While waiting for check in at Heathrow, a middle aged lady carrying a smart Coach bag, clad from head to toe in black abaya and hijab, her shimmering face showing came to me and asked if I would carry her extra luggage for her! Shocked that she could even ask me such a question I tried to politely tell her that I didn't have any space, she blatantly lied and said she would have returned her extra luggage with her family but they had already left, whereas I could see them standing in a corner and waiting for the outcome of her adventure. This was a prelude to stranger things to come. On the plane, nothing less than a PIA, one out of two economy class toilets went 'out of order' ten minutes into our flight, causing at least half an hour waiting queues. Steward on duty to serve our aisle was too macho to serve us even water, let alone ask if we needed anything. My request for a blanket was ignored with not even a return 'sorry we don't have any more' note. We felt this deprivation even more because the stewardess in the opposite lane came every fifteen minutes bringing either newspapers, water, blankets etc. On a seven and a half hour journey we were subjected to a manually operated in flight entertainment system: One small screen in the front showing Hitchcock kind of a movie, the title of which was never given. At the airport while we waited in the queue for passport check we saw some of our fellow passengers jumping lines or altogether by passing passport check and leave. I guess those of us who were waiting had to have not just our passports but our heads checked as well for braving a return home journey!
Haven't written in a while and those following my blog would know by now that whenever something disturbing on the world scene happens, I stop writing. Its an irony because usually writers provide solace through their writings while I, lose all power of expression when I am disturbed. And then what is there to write? Follow any newspaper from around the world and there is only one message that you get: Pakistan is rapidly slipping into an abyss! I was born in the 70s and have grown up in the 90s, I have vague recollection of the 80s even though I was not old enough to understand what life under Zia's martial law was like but I have seen relay race of power between Benazir and Nawaz Sharif in the 90s but never in our history have we been so unsafe. Where every person big or small, significant or otherwise, powerful or weak, rich or poor is exposed equally to this invisible enemy. Call it what you might, Taliban, extremist, jihadi, Al Qaeda, seperatist, a murderer by any name is ...
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