Today was the day to track down a place where I could get my music recordings from Sindh digitized form miniDV (obsolete format) so that I could begin working on it in the computer.

I thought I would show Kristeen around Lahore so that we could fulfill that famous saying for her, “Jinai Lahore nai waikhia, o jamia ee nahi (whomsoever has not seen the city of Lahore, has not been born).” So, for Kristeen to be born, she needed to see some interesting places here.

Puppets! I mean wife arrives!

Preparing

A walk through Lohari

I shifted to the NCA hostel, to be closer to resources that I need to work on.

I knew this would not be easy. I did not know it would be so difficult.

I’ve been reading some great Sindhi short stories translated to Urdu in a book gifted to me by Najib sahib. The short story tradition here is very rich.

It has been several days here in Lahore and while resting and editing has been mostly what I have been up to, I also need to digitize about 30 mini DV tapes of recordings from Jamshoro.

I spent the day visiting relatives. Along the way we stopped at the auto parts bazar behind Data Darbar.

When people make bigoted statements, it is difficult for me to remain silent. Uncorroborated hearsay is treated as sacred fact. Dare I laugh at someone’s statement or question it, I am quickly cut down to size as not being Pakistani, or not being Muslim or if in the US, not being American.

Regarding work, I have to assess what tasks can be worked on at the moment, what blocks are keeping me from working on additional tasks and how I can balance all of this to get the most done concurrently.

I didn’t sleep much on the bus over night. Between dosing off for bits here and there, I caught the sunrise over crops in Punjab. It felt good to be back in Punjab.

As I walked in to pay for the ticket, the man at the counter told me it had been cancelled and even if I had come much earlier that would still be the case. I already had one ticket cancelled by them via text message and now this?

Early morning, after some tea, Moeez and I head out on his motorcycle. He had asked if I would be interested in checking out a landscape that was a bit different. Sure I was.

I woke up for Eid and Moeez and his family had ironed a nice shalwar kameez for me. I got ready and my little cousin Yusuf was all dressed up too.

On the last day of fasting for the month of Ramazan, I rested. I woke up for a bit, then slept again