A swallow doesn’t make the summer, or as the French say, ‘une hirondelle ne fai pas le printemps’.
Further north in Europe, the return of the swallow signals that summer has come. Migratory birds are many, and not all that migrate are birds.
The former Norwegian ambassador, Robert Kvile, used to speak humorously about Pakistani immigrants in Norway as climate migrants orrefuges.
They returned to Gujrat and other sending-areas during the darkest and coldest winter months near the Artic Circle.
Aid workers, diplomats and others who leave the cold countries to live in the warmer lands may fall in the same category.
And then, there are others who live in countries with unbearable heat in summer who leave if they can.
In colonial time, the Brits used to make Murree into a bureaucrats’ summer capital, or so they said, being an excuse for leaving the lowlands to sit on balconies in the temperate hills, with a chance for a hiking trip to the peeks of Nathiagali and similar wonders.
We should recall that this was before the electric air conditioners became common. No, it had nothing to do with loadshedding!Today, the Pakistanis who can afford it go there too, or they fly up to the Northern Areas, near the ‘roof of the world’, the Himalaya Mountains.
Many go to Europe and North America as well, to visit relatives and friends, to get medical check-ups done, do business and even shopping.
Well, the latter is hardly necessary any more with the opening of mega shopping malls in Pakistan’s major cities.
“I spend more than half of the time in Islamabad every year, from October to May,” an American widow says.
“Although my Pakistani husband has passed away, I feel at home among relatives and friends in Islamabad,” she says.
“It gets hot in summer in America, too, but the hot spells are rarely long and not as hot in Pakistan.”
In Islamabad, social activities come to a halt in summer, or they become less frequent. Many expatriates leave; diplomats, international civil servants, foreign staff and consultants in international NGOs, and foreign companies, and others.
They all time there vacation so that they can be away when it is hottest in Pakistan - and when the weather is good and relatively warm in Europe.
Typically, visits from headquarters are timed for winter when the weather is miserable in Europe.
“We have put off all our practice sessions in the choir till autumn,” an Irish woman in the Islamabad Chorale says.
She feels relieved just after the summer concert is successfully over.
“I will travel to Europe tomorrow,” she adds. “However, this time it is a bit uncertain when the choir will meet again because our excellent leader and pianist, Ruth Hildebrandt, will relocate to another country.”
“I am sure we will find another leader of the choir,” Jenny Nazeem, says.
She is a British doctor, married to Pakistani, also a medical doctor. She has for many years been a bridge between expats and locals, especially in the social fields, including in the support of the Rawalpindi Hospice, a Christian hospital and recovering centre for labourers who have had accidents at work.
“It is difficult to run such a hospital since it depends almost entirely on donations.”
“I was on a short migratory trip to the UK in spring this year to see my 94-year-old mother and grandchildren,” Dr Jenny says.
“I will stay in Islamabad over the summer, and I quite like the season.”
“In a way, I feel a bit sorry for all the foreigners who come and go and never get Pakistan under their skin,” she says.
“Without having experienced the heat in summer, one cannot quite enjoy the cooler seasons either, the beautiful autumn in Pakistan, and the even greater spring season.”
“The winter gets a bit cold, especially for those who cannot afford heating, and that is almost everyone,” Dr Jenny says.
Socially minded as Dr Jenny is, she says that she is worried about the monsoon season in a few months time with forecasts for more rainfall than usual and severe floods this year again.
“And then, the aid workers will all flock to Pakistan again, maybe a bit earlier than such migratory birds would otherwise do.”
“For me Pakistan is home,” an Austrian widow says.
She lives just off the main Margalla Road in one of the best locations in Islamabad.
“When I am alone in the house, I only cool one room in the morning and save on my electricity bill,” she says.
“I also travel to Europe from time to time, but it is not the climate that decides. I go when I have to.”
“It is not all that often. So, I must be seen as a non-migratory bird,” she jokes.
Khalidy Babree, a Pakistani by birth, says she is always at home in the capital, in spite of her roots in Balochistan and her stays abroad when her husband was alive.
He was a professor of French literature.
“The only gathering with expatriates I have on my schedule this summer, at least thus far, is the Norwegian-Pakistani poetry andliterature breakfast, which meets every month.”
Although foreigners and Pakistanis in the capital seem to have a migratory streak, most of them actually spend most of the time in the city,even in summer - and even if they sometimes pretend differently.
There is often status connected to travels, especially to foreign lands.
“It is a pleasant duty to travel to visit relative and friends. But we should also be happy where we are, too, not always look over the fence for greener grass,” Khalida says.