A New Day in Pak

From left: Salman, rizwan, Zubair and Ammi

28/1/08



Its the first official morning I was in Pak.



We woke up late, about 11am? Rizwan and Salman already at work. Bfast was bread, they call it double roti, w omelette n jam. I tried to help with the washing up, but Ammi ji insisted that i should not. Well as least, for the first two days, she said. LOL!


The hot water was not coming to our room's toilet. Something about the electricity was down and water hasnt been pumped? So i was to use the other toilet where they have a DIY heater that uses Gas.


Today, we went out riding all day!! Boy, was it FUN FUN FUN!


Z warned me to wear extra clothes cos its gonna be cold riding against the wind. so i had two pants on, and 3 layers on top + jacket. can i look anymore fatter or what?! hah. Unfortunately, i cldnt take any picture while riding for the obvious reasons, so this day wasnt captured much on camera. :( but will forever be etched deep in my mind and heart.


Our initial plan was to head to Thai Airways office at Davis Road as well as the office to get his riding license.


But by the time Z fetched his friend's bike it was already 3pm i think? then we made the mandatory stop at his maternal grandma's house for quick visit. He said he grew up in this house. i was confused. i thought he said his grandfather's house was in Old Lahore and that was in the house he grew up in?


There are a few families living in this house. Mamoo Ilyas, Mamoo Ijaz and 7 small children and Mami Nargis with 4 grown up children + Appa ji (his grandma) and there are only 3 or 4 bedrooms! *faint* And i thought 7 adults & a baby in a HDB 5-room Executive flat w 2 bathrooms was bad enough. Once again, i was to realise that its the natural order of things around here. But hey, their large inner compound and roof make up for the lack of bedrooms.


As soon as i entered, I found that Mami Nargis was squatting on the floor in the kitchen frying chickens. Now that is a finger twister for me to type! haha. Then Mamoo Ijaz told me, "Julissa, remember our family dinner date here tonight! and dont be late! Be here by 7pm"


We just said Hi to Appa ji and we were off on our way.

It took us some 30min to reach Thai office. Z asked me to go in first while he properly "parked" the bike. As soon as i reached for the door, the security guard inside stood up. I got just slightly nervous while thinking, "do i look like a terrorist?"


I thought to myself, why is the office so dark? We took a "Q" number n thought, why are they not calling us yet after 30min of waiting? Z explained that we were waiting for the electricity to be up again! GOSH. How do the businesses survive out herE? and how come they dont have a generator?


Finally, we were called. We showed the officer Z's original visa to Spore that i brought + Z's confirmation slip for his return on 7th Feb instead of 31st Jan. He scrutinized the visa, typed some things on his computer then said, "I can't print your new ticket. Bcos your visa says "short stay", i'd need a return ticket before im able to issue the revised one."


It was like a tight slap for us. Does it mean he has to go back on 31st Jan while I stay here alone till 7th Feb? I definitely dont wanna be alone, defeats the purpose, and i DONT wanna return home just 4 days after i journeyed 20hrs to come here! My mind was racing to find a solution. Maybe we should try again tmrw w a diff officer, cos the one who talked to us seemed rigid n he prolly just wanted money. Or we can go to the other office at the airport.....


a few minutes after that, i remembered that Mama Nana (my aunty who married a Pakistani) once said that she always get her travel agent to stamp a bogus confirmed return ticket or something to that effect. So i thought we should try to do that. in the meantime, i also asked Mummy to ask Kak Fauziah, our travel agent, why the Thai officer was saying like that, whether it was legitimate n what was our next course of action. Also i tried to get Kak Long to call ICA to get some approval or whatever but in the first place, she cldnt grasp what's happening and told me to call ICA myself! *roll eyes* *slap forehead* :P I felt quite exasperated then.


I observed a lot of interesting things while on the road today.

1. Their license plate looks something like LXR 2212. But some starts with other letters like P for Peshawar.
2. Hardly any women riding pillion on bike bcos its cold. Even if they do, they will side saddle. and there are absolutely NO lady riders.
3. Their buses have cute honking sounds more like a lullably! but after a while they still get on your nerves!
4. At some junctions, there will be a Timer on the traffic lights. The red light can go on for 85 secs while we only get about 20 sec of green!
5. If there's no timer, they will light up yellow light along with RED a few seconds before its Green to prepare you to move off!
6. Its a lot warmer for the pillion if we just hide behind the rider and hug him tight! LOL
7. Mummy CANNOT, i repeat, CANNOT survive the traffic condition here in Pak.
8. While most of their cars and rickshaws re using CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) which is supposed to friendlier to the environment, the atmosphere is still very much polluted. Thanks to the buses and sandy roads.

Its getting dark, but Z insists we go to Rizwan's shop at DHA Y block to look at the material. I reminded him that we need to reach Appa ji's house by 7pm. Its only the second time i met with my brothers-in-law and i think I and they too were still shy. hehe... But i can tell you that Rizwan really knows his stuff. he opens up the cloth plank with no effort, rips it like its paper and fold like its water! He matches the colour and material well. i fell in love with 3 pieces.... and bought 2 straight away. i wished i had time to look at each and every single design! Argh!! Time Time Time.

We had to press on. But before i can stand another bike ride, i totally need thicker socks!!! its damn COLD riding at night! i ended up buying 3 socks of white, brown and black and wore two pairs on!

Even though, we were late, i insisted on going home first. Something like i had to go to the toilet or something. and i took the chance to change also. and then the clock struck 8 and the loadshedding came as anticipated. DAMN. Thank god i brought this huge torchlight so at least we can still get ready.

Rizwan n Salman still at work, that left me, Z and Ammi to Appa's house. All 3 of us took the the bike! me n in the middle riding spore style n ammi side saddle. Silly me wore skirt so i had to yank it up to my knee. of course i was wearing another pants underneath but its so damn cold!! but nice of course! give me Cold any time but not heat!

it was still dark when we get there. Loadshedding normally lasts for 1hr. so we had to wait in Mamoo ijaz's (bed)room before dinner is served. it was a bit awkward or i was still a bit shy i dont know what to say or do. Thank God it was dark, so they cldnt see my facial expression. Neither could i, in turn, recognise who is who when introduced to Mamoo Ijaz's children. At that point of time, i could only remember Mihr, a few months old baby, his current youngest daughter but not too sure if last. She is actually one set of twin sisters. Her other half was taken by their maternal grandmother. While i suppose its a bit of burden off mamoo's shoulder, im pretty sure he's sad about it... to Mihr too!! *heart sank*

Finally, lights up and we adjourned to Mami Nargis' "holding" room (it leads to her bedroom) where dinner was spread on the floor. Its Saag biryani with yoghurt, coleslaw, raw WHITE and RED carrots (i didnt even know suxh things existed!) and fried fish and paya (mutton leg/knuckles soup). Saag is actually spinach. When i heard Mamoo Ijaz said that, i gulped being the vege-phobic that i am. but actually there's also mutton inside, so i tried as i was craving for red meat. and God was it heavenly!

Truth be told, i held my head down n played with my food throughout dinner trying to seem to be eating without eating too much as well as to pretend to be busy doing something. Also, i was upset with Z about some petty things tt i dont even remember now. Oh yes, something about him not sitting beside me but preferred to sit opposite me and next to his GIRL cousin when he knows i need his comfort the most at this particular time! No offence to Alina , whom he insists is just like his sister, for she is very kind and all excited about getting to know her Bhabhi (sis-in-law). She's around 12 yrs old BTW. But we are in a country where its actually LEGAL to marry cousins for goodness sake! *faint*

Throughout the dinner, i cldnt help but feel pity towards the women kind in the house (n possibly country), namely Kiran (Mamoo Ijaz's wife who is only 3 yrs older than me) and Alina herself for the men in the house literally COMMANDS them to do their bidding! Being a guest myself, i cldnt do nor say anything of course. But my heart revolts with each instructions, "Alina, wipe the safra", "Alina, take for me water", "Alina take my glass away", "Alina fetch this and that for me."

Mami Nargis did the cooking, so she gets to rest afterwards i suppose, so Kiran was the one who served and cleaned up, also in between feeding her babies and entertaining them. Come to think of it, the children didnt join us for dinner. hmmm...

After dinner, we were chit chatting again. Only, of course, i wasnt much part of it. They were singing and what nots. Then they asked me to sing. i refused politely although i had anticipated this n practised likewise at home in spore. i had even printed lyrics to memorise other songs cos i think Tere Liye is a bit too high for me which i havent got around to do yet. So i was left w Tere Liye option and being only my 2nd day with them and as shy as ever, i refused still. its one thing to sing over the phone, but quite another to sing IN FRONT of them. Z said ok if not Tere Liye then any other nashid (religious arabic songs), but i just cldnt think of any at the spur of the moment. By the time, i mustered the courage to sing, they had already given up asking. Dont blame them, they DID try to get me to sing like at least 5 times.

And this is Salman showing off the cloth Mami Nargis presented to me.

One of Mamoo Ijaz's daughters called me to play with her... i so wanted to but by the time i saw the window of opportunity to go, i cldnt find her. Z said she shld be asleep already. Oh well... i excused myself to the roof then. It was LOVELY. It would have been nicer though if other neighbour's couldnt see our roof or jump over the wall TO our roof! LOL. Lucky for them neighbours are trusty people.

And then it was time to go home. Mind you, it was already PAST midnight! But not before we talked to Mamoo Akram who's in Saudia on the phone first. When we shook hands, Alina said, "yours hands are very soft." immediately, i forgave her for whatever imaginary things i felt. She is exploited by family members, the least she could get from me is love and certainly NOT resentment! *slap own forehead*

Me, Z n Ammi took the bike home while Salman and Rizwan walked home. Mamoo Ilyas was house sitting at home! It just struck me that he wasnt there at dinner!