enthusiasm

Sometimes enthusiasm scatters,

stumbles

then seeps its last few drops into the
drains of doubt.

And sometimes it rises,

up and away towards the

place where fingers of sunshine

tickle it

out of its silliness.

And other times it even

ventures towards the

great wide oceanic

depth of love

and is

refreshed

that way.

And it lives!

To Durban... Thank You!

Lunar Blu is by far the best pizza ever on the shores of Durban. Of course, there’s a whole shoal of other such wonders lining the trendy spaces of this vibrant coastal city; but then there’s also smatterings of art galleries, craft places, viewpoints, malls and yes, even people. Essenwood fleamarket is a delight. Kizo is my favourite gallery from the scant few I have had the pleasure to visit. And Whilsons Warf tops my list of places with good ambience. And so, I will leave this place of many wonders with a smile on my face and little thoughts of farewell… because I can now say that Durban feels a bit like home, since home is wherever little bits of the heart have been left scattered somewhat. Here, in as few words as I can muster, is my vote of thanks:

(Words are insufficient as it is…and it terrifies me that I might forget a name; but the wealth of gratitude is multi-dimensioned as the people who have carried me along this journey.)

To my Aunt, for being a pillar of maternal beauty and strength;
To my Uncle for being her smiling collaborator..
To Abdur Rahim for being an erstwhile bodyguard
To Hishaam for being a bundle of fun and my partner in many criminal endeavours…and for bouncing into my office every once in while with a huge hug and an elaborate smile.
To Fati… for being a sea of love; and to my gran for being so much more.

To Lubna Nadvi for teaching me the values of keeping your head about you when everythings chaos and havoc; and for showing me with great skill, what ‘fun’ really means! To Sultan, for being a king of a big brother figure. By the way, I did the bunny chow thing, finally.
To Sana Ebrahim for being a source of powerful innocence in making sense of life.
To Niel, Rob, Vanessa and all at UKZN’s department of Sociology for making my working life memorable. To Azad, Aisha, Bianca, Nadine and Nomkosi at IOLS-Research for 'challenging' me and for allowing me a seat on the joyride. And for being so tolerant of my tourist antics! And again to Azad, for reminding me, inadvertently, that life is free.
To Shabashni, for inspiration! And for the soul-to-souls that have enthused in me a thirst for better things.. And for holding up the mirror for me as I ranted and raved. And for sometimes being that mirror!
To Mala and the guards at the entrance to the University who find the time to chat to me every so often as they go about their work. I hope you lot will let me in with prospects of good parking when I visit without a staff disc!
To my eccentric ‘grandfather’ Champak Soni, for being a barrel of laughs and a wonderful agent of choice, for believing in me, and for sharing me with your extensive underworld! The family tie goes back before my mom was born, and so I am grateful to inherit the benefits of such love.
To Uncle Aziz, for humouring the demands of your childhood friend, and for believing I am capable of grand things.
To Humza D, for scouting the city for my car every so often and making me feel like I had a ‘Brother’ watching me :P
To Pick-n-Pay Hyper by the Sea for making postal service sweet and simple, and for allowing me to return your brand of weird stuff everytime we made the mistake of buying it. And for regular supplies of TimTams!
To Aneesa @ AMS for the invigorating chats and facials.
To MJ and Seraj, the Voices; and the rest of the peeps at Al-Ansaar for thinking of me as some sort of celebrity.
To Shubnum K for visiting me and adding a spark to my day with your inspired notes regards writing, life, etc.
To Qdee. For being sweet.
To Rae, for the colourful welcome.
To Megan Kleyn for reminding me what free-spiritedness entails.
To Prof Wade at Media, for looking so very inspired as I chatted about this and that.
To Prof Meer, for chiding me for not challenging my mind beyond my assumptions.
To Cedric and the team at Adams for celebrated bookish things and keeping me in the loop.
To Robin Banks and team for the painful exercises at enriching the mind, and for teaching me to acknowledge the power of thoughts.
To Sonu Nigam and Himesh R for visiting Durban.
To cousin Mo for being a first time bunny chow adventurer with me.
To Aunty Luthfiya and the ladies at La Lucia bookclub for being such stars!

To the stars that remind me, always, from when I was too little to think too much nonsense, that wherever I am in the world, I am always under the same umbrella of enthusiasm. And to the ocean, for whispering to me in its every movement, that real love is as endless as the drops that flow through its being. All it takes is believing and being.

To Durban. For being a beautiful medley of life.

And to the Almighty Allah, for endless Mercy, and for the flaming torches of inspiration and the fragrant joys that accompany me on my path.

Oh, and again to Durbs. For planting one souvenir accent into me. I think that got twisted somewhere. Sigh. I like the way the French say it: Au revoir… Until we meet again…

Counting Down...

Durban.. The little adventure that I set out to experience at the beginning of this year, has turned out to be a wonderful collage of memories for me. In the four months that I have been here, every day has been an opportunity to grow, to engage in the delight of a fascinating array of souls and persona's of a myriad colours. Needless to say, my imagination has been tantalised beyond fantasy, my experiences teased beyond expectation. And I have learnt a number of things. For example, it's one thing to visit a place as a tourist. As I have, often enough. And an entirely different thing to be a part of the fabric of a cities every day; mundane milk and bread shopping expeditions coupled with the inevitable familiarity that traversing the roads and lanes of a place tend to carry one beyond the rhetoric of being an outsider. It's almost easy to start feeling quite at home. Embraced by the familiar, the 'new' becomes posessed by you as you begin to belong. And the scope of adventure that calls ahead of time, from outside this new-place-called-home, starts to look like an anxiety-ridden game at escapism. Or perhaps not. We're all just travellers in life, passing through it's phases, stages and spatial realms; foreigners traversing unchartered territory in so many ways. For some part of the journey, we hope to take the good, and forgive the offish oddities, all the while remembering to thank the Divine order of things. But then, through all of this, determination insists that we follow that inner voice that has been guiding souls from the beginning of time. We cannot be anything but ever-appreciative of the glories that life presents before us, bearing in mind that it takes stopping to smell the roses, in order to really glimpse these treasures.

One month to go. Just about. June 30 marks the end of my stint at UKZN. Then, I leave. I refuse to say farewell, and prefer the french 'au revoir'. Until we meet again. Not quite yet though. One more month of Durban sunshine. Of waking up to the whisper of the ocean. Of traversing Ridge Road's undulations. Of cousin Fati's endless hugs. (And her countless creative ideas of why I should remain in Durban for the rest of the year, until she is ready to join me at Uni next year). Oh and another month of wonder. It's an easy cliche to say that there's a gazillion stars in the sky, and a few here on earth. But then, thats just it: there's just a few here on earth, and I met them here in Durban. And my life will never be the same again...

Durban, 2008, will remain indelibly etched in memory - a masterpiece that i will never succeed in painting, and will not venture to try. In adequate appreciation, words fail me.

a word about Durban

I think that I am in love. With Durban. I mean, I know that I miss home and especially miss my loved ones.. and that there's tons of festivities going on what with my brother's wedding coming up at the end of the month; but of course, I have been well kept in the loop, consulted and briefed on goings on, and doing my bit on this side as best I can. The little girlie sillinesses and such sentiments tend to overtake the psyche now and then, at odd moments at around two a.m when I would much rather be having a midnight snack with my brother or ambling past my dad's study to delve in the delights of book territory; but then Durban is also turning out to be an all-embracing place of wonder and opportunity and feel-good energy. And to think that I havent been to the ocean much. Its the air. And the people, my students, my Durban family who graciously fill my daily coffers with smiles and love and blessings and all things sweet and nurturing. The driving language is still much cause of amusement, to say the least; and apprehension when you consider the close call I had yesterday, when traffic lights stopped working - yes, Durban folk dont have a CLUE about fourway crossing ettiquette! Not One. So I have angels watching over me. I was reminded yesterday. Sigh. But in a word, I Love Durban. The weather is awesome! Sunshine leaves a glowing pink on my cheeks at the start of everyday kisses, and the smell of the ocean during my evening walk/jogs fills me with a silent promise of soul enrichment. Rolling Ridge Road has seduced me, finally. Fuel consumption peaks when I traverse its undulations, sinfully and gleefully. Its all worth the ride to work. Life is filled with enthusiasm. And I am inspired, no doubt.