Overdue Post: Reflections from Pak

Salaam

I have a bad habit of procrastinating. That's putting it mildly. If you take a look at my Gmail Inbox, you'll see that I've saved emails from months -- even years -- ago in hopes that one magical day I will make time (i.e. stop being lazy) and follow-up with it.

This blog entry on my Reflections from Pakistan is much the same. I began writing this short blurb while I was actually in Pakistan. My plan was to do live blogging. Looking back, I think it would've made for a phenomenal recap of my adventure, good memories, good reading, and intrigue (at least for me). I regret not doing it, to be honest.

Anyway, this early afternoon I was cleaning out my Inbox and noticed this unfinished entry I had emailed myself. I like it enough to post it, even though it's incomplete and I will likely not ever complete my Reflections from Pak entry. A part of me still wants to, but, c'mon Part-of-me-that-still-wants-to, it's closing in on a year since that trip! At this point, cut your losses, delete that email that has been in your Inbox since 11/10/2010, post it here, and move on to the next great idea you're going to procrastinate:


Reflections from Pak:

The journey to Pakistan via PIA was a long one, but nothing stressful, Alhamdullilah. I'd never really hear too many positive things about traveling PIA so my perspective was, at best, pessimistic. From service to food, friends and family warned me about their bad quality. This was further reinforced when a few days before traveling, we watched news on Geo TV about how some PIA planes had a mouse problem. Great, I thought, now I'm going to have to put my feet up and sit Indian style for the entire flight so I don't cause an international incident by panicking (i.e. screaming) about feeling something furry on my feet which would likely cause unrest and uproar amongst the other passengers therefore resulting in the need for the pilot to make an emergency landing which further attracts worldwide media speculation since it's a flight filled with brown folk. (If you think I'm indulging, you haven't heard me yell now have you?). The PIA experience, however, was thankfully quite contrary. The flight attendants were decent (I wouldn't necessarily rave about them at the same time), but most importantly the food was good. And they fed you quite often, which, as a family, we thought was impressive considering the airline industry's relative cheapness these days. I also enjoyed the interface for selecting movies, TV shows, etc. And their selections saved me a few bucks by not having to rent Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe (a decent rental-worthy movie).

Anyway, after stops in Barcelona and Lahore we finally arrived in Karachi around 3:30am. The airport was understandably quiet. The initial feelings we had were, Wow, we're finally here after such a long time. Almost hard to believe. While our last visit to Pakistan was 25+ years ago, there are still certain things that take me back. And the first thing that took me back came while we were waiting at Immigration: I could smell Pakistan. There are many "smells" to Pak. Some good. Some bad. Some neither. Beyond that description, I'd be at a loss of words. That and my love for this country would prohibit me from describing the bad smells...

We were greeted by Ali's future in-laws who, mashaAllah, got up so early just to greet us. And our cousin who also got up early to pick us up.

The ride to our uncle's was one to remember. The first thing I noticed was that despite it being dark outside, people driving trucks, cars, motorcycles refused to turn on their headlights. Not all of them, but definitely enough. I was bewildered. Sure, I've heard of Pakistanis being lazy, but this? The next thing I noticed was that no one bothered with staying in your own lane. Umar put it nicely: in Pakistan, apparently the lines on the roads are more of a suggestion than a law. Should you choose to obey traffic laws, you'd stay in between the lines.
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Sorry, folks, that's all I got to. Only the first few hours of a two-week trip. If you feel jipped, just imagine how my wife feels when I procrastinate on doing household chores...






Cheers