Home away From Home (Pakistan Trip day-1 part 2-end)

In Pakistan, they do follow the Islam instruction, one of them is to look after the Mosafer or A guest or pilgrimage. Here in Pakistan I am considered as Musafer although I am not doing for spiritual journey. Pakistani do respect and take care of their guest. They will not give the guest up to their enemies. And they will give their best to satisfy the guest.

 Muzzamil (red t-shirt). this is the only picture i have about him.

So, the one who is “lucky” enough to receive mosafer is Hafizh Muzzamil, a young father from Karachi. And the even luckier guest is ME, Indonesian scum bag just flying to Karachi. So I know Muzzamil from Couchsurfing. He is active member of couchsurfing and he has hosted many mosafer like me before. He loves traveling. He has been doing traveling to Europe, some South and Southeast Asia countries, also Middle East. He is father of two cute kids, Misha and Mikael. Until I wrote this post, I even do not know what Muzzamil actually does there in Karachi.

So muzzamil lives in joint family, as common in Pakistan. So In Pakistan, people tend to live in the same building with other family members. The joint family is very common in Pakistan, so I can feel the close relationship amongst others. He is living with his wife, two kids, his parents, his brother, and his sister. It is quite a big family. Everybody there can speak English, as the education medium in Pakistan is in English. I am very surprised even his father can speak English very good, because you can expect this if you come to Indonesia.

Okay, I arrive in his home right from airport. The building has security guard, he is quite old to be security guard. I have no idea many houses in Pakistan I saw that they hire not-so-young people to be security guard. I think it’s the kindness of Pakistani to share their prosperity with others who are not able to work hard probably. He opens the gate for us and Muzzamil guide me to enter his house. I put off my shoes (still with short pants) and venture inside the house. He directs me to see my room that I will stay for few days here. I am so thankful for this. The house is quite big for me. Then his Wife comes to greet me. His wife wears black long Hijab covering her hair with long dress; this is like Iranian hijab style, not burqa. Muzzamil’s family is quite modern (modern here is not that conservative as other places in Pakistan). Suddenly, his kids, Misha and Mikael come to greet me too. They are very cute and smart as their father. Misha, the elder one, once was in Bali with her parents during Nyepi. Masha has curly hair with fair skin and adorable smile. Mikael, the younger, is very active. He has no hair and he looks alike to his mother favor. 

It was really hot, muzzamil turns on the ceiling fan. However, it can’t combat the heat so he puts one more standing fan into the room. I am drinking waters, one of the best time I have of drinking water, I never value water like this before. I finish 3 glasses of water in a row. Then he receives his best friend, Nadeem, who is later is my savior. So nadeem comes to this house to borrow muzzamil’s backpack as he and his family will go for vacation to Azad Kashmir. Muzzamil introduces me to Nadeem and yeah everybody seems super nice for my standard. I found srilankan people are very nice, and I call it now that Pakistani is super very nice.

Muzzamil informs his brother in law, Usama-ji (ji is polite word to address usually to older people or respected one. Usama is couchsurfer too and he loves traveling. So I am feeling like home already. It is Like home away from home. We talk a lot about many things from traveling to politics, from economics to word issue.

Usama is a bit older than Muzzamil (I think) He has beard (as other Pakistanis) with very heavy voice and nice smile. He comes along with his kids too, he just comes to say hello to me. It is very nice of them.

the bazaar

The day ends in Pakistan during summer late. it is 7.30 pm and the sky starts getting dark usually in Jakarta it is at 6pm). I am about jet lag because of this and 2 hours difference. Furthermore, it is time to have dinner for me (at 6pm). Unfortunately, the Pakistan dinner time is not 6 or around, but 10 or late.

Muzzamil asks me to to join him to go to Bazaar for buying Nan for dinner and he needs to laundry his belongings. As I walk along the street, it is dark, there are limited street lights, dust everywhere too. The bazaar is just walking distance from muzzamil’s house. The bazaar is very crowded although it is about to 8pm (it won’t be happening in Indonesia). Once he’s done with laundy, he takes me to see and witness the very first time myself for Nan bread original one.

It is close to main bazaar and Main Street. There is one restaurant (or I don’t know what it is called) for selling nan bread. There is long queue for this nan, people are buying for take away mostly. Muzzamil told me before that one nan cost about 4Rs before, and now the price is hike. We have to pay first for the nan in the counter. And here in Pakistan, there is ladies lane and gents line, they are separated. Once he is done paying, he takes me to go to the Tandoor or Tanoor (which one is correct?) to see the making of nan. I am short of jaw-dropping for witnessing the chain of makin nan in this place. So one people prepare the dough, very fast, then one people will pt it into tandoor or furnace (it is very hot). He uses sticks to put the dough inside the tandoor and take it very fast and throw it to another me who is ready to pack it to the costumer. This supply chain system is amazing for me. It takes very fast even many costumers wait for the nan even my camera can’t snap the process well as it moves very fast. 

Nans are ready to bring home

put into the tanoor

Then we walk to super market to buy something then go to ATM nearby as I need money. It is local Bank and I just insert my debit card. However, the ATM can’t dispense money from my card. I am in trouble, I don’t have USD or other foreign currencies all I have is just this debit card and I am cashless. Then muzzamil calms me down as he knows that some his mosafer faced the same problem before. So I can withdarw money from international Bank, like HSBC, Standard Chartered, and CitiBank which are spread a lot in Karachi and other big cities.

Nan Bread

We are now home and muzzamil’s wife prepares for dinner for me. She made a curry, chicken curry and it must be eaten with nan that we bought before. My very first heavy meal in Pakistan and t is AMAZING. The nan is good and the curry is very good. I can only eat nan up to one and half slices and it is too much for me although i want to eat more but my tummy is not that big to receive all.   So it is the time of power shut down, and fortunately muzzamil has power generator to support the energy supply during blackout. It takes about 5 minutes to start again the electricity. And I am very tired ad ready to sleep with ceiling fan on. And I see that muzzamil and family have dinner very late for my standard, at 10pm and after that they start taking rest.

This is Falsa, summer fruit who is best for summer drink

We continue talking and he tells me that the power shut down will happen three times a day for 2hours each. Karachi experiences the power outage as other cities experience worse than Karachi. Pakistan finds problem in providing enough energy.

My very first night in Pakistan goes very well, more than I expected before. As I am inside the room, I start opening my internet, and I see many facebook messages about asking my condition in Pakistan. I do not reply all since I am a bit tired so I just update that I am safe and sound in Karachi for the first day.

And I am ready for the next day