Shootout at Sahiwal

Last week, me along with my two cartoon cousins rocketed our way to another city on some business. We had never imagined that this trip would become this memorable and fun.I never left my camera. They never left me.

Even on our last day, few minutes before we departed, *while me all teary* We discovered my cousin’s grandfather’s Rifle. Could we three loony toons stay away from it? Nope. Ever since I got an upgrade on my camera, I have become my cousins professional photographer, so we had to test its beauty. Here are some pictures from that dangerous weapon’s test shoot.

P.S. No human or animal was injured during the test shoot, I assure you all. It was completely a safe rifle to play with. Actually its a rifle that is used to shot lizards in the house, as my khala is very scared of them. So do the math now about its safety.

 

 

 

 

By the Sea of Marmara…

You don’t ever realise the importance of being with someone special from your family, more than at times like this, when you witness a sunset alone – sitting in a restaurant where you just finished your dinner with a bunch of ‘strangers’ on a trip with you to Istanbul.

I utterly felt someone’s missing by my side during the whole journey…

The view is beautiful and mesmerizing , isn’t it? Its like a pathway of golden dust made upon waters… I could not get enough of it. Just wanted to dive into the waters and swim like a mermaid deep deep….

I hope to visit Istanbul one more time in life, ameen, just to rub off that feeling ‘alone by the sea’ : )

Walking through the Streets …2011, Turkey.

          Istanbul: This man with a pigeon sitting over his head is actually a fortune teller. In Pakistan, we have this tradition of working with a parrot. The bird selects a certain token, and the owner of the bird reads out the fortune for the customer. It was amusing to see the pigeon as an agent this time. Cute! and as my friend Tota Marie says,   “psychic pigeon“.

 Bursa: To see the women on streets , comfortably selling little pieces of jewellery and fruits and fabrics and Lord knows better what more, is really a wonder for the eye. We don’t have such things in Pakistan except in villages where women sell vegetables on Sundays. It all looked very friendly n’ fabulous to me.

Cappadocia:  Have a good Look at the man in the picture. There’s a Silent man behind another silent man. Can you notice him?

A short visit to a distant PLANET TURKEY!

Heavens blessed me, I made a short trip to Planet Turkey. I explored, I looked, I learned a custom or two.  I met people, made some friends.   I jumped around, never fretting for a sec. I clicked my camera  more than 1400 times. Can you imagine? more than 1400 times???  and whenever I clicked, I missed my friends and family. I missed them the most.

 I took a sky ride on Istanbul’s greatest n tallest building. I went to Mythical Medusa, she looked pretty old and dusty. I cruised the ship over the water clear as the sky . I walked the grounds of  Topkapi Palace with my very own two Pakistani feet, it was such a joy.  But not to forget the visit I paid to Prophets’ belongings.

There were 5 cities in total, I explored and roamed day and night. But still my awe at the road never diminished, not quite. It’s a story that is way long , very long and funny. So wait up for awhile.

I’ll start writing my travelogue asap and present to you the view of  ‘another world’ through my eyes.  It’s a wonder, how Ottoman Empire became New Turkey!

Till then, enjoy the pictures and guess the places. To view the picture gallery, please click here.

 

Flying up, up & Away to Turkey.

Do you know what a Turk says when He sees a a crazy foreigner, lets see a young and broke Pakistani ?

“I will KILL YOU if you come to my land again”. :@

😀 ! Not really. I don’t really know what he says , thats why I am going there to find out!

Date – 8th July, 2011.  Time – 5:25 PM.

Distance: 2476.9 Miles.

Flight time: 5 hrs, 9 mins

Destination: Istanbul, Turkey. 

The followers of Khanum’s blog must mark this date on their calenders and await my return. Anxiously. Please. Note. Keyword (ANXIOUSLY) and must remember me in constants prayers. I’m afraid I might scheme a plan in the end out of desperation to stay there illegally. Aja! Fighting!!! C ya all after a short break. And by the way, this my 52nd post here. WordPress just informed me. 🙂 Happy Pappy blogging everyone.

~ Golden Diary of my Arabian Days & Nights ~ Page 1

The story of it  goes somewhere deeper.

Red fine prayer rug, with golden gleaming borders. This is the first reflection that comes to my mind whenever and where ever I think about the journey I made in 2007.

It was the kingdom of Saudia Arabia. The land of the Arabs. With days as warm as the sun and the nights as soothing as the moon and silver. Where neither the earth is fertile, nor the sky is kind to pour down water. But prosperity and wealth still manages to grow stronger and stronger.

In such land of strange wonders and marvels, I lost my heart to a prayer rug.

A shop, the most beautiful and most cultured, and a brown complexion owner, the most unkind and totally opposite in comparison – somehow reserve a special place in my memories.

The background of the shop , the bazaar I walked for days and nights, not less than 5 times a day are also the same vivid collection in my remembrance but the next immediate sketch that my mind always draws with its memory.. is again always associated with that prayer rug.

Lament and compunction…

We had a villain standing between me and my lovely rug…My mother, the budget police and that seller: the unkind fellow as I have already mentioned.

Remorse was: I couldn’t buy that pretty rug that still shines in my head, seldom.

Didn’t I tell you people, the story of it goes somewhere way deeper?!

I felt tranquility in that moment. I heard the man say words I could not comprehend, but it didn’t matter. The rug was the lone centre of my attention. My eyes feasted over its magnificence, the hands felt its softness. It chanted to me words one could never listen. It made me smile and wonder like no other.

Such shop and such prayer mat are hard to encounter, so they are welcome to live in my memory as long as I be in this world.

I like to imagine I will go back one day. Free it from that seller’s possession. I picture my out-of-reach happy ending with it like that every so often.

Me…holding that prayer rug…praying upon it.

My Red fine prayer mat…with golden gleaming borders.

From East to West – Complicated Future Plans

I wonder if Ibn e Batuta had facebook networking back then while travelling. What would he had written on his status update each minute?

09:30 AM: ‘Riding a camel now. Very slow. ‘

09:32 AM: “But me and my camel took alot of pictures with my iphone lately. Yay me, i must also use twitter!”

09:45 AM: “Oh shoot! I just bumped into the Maharajah of Hindustan.”

09:46 AM: ” Hehehe, the dude has so many wives.”

09:47 AM: “Control plus Z – control plus Z – I never said anything about any of his wife. Control plus Z . Allahu Akber”

Getting the picture of his travels now ? . I am glad he had no Facebook for sure. It would have been a disaster. 🙂

But anyway, getting back to the main point: My Travel Plans.

Someone said, The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.  If this is so, I definitely don’t wanna be stuck at just the beginning, ‘Table of Contents’ sheet.

I wish there were no borders, no passport system, no visa requirements and particularly no discrimination against Pakistanis when it came to TRAVELING for the sake of cultural education. And if so, at least there should be 50% discount on all airplane tickets for students. Just suggesting.

If there were such facilities, travel would have been a blessing affordable for each person. I mean, imagine the travels of the people gone by. Ibn e Batuta For instance.  The dude to travel the world without any passport or visa hurdles was indeed very lucky. But where he had the advantage of being born in an era with no non-sense flying expenses , he had a pretty huge disadvantage too.

The great CAMERA wasn’t with him during his adventures.  And Here we have the most expensive cameras with us all the time. But sadly, no money to buy the return tickets. So some of us work hard day and night, earn money to bear the expenses and then finally a day comes to fly away. But my question is, what about the very common  commoner? The type who has the Extreme passion but whatever he does, he cannot afford the luxury of travel even outside his city.He might try the Hitch Hike across Sahara Desert thing. But thanks to the insecure national border situations, that adventure is now also dumped. Then What about him ? … Will his travel plans remain limited only to his imagination…? .. I just wonder.