I walked over to NCA and met with Suffi sahib. It was good to catch up. We had some special daal (daal with bits of chicken in it) and special naan (roghni naan, with sesame seeds) brought to us from Anarakali which was delicious. The VTR or DVR that came from Islamabad, for digitizing my old tech DV tapes for music in “Risalo” was missing a power cable, which had not arrived after over a week of asking for it, so I needed to figure out what was needed and get it. I managed to borrow one portion of the cable from my friends at NCA.Sitting there and having conversations or being there while others speak is certainly interesting. To hear the challenges regarding work prospects and how people are trying to build their futures outside the country is sad and interesting. There are those few who have found their spot and are pushing to leverage what is here. There are perhaps a larger number of people who love their country but having pushed through to get a good education, find themselves without the connections to get a good job here. Many of them hit a limit on their ability to grow and earn. Then they start to look outside the country. While the masses of people have no choice, but to stay here and deal with the breakdown of every aspect of society. There is hope as well, but it all depends on who you talk to. The layers of corruption and apathy are tough to break through on a daily basis, and yet I see excellent examples around me who are doing great work. The key is to make it livable here so that we stop losing many of our brightest.Afterwards I head to the bank to cash a check. As usual, I waited, then had my number called at last, only to find out the system was down. I asked if I should come back in an hour and they told me the system had been down for two days. This becomes routine after a while. That does not make the trudge in the heat, being drenched in sweat and wasting days at a time any easier, but you take the latest beating and try to muster the energy to get up the next day. I picked up the second portion of the cable I needed, then found the large light bulbs I had researched the day before. That is a pretty successful trip.Drenched in sweat, I returned home, cleaned up then setup the lights and worked on another round of video tests. The new lights helped create the larger soft light that was lacking!