303 hours to go

~303 hours to go

2:00am may 9 - drift off to sleep, expecting to wake up in 2 hours to catch my 6 o'clock train to delhi.

5:36am may 9 - i am awoken by the combination of unexpected bright light shining through my window and the click-clack of stones ricocheting off it as the domestic worker downstairs, ikram, tries to save my day, while i stubbornly drool it away.

6:02am may 9 - after a mad dash of running yelling and rickshawing, i make it on board my train drenched in sweat but with my thud thud thudding heart slowing to a sweet relief.

6:10am may 9 - train leaves station and i see just how close i like to cut things.

~284 hours to go

11:00pm may 9 - after running some errands in the afternoon, i meet a friend from jawaharlal nehru university at a trendy south delhi spot, tabula ras, which is sort of a highlight of my day of delhi disgust, including lodging (for cheapness) in the tourist trap that is pahar ganj, and then of course absorbing the slippery slick lifestyle, gooey gelled hair, make-up-crusty faces, and gym-trimmed or gym-buffed bodies of rich delhiite snobs. i notice that my friend is looking quite slick these days as well, and he concedes, delhi did it to me. as we leave tabula ras, a customer apparently slaps a waiter, or so we hear. the suspect is taken into a room, held and beaten by 5-10 guys while security officers watch; the beating (which we could hear) sounds quite brutal to me, but doesn't phase my friend or any of the other delhiites standing around having a good time. lesson learned: this place may make you slick (if you belong to the right class), but it also makes you hard.

~267 hours to go

4:00pm may 10 - in my dirty american tourist clothes and sweating my dirty american tourist sweat, i arrive at the pakistani embassy. to one side there are not-so-slick (wouldn't see them at tabula ras) indian muslims clamoring for visas, i walk around to the other side and there are well-dressed indians trying to get into the embassy through other, slicker channels. i'm here grudgingly, on instructions from my father to visit his friend who is the pakistani ambassador to india, who i met once many many years ago. looking at my dirty american tourist sweat-drenched face, the secretary at the window obliges my request to send a message to the ambassador with a "oh, you fool" type of smile. i wait, and as i wait someone approaches me to say,

"if you have connections 'on the inside,' then i have an idea/plan that i need some help with."

me, a bit dumbfounded, "uhhh. sorry, i can't help you."

a few minutes later i am summoned to "his excellency's" office, and suddenly the snide-smile secretary and those around him are all smiles, no snide, as they open the gates to "the inside."

his excellency, or as i called him, "uncle shahid," was quite the charmer and not at all intimidating or scruffy. while i was there he called my dad in the states and they bantered in a loutish rough-house punjabi, cracking jokes and laughing. then he sobered up all at once and pronounced, "ok, i have to get serious or your son is going to think the ambassador is a joker."

i walked out of the embasssy feeling pretty slick. but not so hard.

~252 hours to go

may 11 - i travel to amritsar and see the sublimely lit golden temple at night. i am mesmerized.

may 12 - still mesmerized by the sunlit golden temple. also visit jallianwala bagh, site of the 1919 british massacre of at least 379 (some estimates as high as 2000) unarmed and peacefully demonstrating indians.

~195 hours to go

3:50pm may 13 - crossing the india-pakistan border at wagah on foot is not quite the climactic film scene that i was picturing in my mind. mostly because i am running, panting, and stopping to take breaths as i try to cross before the 4pm border closing. i make it just in time. the last indian soldier sends me off by praising my Hindi, and 10 feet later, the first pakistani soldier greets me by praising my Urdu, meanwhile, there has been no change in my language. the story is old, but it goes on.

once on the pakistani side of the border, i traveled in style - hitch-hiking my way to lahore, where my grandmother was awaiting me, in the AC sedan of a Punjab University lecturer. and that's where i am now. sharing a few precious moments with bari ami (literally: big mama) before i return to lucknow, only to leave it for good this time.

i got 120 hours to go.