F.R.I.E.N.D.S

I thought to write about something fun and exciting, something away from my usual ramblings, however; with an anti-allergic in the system one can hardly get thrilling.

In the upcoming days I have plans to socialize, to enlarge the circle of my friends and desperately looking forward to meet my dearest friend Sadia, who is at the moment on her trip to USA with her son and hubby. So on her return it would be back to old gossips, catching up on all those months which have gone by and then also being a part of her younger sister’s wedding.

When I think of her a sudden flash of our ridiculous adventures comes in. It was the time when we were doing our BBA and taking extra classes for accounting and on our way back she being the creative mind decided to visit couple of haunted houses one being in Saddar (a commercial area in Karachi) and the other located in Nazimabad.

In Saddar, the alleged haunted house was situated adjacent to a petrol pump/gas station, so one fine evening we stopped there. As we were jumping up and down at the main gate trying to get a peek in the house, the owner and workers of the petrol pump saw us and naturally became curious. After observing our strange activities for a while they somehow gathered the courage to speak to us. As usual Sadia’s genius mind worked at it's best and in her usual confidence told them that we are the students of paranormal psychology and are here to do research on this haunted house. She added that we have special hi-tech cameras, sound recording gadgets etc which we will use to capture movements of ghosts or spirits or any paranormal activity; the amazing part of the story is that everybody actually believed every single word she said. However, on our persevere investigations lasting over hours we found that a security guard along with his family was residing in that house and there was nothing paranormal going on, in fact it might be the case of land grabbing mafia who merely to get hold of the house illegally generated a false rumour.

Then another day we went to one-time infamous Sarwana Cottage. This time we were more confident and Sadia had more credibility, so instead of doing outside research we went straight to the main gate, rang the door bell and candidly inquired from the chap who opened the door whether his house is haunted or not, and if yes, then we would appreciate if he could allow us in so we can take a look inside. Of course nobody allowed us to enter the house let alone do our snooping around.

We were not in the mood of giving up so easily and decided to go to nearest house, which was a small community hospital. Once again she told such a credible story that as a result the hospital administrator not only allowed us unhindered excess to the entire hospital but also facilitated us with their staff. We went everywhere in the hospital, at the roof from where we took pictures of the haunted house and also of the guard’s room upstairs as a keepsake; we spoke with various people and learned about their personal encounters with spirits or ghosts. I have to admit that we were so much in the characters that I actually believed that I am an actor of some Hollywood mystery movie. I remember it was Ramadan and we did iftaari (opened our fasts) and prayed while sitting in her car.

There are many such small, beautiful, and precious moments with my friends and I always feel blessed to be around such wonderful people.

"Never shall I forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours."  Ludwig van Beethoven

Sonya. (Day 165)