Travel with Tanzeela K. Hassan

FROM WHERE WE BEGIN - Karachi to Khunjereb Pass. KARACHI- 14th~JULY ; “Hurry up. Everyone, put your luggage here, and take your handbags with you. Go get settled down at the back of the bus,” said my older brother Bhaiya. “l wanna take my bag with me, Mama.” called Hadia from down below, in her own language only I  can understand. Her cute eyes scanned the bus just like a four-year-old would do. I had traveled across Pakistan many times before. This trip was different as it was my first time travelling with all four of my kids, my loving husband, my three sisters, two brothers, and their families. All in all there were twenty-five of us: eleven were elders, four were teenagers, and the rest were kids ranging from twelve to two. Every single kid was excited, and so was I! though I am over thirty, my excitement was not less than any kid there. We settled down in the bus. Happy as half of the bus was occupied by us. Our plan was to travel from Karachi to Islamabad in a public bus an

Red,  yellow and green,  the colors mixed up together with white ice to make a Golla Ganda that's what happens when you are around so many glaciers. The thing is like an iced slush with different flavours. Most importantly it was not the taste that mattered although its mouth wateringly tasty but the fun you experience when you have to dig ice from the glacier and fill it in a glass with a bambo stick and pour some amazing colorful juices on it, was exclusively enchanting. And this enjoyment multiplies a million times when you are with fifteen kids of different ages to whoop around you. Plus it becomes a universal act of happiness when you have a zillion such memories to be happy for. I still remember the time when I was a kid myself and we enjoyed the same exclusive Gola Ganda near the same river Kunhar almost 25 years ago. Wow it sounds like it had happened ages ago yet it felt like it was yesterday. CHECK TANZEELA K. HASSAN'S FIRST NOVEL  HUNGER

The enchanting music that pierced inside my body as I approached the River side, was so fascinating that I lost the track of where I was and what I was doing, our whole pack whooping around became a mare background mumbles. I walked far away from the worldly noises and endorsed the calmness of the huge mountains and the dancing river gushing by. The flock of sheep running here and there adding a drumming sound to the atmosphere little twinkling bells ringing by their necks increased the music to the surroundings with more soothing effects. I closed my eyes and took in the nature that Almighty Allah has provided us in this beautiful world. A moment of silence,  reminded me the fact that Allah has created this world long time ago for us to praise him not to create chaos and produce darkness around it. Think for a minute long and you'll laugh at yourself for being so ungrateful. We still have lots of time. Time until our death takes us away from this examination

He was just sitting by the side road blowing balloons with his mouth one by one  each in a minute. Joining them with a white string. A small box of KFC burger was sitting by his side. Maybe someone had gifted him one. His cluster of balloons was getting bigger and bigger every minute. That cute little boy was totally unaware of his surroundings. I was in my car waiting for my order, by the food street. Watching him. Such little hands were meant to play with those balloons not sell them.  The cuteness and the glow in his eyes showed the fresh enthusiasm built in his spirit. His outlook was as ragged as it could be yet his body language showed happiness and hope. I ordered four balloons for my kids although I never buy stuffs from streets. "How much?" I inquired as soon as he handed them to me. "BAJI 40 ruppes" I deliberately handed him 50 I don't know what made me do that since usually when you pay these kids,  selling on the streets, more the

I could feel the cracking sound of my tongue. The heat was unbelievable. Almost impossible to think of, as if out of the blue we were in hell. Could you imagine our surprise when we were on our way to Chillas from Babosar Pass which was cold as ice and in just twenty minutes span we experienced the hottest day of our life. In just twenty minutes drive we were in a hot oven coming out straight from the freezer. Pakistan is a versatile country... The true meaning to that phrase was explained then. Chillas is a small town connecting with Karakoram Highway that goes all the way to khunjerab Pass the China border. It's hot,  dry and sandy. We drove pass it twice on our trip to khunjerab Pass and both the times we were hit by the most dreaded heat one could ever imagine. Because of the height of the winding roads our air-conditioning was not at all working. It was just two hours drive after that we were again back into cold  chilly weather. All prai

It was freezing,  chilly waves piercing deep into my spine. I couldn't even put my finger out of my jacket-jacket like a thin jeans one. That was the most piteous part, I  even didn't had a chance to my buy a proper jacket. Tazeela k Hassan is an emerging Novelist,  check out her thriller   Hunger  published at amazon. The trip was planned in a half hours span and we were on our way from karachi to Quetta in about an hour after that. Visiting Balochistan in December getting the most out of the winter vacations was our plan.  To our delight we experienced the most exciting snowfall right when we were about to leave the restaurant.  Little white flakes started to show up on my black scarf. I heard shrieks and whoops around me. All of a sudden the atmosphere became windy and the amazingly the snowfall became thicker and thicker.  We rushed to our cars and headed back to our hotel. The track became white as thick fur in no time. Our  car was sliding through it.