My Moments # 2

I started a My Moments series a few days ago. It is basically a recollection of the memories of my life, the ones that I remember and have not been told to me by my elders and have not been documented in any way. Anyone who has missed the first in the series, here it is:

My Moments # 1

Apart from not having time to spend with myself, I was also having some difficulty recollecting the events and memories in the almost exact chronological order. So, I decided to keep on remembering and writing them as I am remembering them. Its very hard to remember events in your life as time goes on (atleast I have found that to be the case).

I left off with my memories of Neelum Valley in Kashmir, when we used to visit my father during the Summer vacations. After that, I started remembering memories of the time we spent in Lahore with my grandparents (both Paternal and Maternal). We used to live with my Paternal grandmother (my grandfather died almost a year before I was born). My maternal grandparents also used to live in Lahore and we used to visit them from time to time.

My grandmother's house was very interesting. Its architecture was that of Indian houses and it belonged to a Sikh man before partition of the the Indo-Pak Subcontinent. My grandfather got it in lieu of the property he left in Aligarh. The sad part is that before partition he was a very rich man but after coming to Pakistan he did not even get 1/10th of his original wealth. This house on Temple Road was a small house, the ground level portion of which was occupied by some other family and the upper portion belonged to us.

I have many fond memories in that house most of which are documented in the form of numerous photographs. I was finding it hard to remember the undocumented ones but here it goes:

Cotton Candy and the way they were shaped in the form of different animals (cats, horses, rabbits etc). There was a point in time when we used to get white colored candy with deep green and pink colored decorations the likes of which I never saw again. While I am writing this, I am thinking of the food colors they must have put in them ... and that is not a very pleasant thought :)

The way my grandmother used to buy vegetables from a vegetable vendor who used to come every day with a basket full of veggies on the back of his bicycle and he used come inside, take orders from her and bring to the kitchen whatever was required.

The way butter was made from milk in a white stone bowl painted with green flowers using a hand beater.

The way I used to take leftovers and feed them to stray cats lurking around at the back of the kitchen. I remember as a small child I used to be afraid of cats and used to throw them the food from far away.

Sitting in the windows and calling out to our next door neighbor's daughter. She was much older than me at that time but she was very good friends with us. After dinner we used to talk to that family from each other's windows for hours and enjoy what was going on in each other's houses.

Once my father was coming for holidays and we had to pick him from the airport. I remember getting a pack of bubblegum from my father on our way back. I was disappointed in not getting the grape flavor as the orange flavor was commonly available and I liked grape better. That brand of gum is still available. It is fruit gum, a small paper box and carried 4 round gum balls. I cannot recollect the name of the gum.

There were times when we used to visit our maternal grandparents house (It is the house we live in currently). At that time my grandfather had a pale blue corolla and we used to love getting rides in that car. My uncle (mother's brother) and his family used to live with my grandparents during those days.

I remember, once I borrowed a double sided pencil from my cousin Noshi Appa. One side was red and the other was blue. Somehow I managed to break it resulting in a very cross older cousin :)

Cousins (aged 3 to 7/8) used to get together and construct a house made of cushions and small furniture/garden furniture in the lawn and play a family and sometimes even cook food.

I cannot recollect more memories from this time. I will write them down as I remember them in later blips, and I better move on to the next phase. The time when my father got posted to Kharian Cantt. This time as the place was not as hard-to-live as Kashmir, we moved with him initially in a small studio apartment (sort of). My initial memories of the place are that the kitchen was detached from the whole place and there was a small pathway which led to it. I vaguely remember shifting our stuff to the small place but its too vague and I cannot recollect events.

The ones that I do remember are the time when my mother used to make daal and boiled rice, eaten with pickle. It is a favorite dish of all Pakistani's.

Someone gave my brother a train set and it used to run on a track and when it ran, we could see smoke coming from it's engine.

I also remember going to the village where we have rice lands and having Sarson ka Saag and Makki ki roti. Although I was very young I remember the taste of it and the fact that it had too much chilli in it and I still enjoyed it.

One of my uncle's Japanese friend named Kume, used to visit and bring hello Kitty gifts for me and my uncle's son. When we were in Kharian he brought chocolate covered biscuits. I dont remember the taste but I do remember that I loved the packing and I enjoyed them alot.

After a while, we moved to a big two story house in Kharian and we (me and my brother) had our own room next to our parents room.

My maternal grandparents went to the USA to visit my mother's siblings and brought back many toys for us, one of them I still have. The teddy bear that I have blipped. This poor guy was a Christmas teddy and was complete with a covered brown nose, a cap and a mouse sitting on its shoulder. It also had a card attached to it with its story (I dont remember the story) but it was something to do with the friendship of the bear and the mouse. I wish I had remembered the story. I do remember, my mother reading the story to us before bedtime. If someone had a bear like this and remembers the story then I would appreciate it if they share it with me ... would love to know. This teddy is atleast 25 years old, if not more :)

There are many memories but they are very vague. I will recall them and will write them in My Moments # 3 ... Till then stay tuned and Thanks to everyone who has read this far with continuous interest in my simple and unimportant recollections ... that really do not matter but do matter ALOT at the same time.

Cheers and Peace!!