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Saturday, November 26, 2005

Le Whore ... she just don't treat me right!

If I survive the next week (and the education conference), I shall be back in the arms of my hometown, that peaceful (ok, so I am pushing it) city of lights, Karachi.

I shall, then, have time and the opportunity (and be safely out of reach), to tell you loads of stuff about my experiences in Lahore, a city that constantly reminds me of a passage from my all-time favourite book, Alice in Wonderland:
Alice looked round her in great surprise.
"Why, I do believe we've been under this tree all the time! Everything's just as it was!"
"Of course it is," said the Queen: "what would you have it be?"
"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."
Don't get me wrong: The hospitality at the home of my hosts can't be beat. CHILL OUT's gorgeous sugar-free ice cream, in two flavours unavailable elsewhere in Pakistan to diabetics like me, and Shoaib's unique humour are simply amazing, but (a) one does not have access to them everyday (Shoaib strictly forbids visiting him more than once a week!); and (b) I am sure there are harmful side-effects of both.

Exceedingly soft-spoken Gulzar's erudite (and well-articulated) conversations are a treat, as is Salima's warmth. But one cannot be expected to tap these resources too frequently. (A secret: it was the possibility of interaction with these two that had made me consider, once, a longish stint at BNU, Pakistan's first Liberal Arts University.)

Meanwhile, this is just to tell you all that this blog may be kinda inactive until the 5th ... although, for my own sanity, I will probably add a few lines every now and then.

Oh ... a recommendation. Hamza Moin has an interesting site for young Muslims.

Khuda Hafiz ...

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8 Comments:

Blogger sabizak said...

That hit me where it hurts. Born, bred and raised a Lahori I just feel like jumping to the city's defence. But I am not quite sure in what ways you may be comparing and how finding my city coming up short. But anyway. Nice to know you are here. Hope you might start liking it a bit better as the days pass.

27 November, 2005 23:29

 
Blogger Zakintosh said...

For Sabizak & many other Lahori friends:

A million apologies. But I have not hit out at anything Lahori, other than its pace. How could I? Some of my best memories are of Government College, Lahore, where I once unsuccessfully attempted to become a Ravian.

I gleefully acknowledge that Karachi also annoys my Lahori friends, who find even that slightly faster pace (which isn't saying much, on a global scale) taking away from the yaari-dosti style of work considered part of a more mehmaan-nawaz system here. But let's not forget that it was this mehmaan-nawaz system that made it possible for our mutual mehmaan, Nawaz, to rule.

The food's good. And plenty. Faizaan & Saadan, among many others, keep winters alive. But, if you don't mind my saying so, its this constant subservience to chaudhraahat I encounter at every step that really gets my goat. There are Chaudhri sahabs and Mian sahabs coming out of every nook and cranny and are at the centre of conversations between every crook and nanny.

One telephone conversation I overheard recently went: "Miañ Sahab nay Miañ Sahab say kah diya hae; kal voh Miañ Sahab say baat kar layñgay..."

I mean, wtf, yaar!

28 November, 2005 00:25

 
Blogger sabizak said...

lol! I think you and i live in different worlds. I know very few Miyan Sahibs and the ones I do know I don't really have much to do with. More than chaudraahat (because i am not directly affected by it probably) what gets my goat is the small town middle class morality that is so rampant around me. But then I do not know whether that is a Lahori thing or just generally the whole country.

Btw. I just totally DETEST it when tech savvy people, like you obviously are, also write in this sparklingly witty manner. I mean where does that leave us poor liberal arts blokes?

28 November, 2005 01:32

 
Blogger Zakintosh said...

Miañs and Chaudhris are not my companions of choice. I just know one set of Miañs in Lahore and, each visit, I bump into some of the others at my hosts' home - each 'massaging' the other. Tragic, except for the inadvertent humour they provide: most of them have the intelligence of over-used golf-balls. Back home, I don't have to ever meet any such guys. But I do realize, of course, that anyone wanting to be a 'big wheel' would have to run around in such small circles.

As for middle-class morality, it's not just this country, it's a global disease. And it's sickening, because it's so hypocritical --- "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife (unless she is pretty and willing)" isn't exactly what I remember Father Inferior teaching us at school.

Detest me not. I am just a tech-savvy poor more-than-liberal arts bloke myself, dear. Being tech-savvy is great. Technology is, after all, what put us in contact. The guys I detest are the techie who looks down upon art and the arty-farty bloke who looks down upon technology. A Tale of Two Shitties, if you ask me!

28 November, 2005 02:54

 
Blogger insiya said...

erm... - karachi misses you muchos. :'(

will you be missing the karafilmfest? - no. say no. please say no.

28 November, 2005 13:07

 
Blogger the olive ream said...

Another superb post! I've heard all the "Lahore Lahore 'ai" remarks from all my relatives and friends but for me KARACHI IS WHERE IT'S AT. It is the place of my birth. This city has left an indelible mark on my psyche which makes me claim myself as a Karachi-ite even now, (although I have lived there since 1979 - go figure!)

Look forward to your next post...

01 December, 2005 12:06

 
Blogger Faraz said...

Zak,

Hats off to your blogs & thanks for your ref to Hamza Moin. A fairly interesting site :-)

Qs 4 u: The educational conference has a great line up of speakers. One seg of the targeted audience are 'students' but there seems to be no differential pricing for the poor souls...is it true that they would have to pay 12K to attend or is it just that this info is not on the website?

01 December, 2005 23:01

 
Blogger Zakintosh said...

Faraz: I was called in as a consultant-friend (although I am far from being a friendly-consultant) to co-ordinate the speakers and my only involvement with the pricing structure was to be apalled by it. I think teachers, too, should have had a much greater discount.

Sabizak: Did you get to the conference? I emailed you a contact name after finding out that you could get a student discount or even, if you qualified, a free entry.

04 December, 2005 07:39

 

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