An Entity of My Being by Aseel Zaraqou
The chirping of a peachy Sinai Rosefinch drew me away from my daze. The high notes caused my eyes to stalk the bird, whose wings fluttered in a swift movement to enter the campus of King’s Academy. I trailed the bird on a pathway of stones as I headed towards a land holding defiance towards the irregularity of Jordanian buildings existing on ridges and valleys – absent of greenery. However, the beauty of proportion built King’s campus with a fusion between nature and human constructions. Shrubberies, trees, and a cloak of grass encircled a set of kin buildings and my pathway. Chartreuse and parakeet green painted the crown of soaring trees with its leaves stirring with the summer breeze. Familiarity with my years back in England made the clock ticked backward to find myself standing between uniform Victorian houses environed by deciduous British trees. My daze was interrupted by the bird’s twitter elevating to a higher pitch. Once again, my eyes searched for the bird, and they found its webbed feet standing on the red tiles of a building. The bird seemed to be calling me over. Almost like a magnet, I felt a default attraction as I stood in front of that building – HH Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Libray of King’s Academy. The two-story building stood as an epitome of architectural intelligence through a peculiar combination of British and Jordanian qualities. The gabled portion of the building projected forwards with the ridge of its roof experiencing a discontinuity as it elevated from its original standpoint to the wider gable on the backside. The wider gable existed on a large cuboid held by sixteen parallel wood colonial square columns. An association with the old Victorian times was made through the two gables capped with red tiles and the teak wood framing the roof’s ridges and the three windows above the door. Nonetheless, the building’s identification couldn’t be British with the presence of Jordanian Ma’an stone. An ivory-white limestone with a rough dotted surface built the exterior of the building and the base of the columns on the side. The stone held vigour in its composition, which enabled it to stand still against the odds of fire, wind, and earthquakes. The Jordanian resilience was exemplified through a national signature of the stone. My contemplation 38
