The Warmth Of Coldness

As long as there is the sky pouring down rain

I am complete in my fragments!

Astana is eloquent in silence today. The cold that people find disgusting is taking me to another world of existence. I often refrain from arguing how cold is not ugly, but in my head, I definitely for a short while thinking of the haters of winters the utter unromantic, the least artistic, and the worst beholders of weather taste. Pardon me for my judgments, but I remember how the first snow of late November in my home country felt.

My mom, the sole protector of everyone at home; when I say the sole protector I mean it, would ask us to go and bring the pieces of wood from the wood store. Those pieces would leave the best fire leftover to be kept under the table covered with a thick woolen cloth. Back home in Chitral, we still have the culture of burning woods. I am sure the culture of sitting with your legs under the warm table from heat and sometimes almost half of your body underneath still serves the purpose of keeping oneself warm. This is million dollars cultural practice.

A wood store would be piled up with tons and tons of thick branches of trees as a source of protection from the wrath of snow during winters. I don't know how winter smells back home now, but I am sure that no technology has ever replaced the wood store yet. No heater can ever trade the warmth from a round table gathering of cozy evenings conversations over ground nuts or homemade popcorn.

When I think about the cold I only remember warmth so how can one not love what most winters behold? When I think of winters, I reminisce about a lost connection still retaining its fragrance after years and years of separation, an era that has passed and yet presents to me another dimension to dwell. A cold so meaningful in purpose, you tell me can ever be so ugly? I don't know!

Cold and warmth are interconnected. You cannot understand one without understanding the other one. You see for many of us, cold is not an absence of heat, it is a lifetime living experience.