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My mum is
heavenly. She has the values of an angel that is why. She is
kind and soft hearted, soft spoken and a gem of a person &
non materialistic to the core. A pile of diamonds is equal
to pile of pebbles on the beach to her. No one else I know
has her level of insight into things, her patience, her
creativity and care for humanity. It’s hard not to notice
this once one sits and talks to her. She is kindness
personified; her face is angelic, has a majestic glow about
it and care of a rare sort. If we do something she
disapproves of, she gets mad at us for a tiny fraction of a
second and then her anger is gone and she is smiling again.
She is the granddaughter of a great waliullah who
actually brought her up; hence everything about her reflects
that.
Mum’s dada
Haji Gaarho used to teach her to read the Noble Quran and
taught her to read Nur Nama and Ahd Nama. Mum
often says that he repeatedly warned about the grave
situation that Sindh would face regarding its water. The
exact words have been repeated so often in our community
that every child in the family has learnt them by
heart:
The water is going to go, livestock will be as valuable
as gold
Her
Dada, Haji Gaarho was her first teacher and if he was
called upon by his followers to stay over at their place for
extended periods, she used to follow him. Since he was a
wali, people used to call on him to go to their
houses to either just stay over at their place for blessings
or treat a person who had taken ill. His followers were many
and lived throughout the region as well Karachi’s old Sindhi
neighborhoods. Haji Gaarha used to stay in Karachi on his
way to the Hajj, he performed 40 Hajjs so you can imagine
the time he spent going back and forth.
The families
that used to ask him for visits included the local Syed
families, the Memons of Memon Kunri and the Kubers of Khipro.
The Dars family living in our hometown used to ask him to
come over specifically to read durood Akbar at
their house for blessings. She never went with him when he
traveled to anyone else’s house except those of the Hashmani
Syeds and the Memons. Our relations with these two families
go a long way; we have known them since the beginning of
1800s. The ladies of those houses used to take care of her
like their own child.
She often
relates narratives of her childhood with a fond smile, she
was brought up in Sindh and how she used to play a very
typical Sindhi game called kheer kheer vatti with
friends her age in the orchard owned by her grandmother;
Naani Fatima. She says Naani Fatima was a very
pious person herself, would sit in the orchard and when the
kids went to bring the evening tea for her; she used to
serve them first before drinking a cup herself; even though
the kids had already had their tea. Just after Asr
prayer she used to insist that the children must leave the
orchard and go inside the house. She herself would enter the
house just before Maghrib prayer. (As a child, I once
visited the house of relatives who live near that orchard
and have had the privilege of eating a mulberry (toot
in Arabic/Sindhi) from that orchard). Mum is the only
grandchild who resembles naani Fatima a little bit
she says.
If one is
brought up by a person who can move about faster than the
speed of light & is able to communicate with God’s angels,
little wonder they pick up exceptional mannerisms &
qualities. She says her Daada Haji Gaarho used to teach her
peel fruit by his own hands and feed her, while telling her
never to retaliate if someone offends her. When she
protested, he said:
Let God do it, if you retaliate then He won’t take your side
and take revenge
Once she
complained to him that her name is not good, he smiled
because it was he who had chosen it. Basrah means vision in
Arabic. It is among the attributes of Allah, He is Baseer
(All Seeing). So dada Gaarho told her “silly you have a very
beautiful name”.
Mum knocked
at my room door last week and opened it to bring me a cup of
tea. I had already had my first mug; she had brought me the
second cup.
“Mum you are an angel” I told her. She smiled.
This brings me
to a particular day in Kenya when we witnessed an incident
that only someone from her background could pull off.
(Unlike popular belief in Pakistan, Kenya is a very advanced
country, Nairobi is better than Islamabad in both weather
and infrastructure). The weather forecast for the day was
that of rain. We were about to have a dinner party in the
gardens. Mum was busy, in the kitchen as she often was on
such occasions whipping up some of her finest culinary
masterpieces. If a heavenly person like her makes food, then
it goes without saying the food is going to taste heavenly.
I am getting
ahead of myself, at this particular day she kept praying to
Allah so that it doesn’t rain. What actually happened was
amazing for those who witnessed it but may be not for her.
The rain came, but our garden remained as it is, there was
rain on both sides of our house but not upon our house. We
nicely had the dinner party without any disturbance from
nature that day.
There are many
such incidences where her intuitions were right on the
button. Our German neighbors’ house got burgled once, so
after a few weeks of that burglary, mum told us:
Our house will be burgled, take the electronic equipment
upstairs so that if anyone comes in the living room below,
they won’t find anything of value”.
We did what
she said but half heartedly, we left the TV and one of the
fancy audio tape players downstairs. That day the burglars
came and took the two items! They even opened the fridge to
see if there was anything of value. They knew that people
may put valuable things in the fridge to hide them and some
ladies put their makeup bought in Europe or United States in
the fridge; to keep it at the low temperature of the country
they bought it in. This is done stop it from going bad in
high temperatures of a tropical country they may reside in.
Makeup can be expensive if it’s from Esté Lauder or
Elizabeth Arden and can be re- sold for a lot of money. If
one loses a lipstick, it’s worth at least $60.
Another time,
we were driving and as soon as we passed from a roundabout
she said she sees blood on the road around that roundabout.
Exactly half an hour later, a horrific accident took place
at the very spot & people were injured. I can go down the
list of the times past but feel like coming to the present.
When Benazir Sahiba returned to Pakistan, mum had told me
she prays for her well being because her life is in danger.
It was she who broke the news to me about her martyrdom. I
had been preparing to go to wedding reception, as soon as I
came out of my room; I had looked aimlessly at TV without
registering the images of mayhem. She looked at me & said “Benazir
ra khushto ishtesh” (they have killed Benazir). Balochi
is a very mellow language but these words fell upon my ears
like lead pellets. The next day she picked up a copy of Dawn
newspaper and said: “look she looks like a rose” and the
name “Rose Face” came in my mind which is what I now call
her.
Day before
yesterday it was extremely hot, and mum looked outside the
window and said:
Ya Allah make it cloudy and cooler
And voila it
was cooler the next day! Just now as I finished writing this
article, mum has brought me fruit which is eaten as dessert
in our house instead of heavy cakes and pies and ice creams.
I didn’t say mum you are an angel this time but gave her one
of my grateful smiles. I envy her; she lived with extra
ordinary folks which very few people get the opportunity to
be related to.
Uploaded date: June 16, 2008 |
