busy day log
0430 - woke up to pray
0500 - return from prayers, read Quran
0600 - take a round of the house, open some windows, it is stuffy from the hot weather
0618 - Hala wakes up and gives me an earful for not waking her up earlier because she had practice and selection trials in school
0700 - dropped Hala at school for practice and selection trials, which she found out later, were not for her age group
0800 - dropped Daniyaal at bus stop
0830 - discussed with carpenters various ways to make a dressing table for the kids without screwing into the wall behind, it took a while, and after several iterations, we decided to make the base and reassess later about the mirror
0930 - after getting ready, drove with Wali to day-care, got stuck in a traffic jam while listening to Baby Shark, and ended up reaching at 1016
1050 - stopped outside Shifa Hospital for a cup of tea with two MR's
1100 - started clinic
1245 - ended clinic, phew
1300 - called bank
1330 - visited bank to discuss about previous investments
1405 - reached Paras Hospital to meet the Director to discuss about Nursing College
1500 - Director and I stepped out for masala tea and bun-maska
1550 - Dropped Director near the lift and dropped in to my colleague's clinic at Paras Hospital first floor - she is a breast surgeon who trained at TMH, and is being given a tough time by the male-dominated cancer department, estranged from her husband and bringing up alone a boy born just as the lockdown of 2020 started.
1600 - Had tea and Sottish biscuits with colleagues and a cousin of mine, who is a pathologist, and who has started next-gen-sequencing (what the hell?) and is now marketing it - nice hard work!
1700 - one of the colleagues, a deeply intellectual man, takes me aside and starts talking to me about his work, internal corporate politics, external politics, etc.
1745 - HIGHLIGHT of the DAY! Friends from school met at friend's house in Rajbagh - this friend is paralysed neck down after a fall twenty years ago - we check on him often, but this was the first time we met as a group at his home. We ordered food (from a Cafe named Le Delice) and I ordered coffee from Books and Bricks (you know). We sat and talked for hours until 9 pm. He is the most deeply spiritual person and an unbelievably positive human being. His elder brother and one sister (divorced) look after him. I met one school friend after 30 years. Wow. The poor Earth went around the Sun thirty times before we met again!
2115 - returned home, dinner, exhausted, fell asleep
2354 - some bloke named Ashfaq calls me 4 times. I block his number but I am unable to sleep after. Who is he? (Patient?) Where is he calling from? (Kashmir) Should I call back? (Yes/No?/Maybe/Morning/Later/Too late?)
0300 - Wali is restless and keeps us awake. He wants milk in a bottle. We try to talk him out of it. He doesn't budge. I finally go down to pour cold milk in a bottle. I realise its too cold. I take a new packet of milk out, snip it open, and pour the warmer milk into his bottle. By the time I go back up, he is asleep and doesn't want the milk.
0411 - I get out of bed to pray morning prayers.