Once while standing in the patio I looked up the bougainvillea and they were no longer dead and dying but suddenly blooming and beginning to climb up the steel structure around the pool the way my father had envisioned and I said to him, look it’s becoming how you wanted […]
It was all that and more. It was the parting in the crowd. The first glance. The spotlight on the face.The intake of breath. The dream in reality. It was the dance of life. The shape of truth. The lump in the throat. The gulp. It was all that and […]
Today Muneeza died and it made me so angry. I dug in my drawers until I found my village file and I pulled out a letter from her. And her letter said, I love you and give my salaams to your parents and Hashim Amla. Forgive me if I did […]
Mamma says you shouldn’t buy mince from Star because it’s unnaturally pink and it tastes too meaty. She says you shouldn’t buy mince from Jolly Meats because it’s too fatty. She says you shouldn’t buy meat from Desais because they take too long to cut it and it works out […]
Yesterday I had a dream and in my dream everything was so real. And it was like it was how it was. And that’s not to say how it was was good. But it was something I knew. And it felt familiar. Because everything has changed so much and everything […]
My mother when she is angry will say nothing. Her rage walks around the room stormily until we must open the windows to let it out. It’s the Miajaan ki jaath we whisper. (I have it too. That streak of fire in the blood. A trace of Pathan that lifts […]
It is always thereeven on driving days when the sun is out,a hand on the small of my back,the slight shadow,the slight weight on my shoulders, I think, will it ever leave? Is the beauty I see,more beautiful because of it? I close my eyes,reimagine moments,to a soundtracka fever hovers, […]
Someone asked the me the other day about daughters. How my father had four. I said four daughters made my father soft. Softer than he could have ever become with sons. Four daughters made my father beloved, I said. They are part of the softness that makes him love God […]
Dear perfect future-husband, I saw your advert in The Al Qalam (March 2017) and I would love to respond to it as I too am seeking a partner for life and you sound like the perfect man. I must apologise for my forwardness but the way you describe yourself is so captivating […]
Sometimes when you get to the shore,it is better to be full of salttaste it in your mouthand feel it burn on your skin(crack open the corners of your eyes), Because sometimes at the shore,there are dead things in the surfand you must know how to pick your way throughif […]
