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1.23.2004

It was quiet. Too quiet. I woke up in a strange bed and lay there for a moment to think. Faint recollection of Chinese food personally prepared by a Bangladeshi chef the night before. Blurry images of playing Battleship. KK giving me an insider's tour guide commentary by pointing out the spots where the would-be assassins laid in wait for Musharraf. Ah, yes! Rawalpindi, the more crowded, busier, bossier sister of Islamabad. I was staying with my family in Pindi that day. My cousin and I wanted to talk in some relative peace and quiet so we caught up late into the night and again early that morning. We had an amazing breakfast of puris and chanas (with a squirt of lemon/orange from the lemon/orange tree outside) and more puris and chana. My med-school cousin came by to pick me up a few minutes and since tradition dictated that we offer anyone coming through the front door some food, we happily joined her in eating a little bit of chana and only a few more puris. Gotta love the elastic waistbands of the shalwar and the belly-concealing flow of the kameez.

Back in Islamabad, my father, my cousin, and I braved the rain to hit the shops. We inadvertently swindled one store owner out of the proper price of some paper-maiche boxes. See, we had negotiated and bargained and finally bought some boxes from him the day before. This day, we insisted that he sold the boxes to us for one (lower) price when we later found out he actually sold them to us for another (higher) price. "It's ok," my cousin later consoled us, "he'll just overcharge the next guy and make it up."



We bought some more copyright-scoffing DVDs, and some Fruittella for my still-recovering sister (a treat that, apparently, neopets also enjoy).

After many hours of planning, re-planning, canceling plans, and reinstating plans, we had a cousins consortium at my aunt's house with the singular purpose of putting away as much ice cream, nuts, and assorted goodies as we could. Mission Accomplished.

baj @ 2:29 PM
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