A chance meeting with Salman Rashid

My friend from bank, Adil Mulki, called me up two days back informing me that he just received Mr. Salman Rashid, ace travel writer of Pakistan, in his office and that he was willing to have Iftari with us. I was surprised to say the least. I agreed without thinking.

Yesterday (Thursday) Adil, myself and Danial Shah, my friend from Flickr, took Salman to Sajjad's restaurant in Phase 8 DHA, Karachi. It's a pleasant, sea-side restaurant with Arabian Sea lapping next to its wooden columns. It's a place where you take your friends from afar to impress. Although, I must say, the food quality has progressively declined in recent months. More Pakistanis are now flocking to eat sub-standard food there.

Salman was in a pleasant mood and was talking as always. We were also in quite a pleasant mood despite the fact that we'd reached the place just 2 minutes before breaking of fast. Salman  .... (censored) .... is a man much given to travel and history and discipline. He is a learned man and that is shown by the quality of his articles. Even the basic ones carry a certain weight and a historical background wherever required. His emphasis on correctness of terminology doesn't suit the usual travel-writing world of Pakistanis where names are altered on whim and history is created by one's own pen.

Salman gave us the example of people like ..... (censored).... both of whom receive generous funds from rich Pakistanis; both are psuedo-intellectuals as per my .....(censored) understanding. For comparison read any book of Salman Rashid and then read any book penned by Tarrar sb. If you are into fake ideas, fairies and fantasies, then Tarrar is for you (my idea, not Salman's); if you are into genuine historical perspective and travel writing then Salman is for you. There is no doubt that he is a top travel writer of our generation in our country. And I don't see anyone else approaching his class anytime soon, which is sad.

During our Iftari + Dinner meeting I found Salman very helpful, very keen to learn new things and new routes and very very .... (censored). He wakes up at 5 AM or even earlier and sleeps early too, a rather rare attitude among urban Pakistanis. And he reads a lot. He emphasized that we must read original sources as much as we can. He named a few I knew. He told us how and why he left Army, then went to Siemens Pakistan, then left that job and became a full time vagabond, a hard life to live. He still lives and talks like that and he is still quite energetic. Travellers must be energetic themselves; he is not surely an arm-chair type of a person and loves fish immensely too so we ordered strange-sounding fish for him which turned out tasty. Chicken Karahi wasn't that tasty, though.

All in all, I really liked meeting him and I informed him that he is the only travel writer worth reading in Pakistan. Being a humble person he just shrugged off. Though he feels ... (censored) ... those men and women who've become something in their lives and have now forgotten their poverty and their background. He again and again named .......... (censored) ................. I 100% agree.

When in Lahore, I will now do two things: Eat fish at Salman's house and avoid meeting Tarrar sahib!

Few articles by Salman Rashid here and here.

Portrait: Shoemaker, Old city of Sharkapur Sharif

Portrait: Shoemaker, Old city of Sharkapur Sharif
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Date: 8th June, 2011.

Another trip, another sweltering heat, another place, another interesting person. This time it is Central Punjab (or is it just Punjab?) and we are here - me, Haroon's father and Adeel - at an old town of Sharakpur Sharif (also pronounced and written as, 'Sharaqpur'). And the first interesting person we see is this cobbler / shoemaker sitting on a pavement just outside the old city gate (there are three or four of these left now), polishing the Peshawari sandal. I say my salam and take his photograph but his response, unlike many there, is lukewarm. He isn't smiling at all. But he allows me the frame. I use 50mm for this frame and I think it just came out nicely.

Places in Pakistan: Phander pedestrian bridge

Phander pedestrian bridge, Ghizar dist.
Originally uploaded by Ameer Hamza

Walking ahead, after shooting madrassah girls in their madrassah, I found this exceedingly beautifully placed suspended, wooden bridge over Shandur river. I immediately took the photograph. I must remind my readers that it is a relatively new bridge and not an old one. The clouds give an additional colour to the frame.

On Expedition : Ameer Hamza in Baluchistan

Ameer Hamza and Reading
Originally uploaded by eDanial

My friend and expedition partner, Danial Shah, who actually arranged this most wonderful, eye-popping, mind-blowing expedition into the heartland of this country, took this frame while we were travelling from Point A to Point B. Wherever we were going (and in this case, we were heading towards Koh-e-Taftan, Iran border) I was reading this very absorbing book penned by English traveller and historian, William Dalrymple. The book's name is, 'The Last Mughal'. It is a singularly absorbing book just like the province itself. He was kind enough to lend me his very cool book reading light, which I duly attached with my book.

I thank Mr. Zeeshan, Director of www.pakgateway.com, for giving us this great opportunity and freedom to capture Baluchistan as never before. We hope our work is agreeable to him and to his good colleagues. We also sincerely hope that in future we will be able to contribute more to this National Project. INSHALLAH.