MO

Mohd, my sister in law Tania's son, an extremely hyper and super intelligent four year old with a mop of curly hair falling on his forehead. He loves talking non stop and most of the conversations involve his supremacy and how Four Arms and Humangasora will eat me alive. MO's imagination is heavily influenced by Ben10, and so his fascination with the super hero kid reflects innocently in his banter.

He is the sort of child who demands constant attention and will show his annoyance at being ignored. Being a typical boy, he will jump onto you suddenly like in a tag team match and do his level best to pin you down. I remember the day he was born, 23rd December 2005, the nurse opened the door and wheeled in a small cot and said " Who wants to see the baby". Excitedly,we all gathered around and were baffled as we weren't sure where the baby was. Mohd was wrapped in a bright green cloth and was a tiny little thing bundled up near the edge. He was bright red with pink lips. I was so fascinated by him as I had never seen a few minutes old baby before. It was early days in my marriage and I decided to settle down and take it easy for a few months. I happily spent those days at home, a major reason was Mohd. He is in Pakistan these days for his annual summer vacations, eagerly waiting for him to get back from Lahore. MO makes life very interesting.

PS: He appointed me the official guardian of his chicks while he is in Lahore, they being under a constant threat from Aki Mamoo, who wants to have them for dinner.

Electrifying Madness

I got home from work to find out that there was no light since 3pm, grunting, I put my laptop away, changed and sat down under the fan run by the UPS. I was reading a book " Three Cups of Tea", was sweating and praying the light comes back soon. Suddenly, the voltage started going up and down in an alarming manner, reminding me of the electrifying madness of two weeks ago.
What happened was that, hubby and I were fast asleep at 6:30am, we woke up to weird noises coming from the tv, it was on standby mode (sorry). I got up to switch it off but was late and it blew up with a bang, bellowing black smoke. It was a terrible way to wake up, to an exploding televison. Later that evening, cell charger, desktop, fridge, pressure pump, microwave, telephone exchange, several fans & bulbs all got burnt due to excess voltage. It was like a movie scene, as three things blew up within a space of 1 min. The KESC crew came and found out that a part of the wire which earths the voltage had been cut and stolen, fortunately they fixed it and we slept peacefully.
So yesterday when the voltage was on a seesaw again, I got alarmed and started unplugging all electrical appliances. The light went off completely later on and we had a candlelight dinner. Getting frustrated, we decided to step out for a while and got home to find the KESC crew truck parked outside our gate, just seeing them comforted me and I could look forward to a peaceful night. Lo and behold, we found out that someone had stolen a part of the wire again and hence the wild fluctuation. Now the issue was that in order to replace the wire, a major portion of a tree had to be chopped off as it was in the way. The poor KECS men set to work with a small knife, with which very little progress was being made. By this time, neighbours had collected next to the truck, all eager to find out the progress. Akif, my husband suggested they use a butcher knife, which my father in law uses annually for the Qurbani. It was a heavy and dangerous piece of instrument but the men made progress and eventually managed to chop off all the branches coming in the way. The man was huffing and puffing by the time he finished. We offered them water and tea which they accepted thankfully. It was after 11pm by now, the new wire was put in place and electricity was finally restored. Seeing the KESC crew at work late at night, made me realize that these men work hard, the whole night, from one area to another, climbing onto the poles, with no safety measures. The poor staff of KESC, who do all the dirty work, definitely try their best with the limited resources provided to them, so I want to say “Thank you for a good nights sleep”.