If you feel my writing does not make sense just think of me as someone who wrote these lines when she was recently hit on the head by a ping pong size hailstone Now read the actual piece.
Ice was selling faster than hot cakes in Peshawar for the last few days. And that was not without reason or reasons. First it was very hot and ice melts quickly when it is hot, the weather not the ice block, and a block of ice which could weigh thirty kilos is reduced to half that weight just after an hour. Ice,is short in supply either because it is melting fast or selling fast and also ice is such a funny commodity, it melts the most when you need it the most.
Secondly because it is hot, the weather not the ice, people buy more ice, I mean the real people; people with no refrigerator or with no electricity to run these electrical appliances. That of course is over ninety percent of the people of the country.
Many in Peshawar were cursing their luck for being born in a city or a country where nothing was as certain as load shedding when suddenly around six in the evening, the weather slightly cooled and most of us knew that it had rained somewhere and the cold breeze from there had finally reached us. But then without warning hailstones the rise of ping pong balls, and as white, started descending from the heavens. Only these did not have the light touch of ping pong balls.
Those looking straight and walking or those down walking slowly, absorbed in some thoughts, jumped when these hailstones fell on their heads. They felt the weight of the solid ice on their heads, some had bald heads, and before they could feel the cold accompanying the hails, they could feel the bumps rising on their heads.
In spite of all that the people of Peshawar, at least those who had not had the hailstone drop on their heads, were happy as the weather became pleasant.
Even the owners of the countless cars on the roads and those parked in the open did not mind the few dents on the roofs of their vehicles. That is not counting those who would rather spend a hot summer month in jail than give a few bucks on their cars. Nevertheless such spendthrift car owners deserve to be in jails and their car roofs dented with heavy hailstones too.
On a serious note, the pleasant weather will, at least, for tonight help many Peshawarites continue to sleep somewhat easy and without awakening even during load shedding hours. The housewives will be a little merrier as they make breakfast for the children and husbands, the children will be a little chirpy as they bounce away to school, the husbands will be a little more relaxed after a goodnight sleep and work more efficiently on their jobs. God, how we wish for the good old days, when we depended more on our electrical appliances to keep us cool than a chance and once in a blue moon hail storm.
Misbah Boneri
Frontier Post
