Miraculously, I was able to leave the office at around 2; another could leave at 2.30, and soon we were on our way to Lahore. Cars are so much nicer than buses, there’s no question of it. Certainly quicker. It was a fairly smooth trip despite fears of fog until we approached Lahore — at this time of year, the motorway is often closed due to poor visibility, but apparently for the past week this had only been happening between 10 at night and 10 in the morning, so our mid-afternoon drive was safe. Until we started approaching Lahore, where they are rebuilding parts of the motorway to attach onto the recent extension to Multan, and here there was a massive jam, with trucks and buses in all the wrong lanes. It kept moving, but slowly, and needed lots of lane changes, and there was a 10km jam from Shahdara to Gulshan-e-Ravi, where all the trucks veered off into the inner city.
We arrived in Lahore around 7.30 and immediately had to dress for a birthday party. As usual I lacked proper clothes and there was a small disaster as I sent my expensive Lululemon trousers for ironing without checking the label, and even a cool iron left a burn mark on it. Luckily, luckily, this was right at the cuff of the trousers, and I had to have them taken up anyway, so only the very tip will be visible.
The party was on the rooftop of one of the new small luxury apartment blocks that are only slowly starting to come to Lahore. Unlike Islamabad or Karachi, Lahore is not an apartment dwelling city – my family lived for a few years in the Sherpao flats, and it was considered extremely unusual not to live in a house. The smog was terrible, but Lahore doesn’t really mind all that much, plus it had rained so some of it had washed away, though I could still taste burning at the back of my throat. I was rather dreading the event, of course; my hatred for parties has only grown over the years, and of course I always feel poorly dressed, though this time the latter was not a concern, as I managed to pull something together that looked nice and also stepped away from the usual slim/black party uniform in this country. Also handing over the expensive gift was a wrench, especially since I forgot to write my name on it. I will have to ensure it is correctly attributed.
It turned out quite pleasant, overall. It was beautifully done up, unsurprisingly, as our hosts are a tasteful pair, with a bonfire to keep us warm and rows of tables lined with green branches and candles. Many of the other guests were slightly known to me, so I did manage to chat a bit, and there was a rather startling moment towards the end when a small figure bulleted towards me and I realised it was someone who had been in school with me more than 20 years ago, and who had been out of the country for over a decade. It was interesting to meet her, and see how similar she still was, but disconnected also, and a little wistful at all that had changed in her and in Lahore. I had actually known she was in the country but hadn’t expected to see her, and she certainly hadn’t expected to see me, having been brought to a party by a person she was visiting, only to find me here and to realise that she knew the host already through me.
The food was excellent. The hosts had brought over some rather well-known seafood cooks from Karachi, and crabs and prawns for them to cook. This was all unique in landlocked Lahore, so after an initial hesitation about eating crabs, the guests brought traditional Lahori enthusiasm for food to bear and wiped it out where we had hoped there would be leftovers. An interesting factor in this was that the food itself was not illuminated so it was impossible to tell what one was eating, which I suspect meant that everyone tried everything. The crabs were fabulous, and there was a tasty prawn biryani, and some mighty chutneys, but I really couldn’t say what all the different fish and prawn curries were. Also, some excellent crispy fried naans, very unlike the fried naan in Lahore, which tend to be (delicious but) soft and floppy.
Got back around 1, so not crazy late, smelling of soot from the air and the bonfire.