And the clouds finally burst

You may talk walk with us this evening. I managed to capture the beautiful electric blue, dark, looming, rain-filled clouds against the rolling Margalla Hills this evening. 

What a delight rain is. When the clouds speak to the earth.  

Kavita is obsessed with going to the Park now, because she has mastered a lot at the playground. She also made a couple of friends, including a classmate she bumped into last time. So, it was a lot of insistence, planning, tears, fears of cancellation because I'm always doing something and promising and then breaking my promise, and, it was raining so it was quite a sense of successes to finally make it to the Park today. 

Kavita enjoyed herself. I just loved the sky and the colours and beautiful promise of a rainy night. 

After our glorious evening with majestic rain clouds on show (which didn't burst with rain until we 

got home), I had a terrific row with Kavita which means that she really got an angry lecture,

smack and stare from me. In the middle of this road ("this isn't the middle of the road, Ami"), Kavita started yelling that something like a "steel nail" had somehow gotten into her boots. She wanted 

to stop there, with Pakistani cars rushing by, in a mostly dark residential street. I told her not here but of 

course, she didn't wait. "Don't stop in the middle of the road again, Kavita" I sternly said. We stopped a

little bit later and it turned out it was a leaf. Later, after I cooled down, I tried to talk about it

and, she said she was freaked out because she thought it was a snail. She was very sullen and angry at me and "didn't want to talk about it. " 

We got a cold coffee and cheesecake after our walk. No more heaters in these outdoor cafes. 

Winter is literally over. 

And, I love how waiters at these posh coffeeshops have an additional duty: to shoo away 

beggars, poor beggar kids. 

I've purchased a grilled chicken from here before. I don't know why meat has to be so dried out

when they are roasting/grilling it. 

And, then we grabbed some burgers from our favourite TBC. You can see Saeed Book Bank's 

lit shop sign reflect on our table. Here, I met a Khawaja Sira who explained why she begs for money. 

Then 2 boys sold me a 1,500 rupee carpet which they insisted I must buy. The price came down from 4,000 to 1,500. I don't know why I gave in. I've been seeing these carpets all over, they look very shoddy. I just gave in, thinking I would ask our guard to put it in the quarter.