29th July 2010 - Thursday
Today is an awfully sad day in the life of my family. My Munni baji (cousin/popho/chachi) passed away yesterday in the ill fated air blue plane crash on the Margalla Hills. The plane was flying where it had no business to be flying and the end result was the death of 152 passengers and crew.
I landed yesterday in Karachi after our plane landed on its second attempt due to poor visibility in the light rain. For a moment the girl next to me got a little worried because the plane starting taking off instead of landing and we kept debating why the pilot couldn’t see the landing strip when we could see it just fine in the plane’s forward camera. Anyway, we landed and when I was in the car going home we found out about the air blue plane crash. For a moment my heart just sank because I knew how many people travelled that route on a daily basis. A lot of our agency friends were perpetually back and forth along with our family. I said a silent prayer.
Then we got home and I called my cousin to say congrats. She had just delivered her second child at 3am in the morning and was doing fine. I told her about the plane crashing. She hadn’t heard the news. Right after that I called dadijan to tell her that we had arrived. As soon as I said salam, she told me about the air blue plane crash and I said, yes I had just heard about it. then she said, “Munni was on the plane”. And the world came crashing down. I just sat there in shock, the last image of Munni baji from Sammo’s wedding floating in my mind. Her laugh, her smile, her immense positivity. Juni chacha and munni baji had a wonderful relationship. They were always smiles and laughter. And their children were wonderful, beautiful, adorable. All I could think of was “why”.
And there was no answer.
Every time I have gotten on a plane, I have always asked Allah mian if today was it. If I would get off alive. I used to ask myself if it felt like the last day. And somehow it never did. But yesterday I realized that it never will. That the last day will just come upon us unheralded. Only the chosen few are told before the end. Like my abu. Allah mian gave him 3 weeks to wrap things up before taking him away from us. I wish we were all that lucky.
All we can pray for is strength for our family & for all those left behind.
Fariha
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