Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal. Show all posts
M. Anwar
Fiction mémoire 
It was raining. It is too cold, every drop, I was thinking. What were you doing here? Here in this city, the humidity, so I liked it a secret. Often this question as you walk through its most street Fremont Avenue. But I liked walking on it because it gave me slight feeling of satisfaction. 

    A strange feeling indeed, considering that I had not made any money in the 8 months since I had left. To my horror, I realized I was in a scam to conne a job. I could not go back, I was very proud ... I was my own man after all. Besides I do not think it could have been able to sustain the shame of it all. Why? I was too naive and ignored everyone that told me I was crazy to do. I replied shrugging off what he says and make up stories about the glories of this new work. I did not want to hear the negativity. I just wanted to go out and be a man and live like I was destined to live. Soon, however, has become the conscious and subconscious deception in its place, I began to believe my story. I bought into the dreams and all I could think about was getting my own place. 

Here was the plan: the installation in a shop relatives initially, and then after my first paycheck I was going to move to an apartment in the heart of the city proper, with exposed beams and bare brick walls, I have dream of a lifetime. Next on the list is the removal of my old car with its windshield cracked, its four-cylinder oscillating, has managed to survive the loss of travel. The car had served its purpose and would not need more, because now she will live in the center. And nobody in their right mind needs a car in the middle, right? Duh! All we had was a need to move the train and bus. Where I go, well go to work near ... perhaps for the occasional trip to the airport and any random place for a weekend, or maybe the return trip to the publication home to visit my family and the rest of my family, such as nephews and nieces, who I bring gifts of money to pay my first position. All this was not far from the truth, if I had a job. 

It rained and I had crossed the 43 Fremont Ave. My head with his thinning hair is sufficient punishment, but the wind did its worst cold steps scraped my scalp dry. "Haircut Suh for you?" Which had started to walk past a nasty puddle when a man standing outside a barber shop grinningly offered me to come within one. I looked at him puzzled wondering if there was some sense by looking at my hair in the hundreds of people walked by with complete sets of hair, had to ask myself. It was very annoying and kind of things that you push down on a day when you no longer need it. I walked past him without answering. You meet strangers in Fremont Ave. Once he was walking and the man dressed as a traditional eighteenth-century Englishmen stopped me and asked about directions to the "best seat in town for tea." I had the crazy English accent, while completely immersed in his character. With people like that, you can never be sure, by giving him a strange look and then gave instructions on how to reach the nearest Starbucks. 

Even wondered what the hell I had gotten into me as I did the errands: a part-time work he had done until after quitting the "free concert." After learning that it would not be offset by my movement, and do not get any compensation at all, I was distraught and lifeless. I met a man who gave me a narrow ten hours that I have accepted. I was not an option, is an office job and is better than nothing. 

In fact I had many options. My options were either to take this "job" to find work in a fast food restaurant, or go home to question, investigate the eyes of friends and family. Creditors came to me at full speed on all sides then. I had come out of school 9 months and 6 months before the grace period on loans for college is way past. The people of the old bank loan could not wait any longer seemed to me $ 100 a month. They seemed very needy, and annoyingly persistent memories of friendship with their e-mail weekly, biweekly, monthly, via e-mail reminders and randomly at any time of day on my cell phone. Sometimes I dream at night of the school's creditors loans kindly asking me to pay my bills. At least be polite. Besides them, I had not paid the fees on my credit card over the past months. It seemed that they were not getting panicked my 40 bucks a month more for the hungry and needy banks paid. Of course, then my cell phone company bills as each wave surprised me with their outrageous charges that made me mad, then sad, then depressed, then accepting the abuse. 

I left the job, and faced once again the wind to reach the bus station. Here is another amazing fact: Since I moved to this city, I could not even sell my car. My car made here, but due to lack of payment, and depleting me, I did not get to the mechanics for regular checkups. This is a terminal patient, how much they knew ... but even they have little money for the review of new creation. One day, by chance, even before I got on the freeway, I realized the heat was measured beyond the abnormally normal abnormal marks the halfway point. The needle is resting andalusia slapping the bottom of the screen, well before the end of the red mark. My old car. I was tempted to quit, but could be a loud-mouth no assurance of my independence. Was entitled under the name of a relative, and authorities would have immediately sent a letter to come pick up your car left, which led him to suspect the obvious, and then saying the rest of the family. I decided to do to my drive. That's when I started taking the bus. There is no shame in taking the bus or the train and guess. But hell has no fury, you would miss the bus, that my world collapsed to a miserable halt. 

Sometimes I accepted the fact that I am only prolonging the inevitable. I expected to lose my last and back to the family. What questions would I have done all this time? Why could not get a job anywhere? For shame everyone, then, to "fix" my resume, my failure to learn to be successful anywhere. So my point is, I understand that and I'm just not good at being independent. I can make an excuse, but it would be another farce. After all, you are a product of decisions made. 

Therefore, I am here - not in the humid city, but also - and sit still. I look outside a coffee and go on living lies. I sleep with a woman who meet, children to me naked, I will buy the house, not the life I live with my independence.
M. Anwar
Lahore is beautiful in November. Mornings are warm and sunny and nights are still cool, somehow, very inviting. 

I've always waited for November rain. Brings with it, recalls the past. And wash away the sorrow. And it goes with you, a feeling. Therefore, prices and content. 

I woke up 

    until the sound of water. Rain. There was. That delicious, musky, the smell of my homeland in November rain. And I just knew my day would be okay. 

It took a while for me to get out of bed. Extremely vague. Possibly genetic. I got up and drew the curtains. For a moment in time over whelming, I thought it would be skinny dipping. Or, in this case, dancing naked in the rain. But the thought of otherwise. My neighbors might be watching. It was after all Lahore. 

Sh * t, shave and shower - all in that order please. My daily ritual. Time for my jeans, my shirt and my regular regular pair of red shoes. A guy has to be underground. Dig? 

It is still raining at the time I went down to my regular daily cup of Lipton tea. I'm just an ordinary plain old. I am 26. Still unemployed. Polite, "Yes quite enough. I mean if you have an understanding of the anchors of accents in a Pakistani English Channel. 

I loved slurping my tea when nobody was watching. A fetish, you see. Also, what was not Lipton Lahore? 11:14 am. I grabbed my keys and limited Cuore out. 

In mid-Model Town Mall to the highway, I remembered that I had left my Dunhill Lights in the bed. Sh * t!. I just hope my mom did not discover them. Yes, I live with my parents. I am the whole package is not I?. 

Anyway I was going to meet a friend at a bank of first class shopping center. My dear father had pulled some strings for me an interview with the manager in the bank a "formality" as the man kept repeating over the telephone. He told me to come occasionally, with the "casual Friday" and all. 

Please be informed, I am single by choice and the unemployed. I refused to work for someone who was less intelligent than I, which occurred in almost all cases. And detested the notion of "Safarish, a Lahori endemic to get a job in a" top "of the Bank. Of course, parents with "Lambay Haath" were mandatory and a prerequisite for a successful life in Lahore. Means to an end, you see. 

Thus, although theirs was a truly Farin (foreign) graduate, and also from a top university, I was unemployed by choice. 

I like to think that women are too intimidated to get hitch. I mean it was an "attention", as my mother reminds me every day. So women do not take interest in me by my appearance, seemed out of the question. He had to be something else. Anyway, I was too lazy to get romantically involved with anyone and make the effort. Furthermore, how could someone as unemployed as I pay a friend in Lahore? It was just me and my baby Dunhills. 

The rain was light in the channel of the unit, even more beautiful then it already was. I stopped halfway to my Khokhar in a smoke. "Dip, Dip, Dip 'n Sip, I realized the campaign Lipton around Lahore. Huge billboards. I think the boy knew. Afro hair. I was more than a Dip, Dip' n Sip type. Dips 3 were too strong for my taste. 

The interview was 12ish. Could afford to be late, my father is a "well connected" men in Lahore. And yet, my younger sister's lead Cuore. I think it could be another reason that I was still single. 

Although the rain was light, the roads were very slippery. And empty. I had a sudden desire to make a 360 'but I said to myself 26. A-levels, so there's more. Also, I was listening to Bono's version of "Summer Wine." 

My November rain followed me all the way to shopping center. I was in a good mood. The phone rang. Picked. And the director made me more traffic. Apparently, one could not talk on the phone, drive and smoke all at once. Especially in malls. Using mobile while driving was banned. I insisted I was sober enough to multitask. I leave you with a warning slip. And, of course, I used my "my-dad-is-a-big-shot" card. I congratulated myself for being a hypocrite in times of trouble. Note to self: no cell phones at Mall Road. 

I was only 10 minutes late and went to the first floor where the interviews were conducted. I arrived and I realized that it took "casual Friday" a little by chance. All other "possible candidates for the job" is wearing. I mean it was like a Lahori Walima. And I looked the oldest. Good. 

Apparently, I was going to go last. So I went down and smoke a few Chit Chat with my friend. At the moment my back, which was only three of us left. I went and sat next to a little girl, picked up an old magazine and a few pages back.

"The man in the shelter to walk along the sidewalk in the heavy rain - the home of a long way to go - you have to seek shelter for the night. His hunger is unbearable for all he had for the day was a great cup of tea. " Boring story. I started playing snake on my cell phone. 

Tea. I wanted my regular cup of Lipton tea. I got up to talk to the lady at the reception. Flirted with it a little and left my tea-instar. The office of the child would be more right, I was told. With a smile. I went back and sat down. And observed, was the only one without a resume. "Sh * t!. 

Since it was supposed to be the last to enter, there is plenty of time. Firstly my regular cup of tea and then I go to print my resume via my dear friend's log-in. Well took me about a strange reason for not USB. 

"Light" for the little girl and "strong" to the man sitting beside. Not the perfect combination. A full spectrum. The office boy scampered off. 

So we started talking. I mean the three of us. I heard he was a Social Science major Neha were offered on weekends in some NGOs. The guy seemed ambitious. He was an MBA in France. A little too pompous. And loud. 

I told them that I graduated from a local university in Multan. The set of "Hello, I am a graduate of Yale" routine that they have beaten very hard. You see, I also have this strange habit of creating scenarios and experiment with people. No I was not a psychology. I actually majored in economics at Yale. Summa Cum Laude baby! Besides that I had believed when I was celebrating "casual Friday" in a job interview?. 

Perfect for tea time. I noticed how my hypothesis that personality could be judged by the choice of tea, it was very acceptable at 1% level of significance. "Light" for the kind, shy girl and "strong" for the ambitious type. And for me-Regular. As always. Life can really be this simple. 

We were interrupted when the strong-and was called in. Neha was supposed to go now. In another 10 minutes. She puts the cup of tea on the arm of his chair and bent down to pick up your resume. Before he could warn her, dragged her and the cup of tea, as light as his personality was spilled on his clothes. She could not believe all this is happening to it, not when the clock was ticking too fast. And like all women, panic began. A little too much. I calmed down and offered to go first, while it was dry. 

So basically I left without a resume. I saw the manager holding too casual Friday. He was not wearing no tie. Went well. The interview. I avoided some of the same questions. A graduate of Yale, in Pakistan. Why? How could you say that, while I was there, my mother suffered from recurring nightmares of her marriage with an only child "Gori" and never return. I told him I loved Lahore too far for too long. So I took to be a little hard to move headquarters in Karachi. I never bothered to correct. 

At the moment I have at home, it was dark. The rain had stopped. After the interview, my friend had pushed for a gymkhana game of squash and a quick bite to eat afterwards. He had called in sick at the Bank. 

Nobody was home. I assumed my mother was in a "Kitty party" a group of pseudo-linkage of aunts and their children to suggest names for your future grandchildren. More than a mouthful sandwiches. I had no idea that the rest of the family. 

I sprawl in front of my big screen TV. Correction: My Father, a large television screen. And he became the news. What was I shocked. 

"Saab JEE, you want tea or regular light?" Akram could hardly hear, my cook. 

Shots were fired at random against the same bank where I had the interview a few hours ago. Some one had died. While going to the park. A little girl. Neha. 
I was suffocating. It could have been me. In place of it. If only it had not spilled the tea. 

I could have died today. But she did. That guy, shy, child of light. Neha. 

It started to rain again this time. My November rain. 

I finally found my voice. "Strong tea for me, please."