Category: 1996

someone was disturbing my dreams. it was maa. she told us to get up. i was, by the way, dreaming of me and fowad going on a two year world tour. well, i got up, had breakfast, and then sat. sat ? yes, sat with a novel. i read the remaining stories of “The Hound of Death”. i have, however, not till now read the story, “The Hound of Death” but have read all the others.

we played cricket again today. naseem uncle took my bowling over and delivered six balls. they were all very fast. anyway, at 6:42 i came out of the bathroom in my Ihram, which is two white unthreaded sheets worn on the body. one serves as a pant while the other as a shirt. we then went to masjid-e-ayesha to make our Ihram legal. prayed and then monsieur thrawn had to go to the bathroom. we waited for half an hour near the door but the guy inside was either dead or taking a long bath. all the other bathrooms were occupied with two men standing outside waiting for their turn. at least skid came and we went back to the car. maa, driver, and the other auntis were waiting for us for atleast half an hour. the stupid thing is that thrawn didn’t go to the bathroom and just started walking back to the Dodge Van when skid scolded him.

we then headed home and stopped at a supermarket at 9 pm. i had looked at the time. to enter the grounds of the mansion the car had to climb a ramp which was inclined at an angle of 30 or 35 degrees. as i was sitting in the farthest corner of the car, i really had a scare. it made me remember the takeoff in Delta Airlines in USA when we were going from NY to Chicago. we were at the back of the plane and it was scary.

well, we have to go to Mina now and have to spend the night there. right now it is 9:45 and i don’t know when we will go. so dear diary, i will write when we get there.

10:30 : change of plans. shahana aani came and suggested two options. whether to spend three nights without sleeping or spend two nights. obviously, we choose the second one. then slept and decided to wake up at 7:00 am to go to Mina. thus, bye for now.

Mina

we woke up at 11:30 today. we means me and skid. washed and then had breakfast. then went out to search for a shop, i.e. baqqala. it took us atleast 30 minutes to reach one. then bought Pepsis and some snacks. another 30 minutes took us to reach back home. then we started reading stories. i read The Adventure of the Final Problem, The Adventure of the Empty House, A Scandal in Bohemia, and The Adventure of the Three Gables. these are all Sherlock Holmes stories. Hercule Poirot is much better than him. thus, Agatha Christie is better than Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle.

skid has gone to arsalan’s house to return all his books… or novels to be exact. the time was 5:25. we pushed the car cause it won’t start otherwise. my cricket ball is lost. the one i took from the club. it was Dannay made. quite a good ball. i have nothing to do now (at 5:30). i could have played cricket but alas. the ball is nowhere to be seen.

i have no idea what i will do till skid comes back with some more novels. we will go to Meqaat tomorrow. so now i have this day to pass. and i don’t know what to do. i am now sitting outside the house on a bench of some kind with four legs. a slight breeze is flowing and i am writing. i and thrawn went to the petrol pump and bought some eatables and Urdu News. i then spent my time reading it. played darkroom and skid came back with many books. i then started reading Hound Of Death And Other Stories by Agatha Christie. i didn’t read all of them but they are good. i read The Fourth Man, The Witness for Prosecution, The Strange Case of Sir Aurthur Carmicheal, The Call of Wings, The Last Seance and SOS.

finally, i slept.