Out of bed late night!

I finally landed in Islamabad, safe! The doors to the aircraft opened and my excitement grew, the temperature outside was low (don’t remember what it was) but lower than what I had left in Karachi, and Karachi was a 24-25. I enjoyed the first touch of cold as I walked down the stairs (yeah our International Airport in Islamabad still doesn’t have chutes). Waited down for a free bus to come pick us up and take us to the main building. The bus ride was fun, it gave me a chance to notice all the people that were traveling. Families returning to their homes, newly married couples heading out to Murree for their honeymoons, business people, etc, all fun to look at an analyze.

It took us some good time to collect our luggage. And finally check out of the airport. All the while we waited I was updating my nearies and dearies with sms updates. Messages like ‘I’ve landed!’, ‘it’s not so cold’, ‘and our luggage is here’ ‘we’re getting in the cab’ were being shared with 6 people simultaneously. So everyone knew what I was upto.

My cousin who was playing host to me Sumi said; from the airport I should take about 20 minutes to be home. She had dinner ready accordingly; for one she was happy with my updates coz that was her easy way to keep an eye out on her husband who was my escort thru the trip.

Just as she had predicted we were home in 20 minutes at the most. Her kids who hadn’t met their dad for a few weeks or maybe months not sure; were obviously more excited to see him than me and I have to admit he did take away my limelight that I wasn’t very happy about. Anyway I relaxed a bit after the initial meeting with every one, Sumi, kids, and the aunt. Our conversations lasted a few minutes with the usual how is everyone, what’s up with the others and a brief overview of what my trip would look like.

One of the first few questions that I remember were ‘how’s the cold’ and I wasn’t really hit by it then plus I was enjoying it pretty much until then, so I said its nice till now. Our conversations were then directed to wards the dining table, where Sumi had ready for me ‘Saag’ something that I had requested in advance from her. Before I left Karachi, in fact long before I had my trip planned I had sent out a list of things that I’d have liked to eat when I was staying with Sumi. She asked me to strike of Saag from my list which I did, only unfortunately I had got a cold the previous day so with a blocked nose I was kind of unaware of the taste I was missing on.

After dinner I was free to do what I want which meant we were watching TV (the ruse we used when we wanted to have a gossip session). So we went upstairs where Sumi asked me what I would like to use the blanket or the quilt. And since I wasn’t sure what it would be she suggest I’ll leave the two here in case you feel cold you can use the two of them. And as soon as I was in bed I was cold enough to be using both. Since I was sleeping in the kids bedroom and it was the weekend I was suppose to be sleeping with my nephew who normally on weekdays slept with his grand-mom downstairs and on weekends slept upstairs. Sumi warned me that if I he you find him sleeping in weird postures in the middle of the night I should not be too worried, he could end up sleeping like a horse!

Anyway while I tried to warm my toes in the cold we watched TV, talked a bit, planned out our trip, while Saad (my nephew) slept peacefully. Sumi tucked me in; I guess with more care than she did her kids coz I believe her kids were used to the cold while I was very new to it and she sympathized greatly with me. She closed the windows and doors, switched off the lights and went away.

I guess it must have been the experience of sleeping out of my own bed after a very long time, or maybe the difference in temperature or maybe that I was sleeping on the wrong side of bed that I got up in the middle of the night feeling claustrophobic and wasn’t able to get back to sleep for some time.

But I got up my usual time in the morning and since everyone was sleeping ended up taking a bunch of pictures in the morning. The fog was something I hadn’t experienced in a long time, and as I had heard that fog in Islamabad could leave you with zero visibility. This was a lot of fun, my niece was my morning companion, and she took me around the whole terrace ended up taking a few of her shots too. We did create enough noise to wake up everyone (actually just Sumi) coz almost everyone else was up.

Well when she was up I was treated to the most yumilicious breakfast anda paratha (that wasn’t the highlight) it was the ACHAR (Pickle) I had that was the highlight, a box that was meant to last my whole trip was half empty before we even started breakfast coz I was busy eating while giving Sumi company thru breakfast preparation.

After breakfast Sumi got busy with the lunch preparation while I went about exploring her house and the view (all that I could see in the fog). I don’t remember what else I did that afternoon, I can’t even recall what we had for lunch all I remember is the kids planned the evening out they took us out to a gaming zone.

It was a little young for my age, but I can be totally young and did in fact take a few rides (not sure what the condition of those rides are now) and play a few games, and yeah I had some good fun being a kid with the kids. That was my first evening out in Islamabad; I guess I had to start from ‘childhood’!