Everything the Stranger Saw

When I woke up again it was noon. Around two, I went out to play football with friends at the Stephens Lake park. I had never played American football before, and I hadn't worn running shoes for about a month since I injured my foot. Anyway, I went ahead, and although there was some discomfort in the beginning. But, my foot didn't hurt once I started running.

The game was great. My good catching skills (from Cricket) came in handy. It was a fun afternoon, and the weather eased out after a slight drizzle. I scored a couple of touchdowns too.

Later, we decided to head to the Roots 'n' Blues 'n' BBQ festival that was being held in town. It's an annual thing, and last year I actually covered it for the Missourian. This year, the tickets were quite expensive, and we decided to head to the free music stage area. We were disappointed by the limited options of food in the free area. I got some Jamaican Jerk Chicken, which turned to be expensive and delicious. In the end, we decided to sit at a local Mediterranean restaurant nearby.

That's where my Nigerian room mate, who had been harping about some International Students dinner at the Student Center that night, told me it was open for all International students, not just new ones. So, we decided to head there.

We were expecting a regular meal and maybe a few stalls or some. But, a world of gimmickry awaited us.

Turned out that different student organizations, and students from different countries, had set up stalls around the hall, and we were each given a "passport" we had to get stamped from those stalls. Eight stamps were required to get a free plate to put all the free food on. Each stall had some games you had to play, or quiz to take, before getting the passport stamped. The idea was to learn about new cultures and countries. I felt it was great. Most people didn't agree because there were long queues in front of each stall. I, being a true Pakistani, broke all the queues, and got the hell stamped out of my passport.

I learned a lot of new things during this activity, like how to say hello in Thai ("Sawatdee Khrab"), how to write a Mandarin character, that Quran is the holy book of Islam (OK, OK, I already knew that!) and Odissi dance moves.

The highlight of the day, though, was when I walked past the Iranian stall and noticed, in addition to four beautiful Iranian women, a copy of Diwan-e Hafiz sitting on their table. I totally freaked out with happiness at the sight of this book. Approached the Iranian contingent, silly smile plastered on my face, and told them in my broken Farsi how glad I was to see the poetry of Hafez at their stall. Then launched in to English praising the poetry of Hafez. Then, when I told them I could actually read Farsi, but not completely understand it, one of the guys opened the book and made me read this verse aloud:

Ishq paida shud o atish beh hameh aalam zad"

One of the ladies explained its meaning, something along the lines of "in the beginning, beauty manifested itself/ Then, love arrived and set the whole world on fire." Exquisite!

(I think I should have asked one of them to teach me Farsi. Oh, well!)

The verse made me think (something I don't do often). Beauty, without love, wouldn't really amount to anything. And love, perhaps, can never exist without beauty. Maybe not in the sense of the kind of physical brilliance the word "beauty" generally connotes. But, you need to find something to be beautiful to love it, right?

And maybe this relationship of Beauty and Love, of Love and Beauty, is what drives the Universe.