Tuesday – Sleeping In Day then Milad Day.

On Tuesday, the whole family was beat after the party and still suffering from jetlag.. Many of us slept in as late as noon local time.

Which apparently is good, because pretty much nothing starts before 11 or noon for most places in Karachi.

Schools for kids, obviously start earlier, and for some of the guests who attended the late Monday party and were involved in the schools, it would be an early morning.

Cheryl and I got up about 830 and had the Club’s standard English breakfast and tea, I mixed it up a bit from yesterday and had beans as a change, although I found out later that Heinz beans are often a part of the traditional breakfast!

The Club breakfast had a fruit, usually papaya, with lime or lemon, then a hot plate consisting of eggs in a variety of styles, broiled tomato, a toast brown or white, chicken sausages, and coffee or tea. Very British.

Tueday, the next wedding event to be held was called the Milad. The ladies went off relatively early in the afternoon, around 3pm and it wa, once again, a ladies only event with talks and desserts and tea. I found out later that it was more of a religious event with a talk from an invited speaker to discuss various aspects of Islamic marriage, in a very conservative fashion.

The men are on a different schedule. We apparently are being picked up by Salman and a set of cars, potentially to go to an art gallery, then go to the house of two famous Karchi architects who are close friends of the family.

No Photo Rule

While we were preparing to go out, there was a bit of a flap, as apparently some foreign guests had been observed taking photos.

This WAS a big deal as the Club had a very strict no photography rule, and we had been warned. Apparently the other guests (who were with another group from Canada and attending a wedding as well) had not been briefed and were running around snapping pictures with their phones.

A mild panic ensued. Our sponsor, Salam was contacted by the Club and dressed down for allowing his people to take pictures. There was some hurried texting and we assured all that we had not been talking any pictures and were strictly observing the rules. And so it seemed that all was well until a photocopied sheet was abruptly shoved under our door covering the official bylaws around photos. Just to make sure that we knew!

After that, the day went back to normal, things settled down and the men waited around for their rides.

While we were waiting, Clive, Sean and I decided to go to lunch at the Bistro.

I had a local dish, called Aloo Queema or Keema, meaning potatoes and ground beef, a common dish in Pakistani households. It was very tasty, spiced with cumin, coriander, turmeric and some chillies and was about 3 on a scale of 1-10 on my personal heat scale. Naan or Roti and some rice made it a full meal.

About 1800, slight change in plans. We were to wait for Salman to come and get us, and as he was working very late, we got picked up about 8pm. A change in plan was a common occurrence during the week as arrangements and times changed often. This was due to the fact that most of the men were working during the day and only had a chance to attend events after the work day had ended. And the work day was long to synchronize with London time.

We first stopped at Salman’s and Naila’s house, to pick up the ladies from the days events and allow Salman to get ready for the next event.

We headed to our next party, being hosted by Samir and his wife, two famous Karachi architects in Karachi. They had designed and built their own house with a modern, minimalist approach, with a covered lap pool right outside the living room. The design of the house incorporated concrete structure with organic additions of tile and wood that worked very well. It was a very striking design.

Luckily, there was no “no photo rule” here!