I remember the vivid colours, the smells and the seasons of my homeland. The arrival of autumn was visible in the orchards where the apricot trees would turn bright red and orange. In the evenings, as dusk approached, the towering mountains would somehow seem taller and intimidating to me and I can still recall my little feet aching with the momentum of the speed with which I scurried home. There were men who knew my parents walking home slowly, ruggedly handsome men with bushy beards, wearing caps with the sides rolled up or the typical skull cap or the turban, and they would stare at me wondering why I was running like that.
Our house was in the heart of the city, in the Kissa Khwani Bazaar, so named because wandering traders stopped there either to tell their own stories or listen to stories told by the local inhabitants. The images of the Mahabat Khan Masjid (mosque), the Cantonment, the bazaar where I wandered with the ladies of the house and the street where roses of varying shades of pink and red were sold to British gentlemen who, perhaps, took them home gallantly to their women, often appear before my eyes like a motion picture when I am in a thoughtful mood.
Winter in the North West Frontier region of Peshawar was unbearable for its inhabitants, however strong and accustomed they were to its harshness and inclemency. During winter, the days invariably dawned without a hint of sunshine and there was no knowing whether it was night or day if one did not ascertain what the time was. The mountains and the hills that rose majestically in the landscape came to sight only when a good part of the morning had gone by.
In the winter months those who had risen early for Fajr prayers (the first of the five daily prayers offered by practising Muslims) had to go through the ordeal of breaking sheets of ice that had formed on the water stored in the tanks kept for wuzoo (ablution) near the masjid. The ice-cold water and the tingle of pain it caused when it touched the peeling skin of the body are still fresh in my memory. Whether it was due to the harshness of winter or due to the distress caused by the blinding dust storms that frequently swept the plains in the scorching heat of the summer months, life was not easy for those who toiled outside in the orchards and fields.