the story of the Dancing girl published in french by Edilivre https://www.edilivre.com/the-dancing-girl-la-bague-de-fiancailles-nilofar-mehrin.
There were many cars waiting outside for the group of people going on the picnic .... A range Rover which seemed to be adapted to the roads of the area , a Suzuki Jeep and BMWs and their car a white Mercedes Benz which was the one were using . The driver had opened the doors and he was waiting for people to settle down in their seats .
Ameneh and her friends weren't wealthy themselves but were merely journalists mixing with people who had the means of transport ! Standing at the door by the car .
.... Minoo was looking dashing with the hot morning sun beating down on her . She was wearing a cream whitish top and pants Safari style and a silk scarf round her throat , she had a big pair of dark glasses on which gave her an air of mystery . She looked like a film star and an interesting young woman even if she felt like she was a little girl and out of her league ...... She wasnt doing anything while waiting and was excited about , because everything had been organized ..... the food and the drinks for going on this trip , everyone was being served and looked after !
..... looking over all these cars in the parking lot she could recognize a Peugeot , a Fiat , Hyundai , Volklswagen which she loved because her feminist aunt had driven one all over the city and because of the name which sounded so democratic ..... (even the poor could own one) and , Fords and Rolls Royce , Jaguar and and even a Skoda .... she was wondering if one day in some future world they would be hovercrafting across the desert in some army type vehicle which looked like an alien flying saucer ..... and that would make all these big car companies a thing of the past and these cars a sort of quaint priviledge for the rich collectors ..... l
Mr Hamoody too was wearing a traditional white "shalwar khamees" normal clothing in the subcontinent worn by men and women; and he4 was looking fresh and very cool with his expensive watch glittering in the sun. Cool even because he was telling everyone how he knew the name of every single person who worked for him .
He was only thirty years old and just out of Harvard. he had come back home to help run the buisness .... his family owned the news paper her cousin worked for . Minoo was aware of the dark side of working as a journalist in Asia . Half the time people couldnt or wouldnt write the truth. most of the time they lived in fear of saying or doing the wrong things , Thank goodness Ameneh wrote about music and cultural things . Minoo loved the luxurious feel to this car , she tossed her long black hair and vigorously tied it up in a pony tail ...; she was getting ready for the heat and she was thinking "wow, i've never been in a car with real leather seats
“You can get it if you really want”
You can get it if you really want
But you must try, try and try, try and try
You'll succeed at last, mmh, yeah
But you must try, try and try, try and try
You'll succeed at last, mmh, yeah
Would she ever be able to buy and keep an expensive car like this one ? She was thinking that it was hardly likely that she would ever be rich . nevertheless .... she was full of hopes for her future. Her mother was worried for her because she had told her with youthful naievty that she didnt want to get married to some one with money, just yet !
For some reason she thought she would always have this possibility ..... and now she .had just met a lot of incredible people her age who were actually doing things and having careers ! Such Fun ! She had met them through her cousin and the world had opened its doors to her. She had looked up Mohen jodaro in a book she found in the car . There were other people arriving and they had decided to spend the day going to visit what was left of the indus valley civilizationand then later on they were spending some time on the beach right on the Indian Ocean ..... In the book she had found a picture of a statue of a young girl in a dancing pose ...she looked like a real person and was very expressive. This statue was one of the few things which the archeologists had found there .
Mohenjo-daro (Sindhi: موئن جو دڙو, Urdu: موئن جو دڑو, IPA: [muˑənⁱ dʑoˑ d̪əɽoˑ], Sindhi for Mound of the Dead Men;[2] English: /moʊˌhɛndʒoʊ ˈdɑːroʊ/) is an archaeological site in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Built around 2500 BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley civilization, and one of the world's earliest major cities, contemporaneous with the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Minoan Crete, and Norte Chico. Mohenjo-daro was abandoned in the 19th century BCE as the Indus Valley Civilization declined, and the site was not rediscovered until the 1920s. Significant excavation has since been conducted at the site of the city, which was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.[3] The site is currently threatened by erosion and improper restoration.[4]
Ameneh and her friends had planed this visit because there was an Italian friend from Rome called Guido who had come to stay for the summer and his main interest was in archeological sites. Some days before this they had been sitting by the beach and having a picnic . Discussing the possible visit he had said that he had read about the site and had been very impressed with their creative social town building , these people living
contemporaries of the Egyptions and the Greek civilizations had attributed great importance to a very efficient "sewer system" where the citizens all had access to toilets and washing facilities ... they paid attention to their water supply because there was so little of it to go round !
. Then he could connect the Indus valley civilization to other civilizations of the time ie 2500 BC and this was fascinating for the listeners who had a professional interest in antiquity and history .
Soheil was a friend of the friend who had offered to take them in several cars. He was a thirty year old and older than the others because he was in his thirties . A very charming and good looking man ; he was tall very fair with black hair and blue eyes resembling a film star . He was another Londoner who had come back home to live and work in Karachi . Then her cousin Ameneh had taken them to Mr Hameeds house.
. Her cousin worked in the news paper Dawn and had been very impressed when Mr Hamoody had told them that he had read Mandarin at Harvard . It was so over the top to anything she had ever heard ..... Being a young 20 year old who hadn't quite found her path in life, she could only dream of doing something similar and she had wished that she too could have been part of this young and enthusiastic group of people who worked in this team.
She hardly knew her cousin because she had lived in another country and her cousin seemed to be much older because she was in her thirties and had lived on the university campus in Brighton ..... She and her friends seemed to be the "in" crowd who knew where it was at because they had a career and were working for an ideal which was that of building a country. . They knew what the Indus civilization meant; nevertheless as jounalists it was the modern world that they had to deal with .
Ameneh had studied some scientific subject at Sussex and had gone to live with her mother in Karachi after finishing her BA. Her degree had got her a job as a journalist . She knew that being a journalist in this part of the world was not the simplest job available. Perhaps for this reason she had decided to concentrate on her main interest which was traditional sindy music.
Minoo had been in awe of all these people and their passionate way of life . She had never been too interested in any subject in particular excepting for Art … she had a thrill everytime her uncle brought her a book from one of his travels overseas …. He had been a writer who specialized his reaserch and wrote a lot on Japan but he also travelled to Europe Once he had given her a present which was different . It had been a Pen and an oldfashioned type . Along with that he had given her books about Art and literature
At the age of 21, Minou flew to Europe in the middle of summer of 1982. She had just celebrated her 21st birthday in Karachi where she stayed with her beloved aunt and her cousins. She loved this aunt because when she was a child she had spent some months staying in her house with their family. The first thing her aunt had done when they had arrived in London was to take her sister and her niece to a local english jewellry store and she had choosen little flower shaped earings for her niece . She had then helped her put them on and looked very pleased with her choice !
Her aunt was married to a Pakistani engineer and lived as a house wife while they lived in the UK. After she was widowed she had lived with her children in the same house with her younger brother and his wife.
They had moved to the UK after the separation between India and Pakistan. Her aunt loved the colors of the subcontinent and especially Karachi where she had spent her childhood, and she and her family loved to go there on vacation. This was her way of keeping in touch with friends and relatives.
Now it was her 21st birthday and Minou had received a beautiful gold ring from her aunt. This ring had an amethyst of a deep violet color. She had loved it and worn it immediately . She loved dressing up and adored glittery things and elaborate costumes and had all sorts of cheap costume jewellry. She had dressed up in eccentric theatrical clothes, using what she had, when once she had gone to the Venice Carneval with her school friends .... she was already envious and desiring the diamonds her cousins wore and she was looking at her friends engagement rings
At the time it seemed as if nothing could have shaken Minou´s happiness . She did not foresee that something extraordinary was about to happen on this lovely day. There wasnt a cloud in the sky and a gentle breeze coming from the sea kept the temperature down. She was relaxed and felt safe with the people around her. She was the proud owner of and wearing her very special ring on her middle finger. The whole group of friends and family went for a walk along the coast. She was wearing her turquoise swimsuit and rushed out towards the beach, like a child, gleefully running for a swim in the sea. She was clutching the ring, and was sure that nothing would happen to it if she was careful while it was on her finger.
The water in the sea was pleasant and warm, she could hardly feel it when she sat down and not far from the sandy beach ..... she sat there looking around at the scenary and was rocked gently by the small waves .... she did not hear nor notice the big wave which was coming towards her. The big wave hit her shoulders and splashed into the air; drops of water fell down shinning in the sun like little diamonds spreading out in the air and then dropping down on her like coloured cristals glittering in the sun.
A few minutes later she was jolted out of her whimsy, and she realized that this last wave had taken her ring off her finger as if it were a mermaid, a creature who had desired her ring .... she imagined that it must have been .... it couldnt have been the wave ! And in an instant her beautiful gold and amethyst ring disappeared forever under the sands of the Indian ocean.
Sitting on the plane, she was thinking about what had happened and was sad about it . She thought about her uncle and aunt living in London, She had already stayed with them as a child and now would be staying with them again as an adult . She would be studying for her A levels. Her uncle living in London felt very responsable for her and wanted her to improve her language skills quickly. He was married to a Swedish woman. Minoo was lucky because they were both teachers and both willing to help her. Her uncle and aunt got on well with each other even if they were from different continents. They didnt have children of their own and they enjoyed each other's company and that of their nieces and nephews ..... they were happy living in an extended family.
While she was staying in London, her uncle had been criticizing her and trying to shake her out of her good-natured disposition. He thought she had been too sheltered because she was of the opinion that people had "guardian angels" who protected them. He was a sort of "secular leftist" and didnt like to hear airy fairy religious ideas at his table. He had lost both his parents when he was still a little boy and had been brought up by his relatives . That was why he was telling her that she had to be practical and down to earth ..... it was a working career that she had to be thinking of because, angels didn t exist and it was her own effort which counted most.
He told her that you had to work hard in order to achieve things in life .... just like he had done ! He had completed his university education thanks to his supportive Swedish wife who had stood by him while he got his Masters degree in Accountancy . He would say his favorite quote in French "il faut souffrir pour etre belle" !
ie "You have to work hard in order to be beautiful" . He considered himself to be a"self made man" and didnt believe in the traditional values of his ancesters He would have liked to see his niece do brilliantly at school.
ie "You have to work hard in order to be beautiful" . He considered himself to be a"self made man" and didnt believe in the traditional values of his ancesters He would have liked to see his niece do brilliantly at school.
Recently, they had a conversation at the dinner table about angels. Minou had read some chapters of the Quran , there was a whole chapter about them in religious writings. Her cousins who had been brought up by their uncle had the same ideas as him. His uncle had denied their existence because he thought that reality was more than enough to deal with.
She had quoted the sacred Qur'an where it is said that God sent angels disguised as people. "Then we sent him our angel and stood before him as a man in every respect" (K.19: 17) Like her mother had told her many times : "people can be angelic at times" !
As a child she had been told and knew how her grand parents had both fallen ill and had died young , leaving her mother and uncle and aunt on their own . The four brothers and sisters had then had the support of relatives. Their family had survived because well-meaning people had worked to allow them to stay together. They had been fortunate and "a guardian angel" had certainly sent them generous people who had been good to them.
In any case how could she not believe in the angels knowing that there was a description of them in the Koran :
"Praise be to Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who made the angels messengers with wings, two three or four ... "
She had had a good opinion of her mother's family because they were people who were dedicated to good causes. His uncle in London was his mother's brother, and since he had decided that he didnt want children, he and his wife welcomed other peoples children to their home. They were a very hospitable and regularly invited friends for Sunday lunch.
In another conversation around the table, he told her discretely that she was dwelling too much on the idea of being a traditional stay at home house wife because now in the modern world they were living in she would soon have to go out and make a living even if she was married.
He would have liked to hear her say that she would go to a nursing school rather than to an Art school because one of her aunts had studied as a nurse in the UK and had found work immediately.
He would have liked to hear her say that she would go to a nursing school rather than to an Art school because one of her aunts had studied as a nurse in the UK and had found work immediately.
Nobody had criticized her choice to attend an art school, but she now knew what her uncle was thinking. She thought being an artist was risky in an uncertain future. Such arguments reminded her of the pesimistic Sex Pistol's song much in vogue that year (probably with a double meaning} ie
These lyrics were very catchy, who knows why Johnny Rotten was enjoying such tolerance because any where else in the world his words would not have been tolerated and would probably have been censured by "the power". He had been allowed to survive and prosper even if he said the future was not good for his generation.
in the last years of 70ties, she had spent two weeks, in the English countryside. She had gone on a trip with her school, it was for her Alevels in Biology and she had enjoyed a lot of freedom back then.
All the students were staying in a beautiful old cottage at the place called Flateford Mill. Legend has it that there was a ghost under the stairs.
This summer she had a lot of fun walking around and eating huge amounts of sandwiches at tea time and enjoying the country air.
The teacher was a blonde and dynamic young woman. She had told them that they were visiting the country of the painter Constable.
Like the other students Minou had put on big boots to walk in the high grass and discover the tadpoles in the ponds. These ponds contained millions of tadpoles, the teacher shouted at her because she was walking with her boots into the pools and was going to crush them .
That day, Minou had entered the world of " the birds and the bees" and had felt lonely for the first time in her life.
It crossed her mind that people were talking about her and that soon she would have to grow up and become a woman and would have to think about marriage. This thought also crossed the minds of her close friends.
It was depressing to think that she had to fit in with social expectations.
It was depressing to think that she had to fit in with social expectations.
it continues
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