights- animal, environmental, children even- are luxuries afforded only to people and countries rich enough to not need to rely on nature for their survival. deforestation in balochistan and n.w.f.p is such an issue because people don't have alternate sources of fuel- and you have to eat, and stay warm somehow- which is why the WWF is giving them alternate-fuel stoves, and encouraging replantation. animal rights. if you started to worry if your horse/donkey was cold in chilly winter nights, if you didn't load your carts too heavily because it might burden your animal too much, if you actually loved your animal....well, you'd be in a pickle, because you'd get half of your work done and when every penny counts, you aren't really going to allow yourself the luxury of going 'hai mera bechara gadha ussko bhook lag rahi hoga'. children. when infant survival rates in your economic bracket are depressingly low, when you don't have enough to feed- forget clothe or keep in shoes, or educate- your children, i wonder if you can allow yourself to love them. i wonder, every time a six year old with a runny nose and old eyes taps on my window at an intersection. every time i see little kids just walking along the side of the road aimlessly, sometimes pummelling each other, sometimes just sitting in the grass. i wonder where their mothers are, if anyone gives them kisses and tells them funny stories just to hear them laugh.
i believe in rights. i wonder if i still could, if i had to live like that.
calvin and hobbes
is supreme-o wisdom. honestly. i will wean my children on enid blyton, ramona quimby, urdu naavel and c&h compendiums.
'pssst, tiger!'
zukaam khaansi nazla
the full monty, as it were. watery eyes, sneezes, selectively leaky nose. occasional cough. since i am Mashallah unusually healthy throughout the year, flu-time i almost enjoy for the variation *khekhe* if only the conrete in my head would quit sloshing around like a sledgehammer every time i go pray; yesterday it actually really hurt, going into ruku and getting up from sajda. *bam*!
random last thought-because-i-can
i really should get me a new ring; it's been a while since the last one. problem is, one can't just go and buy one....you have to fall in love with it first. i almost spent nine pounds on a gorgeous shoulder-hitting cascade of neon plastic discs of varied shape in newcastle. almost. the rings were rubbish, but the earrings in general were divine. ohhh, those onyx dangly ones....mmmm! although i was pretty put off by the massive rhinestone collars with LOVE on them, tacky as hell! reminded me (love, not tacky) of samiullah khan niazi in third grade with his neon-coloured eraser; it was shaped in the word 'love'- i was going to my desk and passed his, and he pointed at it and said 'i this you mina'....hahahahahaha
Mina at 8:42 AM
