Guess who brought Toblerone?

Guess who got a huge Toblerone with their name on it? 

My younger sister Saira is back in Islamabad after more than 5 years and we went to pick her up at the Airport. 

And, of course, Kavita got very very shy in the beginning. 

And because my sister is 11 years younger than me and she was the baby of the family for a while, I'll now start mixing up Kavita and Saira's names. 

 

Going to finally use the compost

I've been making compost for a while. I'm finally going to mix it with ordinary dirt and use it. Changez will mix it for me. Thank you, Changez. 

At the darzi.

It is such a pleasure to get things stitched at the darzi again. I haven't been to a darzi in years now because our family darzi lied, delayed , destroyed and, just took the whole thrill out of clothes. I randomly found an amazing darzi in our nearby F-11 Markaz. Not only did he agree to stitch mine but Kavita's clothes too. He is so professional and true to his word. 

It has been a very pleasant experience. This part of F-11 Markaz has dozens of tailoring shops, lace shops, cloth shops, pico centres, you name it. 

Since I started working and earning my own money, I spent money on ready-made suits at Generation. That was my go-to place and, I always splurged there. I don't need to gush about Generation here and how funky, modern and beautiful their designs are. 

And, now that fast fashion has arrived in Pakistan, it almost seemed pointless to me to have to do endure the hassle of a darzi. 

Unfortunately fast fashion has also brought in ugly ugly digital prints. I don't know how and why ugly digital prints are everywhere. They are ugly. Garish. 

Going back to a darzi has totally slowed down the shopping experience. From finding the cloth to matching lace and buttons, to thinking about a cut and design, to go back and forth to a tailor is a slow deliberate process that makes you appreciate what tailoring actually is. 

I guess a part of me is always finding my old sense of Pakistan everywhere. I do love the bazaar and individual non-branded shops. 

Getting something made by a tailor is such a drastically different experience than buying a kurta from Khaadi. It's a slower and more inter-personal process, let alone 30 minute shopping trip. 

Of course I made a video. See here. 

Flowering of the Beaucarnea recurvata

 

We've got a great new mali, Changez. He's very very efficient, thorough and easy to deal with. 

I've asked him to trim all the hedges and bushes. 

I went out to see the view from the balcony and lo and behold , the pony tailed palm has flowered! 

My luscious balcony garden

I've loved bringing this balcony to life. I've filled it with some of the billions of planters we have downstairs outside and also bought some new ones from nurseries. I've learned the art of propagation and propagated so many things in empty yoghurt containers, glass candle jars, even face cream jars. It's such an overwhelming joy to see things grow and bloom and flourish. I spend hours watering, weeding, reorganising, looking up names of plants and just admiring them. 

There is so much purple in our house, from the purple shamrock to the purple

heart to our purple kitchen and that Kavita's in 3 Purple. 

The absolutely stunning Echeveria White Rose. This is such a thing of beauty , a whitish gray rose with 

pink dipped 'petals.' It grows only as big as the container , seemingly, and if you make a cutting and, propagate it in another planter, it will first grow tiny little roses along the edge of the cutting

and then grow bigger. It is amazing how it can multiply, like a mathematical thing, like a 

Fibonacci spiral.  

These are mostly spider plants and white rose succulents in Dhaka Sweets raasmalai handi. 

These are only a few of the handi i.e. all the raasmalai I've had during the summer. 

Portulacaria afra or elephant bush. I can't tell you how much I love this plant. There were 2 pots of these downstairs and from a couple of cuttings I propagated 3 big pots and many many more in smaller planters. They are the easiest thing to propagate and they are just beautiful succulents. 

Talented and Motivational

I've said it before: I'm not making fun of anyone's English. If anything, we have to recognise at this point that English is a colonial language and, may have been spoken in a Queen's way before but now it is a living and changing language that is being mixed up, mashed up and colloquialised world over. It is being sprinkled on shop fronts, business names, business language, language of instruction, everywhere by people whose first language it is not. 

In that spirit, I do find this a humorous sign. I sighted it in F-10 Markaz and I love it. 

Shah Allah Ditta Caves

Entrance to the Shah Allah Ditta Caves 

Vines of the peepul trees (Ficus religiosa or sacred fig)

There was an old man at the mouth of this cave who traced some history of 

Alexander the Great. He said he's been living here for decades. 

Beautiful setting

Pakoray and jhoolay 

Chai, pakoray aur jhoolay 

I had no idea that the Shah Allah Ditta Caves are so close to my house in F-11/4. They are a little further up from D-12, a new sector that we drove through while going up to the Caves. It hardly took 20 or 25 minutes from our house and, of course the way back seemed even shorter.

D-12 has that ‘new sector’ look to it, new houses and hardly any trees. It is much closer to the Hills and it must be quite peaceful there.

Early September means it is still very hot and warm.

The site is clearly ancient. From the entrance one can see stone paths , water tanks, steps and more. There are beautiful ancient trees everywhere. I learned they are called ‘barrh’ trees and have a sap that comes out of the bark. I looked them up and they are Ficus religiosa or whaddya now “peepal”.

The Buddha apparently attained enlightment under this tree.

I loved being there. There were at least 3 different places to get tea and snacks and 2 qawali parties. There were jhoolay at the place where we sat and got tea. Kavita really enjoyed the golden afternoon.

I made 2 videos . Check them out on my YouTube channel: Chai, pakoray aur jhoolay and Shah Allah Ditta Caves.

I am your boss, you have to do everything I say