From Astronomy to Astrology (about Haleem)

In those days there was no load shedding. However, most of the evening there was no electricity due to one fault or the other. We would sit in the sahan and look at the stars: that was mostly Baba and I. Mummy used to spend her time sorting out the problems of household and three younger children who were not that interested in stargazing.

Mummy taught geography and therefore we used to have a large Readers Digest Atlas at home.. This Atlas has maps of constellations with the fascinating names that are given to the stars. In the dark nights, Baba and I would stargaze for long hours and try to find out the constellations that we were familiar with. When there would be light again, we would divert back to the Atlas and pat ourselves on the back on our findings. This was astronomy for us: till Baba and I gazed at the outer space on our visit to Washington, some eight years later: we were unable to make much sense out of what we saw.

Like all other friends of Baba, Chach Ahad Jan entered our lives and became a household name in our lives till he too fell out of Baba’s favor. He was into Astrology so he converted Baba’s passion of astronomy into that of Astrology and I became his horoscope drafter. Baba stayed a diehard astrologer all his life and passed on his passion to one of his child: that is not me.

Romana Shaikh (Brohi)