Thursday, August 15, 2013

Five Minutes of Magic

I saw the man first.
He was in a long royal purple tunic with white pants.
A cult member, surely, I thought.

Then I rounded the corner
and saw another man in the same dress.
Ha! A cult convention.

Then I came up against the limits of my knowledge.
It couldn't be a cult.
There were so many of them.
Not just men. Whole families.
And so many beautiful women.
 
 Her sandals.
Those "I Dream of Jeannie" sandals!
 
Happy.
Joyous.
Crackling with energy.

I laughed at myself, recognizing my own American parochialness.
Don't we always compare new information to our old information?
I understood instantly these were a people I had never seen or met before.
One
exquisitely dressed woman
after another
poured out of the hotel.
"Where are you from?" I asked.
"Pakistan, he said. "We are here for a wedding."

The island of Jamaica
sent spectacular sunshine.
"Are you from Pakistan too?"
I asked a gorgeous young woman
dressed differently than the others.
"No, I'm from Jamaica." she said.

"Of course you are!" I thought,
marveling at Istanbul's constant ability
to make the ordinary encounter extraordinary.
I'm sure Jamaicans at Pakistani weddings are a common sight,
don't you think?
Do they have ring bearers
at Pakistani weddings?
I wondered.
A tween
in all of her finery.
I'll picture these lovely people
when I read a story about Pakistan
in the future.
 
I'll picture this little girl
in all of her bracelets
and veils.
The beautiful Pakistani women
blew me kisses
from the bus
as they left.
 
I hope they had a wonderful time.

2 comments:

BacktoBodrum said...

Having lived in the UK for 12 years recently , I am of course used to these costumes at weddings, but I too would have looked twice if I'd come across them in Bodrum.

Karen said...

Any Pakistanis I met in America were always in Western dress. These clothes are w-a-y more fun.

 
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