London musings

"Stop staring. What are you looking at? The lines on my forehead? My arched brows? My long wrinkled neck? Are you admiring my aquiline features? Look into my eyes. These eyes have seen so many like you pass me by day after day. Some of you laugh, others stare and a few take pictures. I like it, the distraction, because most of the times I'm staring at Jean Dubuffet's 'The Busy Life', which features five grotesque figures as you can see for yourself. Now you understand what I go through? Wait! Where are you going? Oh yes, stare at the 'Four Figurines on a Base', my husband's memory of a Paris brothel. I have this in my view also. And the thoughts that go in my head when I see this, you can't even imagine. Go ahead! Admire his work. Are you leaving? Already? But I have so much to tell you. Wait!"

[I visited London in 2011 and one of my favourite activity was going to the museums and making notes on how I felt when I saw a work of art that fascinated me. This was written on a trip to Tate Modern. I came across it while combing through old notebooks yesterday.]

Image: Google

Of Travels and Destinations - Dubai (Wrap-up Post)

Conversations with taxi drivers in the Dubai trip provided the much needed insight about the place beyond its glitter. There was one taxi driver who told me how this job had helped his family back home and enabled him to build his house, marry off his sister and send his children to school. Then there was the one who explained, with great detail, how various nationalities behaved towards drivers - with foreigners (read: goras) being the most polite and leaving substantial tips and Arabs being the worst. Pakistanis and Indians were mostly rude, especially the affluent ones who considered taxi drivers as some alien species and not humans.

I like Dubai. Mostly because of my family and friends who live there and who made this trip such a memorable one. And yes, I admit, I like the shopping too. But there are various sides to Dubai and not all of them are glamorous. As tourists we don't get to see the apartment buildings where people share tiny flats and don't have central air-conditioning. Take a ride on the metro and you'll see tired, expressionless faces and glazed eyes as the metro takes them by shiny malls and hotels. They are, however, assured of one thing. No one will stop them on their way home and snatch their belongings at gun point.

Sometimes for peace of mind, you have to pay a price. 

Of Travels and Destinations - Dubai Part III

Within three hours of landing in Dubai, I was at the mall and in the make up store. It's easy to explain why: I needed to buy makeup. Why the urgency? Simple, because I had none. And the reason I had hardly any makeup was because on a similar getaway trip to Dubai I had made in the first weekend of April, the airline had lost my luggage. 

The airline has still not officially declared the luggage as lost. They are hoping to find it so they are spared making the compensation payment (which is peanuts....I mean, how can they put a price on the emotional attachment I had with my stuff? sniff! sniff!). I've kind of gone through all the stages involved in losing a piece of luggage; denial, more denial, hope, anger, frustration (usually involves the question, why me?), resignation, sliver of hope and finally, acceptance. 

Living in Downtown Dubai (I almost wrote Downton...and I'm not even a fan!) is very convenient. Dubai Mall is just minutes away! And it has the answer to all your shopping needs, more or less. It certainly had the answer to my needs and once we were done with the much needed bathroom trip, we stepped out of the house, hailed a taxi and off we went to Dubai mall. Our driver was from Peshawar and as soon as we told him we were from Karachi he asked, MQM? It is at times like these that one feels like, well....anyone living in this city would know what one feels like when asked this question.

So this taxi driver, Faiyaaz, was living and working in Dubai for the past 17 years. He told us how the entire Downtown area was all a desert wasteland and now they had made it into this concrete wonderland. We chit chatted about Pakistan, Karachi, Peshawar, etc and in under ten minutes, he deposited us at the mall entrance and refused to take money from us. You are our guests here, he said, politely shaking his head. We shook our heads too, politely thanked him for his gesture, made a small speech on how we couldn't rob him of his livelihood, handed him the money and stepped out of the taxi.

In all my trips to Dubai over the past five years I've never met a taxi driver who refused to take money from me. The gesture was very sweet and it gave me a bit of hope. There are still people out there who think from their heart, and are sentimental of sorts. There is good in this world and if you're good too, there is no reason why you won't run into some goodness now and then!

Dubai is a perfect example of how so many different people from different parts of the world can live in one place. I'm going to hold onto this thought for a bit and talk about it in detail in later posts. Meanwhile, in Travel and Destinations part IV: my detailed conversation with another taxi driver to find out the truth about why Pakistani taxi drivers harass Pakistani clients. 

Of Travel and Destinations - Dubai Part II

I always carry a book on me, even while I'm in Karachi. You never know when you'll need to kill the time and I'd rather read than play Candy Crush, thank you very much! I was carrying the novel, Thud! with me but when hubby dear stepped into the book stall in the departure lounge, I couldn't help wandering over too. Maybe it was nostalgia or the resolve to do new things on this trip that made me buy a copy of the 'Suspense Digest' May issue. 

Hubby dear raised inquisitive eyebrows when he saw my buy but I shrugged nonchalantly, said this is all part of the plan, sat back on the uncomfortable waiting area seat and started reading the first story. The thing that has always attracted me to Urdu digests is the artwork. As a child I used to make stories based on the ink drawings which were usually on the title page of the story. My grandmother was an avid reader of these digests and at any given point in time there were quite a few digest copies in her room. It's a fun exercise actually and some drawings are really done well. This copy of the digest has not excited me very much as far as the artwork or the stories are concerned (yes I've read a few of them and that too after coming back!).

What was exciting, as I tried to maneuver my hand luggage, enormous handbag and myself  through the narrow aisle without brushing against other passengers, was the holiday itself. And more importantly, the quest! We were surrounded on almost all sides by men who seemed to be going to the Middle East for work. What  caught my attention was the phone conversation the fellow sitting behind me was having. Although we humans strive to be different, we are all so similar in so many ways. No matter what social strata we belong to, we all ask/say similar things when travelling abroad for work, leisure or study: pray for me, the blessings of mothers are the best, don't cry that I'm leaving, etc. All those workers on the plane with us had left behind their wives, children, parents, friends, the comforts of home. They were going away so that their loved ones could lead a comfortable life while they lived and worked in average and in some cases, below average conditions. And I kept thinking, why are we letting these people go away? Why can't our country provide livelihood for its people? Why don't we value our labour? What is wrong with us? 

On a lighter note, it was amusing to see all these people being served by a foreign and 'gora' (for want of a better word) crew!

The flight to Dubai takes approximately two hours which is almost the same as Karachi to Islamabad. However, the world turns 180 degrees once you land in Dubai. From the moment you step into the Dubai airport, it seems as if you've entered 'la-la land'. Everything is spotlessly perfect. The perfection continues as you walk out of the airport, into the car and on the road. Perfect roads with perfect sidewalks and perfect cars in perfect lanes perfectly following all rules and regulations to reach their perfect (or in some cases not so perfect) destinations. And the latter is what I'm meaning to discover in my (perfect?) trip.

Read in Travel and Destinations part III: Why our first taxi ride was almost free, my first buy just hours after landing and how the Dubai Mall aquarium has the answer to all problems that plague mankind. 

Of Travels and Destinations - Dubai Part I

"A question, a quest is a starting point that gives any trip a purpose." 

                                                                                                         (Pico Iyer)

Before leaving on holiday with hubby dear last month, I happened to read the above quote. I have, never, set an objective before embarking on a journey. So I asked myself: what do I want to come back with from this trip besides the usual suitcase full of stuff (70% useful and 30% useless shopping) and an SD card with photographs? 

This quote (and the article it was a part of) inspired me to do some serious thinking which excluded the 'things to pack', 'gifts for friends' and 'holiday shopping' list. In all honesty, it wasn't easy to set a question for myself. What kind of quest can I give myself for a trip to Dubai? Besides setting a budget and STICKING to it? Which, I assure you, is quite a challenge. 

After much thinking I decided to set myself two goals. The first one was simple enough, do new things on this trip. The second one was a bit tough. Try and scrape through the glittery surface of Dubai and discover what lies beneath. Is there any personality to this city? 

Armed with these two questions, some Khaadi kurtis (their western pret kurtis are my favourite pieces), a pair of jeans which I succeeded buttoning up after holding my breath for what seemed like an eternity, my funky orange 'Listen Girl' bag, and multi-colored kolapuris, I was ready to discover Dubai like it was nobody's business.

With me usually the whole excitement of discovering new places, doing new things and other holiday jargon-y stuff fizzles out a few days into the vacation. The same happened in the case of this trip also but I managed to stay true to my goals which I will reveal in the next few posts which I will be posting in the next few days.

Read in Travels and Destinations part II: My 'new genre' read for the journey, observations on the plane and the concrete jungle that is Dubai. 

Of Rooms and Views

Inspired by the title of the novel, A Room with a View by E.M.Forster  (which was a part of my February reads in the Grand Reading Plan 2015), I came up with some past, desired and present views. 

From a room with a view of sky, sea and sand (Ko Pha Ngan Island)

A view I greatly desire from a room (Laguna Beach, LA)

The view right now.

Note: All pictures are by the author of the blog. 

The book in my suitcase

No matter how hard I try, books usually end up in my suitcase.

It's a habit I've tried to rid myself of, albeit reluctantly. For someone who carries a book in her handbag and gym bag, it's rather hard to not take a book on a holiday. In all honesty it is never 'a' book but several and often, not always, I end up reading the books I've bought during the holiday. The folly of my habit hits me when the luggage exeeds the weight limit on the return journey. I'm also not one of those who leaves her own books behind for the pleasure of other travelers. Firstly, if I take the trouble of carrying a book (or books) with me it is quite obvious that I like it/them and secondly, I don't read thrillers, vampire novels or trashy romance.

The right book in the right location is a killer combination. I read 'The End of the Affair' (Graham Greene) while on a holiday in London and being in the same city, travelling on the tube and taking the same lines as the characters made it so much more enjoyable. It's not necessary that the setting of the novel be similar to your physical environment. I was reading 'Doctor Fischer of Geneva or the Bomb Party' on a beach last year, enjoying the sun, sea and sand as one of the main characters was skiing to her death. 

Sometimes it is fun to match the book with the location and it was this thought that was dominant in my mind today as I browsed through my book shelves. 

'A Capote Reader' has found its way in my suitcase. 

What happens in Goa, stays in Goa.....

........ except for the books!

It is always very difficult for me NOT to buy books while travelling. And more so at a literature festival where there are stacks of books on display beckoning innocent book lovers like me to buy one and then another one and then one more. Which is what happened in Goa where we (which includes a bunch of super talented people) happened to be in the first week of December for the Goa Arts & Literary Festival (read about us at GALF here).

And the beaches do really look like this in Goa, minus the hippie couple.

A postcard from the works of Mario Miranda.

Greene in Thailand

"I doubt if one ever ceases to love, but one can cease to be in love as easily as one can outgrow an author one admired as a boy".

Holiday or otherwise, Greene always makes for a GREAT read.

Miss Jean Brodie in Bhurban

"Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life".

One of the perfect books to read on a holiday...or otherwise. 

London Kahani

Insha's London

A basement flat in Gloucester Hotel owned by a matronly Mrs.Watson sounds an extremely scary place to live in. And that is exactly where Ibn-e-Insha stayed when he visited London in Sept 1967. I was rather lucky in terms of the location, ownership and view of the apartment where I resided. The magnificent Thames (a little tributary if truth be told) and a drawbridge greeted me each morning while poor Insha Sahib was haunted by the garbage drum and all that inhabited it, both living and otherwise.

Once I had made the all important trip to Big Ben and Trafalgar Square, I found myself on Victoria Embankment every other day. Maybe it was to say hello to poor Nelson, who stands alone while all and sundry pose with the lions. Or to lose myself in the hallways of National Art Gallery; trying to imprint the paintings on my mind or through inadequate words, in my diary.

Besides the National Art Gallery, there are a multitude of museums to explore and maybe, get bored in, especially without company. The British Museum is one such place which I, luckily, did not explore on my own. Like Ibn-e-Insha, we too made a dash for the Egyptian gallery. The whole place is death personified. There are coffins, both with and without mummies, with intricate carvings and symbols along with details of the preservation process the Egyptians used. The star of the place is an extremely well preserved mummy with nails, teeth and even hair intact (on a closer inspection one might even find mummified lice). It was a bit disturbing to see throngs of people around this nameless corpse whose soul, I’m sure, is still searching for peace, maybe within the very walls of the museum.    

Aphrodite at British Museum

Ibn-e-Insha was not duly impressed by the Egyptian artefacts, especially the agricultural tools. According to him archaeologists wasted their time digging up remains of ancient Egypt, most of the items are present and still in use above the ground in our country. I was more interested in the Greek statues, something not present in any form in Pakistan. And it is always better, both historically and optically, to look at stone sculptures of Greek Goddesses in the nude rather than a shrivelled mummy.

Loneliness never hits you as strongly as when you’re taking pictures of yourself with a self-timer. But where the camera has proved itself to be a technological wonder, it is also a nuisance at times. Unlike other picture galleries, Tate Modern does allow photography without a flash. More people, I’m sure, view the exhibits through the camera lens rather than the naked eye.

I was there one day, sitting quietly and contemplating the vivid colours of Monet’s Water – Lilies when in walked a man with a camera and a guidebook. He took one sweeping look at the room, decided Monet was a worthy keepsake, snapped a picture with his digital SLR, took out a smart phone, snapped another picture of the painting and sauntered out of the room to repeat the process. Digital age galore!

But London is in stress, not just over the Olympics but also the dwindling economy. It seems that the case was no different in 1967. Like Ibn-e-Insha I, too, contributed to the economy of Britain by making a fairly large number of purchases. As Insha Sahib said in his book, we have old historical, political and cultural links with England. If we don’t help them in times of need, who will?

P.S: Though I saw theatre plays also, Insha Sahib was lucky enough to see the great Laurence Olivier play Edgar in Strindberg’s, The Dance of Death, at the Old Vic. According to Insha Sahib, Olivier’s acting was a marvel. 

Note: The sketch and all references to Ibn-e-Insha are from his book, Awara Gard ki Diary (Travelogue) 

Tour dé Lahore - a pictorial

The Beautiful Wazir Khan Mosque

The walk to the splendid Wazir Khan Mosque was through small streets (left) after entering from the Delhi Gate (right). A street beggar counts his change, oblivious to the rickshaw. Benazir's photo looks down from the crumbling walls.

A work of art indeed!

'This beautiful building is in itself a school of design'- Lockwood Kipling

The Lahore Fort - still holding strong.

These crumbling walls of the fort hold many secrets of the glorious era of the Moguls. If only they could talk...

Walking up the steps to the grand Badshahi Mosque. Nothing can ever prepare you for the sight of this architectural wonder. The designers, masons and artisans of that age were true masters if they could produce wonders such as these without the aid of modern technology. The enormity of the Mosque takes your breath away and every beautiful detail of the Mosque leaves you awestruck and humbled. 

The majestic Badshahi Mosque

    

Nothing can prepare you for the 'lowering of flag' ceremony at the ceremonial Wagah Border also!

It seems like a big 'tamasha' (performance). We were the 'Tamashbeen' (public) cheering and shouting patriotic slogans when ever one of our soldiers struck the ground hard with their boots or adjusted their turbans and showed fists to the 'enemy'. 

The picture on the left shows one of the important rituals preceding the flag lowering ceremony. The soldiers of the Border Security Force of India are also doing the same on their side of the border. Since the gates are still closed, we cannot see if they can match the strength of our soldiers. 

All during the ceremony I was wondering when one of them might slip. No wonder they keep  the gates closed!

These two soldiers did such a good job at intimidating their rivals! Full marks to them for acting so well! The crowd applauded their show of power and clapped and cheered immensely. I could just not stop laughing! 

The flag lowering ceremony. Did we win? 

The final showdown!

    All smiles at the gates...these guards were really tall men! Or was it their shoes?

                                                                    

Is this the gateway of freedom for all? Just like Quaid-e-Azam, M.A.Jinnah had envisioned?
I think we all knew the sad answer to this question even as we shouted patriotic slogans.

Note: All these photographs were taken from Ahsan's camera by him, myself and Mohsin Bhai. I can't take the credit for all the photographs! :)

Tour dé Lahore

A day trip exclusively for sightseeing around Lahore seemed too good to be true but where there’s a will there is a way and Jeff proved it. It is nothing short of a miracle that wedding guests, ranging from the ages of 60 to two years managed to wake up early on a Sunday morning (while on vacation and after a late night of partying) and assembled at 10ish at Liberty Market for a traditional puri halwa breakfast. The day’s itinerary was ambitious; a quick trip down Lahore’s rich historic past and (a little not so rich) present.

The mastermind behind the entire trip was none other than the father of the bride, my dear uncle, Jeff, who was harbouring the dream of such a tour since the day he moved to Lahore! This trip was a recreational and educational trip. And it was a good change from the usual mundane trips to malls and bazaars.

Our first stop was the very beautiful Wazir Khan Mosque. This mosque was built in seven years and work began on it in 1634-1635 during the reign of the Mogul Emperor Shah Jehan. It is famous for its faience tile work (source: Wikipedia). The entrance to the mosque is through Delhi Gate, one of the old gates of the inner city. The tile work is absolutely breathtaking. Our stop there was brief and though we were in the middle of the city, there was a sense of quiet calm within the walls of the mosque.

As we moved through the narrow streets to reach Wazir Khan Mosque, I felt sad at the degradation around me. There was absolute chaos outside the Mosque; life went on around this great architectural beauty in the same manner it does anywhere in our country. It seems sad that all new governments want to build new monuments to mark their time in power; ugly structures that are a display of ego and fake patriotism but no one takes any concrete steps to protect our inheritance, and the little proof that remains of our glorious ancestors.

The display of decadence is nowhere more prominent than at the majestic Lahore Fort. It was built during the reign ofAkbar (1556-1605) and inside it there are many famous sites; Sheesh Mahal, Naulakha Pavilion, and Moti Masjid (source: Wikipedia). The Lahore Fort is also a UNESCO Heritage Site (as is Wazir Khan Mosque) but it seems otherwise from its dilapidated condition. The very walls of the entire place seem to be crumbling. On a previous visit during a trip I’d made to the fort in 2006, the Sheesh Mahal was being renovated. Four years later the renovation is still going on. What a splendid sight the mirrors must be during the heydays of the Moguls. It was heart breaking walking around the fort which, too, has become commercialized.Where, once, the footsteps of Kings echoed people are eating french fries under ugly branded umbrellas of Walls and Coca Cola.

We made a very brief stop at the Badshahi Mosque which is right opposite the fort.. This grandiose structure was commissioned by the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb in 1671 and was completed in 1673 (source: Wikipedia). The Badshahi Mosque is a landmark of Lahore and it is unparallel in its beauty, magnificence and splendour. Since it was a Sunday, the place was thronging with visitors. And we had to cut short our trip so as to be able to be on time at our final stop, the Wagah Border.

Wagah Border is the ceremonial border between Pakistan and India. Over the years, it has become a major tourist attraction as there is an elaborate flag lowering ceremony which is preceded by a parade of sorts (very choreographed) between the Pakistan Rangers and Border Security Force of India. The ceremony is well known for the theatrics pulled by soldiers of the two countries with much fist shaking and boot stamping amidst cheering crowds on both sides. We also joined in the fun and shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ while the Indians did the same. Both the sides had more or less the same setup but ours was a little too pompous. We had a bigger and taller gate which looked rather ugly. Do we really think that a monstrous gate will make us a bigger or better country? I think the gate did represent what our nation stands for (especially now), a country which has big words and ideas (not to forget big presidential palaces and big government spendings) but is hollow from the inside (even the sliding gates did not work all that smoothly!). And to counter Asoka’s Lions which stood atop the pillars of the India gate, we had Allah carved atop both our pillars. Probably because the only reason we’re still here is because of HIM, otherwise we’ve not left any stone unturned to destroy ourselves.

The ceremony was fun. There was a hint of sadness in my feelings as I thought of the great Mogul Emperors, Akbar, Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb. They ruled over a united subcontinent where Hindus and Muslims lived together. How would they react to the Wagah Border? Surely they would be rather shocked. Will our reasons for a separate homeland for Muslims be good enough to justify breaking their homeland into pieces? Somehow, I don’t think so.

I did some sightseeing on my own also when I dragged my mother and brother to the Lahore Museum. There are some amazing things there; miniature Mogul paintings on ivory, wood sculptures of Hindu Gods, a huge stone stature of Asoka’s lions, and of course, the great Sadequain’s paintings. But it is a depressing place and it left me sad. Will we never learn to appreciate our past? I fear the answer. 

At the Shahi Qilla (Lahore Fort)

A big thanks to Jeff for planning this trip! It added a unique and memorable touch to the wedding festivities!