Not much to report, other than that I have finally got down to an editing job that had been somewhat delayed due to travel and laziness. One sister has arrived and is working from home; the other sister arrives tonight. The sister-in-law also arrived last night, and there is an early family dinner at the […]
Catfish waltz
I finally gave in to the weather gods and borrowed a sweater from my sister. The next step will probably be to buy socks to prevent the chilblains that are a perpetual feature of Lahore winters. Not that Lahore winters are particularly cold but houses are designed for summer so are cold, covered in marble […]
Gradual decline
I’m now in the Karachi airport domestic departure lounge, which is far brighter (with natural light) and cleaner than the airport hotel. I should perhaps have eaten at the hotel instead of risking a chicken patty that might kill me at the airport but I couldn’t bear today go into the grim, grimy dining room. […]
Airport hotel
A brief flicker of hope that a kindly official would get me onto the 8 am flight to Lahore which would be have trimmed my waiting time to 30 minutes. Sadly no seats were left so I joined the queue for the airport hotel. The place had a slight air of the TDCP rest house, […]
Step 1
It’s 0230 and I’m halfway through the first long airport stop of the journey. I arrived at the airport half an hour earlier than needed to find a very long hydra headed queue consisting of Pathans pushing trolleys heaped with shrink wrapped blankets. Pakistani men’s vaunted respect and deference to women can rarely be depended […]
Last generation
I went to get my waxing done at a new place, conveniently located at the end of the street. The woman who did the waxing was a Sikh who had arrived from Indian Punjab four years ago. I felt a little hesitation, as I always do, when meeting those on the other of Partition. All […]
Class component
I’m troubled about the classist nature of some of Pakistan’s answer to #MeToo – the women (only women that I have seen so far) telling stories about being molested as children. They are all stories of molestation by domestic servants or other lower class individuals. Cooks, drivers, gardeners, qaris. I imagine that there is more […]
While we’re on the subject
A friend of my parents would take me on motorcycle rides around the neighbourhood and make me sit on his penis. He would kiss me goodbye and slip his tongue inside my mouth. When I was eight or nine I had to do something about it. I went and sat on his lap and showed […]
Today is
Here in Malaysia it’s 12 Rabi al Awwal. In Pakistan it was yesterday, shadowed by what had gone before. In the day’s honour, here is Amjad Farid Sabri singing Bhar do jholi, one of my favourite naats. Since this Youtube link may not work forever, and in any case it is improved (as are all […]
Sadness
The resolution of the Faizabad interchange sit-in has left me, along with many others, feeling bleak and full of sadness. It feels a defeat, and not one that will spur one forward. Such a sense of despair across Pakistan, at least amongst the ‘liberal fascists’/ ‘fake liberals’ as they like to call us. It did […]