Waking up to sunshine

This time of year, almost at the cusp of Spring and Summer is when I remember days in Lahore, Pakistan, the city of my birth and where I lived for almost nine years. I thought of them one sunny morning this past week when it was so bright, I thought I'd overslept.

It was 6 a.m.

Usually I would try to catch some more z's at that time, but I decided to rise from my bed, and begin getting ready. As I was doing that, memories of summer mornings in Lahore, or Mum's village came to mind. In the summertime, for a number of us who live in the city, and don't have air conditioning, or good air circulation, we'd have charpais* on the roof, or in our verandahs, where it was much cooler.

We didn't do that at our house because 1) mosquitoes, and 2) it took us a few years, but we finally got an air conditioner. Air conditioning was not much of an option for my aunt and her family who lived in the older part of the city, or my relatives in the village. Aunt and family lived in rooms that were part of what once may have been a two-story house, possibly a multi-family unit. The Muslim owners lived downstairs. There are more than a few buildings like that in Old Lahore, whose designs are reminiscent of haveli-style architecture: courtyard in the lower level, with rooms circling it, rooms on the upper level, and a walled roof, which may also have a room, or not.

The rooms my aunt rented were in a house like that. We had access to the roof. When we stayed over at her place, on summer nights, we slept on the roof. It was lovely, and cooler. When I couldn't sleep, I'd just stare at the countless stars until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. There was a mosque a street or two away, and the sunrise call to prayer would wake me up. I could never fall asleep again, and it was not long until all of us woke up and trudged downstairs, because the sun's rays were so very bright.

It was different in the house where Mum grew up, in the village. Warm summer nights, our charpais would all be lined up in the outer verandah. It was much more in the open. There was no such thing as "sleeping in." After sunrise, we rolled up our bedding, and washed up for breakfast. Running around in the heat was much different when we were children, but the last time I visited relatives in Lahore and the village as an adult, being out in the daytime was unbearable. We could probably not only fry eggs on the ground, we could burn them.

I am not nostalgic for the Lahore heat, at all. I will declare that the mangoes here are not like the mangoes I ate there. I have never been camping anywhere in the US, so I cannot speak about sleeping outside here. My friends who love to go camping express some shock at my never having done that. Perhaps, one of these days. Sometimes, though, I do look back, fondly, at those summer days and nights we spent together as an extended family. Not all of those memories are fond ones, but more than a few of them, yes.

*charpai: A bed traditionally woven with natural fiber ropes, like jute. Char = four, pai = footed.