aloe majesty

the sessions have been intense
packed with information
classes running two or three hours straight
sometimes i am wide awake through the whole session, sometimes its hard not to snooze.
the mornings begin early, around 6am.
i play shujaat husain or villayat khan or bismillah khan... while Alexa and sometimes a few others who trickle in, do their yoga, drink their teas and connect on their laptops. they enjoy this music:-) and find it the best way to wake up every morning. all these new people.... all of them in the realm of my own reality. the world that i like to inhabit and haven't all these years. meeting like minded people - to whom all my ways are not strange or different but easily understood. and conversely their 'alternative' life styles are no surprise.

Alexa is 8 weeks pregnant and not only glows with love on her face but does her yoga as if her body is made of rubber bending and turning into all shapes and forms.

 at 7.30 am - a tasty breakfast of organic eggs - several cereal options, sometimes pancakes or blueberry muffins freshly baked and a few varieties of whole wheat breads, muffins and bagels. a few jams. organic butter. several organic yoghurt's and the thickest creamiest organic milk that comes in an old fashioned glass bottle that if you're the first to pour you get a dollop of malaai as well.

adeebeh packed me a bag of barbari and some paneer and walnuts. i toast my babari and spread the butter, feta, mint, cilantro and walnut, make a roll and eat it with my own cardamom flavoured 'sadaf' chai:-) sweet. they love that as well. who ever comes to sit next to me gets a bite.
by 9 am we're in our morning sessions....id imagined a lot of outdoor work, but so far most of it has been indoor sessions. we've only had one bed prepping session and have a swale and berm building lesson for this week.

all the rest is class room instruction. classroom is a long narrow meeting room with a wood burning fireplace to one end. my spot is a two seater sofa right by the instructors nose..others sit on the floor or on chairs. all very casual and comfortable. we listen mostly, some take copious notes, others already know alot of this but are getting some reinforcement, some new ideas, but mostly a chance to discuss and refresh all these ideas of sustainability in the garden and in our personal life choices. when were outside, i draw the scene as best i can. when were back in i color it all in. it keeps me focused and not falling asleep. since my camera lens doesn't open i figured this will be the old fashioned way of recording place and time:-)

the whether is cool and very spring and lovely. sometimes the coastal fog stays in for a few hours in the morning, when it clears the day becomes a perfect combination of green blue white and wet!

old pear in full bloom

pear blossom

7.30am

meal gong - sebastian

time to go -breakfast calls

March 19 2010 - 2pm

its spring
nourooz infact
I'm in Occidental California
first day at school of arts and ecology.
hoping to learn to garden perma culture way....
plum and pear trees awash in white blooms, daffodils springing out from different places, willow trees a light green fuzz, mustard plants yellow and fresh. the drive up from Santa Rosa through somewhat rough back country roads is half an hour of green rolling hills wine country. winery after winery all neatly stacked rows of short grape vines.. not a bud in sight yet.

Emily and Milt dropped me off, gingerly left me in this hill billy looking place...'call us if you change your mind, we'll come get you'. they were going to walk the grounds and see the 'gardens' one look and milt decided he'd rather be playing poker with his retirement home buddies...retired executives, doctors, engineers..than take a tour of this garden like nature meant it to be. she relented and went right back home..though i suspect she wasn't too happy. made me think how unfortunate that you have to tow the line even at 88.....

my camera lens wont open...who knows why - so no pictures for now. my descriptions will have to do.
the course mates..they're all trickling in. in fact are in. from el Salvador, France, all of northern California, Virginia, Connecticut, Vermont and ofcourse some of us form southern California. the youngest is 18 - with a guitar. wants to grow everything on his property and be self sufficient and not have to buy anything ..starting real young. mom dropped him off.
from Virginia - Dona - only eats raw food. extremely helpful..carried all my stuff down to the camp ground while sarah and i schlepped my roll on suitcase. lady from San Jose suburbia - came with blow dried hair and red lipstick. Sebastian from France is here with his chinese american fiance.
the guys - three or four all decided to camp in the back country..i took the campsite closer to the showers and bathroom ..don't want to brush my teeth in the pond!
theres a guy with long hair tied up in a bun on top..Sikh style, no turban..small goatee.

pond can be swum in
bathing suits optional
wood fired sauna takes an hour or so to heat up...
clothing also optional

you get the picture:-)

from raggedy hippies to upscale suburbans, from South America to Pakistan to west and east coasters of this country - were all here!

Shujaat Husain Khan, Herrick Chapel, Occidental College, Los Angeles

Sat Feb 06 2010
an evening organized by the Music Circle, Pasadena
Shujaat Husain Khan enthralling us with his sitar performance

farrokhs wedding
dec 04 2009
karachi

it was april. sunny, blue sky, spring at its best at mesa verde...i took her call on my cell phone. she said she had news for me. "walking in the virginia woods one afternoon, I asked for a sign from Him, something, anything, to reassure me that life will be lived with dignity and peacefully into old age. my eyes were shut, it had been a cloudy day, but when i looked up and saw a silver lining behind rain clouds i knew all of life would fall right into place. where it belongs - in the cradle of love..i met Robert soon after, fell in love and weve decided to marry." no she didnt say any of this in this dry fashion, but thats how i can relate it as simply as i can. she went on to describe him, many little details about his personality, that made for a perfect partner in life. one that is so worth waiting for and going through so many hurdles to get to....she was so very happy, so much at peace. in a very different way so was i ....both of us feeling how blessed we are.

i came to karachi a little after my landscaping/teaching assignment ended in Shigar. Moniyas mehfil was a few days later. it was also the night that nargis arrived from bangkok, with an ulcerated eye. salmaan and robert met us at the AKU hospital, straight from the airport. deposited nargis at home, tucked in bed to rest and got to the ganay ki mehfil at its tail end.

so why deal with khatmaals and pissus..bed bugs in every form. why squat to cook, to wash clothes, dishes, to bathe. why boil water for the thrice a week bath, and one to boil the bug ridden clothes and sheets every few days. why lay the mattress and all else out in the sun while i bike to school so i can teach landscape design to a bunch of girls who dont have a clue what that means. east west north south what does that matter??? teach by planting
a teaching garden???
take interviews of school children
and teachers
and principals
what for??
poke around every garden in Shigar
poke around some more
we're understanding balance and perspective and rhythms and line and ....here in the wilderness, in this village, from this spot, looking at the mountain here in this field, from this garden.?

none of it makes sense to them ...its only barely making sense to me...who knew teaching meant so many things all at once.....................

Aug 29

Walking past the local lumber yard and small downtown area, Ashiq and Mushtaq guided me to the town's bicycle shop. together wed assembled my mountain bike ...id had it shipped from LA, so 'madam' didn't have to walk to work. too much effort for a 52 year old trekker after all. the local cycle wala pumped back the deflated tires. The villagers watched on, surprised that this madam was planning on biking this very fancy contraption, meant only for hard core men from foreign lands or for visitors at the shigar fort, but 'madam' garden designer??? hmmm????

3 pm......... later we visited Wazir Fida Ali,

the head of the Shigar town management committee. Another pleasant intelligent man. We discussed modalities, got some straight forward information, regarding the ground rules of what is possible and what is not. i told him what i was here to do, and how i would go about it. There were no surprises except he said, that a portion of the donated garden area was sort of off bounds for a garden.

The donor wanted the actual school building to be built on that portion, a play ground or simply garden was not what he had donated land for...what education do you get from playing out doors, and what sadaqa jariyah does God bestow on creating school yards??? I didn't go into the philosophy of such tunnel vision ideas with the chief, but reassured him id keep that in mind as i designed.. so that our trees don't get pulled out years from now, for a structure to be built, or that the children don't waste time playing basket ball or badminton right where they should really be cramming science and math and English and Urdu lessons....no , not that. ill surely keep Gods continuous blessings coming through. Some day said donor and i will discuss 'sadaqa jariyah at length..that would have to wait till all the trees and all the shrubs and all the grass and every inch of play yard is safely in place.