In the Spirit of Shabistari

When I was young, I dreamed all day of travel
When I was old enough, I spent all day travelling
When I had travelled much, I called myself a traveller

Now I sit here, still and silent on the cushions
while the roses release their perfume,
the peacock cries upon the wall,
and in the courtyard, the fountain plays;

and all my travel has returned to me,
all my travelling is within me,
travel, travelling and traveller are one;
and my mind travels to places I had never imagined
and I sense the world turning on its axis,
travelling around my self.

Michael Shepherd
inspired by Mahmūd Shabistarī, 14th Century Persian Poet

English Country Garden

I share a photo collage of stills taken from my very own English Garden. Photographs taken by using my Sony Exmor.

Ramadan Kareem

May this Ramadan be blessed for all. There are many amongst us who are suffering. May Allah make their days easier and their nights peaceful. Ameen.

Catastrophe

'It's a catastrophe... and that's no overstatement',
Adam Mynott, BBC

The worst floods in Pakistan's history have hit at least 14 million people, the government relief agency says. According to Gen Nadeem Ahmed, of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), that figure only covers Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Punjab provinces. The full figure is likely to be much higher, with at least half a million evacuated in Sindh.

"We have an atom bomb, but we have no helicopters and boats for rescue, no machinery to clear the roads and build temporary bridges quickly. We are just not geared to enable people in a crisis,"

Mohammad Haroon, Lawyer, Nowshera, BBC

This poem in the video was penned by the honourable Feroz Afridi and is recited here by a friend.

Flood Story 2

Gul Hassan, 70, is no stranger to adversity. Back in the 1980s, fighting in his native Afghanistan forced him to flee along with his family to neighbouring Pakistan, where he started a new life in the refugee settlement of Hajizai, located on a riverbank in the northwestern part of the country.

But over the past week, the most severe flooding in over 70 years inundated his old home and forced him to flee for a second time. For six days, he and his sons have been living in the open on the pavement of a roadway, while his wife and daughters are sleeping with friends.

"It was midnight, when the water levels suddenly began to rise," says Hassan. His remaining belongings, those the family had managed to carry with them, lay heaped under plastic sheeting on the pavement. "There have been floods in the past too," he continues, but these were the worst in living memory. "This was devastating".

Flood waters are still flowing through the nearby settlement and it is raining again. Relief organizations are struggling to reach victims in areas that have been cut off by the flooding as roads and scores of bridges have been washed away whilst on a nearby bridge, a crowd of children has gathered to watch as the dark brown waters begin to rise again.

Hassan is one of the more than 1.5 million people displaced by the worst floods Pakistan has seen in a generation. Included in that number are some 700,000 people like Hassan, who have already been dispaced by conflicts-in Afghanistan or in Pakistan itself-and who therefore find themselves homeless for a second time. His family is among some 10,000 Afghan families living in four refugee villages destroyed by the flood waters.

UNHCR
(adapted from this report by Rabia Ali, Peshawar, August 2010)

Flood Story 1

We never thought the waters would rise so high. I was away at my aunt's house in the Nowshera Cantonment area. When the waters overflowed the river, I got worried.

My relatives said to wait until the tide ebbs, but it kept rising, and soon it was clear that my part of the city had drowned.

My mother died. She was old and diabetic and couldn't climb to the third floor of the house to avoid drowning.

My younger brother, who is only 12, tried to drag her up. She was washed away. We haven't found her body. My brother is traumatised.

My relatives said to wait until the tide ebbs, but it kept rising, and soon it was clear that my part of the city had drowned.

My mother died. She was old and diabetic and couldn't climb to the third floor of the house to avoid drowning.

My younger brother, who is only 12, tried to drag her up. She was washed away. We haven't found her body. My brother is traumatised.

Alamzeb, Nowshera
BBC, August 2010

A Journey Through Devastation

Two thousand dead and a further 2.5 million people affected. Villages have been swept away and as many as 27 thousand people could be stranded and food is running out.

A relief worker for Save the Children blogs from Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa.
Images from Getty Images.