Reader’s Digest
pool and ate fresh fruit, I was
serenaded by the ghazals of my
favourite singers.
Over the next couple of days,
Shafqat-ji and his band, who were all
very hospitable, caught up with me
often. I saw the Minar-e-Pakistan, Bad-
shahi Mosque and other iconic monu-
ments with the students’ group, and
accompanied Shafqat-ji to the studios
where he dubbed his songs. I also got
to meet his friends who were amazingly
warm and welcoming.
One evening, we were graciously
joined by another great singer, Tina
Sani and her friend, all the way from
Karachi. After dinner that day, we went
to dub a jingle Shafqat-ji was singing
for his friend and popular actor Shaan’s
morning show, at a studio in Behryar
Town, which was a beautifully set up
gated community on the outskirts of
Lahore. The cleanliness, beauty and
greenery of Lahore reminded me of
eastern Europe sometimes.Feasting in Lahore
On one of the evenings I was taken for
a surprise trip to see the beauty of the
motorway to Islamabad. And while I
couldn’t travel to the city, as I did not
have a visa for the Pakistani capital on
that trip, the drive, halfway and back,
itself was a treat, especially the return
in the warm glow of the setting sun.
On our last day, we got the
opportunity to visit the iconic
Government College University,
Lahore, the alma mater of legendssuch as Balraj Sahni, Dev Anand, Faiz
Ahmad Faiz, Khushwant Singh and
Allama Iqbal, among many others.
The huge campus was awe-inspiring
and the sports-day event for which
Shafqat-ji took us was delightful. The
iconic building in the heart of Lahore
city is where we spent the entire day
interacting with young students,
the music society and faculty of the
college. The dinner that night at
Lakshmi Chowk was another epic meal
that I was to go back for repeatedly on
subsequent trips. The Taka Tak and
Karahi preparations were delectable
and impossible to resist.
Everywhere we went, we experienced98 august 2019
I WONDERED, QUITE
OFTEN, WHAT WE, AS
NATIONS, WERE EVEN
FIGHTING ABOUT.Seekh kebabs