Once upon a time in Lahore

Once upon a time stories have always been fascinating as these always talked about beautiful princesses and princes, sometimes princes turning frogs too though. But their end was always charming and ending with kisses and love forever. 

I too grew up listening th the once upon a time stories and I wish I could go back to my childhood when may parents and all siblings were there under one roof and listen to those fascinating stories once again. But now with parents long gone and all siblings living their own lives scattered over different places, once upon a time is only a dream now.

And let me share my Once upon a time In Lahore [1], where I was born, raised (listening to the stories), and then left in search of my bread and butter to places far away never returning to live there again. But whenever I visit Lahore, I make sure I walk down on lanes and streets where I once walked with my family - now I walk alone cherishing the nostalgia of the days when love was in abundance and everywhere.

One of the roads we frequented with my family after sunsets was the Abbott Road. Starting from our house near once famous and thriving Lahore Hotel, we would go to Abbott Road truing left from where now Gulistan cinema stands. In those days, there was abandoned house surrounded with bushes and trees and looked like Dracula's house. In those Dracula films were very famous, or notorious I may say, and whenever we five brothers went past that place, my pace would speed up lest Dracula got out and suck my blood. But with my family and parents around, I felt no fear for my father was a fearless man and I know he would break Dracula's neck if he dared !!!

OK back to the Abbott Road, which like the abandoned "Dracula's house, was all barren, unlike its present screaming and congested traffic due to many cinemas that came up, was quite road with fields astride both side of the road. At the end of the road, there stood the Radio Pakistan building, the Television Station came a few years later in 1964. From here we would turn right to climb the once famous Shimla Pahadi (Shimla Hill). I do not know why it was called after Shimla, a beautiful tourist resort of northern India, but perhaps the presence of this raised ground reminded someone of Shimla and this small hillock was so named.

It was here that there used to be lot of fireflies and they would give their feint yet visible light and fly by us. My mother would catch some of these in her dopatta and I would cry with joy seeing these fiery creatures trapped inside. And could cry when my mother would let them go.

Now there is no Shimla Pahadi and no fireflies, and no once upon a time stories. All gone with the wind of the time and leaving behind the memories which saddens me for it reminds me of my parents and my elder brother who are no more, may they be blessed, and the galaxy of siblings living in their won smaller worlds, perhaps reading out once upon a time stories to their grandchildren.

Do you remember your once upon a time stories?

Photo : [1] Lahore is a thriving city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan
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Once in a while

Have you ever been avid Niel Diamond listener? Well from my teen age I have been and listening to his beautiful melodious voice and captivating lyrics still resound in my memories. 

And once in a while I listen to one of his popular songs: Once in a while. And when I do, the beautiful lyrics of the song take me into my nostalgic past - a time when we five brothers lived our childhood and later the teenage with our loving parents. I t wasn't long that we all parted in search of our future leaving the two most beautiful people that ever came to my life - my parents. And since then, it was only an occasional calling on as the dictates of our employments could not afford us longer stints with them.

And then time started to pass by faster than we could imagine - we had our families as once our parents had. And age started to set in we were growing in our age while our parents was growing old, fragile and then days came when the took their heavenly flights one after the other - leaving behind the nostalgia that still clings to my memory: those 78 RPM His Master Voice recodes and the gramophone that my father had and from it we listened to the English songs of 1950s and thereafter till the age of LPs came, or going to school making friends and then our father taking us to Shezan, a local thriving restaurent, on our birthdays and in the process making us learn the table etiquettes when in a hotel and even how to address a waiter and registering an order.

There is much more to say that keep coming back from memory hard disk every once in a while till my eldest brother Gul Hameed Bhatti, a renowned cricket journalist and analyst, and our dear sister in law Razia Bhatti, of Herald Tribune, later the Herald and then founder of the Newsline - famous English magazine of Pakistan, also took their buses to heavens. And leaving behind their memories forever with us brothers and their children and the people who knew them.

The presnt is becasue of the parents, siblings, friends and people we once had and knew. And when they are no more, it is only peeping back in our past and reminisicing the memories of the days when everyone was around - when life had parents and when life was fun. So do look back in your past once in a while frequently for it is those days which are trasure of life.

If you care, you may now lsiten to the beautiful song that complelled me to write this post:

Photo: My family (less the fifth brother who wasn't around when this photo was taken i 1978 - Lahore).
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With much love, Mom and Dad

Life has many ups and downs - but for those who have crossed over to most of their years in the world, there is a different life ahead. Something very strange, unbelievable and astonishing - as suddenly those who have been darling of their eyes find no time to for their parents getting old, tired and helpless.

The desperation of being left alone is haunting and awesome - every parent has to bear this solitary confinement some point in time in their life. No matter how many children one has, suddenly there is no one to listen, sit or even share a moment because life is getting so fast that even to spare a moment is tantamount to  lose the race for the top or keeping ahead of one's contemporaries.

If you have your parents aging and growing wrinkles on their faces, watch the video below before you do what most of us do to our parents:

With much love, Mom and Dad!!

Video courtesy: YouTube / Cealager

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What's the difference?

The relationship between the parents and their children is very unique, inspiring, and testing. Our children always look up to us for guidance and know things they do not know. But many a times it so happens that the developing minds reveal such wisdom that even the most learned, experienced and otherwise successful people are taken off guard and taken aback.

The other day I read a small story and it made me think. I wondered how small expressions can mean so big. The story was about a little girl and her father who were crossing a bridge. The father was scared of water and was having a cold feet crossing over the log bridge we normally come across in the wild over small streams. So he asked his daughter to hold his hand so that she didn’t fall into the water. But her daughter replied, “No, Daddy, you hold my hand.” Now here comes the wisdom part. The puzzled father asked as to what was the big difference? And the daughter replied very politely but with great intellect, “The big difference is that if I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go.”

Now this amazed me and left me pondering. How much our children expect of us and how at times we are unable to come up to their expectations. And when we don’t find the right kind of answers, we either tell them how they silly were of not knowing simple things or just admonished them for thinking bigger than their age.

So it is that big difference for which we need to find answers ourselves carefully rather than looking the other way. No?

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A Wooden Spoon For You!!

Sometimes small anecdotes startle and shake a person beyond one’s imagination and leave such an everlasting impression and a lesson that even if one tries to forget, one simply cannot.

The anecdote that I read goes something like this. Once there lived an old man with his son, wife and grandson. The old man was too old and would often drop a spoon or a glass or even could not hold peas in the spoon and spill them over the table and the floor. His son’s wife became disgusted one day and arranged a table and a chair in thee corner for the old man so that her husband and son could eat in peace. He was given food in a wooden bowl and a wooden spoon to eat so to avoid wrangling sounds and to avoid breakage of cutlery and crockery. The old man continued to eat with the same disarray, but now with tears of hurt in his eyes as well.

One day the father found his little son trying to make something with the wood. He asked him, “Son, what are you doing?” The son innocently replied, “Daddy, I am making a wooden spoon for you and Mama so that you could eat with it when you grow old.”

Startled? I know you would be. I don’t have to tell you that from that day onwards, the old man was brought back to the table to eat the way he did before.

I am sharing this with my readers, specially those who have their old parents living with them or dependent on them. Take good care of the old, as you would grow old too one day and beware of the fact that your children are watching you. Don’t let them make a wooden spoon for you and your spouse.

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