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

It was still hard to believe that the recordings were finished. I felt a need to leave Jamshoro as fast as possible, after being stuck there for such a long time.

At Darya sahib’s place where I am staying, there is a cat and her two kittens that wander in through a hole in the front screen, then walk through the house and exit to the hole in the back screen door. It is kind of funny seeing them wander through.

There is the stress of whether things will work out in the coming days that looms over me, but I do what I can.