Desert Rain: rain diaries

The drops spread the sand particles to the sides.The light colored sand is now dark.the water drop has soaked the sand crystals. The drops fall again and small heaps of dry sand are wet and hard. rain in the desert is powerful. it is little but powerful as though the sand absorbs strength from the droplets.The clouds are heavy and dark. it hovers over you in the sky giving a pleasant feel and the sun breaks in to give the warmth. The droplets come down from these heavy clouds. The clouds seem to have immense amount of water but the droplets are few. the droplets sway in the wind falling here and there. The wind is strong but pleasant. it is cool and tickles you inside. with the light ticklish winds and few drops of rain falling on you, it is an ecstatic pleasure feel.

The place is calm with the roads empty and the sky is dark and heavy. The buildings lay silent and awaiting the rain. it is still droplets falling randomly, flying around. It wasn't rain nor was it drizzle.
The sky was calm again and the place back to dryness. The clouds started moving away and the sand was light colored. The rain had gone with the wind.

It was evening and the sun was drowning in the orange pool.But the dark clouds were back again and the sky looked red with dark shades of grey.soon the droplets started falling and the sand was dark. but this time it was dollops. heavy shapeless dollops fell splashing and then a few more. The drops wet the sand and the rainy weather oozed from it. It was raining haphazardly. The drops soaked the sands  at the start but it formed small puddles and pools. The mountains at the far-south brought in more of water and the barren land was filled with brownish flowing water. The rain increased and the sky was purple, the dark heavy clouds settled with pride and power. The water swell on the barren arid land and the soil lost its strength to soak in. with the gushing water from the mountains the land was filled with a flash flood. The 'Wadi' as called in the local tongue swell and overflowed the roads and the street. The desert rain sometimes takes such twists from nature. life was at standstill.

It was cold,wet and windy. with the water at the sides, the barren desert was changed into a cold riverbed. The clouds started parting ways and the sky was clear again. stars lit the sky and the moon came out from its blanket. A rain that lasted half of an hour changed the landscape. it was hard, brown and cold. The water from the flash flood would remain for a few days and then the sun would absorb it turning it back to a blue skied brown arid land of the middle east.

In between The Mountains

A Trip to Bilad sayt in The Sultanate Of Oman

The road lay in front of us like a slithering slate-coloured snake. It was a one way road that went straight into the mountains and got lost. We were finding it with every move. The small brown hills at the sides made the road look thinner. The speedometer clocked 100 as we drove past the brown hills. The picture was brown, dark brown hills with greyish barren terrain in between. Very few houses were seen at the sides.

The trip from “Hayy a Thurath” towards” bilad sayt” was long .The distance was less but the one-way road that went winding with elevations across the hills at places meant that we couldn’t keep a constant speed. This road led to the village of Al Hamra. Al Hamra is a picturesque green village that has a history of more than 400 years.

The sky was dark. It was blue with creamy clouds here and there. We saw The Al Hajar ranges in front of us. This great range of mountain lay in front of us in glory. The road is seen narrow and thin and gets lost in this grey boulder of mountains. It had long black cracks on it which were actually deep cliffs and narrow gorges. White spots were seen on top of some of them. Some beautiful villages were studded on them and the houses looked like sugar spread.

The mountain was grey and inclined deeply towards the peak. The range laid there as a boulder.it was a natural border for the place as it cut of the central Oman from the north. As we approached a roundabout we saw a board showing ‘Bilad Sayt’ at 45km towards the right. We now entered the hills. We were surrounded by shades of brown.

The mountains were above us. Now there were layers of hills and mountains playing shades of colour. From brown to grey to blue, the colour differed at different ranges and was a stunning view.it overshadowed each other and came back in waves. Slowly we reached the foot of the range. The road was a winding one. We started uphill. It was a hot day and the temperature was at 38c. The uphill climb was as though we were cutting through a large cake.  We could see the surrounding hills get smaller and smaller. The view was simply breath-taking. The brown hills lay below the large grey mountains and the road that we climbed looked like a slithering black snake at the bottom with crumbs of cars moving. Towards the west lay the large village of Al Hamra. The white houses and the numerous date palms now formed a dense tone. The village laid there like a sheet of velvet spread. Across it, the sun shone. The sky was blue but as though waiting for the sun to splash its setting colours.

The uphill journey continued. It was time for sunset.  With a peaceful flow it started splashing crimson and pink all over the blue sky. Now the sky was crimson with shades of pink and a little bit of blue. The mountain lay below holding on to the sky with a grey and a tinge of violet. It looked bold and felt pride booming from it. The mountain sometimes looked like a curtain, a curtain of dark shade that separated the landscape and at times like a solid bolder standing high.

The village grew even smaller and the houses looked tinier. The mountain turned grey-blue and the sky above had spectacular shades of violet and pink mixed with each other. The sun had set and the last rays had beamed yellow before ending a day. It was peace in physical form.

As we drove again the weather became pleasant. The windows were open and there was a cool breeze blowing serenity. I heard a shout. It echoed throughout and I halted and looked around. The shout repeated several times and it sounded like a bleat. A young boy was seen climbing down the cliff in great pace and skill and he was barefooted. He jumped down the rocks with ease. He wore a dark coloured Dishdasha and in front of him was a flock of sheep. It looked beautiful across the grey rocks. The entire flock was climbing down. Some were walking down briskly while others were clambering down the rocks. The shepherd shouted and the flock moved as instructed. There were brown, black, white and cream coloured ones that were climbing down the grey and brown rocks.
The violet sky at the background made it mystical and tranquil. For a moment I became a Sufi, a Sufi like the shepherd who had no worldly desires in between him and the creator. The Rumi in me was awakened and I was lost in eternal reality. The shepherd was the real Sufi since he was closer to god with this near-heaven abode of life.

Soon we reached a viewpoint. The cliff reached deep at the bottom and like beauty in a bowl the village lay studded in the valley. The mountain shades, cliffs and the weather made it more memorable. It was cold but the gentle breeze that was blowing brought tranquillity across our faces. It was dark now and Al Hamra lit up with the street lights looked magnificent. An ornamental jewellery work lay below us and it was the village at night. We started our descent. With every turn the temperature rose until we were back at the bottom of the range.

We looked back and saw the huge mountains, dark and proud. No one thought there was life on top but life existed only there.

The Religion in Religion

Religion is a phenomenon that governs the human life in many ways. It is set of beliefs that provides a way to think about life and the entire universe in which life is existing. Religion forms an integral part of this society.

The existence of religion in the world and its importance is something to be thought of .how such a set of belief came into being and why is it there are questions that bring us to the way human mind thinks. Religion is always defined as a set of beliefs regarding the universe with reference to a supernatural source. But even beliefs such as atheism are a form of religion too.

Religion fascinates when it is thought in the frame of human thought or a belief system.it is a system containing codes for worshiping, rituals, concept of god(or no god),manners and etiquette, beliefs on the world,nature and its functioning. This system governs its people in all aspects . with all religions, the codified rules are imposed on its followers and the followers abide by without knowing any reason. This goes for atheism too.

Religion is one great scheme  that does not give reason to its rules. The truth and falsehood in religion is an entirely different topic  and this write up discusses the form it maintains. Today religion as a structure has become so rigid that it has become a true organisation. It is a system that cannot be verified or discussed.

While living in this frame, religious followers have become mere followers or abiders  of the system of rules and forgot the soul of it. Since it has become a tangible non-living entity, the soul has evaporated back into nature.

Religion has lost its spirituality. The spiritual element could be called the soul and this soul is no more. The enactment of the spirit of religion comes in the form of its social involvement for the betterment of the people and when the soul which transforms religion and applies on the society is lost then religion loses its significance. This soul of the religion has been overshadowed by customary rituals of worship and modules. Hence the soul of religion has died and is making way or a systematic, mechanical worship procedures that are being followed with fervour  as part of being religious.

To prove the extra-human or non-human  element of  religion,the spiritual aspect of religion should be present and this is missing from all major religions or in majority of its followers. another fascinating element of religion which can also been seen as the corollary to the above mentioned view is the fact that all religions have unity in a basic spiritual element or a single source of existence. Religions then branch out from this basic thought with influences and forgery of ideology bringing it down to an aspiritual entity of rituals and customs. Without this spiritual element religion cannot play its role and with it religion unifies into a single source.

Hence religion without its soul cannot affect human life and society and becomes a topic of critics and defamers. It drives the society into the opposite direction.

Crash Realisation

The world is so unpredictable and unknown to us that we are actually in a murky four dimensional atmosphere that does not tell us anything of what it is or what we are. sometimes life is like that. this thought just sprung up from the parking lot. yes a small parking mistake would have given a slap on my car's bumper which would have leaked some cash out of my pocket but thanks to the all mighty who is the all knower and the owner of this four dimensional murky something.

The incident happened when i went to the Masjid for my prayers and as i was searching for a parking spot near the Masjid, i saw one on the left side. As i reversed my car into the car parking, i was sure it would go in perfectly and the car sped back smoothly when without any reason i just looked back to see that it was just millimetres away from hitting the car parked next to mine. The thought was so fast that i thanked god for it. The thought came in so involuntarily as though some one just caught my face and turned it. As i sat in the masjid i thought about it because it made me ponder even though it was just a small incident that happens frequently with any person who drives. Why i thought about it is itself another wonder of the universe. The matter struck me that, thoughts even though are produced from the human mind or is voluntarily created by a human, sometimes it is as though some instant message or command is sent to the brain that makes you do things. even while thinking so, there is an element of mixture of pre defined destiny and voluntary human action in this world and life. God has made this world and programmed it in such a way probably.

as the famous hadith goes , tie your camel first before leaving it up to god, human destiny, the world and whatever exists in this four dimensional murky atmosphere(The Universe), is linked with our own actions too. But there is another layer to this thought. while it is a voluntary action by a human that performs certain tasks in his life which  creates his destiny, his destiny is already written by the almighty before his existence and hence it is fading into each other, and the layer of thought is that the destiny has been written for a person and the action he takes is part of his destiny as is in my case. so destiny or Qadr or the control of 'The One' is a more powerful layer of function on this universe.

"Allah! There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they compass aught of His knowledge except as He willeth. His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the earth, and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them for He is the Most High, the Supreme (in glory)."