Le Whore ... she just don't treat me right!

If I survive the next week (and the education conference), I shall be back in the arms of my hometown, that peaceful (ok, so I am pushing it) city of lights, Karachi. I shall, then, have time and the opportunity (and be safely out of reach), to tell you loads of stuff about my experiences in Lahore, a city that constantly reminds me of a passage from my all-time favourite book, Alice in Wonderland:

Alice looked round her in great surprise. "Why, I do believe we've been under this tree all the time! Everything's just as it was!" "Of course it is," said the Queen: "what would you have it be?" "Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing." "A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place."

Don't get me wrong: The hospitality at the home of my hosts can't be beat. CHILL OUT's gorgeous sugar-free ice cream, in two flavours unavailable elsewhere in Pakistan to diabetics like me, and Shoaib's unique humour are simply amazing, but (a) one does not have access to them everyday (Shoaib strictly forbids visiting him more than once a week!); and (b) I am sure there are harmful side-effects of both. Exceedingly soft-spoken Gulzar's erudite (and well-articulated) conversations are a treat, as is Salima's warmth. But one cannot be expected to tap these resources too frequently. (A secret: it was the possibility of interaction with these two that had made me consider, once, a longish stint at BNU, Pakistan's first Liberal Arts University.) Meanwhile, this is just to tell you all that this blog may be kinda inactive until the 5th ... although, for my own sanity, I will probably add a few lines every now and then. Oh ... a recommendation. Hamza Moin has an interesting site for young Muslims. Khuda Hafiz ...