by Amina Aslam
A walk through my memory lane
It started early in the day … our journey.. The daylight had just started spilling over the darkness....
We four started from my daughter’s home in east London.My Husband, my daughter, son-in-law and myself.
Well my daughter says it is springtime in London now but the only thing I could feel was biting cold. I wonder if this is start of summer then what is winter. Coming from almost a tropical region as of now it is out of imagination for me. I guess this is what they call the “British Summer”.
Our travel to far north of Scotland has started. I will not speak for others but there was no limit to the happiness inside me. I felt I was the happiest soul on earth that day.
To travel far off ...to witness the infinite creativity of GOD, as it manifests itself into different people, different cultures, different behaviours and their lifestyles, to see the breath taking beauty of nature …
All these have fascinated me since the time i could think
They say the innocent dreams of childhood... if fulfilled ...in whichever way and in whatever part of your life.... give you the same innocent childish joy. I could witness this first hand. When you do face it you realise that you suddenly forget all those difficult moments and stingy portions of your life that the life has thr at you over time.
It is as if your heart and mind conspire with one another, chuckle with one another and win over the difficult parts of your life and find childhood like innocence and joy again.
British people have always fascinated me; their clothing their mannerism always amused me. Since the time I could get curious I have been curious to know about them. Ours was a Christian Baptist School. I still remember it, with its church…those huge bells.... there would be a mad rush of students .... running ... chaos ... but all so wonderful
They would visit us once a year... the britishers.... I would stand excitedly in queue, flowers in hand to welcome them, looking at them in awe. They would lovingly pat on my cheek and they would say “ study well. …Make your mom proud” and of course they would welcome me to their country. ”Come once to our country” they would say.
That seeded this desire in my little heart, to visit the country full of courteous, well mannered English people. I would dream of my flight flying over oceans, train crossing tunnels of snow capped mountains and some times me flying like a free bird in the open skies watching the vast lakes below.
Never realised when these little dreams took backseat and when the daily life and its demands took centre stage. The little girl before she could realise became a mother to four beautiful children. A lovely daughter and three gorgeous sons. The concern of growing four lovely kids, the passing time and growing age took the toll on me. Fatigue exhaustion tiredness had caught upon me, when my daughter visited me in India last summer, donot exactly know how, but she could see the fatigue right through my eyes.
That is when our first ever trip to England was conceived. This trip to Scotland is a part of UK trip.
My girl is actually her daddy’s girl. Her silence her patience, strong comforting presence; all are her dad’s traits. It has always been this way. I have never seen her worried about herself.
We had shopped extensively before trip, in spite of this what makes it special is how she clothed us with care, worrying about our comfort every single minute, fussing over us, covering us with clothing and with her love, from head to toe literally.
Life it is so beautiful. It feels like yesterday that she crawled, walked on my chest, placing her tiny legs, her baby feet the size of my palms and today she is making us walk. My eyes are filled with tears at the mere thought of it.
Why is it that parents fail to register their children grow. However old they might be why do parents always remember them as their newborns who just opened their eyes.
The first look of their eyes, their untimely laughter’s in sleep, their toothless grin, the sparkle in their eyes when they see their father, their first call of mama …these are the priceless moments, precious gifts for us from god. These memories remain framed forever in your life.
My daughter and son-in-law are both software engineers, so we planned this trip in the vacation of Easter. The idea was to have a close look at the fields, villages and natural beauty of England and Scotland that is why the car trip.
It was early in the day, “street lights hadn’t gone off yet,”
Light drizzle as is always the case in England, greeted us enroot. Huge green lawns, healthy cute sheep nodded at us all the way till Manchester.
Daughter dear pointed out the directions through her laptop as we set off to dolphin bay suite, The deep blue lakes as wide as ocean kept us company where ever we went with daughter planning ahead the exact itinerary we were to follow.
I briefly contemplated, how would it be to bathe in the deep water, the bitter cold suggested otherwise and I chuckled to myself at my foolish thought.
We reached Windermere in the Cumbria district early in the afternoon. I am told this called the Lake District, reason!!!!! It has got 175 lakes to add to its beauty. The lakes were so beautiful they forced us to abandon the motorway and take the roads next to those beautiful lakes.
Longest lake here is lake Windermere 8 miles long I almost got the feeling it was keeping us company all through our journey.
The English countryside is an exhibition of beautiful creations of god. I secretly thanked him as he chose us to witness this magnificent beauty. If this was joy??? My joy increased ten folds as I witnessed my first sighting of snow capped mountains, standing majestic so far-off.
I could only see their peaks, offering only a small glimpse.
These small mountains became bigger and bigger as we approached towards them, standing solemn, silent as if clothed in white blankets of clouds, they looked to me like the mystics of ancient Arabs, unaware of the world around them lost in deep meditation.
Ice ahead of us!!! Heaps of ice all around us…. my joy knew no limits. How do I express this in words to you???
It is easier felt than described. My eyes widened to absorb the whole sight around and suddenly I realise to add to my amusement our car was standing still…this was it… I wasn’t me anymore. Ohhh God I was the 5 year old me with all my mischief’s and pranks. I still have no idea how could I stand in zero degrees cold there.
Thanks god for the technology, my daughter captured all these precious moments in her camera. Preserved all these moments, our expressions, and our joy forever in her stills.
Slowly we resumed our journey and touched the highway at Carlisle and soon reached Glasgow.
As if the journey wasn’t pleasant enough my daughter was playing our favourite songs from guide, madhumati and humraaz as we moved forward.
My little one later told me that she had handpicked the songs in consultation with him even before we had booked our flight ticket.
Crossing over Sterling we reached Inverness at 20:30 hrs and reached our destination in Inverness. The “dolphin bay suite” to be more precise.
Our suite was brilliant; comfortable equipped with everything we would need during our stay. Our temporary house was on first floor. I was amazed to see the staircase the floor the furniture every thing was wooden.
You must visit this you sit in the warm hall and see the beautiful grey ocean. If this is not enough you could even sit in the balcony a mere 40 feet of distance from the ocean and get a glimpse of sunset and if lucky enough can catch a glimpse of seals and dolphins while you sip your cup of tea. It finally began to get dark. At a distance I could see little lamps, twinkling like stars in the night sky.
I suspected them to be small villages, I couldn’t help but wonde
r how much more beautiful they would look when viewed from closer. It almost looked like the villages were telling about their existence to me, in this breath taking set up, inviting me, as I sat there looking dazed, refusing to believe that I was really experiencing.
The following day I opened my eyes to see my pretty daughter with a wide smile and a hot cup of coffee wishing me a good morning. We could see a group of sea gulls hovering over the oceans from the balcony. They were big moving around like shadowy creatures. One could barely see the ocean through all that mist.
Elderly people were walking along the shore, wishing me a warm good morning as I stood in the balcony with my coffee. I felt embarrassed and shy at myself for not being an early riser and decided that even I should be on the shore walking with them tomorrow, returning their greetings with an active smile.
These people here are very mannered, courteous and warm. You can only hear many pleasant “thank you’s”, hellos” and “sorry’s” as you walk among them.
We got ready to visit Urquhart Castle along the shores of Inverness. My watch showed 10:00 hrs. These highlands have been ruled by picts from 6th century A.D. People here have spoken Gaelic since then.
Right through 6th and 17th centuries many rulers came and went, empires changed, many wars happened, victories were achieved defeats were witnessed. Buildings castles forts were created, destroyed now you can only see
