Diary of an Introverted Extrovert

یہ بات ہے کچھ پُرانے وقت کی جب میں لاہور میں برسر روزگار تھا اور اس لگی لگائی روٹی کو لات مار کے پی ایچ ڈی کی دلدل میں قدم رکھنے کے لیے پرعزم . اس عرصے میں میری ملاقات قادری صاحب سے ہوئی . یہ قادری صاحب تھے تو وہ ٹَن ٹَن ٹنا ٹَن والے طبقے سے مگر تھے بہت پیارے انسان . کراچی کی نم آب و ہوا سے اٹھ کر لاہور کی دھرتی پہ ایک بہت بنیادی تنخواہ پہ کام کرنے آۓ ہوئے تھے . قادری صاحب کا ذکر یہاں کیوں ؟ اِس لیے كہ آج بیٹھا میں یوں ہی سوچ رہا تھا کے قدرت آپکو کہاں سے کہاں کس مقصد کا لیے لے جاتی ہے اور آپکو اس کا اِدراک تک نہیں ہوتا . قادری صاحب بڑے سیدھے انسان تھے . اچانک فون کریں گے اور بولیں گے ، یار باہر چلیں ، تفریح کا موڈ ہو رہا ہے ، اور ان کی تفریح ایک پُرانے سے ڈھابے پہ چائے پینا تھی ، اور ہماری ان پہ اپنی جگت بازی کی چھریاں تیز کرنا . اِس کار خیر میں کبھی کبھار ہمارے جٹ صاحب بھی اپنی مہران کے ساتھ شامل ہو جاتے . رمضان کی ایک شام کو جب میں اور قادری صاحب ایسے ہی تفریح کا بعد باہر گھوم رہے تھے تو وہ فرمانے لگے کے ایک نوکری ہے ، اس ملک کی جہاں مہتاب غروب نہیں ہوتا . ہمارا جگرافیہ ذرا کمزور ہے ...

It was about 2 weeks of me being in London and I had been to nowhere. It doesn’t mean that I was keeping myself stranded in the room. The Pakistani community here was quite cool and really supportive, I attended some parties too, also went to meet some old fellows but that was not satisfying my nomad soul. I had to see London; I had to visit the places as they say in Urdu, “Awargi main had sa guzar jana chahea” We called one of our seniors who was living in this place from a long time now and literally begged her that we want to go somewhere; we need to have some sightseeing. She was so nice to set a plan for the coming Saturday to take us to Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly Circus is a place which would be in the mind of every person who is somewhat in to the Urdu literature as many authors quote it in their writings. We gathered at Mile End Station of the London underground tube system at 5 pm. One thing I observed here in London generally everywhere and specially...

Like most of the people from middle class background in Pakistan I have never traveled via airplane to anywhere not even locally. So all the information of how the plane looks like, and how the airports look like from the inside were all confined to the movies and videos but not for long. This time I got the chance to travel by plane and it was not going to be an intercity travel, I was going to London. It was October 2 nd which was designated to be my flight date and I was supposed to be travelling via the Qatar Airways. I reached the airport and I was quite anxious about the customs and the security check, but i t was not a big deal. I was through it in less than 20 minutes and I was in the boarding lounge an hour prior to my flight. So I waited and waited. Not just waited, I tried to explore the newly built Islamabad airport too which was unexpectedly really nice. These guys seemed to be much fond of the timings so there was no sighting of my plane which was supposed to dep...