I’m back in Lahore. My father and I drove back this morning, stopping en route at the farm near Chakwal to inspect the damage done by the windstorms to the almond groves (significant) and to discuss the next crop (daal) for the fields. It was all very green thanks to the rain. The Salt Range looked positively unnatural, there was botany instead of geology everywhere.
The farm’s caretaker is a man from the tribal areas who has settled here with his entire family. Rather pleasing that his younger daughters, brought up in this one of the most liberal areas of Pakistan, are being sent to school. Their elder sisters are back in Tank, married to cousins. These younger ones probably will be too, but at least they’ll be educated.
And yes, now back in Lahore. My little collection of unsatisfactory purchases has ballooned in the past day to:
– a small steel pestle and mortar instead of a small handcrafted brass one.
– a large clay matka instead of a small clay urn sized to hold a few cooking implements.
– a rough hewn light grey stone bowl from Hunza instead of a smooth, carefully finished black stone bowl from Hunza.
– two heavy skirts lined with heavy cotton instead of two very light skirts with a thin border of cotton to give them some fall.