birthday frolics
on Pak'd Off (Pakistan), 15/Apr/2008 08:16, 34 days ago
You’ll be pleased to hear that this week’s blog entry sees the author a lot more upbeat and enthused after a fun birthday extravaganza weekend. The day itself saw many highly appreciated well wishes, thoroughly amusing e-greetings ranging from soft porn to Christian in theme. People at work provided a cake, flowers, the required fuss and a happy birthday girl once again feeling like part of the team.The afternoon brought more flowers and cake and an enormous fruit basket all of which Mum had somehow miraculously managed to have delivered to my place of work. I’m telling you, the woman is an internet shopping guru, I was stunned by the enormity of the basket filled with melons, oranges, bananas and apples and an enormous bouquet of flowers decorated with a big red bow. The delivery guy was extremely proud as it was his first fruit basket/flower ensemble and seemed genuinely touched by my promise to send a picture of it by email and proclaiming the gift“hoopserat” (beautiful).In the evening we went for a delicious steak meal and the following evening Carmel, Andy and Corry some of our VSO colleagues came to visit for the weekend. Some of our local friends joined us as well and booze, cake and a ridiculous hat were enjoyed by all.The following day four hung-over VSO volunteers enjoyed bacon, eggs and beans for breakfast while one poorly VSO volunteer (Andy) looked on longingly (Mwah ha!). You might wonder how we got hold of the aforementioned booze and bacon...um...and you can just get on with that cos I can’t tell.Eventually we decided to venture out to a bazaar in the old city called Anarkali which I’ve not visited before. We all rode together on a Qingqi which is a motorbike with a little carriage attached which has seats facing backwards and forwards. We let the three visitors sit on the back and laughed as the mad Lahore traffic continually sped past missing them by literally a hairs breadth.Anarkali is a bustling bazaar filled with a diverse range of shops and friendly local faces. We stopped for fresh juice and milkshakes at Hafiz Juice, a very famous and popular spot among Lahoris. I recommend apple and strawberry but remember to tell the waiter that you don’t want salt in it (potentially eurgh unless you like that kind of thing).On Sunday Corry was keen to go to the Wagha border and Cat’s boyfriend Joe had just arrived for his 6 month placement so again Cat and I found ourselves watching the ministry of silly walks. It’s still impressive and entertaining though and this time around wearrived early enough to see the procession of Indian spectators arriving on the other side of the fence. Ijaz our taxi driver who came with us commented on the fact that the Indians all managed to arrive together, in good time and in an enthusiastic procession while the Pakistanis continued to arrive in drips and drabs:“it’s because the Indians are more organised”!Indeed it was strange to watch this group of people only 20 metres apart from us and living only 30 kms away from Lahore in Amritsar, yet the differences are immense. Indian men and women along with foreigners tourists (many more on their side than ours) all arrived together in the parade whereas the Pakistani side had three entrances: a seperate one for each group. Brightly coloured clothing was worn by everyone yet the gender segregated stands on the Pakistan side contrasts the drab greys and greens of the men's clothing with the bright fabrics on the ladies’ side. On the Indian side and everyone sat down together and there were no Burkas or hijabs to be seen. This brings me on to the final observation, the numerous Sikh turbans bobbing through the Indian crowd really brought home what I already knew about the partition of India along religious lines, but the contrast was suddenly so clear. It made me want to cross the border and go and explore and see more of the differences between the two countries. That said, the performance by the strapping Pakistani border rangers is clearly FAR superior to that of the skinny Indian guards with the girlyfringes on their hats so maybe the grass isn’t always greener...