The journal records that on this day we went on a trip to the Mangla Dam in Pir Sahib's car. We stopped at the dam site and took some photos before continuing to drive along the side of the dam. Shah Sahib stopped at the British Airways office to buy a ticket for his wife. Right next door was the Gulf Air office and I popped in to reconfirm my onward flights to go home.
The journal then next records impressions on my third night staying at Pir Mahroof's residence. I had spend a fascinating three days in near total seclusion in the residence with the boys from the UK. I recorded that the adults in charge were extremely keen for the boys not to leave the confines of the compound in order to mix with any local children. The lads had, according to my diary, been told how bad the locals were. I became aware that some of the locals resented the boys and called them 'Angrezi cutta' or English Dogs.
For some reason I appear to have given the lads a one dollar bill each as a souvenir. Imran's mouth was agog with wonder, simple pleasured continued to delight. My journal said the boys were messing around with my pocket calculator attempting to write RS 36,000,000 in order to work out how much in £ Pir Mahroof's residence cost!
The timw was 7.15 and we had been having a talk about Pakistan and looking at the country map I had brought with me. We had been looking for where the durbar of Naushia Ganj Baksh was. The discussion then spread to Pakistan's neighbours, especially India and the relations between the two countries.
I have to admit that throughout there had been a tirade of biassed and grossly inaccurate information revealing that the lads had been fed a one-sided view of India as the mortal enemy of Pakistan. That's one of the reasons I have reservations about closed or semi-closed instututions such as this one. The boys heard only one point of view further perpetuating prejudice into the next generation.
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