گواہی witnessing the birds

There is a continuous harmony in an echo; a gathering emerges through the whistles of the unknown. These hums run parallel to the modern world that I inhabit. My intellectual ability is a suffering of being alive. Yet I give this intellect permission to control me. When I close my eyes, I breathe and listen to this gathering. There is a testimony of another world.

For a brief moment, I am transported to a realm of these birds, whom I don’t belong to, but my heart, body, mind and soul start healing for a minute. There is silent care in the act of listening to their melodies.

Each soundbite manifests various human emotions but also sentiments that remain unfamiliar. This submersion, inaccuracy and yearning are what humans experience from time to time. This requires letting go. A profound cultivation occurs within me.  

قصیدَہ (Qasida) poetry eulogizing a person

تَحْرِیر (Tahrir) Writing

صَنْعَت (Sanat) Craft

Mehria drew parallels between the images of the blackhouses and her present-day kitchen store where they store teapot jugs, lanterns and steel boxes to store rice and flour.  Mehria’s narrative emerged when she started to describe her everyday activities. These included washing the dishes; making chapatti and Lassi.  Mehria’s mother and sisters would get up at crack of dawn, pray and then prepare to make traditional Chitrali bread. Her mother would recite a special prayer when kneading the dough and always started with Bismillah  ( "In the name of God…”). This was to give Barakat (blessing), which brought positivity, health and wellbeing to the entire family.

Blackhouse in Lewis

The traditional motifs of the Chitrali rug carried reminiscences of her ancestors who moved through the highlands of Central Asia and East Turkistan. The garish colour arrangement embodied Mehria’s childlike imagination and wonder. As a result, the lines of threads in her artwork traced their idle chatter of domestic life, enmeshed with the woven threads of the Harris tweed, is an encountering of multiple places that Chitrali women inhabit.  

بشارَت (Basharat), Glad tidings

Pan is piece of plain wood or mantle paced above the fireplace (normally situated in the corner of the wall) of the guest room (anguti) where guests put their belongings while seated for rest. Panpush is a piece of embroidered cloth put over the pan for decorative purposes.

"To see is to have colours or lights before one, to hear is to encounter sounds, to feel is to come up against qualities” Merleau-Ponty

وَرَق (Varaq) Page

نُقْطہ (Nukhta), Centre

The smell of an old-fashioned rose garden with a matt texture of pearlescent whipped cream. The powdery thinness is a reminiscence of the countless hours I encountered my ami (mother) and nani ami (grandmother) applying the cream. The subtle echoes of golden bangles, the gold-plated Sahara Jumkhas ( earings) entangled with delicate black thread swung across matted cheeks bones to the edges of a neckline. You cached a glimpse of the Chiffon dupatta in a light blush, with thin, detailed lace and needlework. Occasionally you saw the surma being applied as the final step.

عَکْس (Aks) Reflection

Something blurry

Indulgence that shuffles

concrete

anguish that pierces

colours that simmer

construction that weaves through the past

yearning for a clan

Apricots, peaches, tangerines amalgamated with walnuts

The unknown familiarity, like I have been here before.

پَہْچان Identity

The perfumes of cloves, flax seeds, and jaggery infused with semolina and almonds. The floating odours of Cardamom and fennel seeds in my chai. The multiple freckles of loose yarn and spools of thread were found stacked in a random tin box. The freshness of cut fabric and layers of rolled fabric rolls, some embellished and others marbled with botanical patterns. Khakhi, pistachio and ecru-coloured shalwar kameez folded and some creased on the top shelf of a coffee-coloured wardrobe.