Family picnic

@ Ratta Hotar

30th July 2017

Shaikh Muhammad Ali

An oil tanker crashed on a road near Bahawalpur on Sunday, 25th June 2017 and more
than 153 people, many of whom had rushed to collect leaking fuel, were killed when it
exploded.

The tanker carrying 40,000 liters of fuel overturned after trying to make a sharp turn
while travelling from Karachi to Lahore on the main highway. Nearly a hundred people
were injured as a result of the incident, the government officials said.

The disaster occurred when hundreds of residents of a nearby village Ramzanpur Joya
gathered at the site of an overturned oil tanker to collect the leaking fuel. It's believed
that a spark from the many cars and motorcycles that raced to the scene ignited the
fuel.

I thought very hard on this subject and came to the conclusion that probably you and I
would not have rushed to the tanker to collect the oil knowing the fact that the oil was
highly inflammable and could ignite any time. I guess it is lack of education and the
greed that compelled people to collect something free of cost which was not theirs in
the first place.

In a similar fashion, I saw ladies in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad going bonkers over a
clothing sale at Sapphire store (a local designer) whereby a 40% sale was announced
recently. Ladies from educated backgrounds were seen jumping over each other to
grab the loot as if tomorrow will never come and made fools out of themselves. The
entire Facebook was ripe with their most untoward behaviors during these sales.

Incidentally, I dont see any difference between the laymen who died in the Bahawalpur
incident while collecting free oil and the women in these lavish malls acting
disgracefully and stooping to the lowest of human dignity while collecting the sales
items. In both cases I see mans greed; educated and illiterates alike. No more no less

Lets now come to the topic for which this article is being pieced together. We had not
gone for a family picnic or a hiking trip for months altogether in 2013 thus we decided
to have a small family picnic at the camping site of Tail # 5 in the Margalla Hills on
Sunday, 19th January 2014 around the Ratta Hotar village.

We left the house around 1:00 p.m. and collected lunch from Savor Foods in the Blue
area, Islamabad. Reached the camping site around 2:00 p.m. but it was full and many a
families were picnicking there. Instead, we walked towards the Pine sit out area and at
a short distance had our lunch.

(Family lunch @ the Pine Sit out area)

Since we had not offered our Zuhr prayers thus we decided to say our prayers first and
then go for a short hike.

(The Shaikh family offering their Zuhr prayers)

 (Mr. & Mrs. Shaikh enjoying the surroundings)

As soon as we got done with our prayers, we saw a trail heading east and decided to
walk in that direction. We got tempted and followed this trail for some good 1.4 kms
which later turned north.

(Enjoying a water break)

We reached a valley and then noticed a trail going further east, a fire trail to the north
and another one heading west. We took our bearings and since Ayesha and Sabeen
were not wearing their hiking shoes and were too full to walk any further; we decided to
return and maybe revisit this trail some other time.

(Mohsin posing with his mother)

On the way back, we stopped at the same pine sit out area, had our Kheer (Rice
pudding) which we had bought from Savor food and offered our Asr prayers there and
retreated.

(The author posing at the Trail # 5 camping site)

 (This one was captured on the way back)

Now that we have seen this place, we plan to revisit the Ratta Hotar hiking trail with our
hiking buddies after doing the Dhoke Jivan Loop which will follow soon.

(The detailed map of the Ratta Hotar trail)

I would like to leave you here with a beautiful quote by the Dalai Lama:

Shaikh Muhammad Ali

The Wandering Dervish
E-mail: dushkashaikh@gmail.com
Cell: +00-92-321-5072996
Sunday, 5 Zulqaidah 1438 Hijri,
30th July, 2017, 09:05 p.m. (PST)