Suffi sahib got hit by a bad case of food poisoning. He called to let me know in the morning and I felt bad for him. I’ve been there and I could hear the suffering in his voice. I wished him a speedy recovery and told him to rest, poor guy. I wish I could have done more. Luckily, he is with his family.
I did some work in the hostel room, then walked outside. I walked around, and saw lots of people playing cricket matches all over. Pakistan beat South Africa the day before. Mall Road is very busy all week, but on Sunday morning, most things are closed and things are very calm. People were coming out of the many churches all around. I made my way to a spot on Mall Road where they have used book sellers on sundays. You can find all sorts of interesting, out of print books there. I walked up and down the lane, looking through stacks of dusty books. I ended up just picking up one children’s book that had some nice watercolor illustrations, for a mere Rs. 20.
Afterwords, I head over to see my friend Imran Siddique. He is a man of theatre, photography and one who really enjoys life with all its challenges. While many people I have met are doing excellent things, several have a deeply negative outlook on things, which is understandable, but overwhelming when it goes on for hours on end. Imran is very different in this regard. He faces huge challenges in all that he does as well, but sitting and spending time with him was really refreshing.We, ok he, made some chicken, rice and vegetables (I just chopped a few veggies). It was really fun to catch up and learn about some of the exciting things he has been up to. It started raining during my visit and the view from his open apartment was beautiful. He was getting ready for the wedding of two friends to each other, and it was sweet to see how happy he was for them. It’s a warm, contagious kind of feeling.
I left his place and walked around some more, as he had suggested taking a right turn, then a left then keep repeating until you are close to home and ask for directions for an interesting walk. He was right about his neighborhood being a fascinating place. It was wet and dark, but there was a real beauty to the lanes of delicious, open food shops. I could smell fresh naan and all those great meat dishes. I wasn’t really hungry, but it was fun to just walk and see what I saw. I didn’t even end up needing to ask for directions. I happened to walk back to a street I knew and made my way back to the hostel from there.
Once I walked in, I greeted the security and staff. Asim Hussain and Ajmal are two of the people there. Ajmal has asked me to sit and have some tea a couple of times, so I took him up on his offer that night. People are so gracious. I enjoyed a cup of chai and learned a bit about each of them, but more from their conversations with each other than with me.
It was nice to sit for a bit, but I was pretty tired, so I thanked them and head inside as Ajmal’s shift ended. I had planned to go see puppets at the Rafi Peer Theater, but decided not to deal with the buses in the rain.