Haidar's Corner

...As I entered the room I closed the door and turned, momentarily staring at the mattress on the floor. It looked utterly disarranged even though inviting. My tired feet won the battle and I simply flung myself down rolling over to face up.  With my eyelids shut, I felt a slight throb in my temples which made me instinctively put my two thumbs upon the sides of my head and apply a sustained cyclic pressure against them. Immediately a brief smile played in my mind with this reminder of my sweet heart. Hers it was, to massage my head whenever I mentioned that a headache was prowling.   My eyes fluttered open and the ceiling above held my gaze like a star-lit night. But ironically it was plain blank. As empty as my mind was. Well, that's if you took away the multiple thoughts of issues defining my life at the moment. Sigh. Could Mr John's proposal be the light? Would my 'extra' kidney be the lifeline that would take me out of this quicksand that was sucking my li...

Yesterday, I uncontrollably shed tears upon seeing my aunts. I was there to condole them yet I couldn't even finish my condolence. My uncle Alhaji Imam Wali died yesterday. Indeed the family, the community, nay the whole of Kano has lost a rare gem of an elder. The last of their kind, but few remain. Kindness, open warmth and wisdom are a few of the innumerable positive qualities that come to mind when one thinks of 'Baffa.' Alas, life has no pause, rewind or slow motion to enable one to fulfill the unfulfilled. I personally rue the missed chances to have gleaned from this Guide more than I had. A repository of knowledge and wisdom as only a Historian could gather, which he was in his own right. Alas he has left with it all! Nevertheless, his was a life well spent in the service Allah by serving his family, relatives, friends, neighbors, community and the state at large. The testimonies on the tongues of people are enough proof. As I end here let me pr...