My days -- I

i have to say my days so far -- other than my time at the news when that paper's editorial pages really began to take shape (and then i left!) -- were spent at dawn -- there was one year as a sub-editor -- my very first year when i was sent to just about every department (or 'depart' as some people say it) -- this included the much-dreaded supplements which was thought by most to be a punishment given that one didnt have to be creative or even write anything to get by there -- after that were two and a half years as a reporter and then two and a half most fruitful years with dawn in lahore -- this was may 1998 -- i landed in lahore literally with a suitcase -- my red khyber was dispatched by my father from khi via an NLC trailer and i had to go somewhere near raiwind road to get it -- there were three or four days though that i had no car at all and i would walk from where i was staying at a house in block J to the main road -- and it was lahore's may heat (what was i thinking!)
took all of two weeks and slightly more to find a place to stay and that too after i found out (quite the hard way) just how difficult it was for a single guy to get a place to stay in lahore -- and this was 1998! -- once i even agreed on a rent for an upper portion in defence's A block -- 7000 rupees, and took a cheque to meet the owner -- sat down -- and then the owner's daughter came in and said 'abu aap ko ammi bula rahee hain' -- he said 'zara ek minute mein mein aata hoon' -- and he came back and 'sorry jee ghar hum aap ko naheen deh saktay' -- WTF!

lucky for me a family friend of my brother in law's had a whole house in block Z to himself -- and though he was slightly off (he would sit in a vest in the garden and drink murree beer all by himself!) he offered me a share of the ground floor for a mere 5000 rupees -- and it was furnished!

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