One Night in Romania
Zain Malik March 23, 2004
#38 Posted by ZahraJ on March 27, 2004 11:42:33 am
Zain:
One of my Pakistani friends hubby is from Romania or its outskirts. A very sweet and darling guy. I was just interested in knowing about your experience. Thanks for sharing the story. Hope, next time you will spend some time on letting the reader know about Turkey.
That`s where I would really like to go and explore the mosques and other historical places.
Inshallah, probably this year with my immediate family.
Regards.
One of my Pakistani friends hubby is from Romania or its outskirts. A very sweet and darling guy. I was just interested in knowing about your experience. Thanks for sharing the story. Hope, next time you will spend some time on letting the reader know about Turkey.
That`s where I would really like to go and explore the mosques and other historical places.
Inshallah, probably this year with my immediate family.
Regards.
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#37 Posted by veeresh on March 27, 2004 5:58:45 am
Hi Zain, so it seems we share a surname, and more. Rumania (as it was known then) was always a bit of a dour kind of country with all sorts of rules and regulations waiting to be broken or circumvented when we went by ship to ports like Constanza and Galatzi. Maybe you could have tried the 20 dollar bill a wee bit earlier? Our days a packet of fags was enough for anything in ``Kent (or Marlboro) Country``, as Rumania was known then.
Anyways, the way I figure it, about 80%-90% of all travel experiences will be bad, unless you are commuting and have got the hang of it. I have had worse experiences as a perfectly legit seafarer in, say, Kuwait . . . and some amazingly positive ones too. Saudia is particularly lousy for all except their own wattannis. The US, Canada or other countries including India and from what I hear Pakistan too, there is always a line of appeal up a chain of command somewhere.
But yes, I understand the underlying emotion at the end of your report. I share it, too, and am glad that at the end of the day you made it back safely. But do also think of those who may follow your path. For them, and not just for your episode, the Romanian Embassy in the US would be one approach, do send your complaint to their media, to the EU, to the other European media. Don`t sit back, that`s my request.
rgds/Veeresh
Anyways, the way I figure it, about 80%-90% of all travel experiences will be bad, unless you are commuting and have got the hang of it. I have had worse experiences as a perfectly legit seafarer in, say, Kuwait . . . and some amazingly positive ones too. Saudia is particularly lousy for all except their own wattannis. The US, Canada or other countries including India and from what I hear Pakistan too, there is always a line of appeal up a chain of command somewhere.
But yes, I understand the underlying emotion at the end of your report. I share it, too, and am glad that at the end of the day you made it back safely. But do also think of those who may follow your path. For them, and not just for your episode, the Romanian Embassy in the US would be one approach, do send your complaint to their media, to the EU, to the other European media. Don`t sit back, that`s my request.
rgds/Veeresh
#36 Posted by malik99 on March 26, 2004 7:52:53 am
ZahraJ #34 - Your encouraging comments really mean a lot. I have heard about your lively writings and look forward to reading those. As for your question as to why I did not write about the sweet and nice people of Romania. Well, I did talk about the very nice Romanian TV journalist. Other than her, it were only the rough and unsmiling romanian border agents that I got to know.
Zain Malik
Zain Malik
#35 Posted by ZahraJ on March 25, 2004 10:12:58 pm
Zain,
An engrossing read!
A movie can be made out of this episode.
I am sure some director or producer may like to utilize your experience to portray the issues Pakistani Americans, Students, Professionals have been facing in the current day and age. Ironically, to add fuel to the fire, we have Dr. Khan`s episode under the category of Supply Chain -- How the Pakistani Nuclear Ring Managed to Skirt Export Laws (03/23/04). So, we have more activity in the air. Next time, one never knows what is searched where.
Some portions of this travelogue reminded me of the old 007-Bond`s movies in the Central Asian belt. But he had some gadgets and toys to make a good use of.
You did not mention anything about how the people looked like. Sweet, compassionate, smiling faces, ..............From what I have seen here (US), the Romanians are very charming and personable kind.
I understand you had tension, anxiety and apprehension hovering over your head while you were there, but still a mention of the above here or there would have been real nice.
Interesting writing style.
An engrossing read!
A movie can be made out of this episode.
I am sure some director or producer may like to utilize your experience to portray the issues Pakistani Americans, Students, Professionals have been facing in the current day and age. Ironically, to add fuel to the fire, we have Dr. Khan`s episode under the category of Supply Chain -- How the Pakistani Nuclear Ring Managed to Skirt Export Laws (03/23/04). So, we have more activity in the air. Next time, one never knows what is searched where.
Some portions of this travelogue reminded me of the old 007-Bond`s movies in the Central Asian belt. But he had some gadgets and toys to make a good use of.
You did not mention anything about how the people looked like. Sweet, compassionate, smiling faces, ..............From what I have seen here (US), the Romanians are very charming and personable kind.
I understand you had tension, anxiety and apprehension hovering over your head while you were there, but still a mention of the above here or there would have been real nice.
Interesting writing style.
#34 Posted by malik99 on March 25, 2004 10:12:58 pm
Faiza # 33 - Thank you for your very kind words. However, I do not agree with you regarding your point that muslims should not backpack. Infact, muslims should backpack more often. We need to see the world and be seen. But then, I am saying this to someone who goes through her day in US wearing hijab. That is much more of an act of bravery than many nights spent in cold romanian jail.
Zain Malik
Zain Malik
#33 Posted by faizahussain on March 25, 2004 5:50:15 pm
Hello Zain Sahib
You have penned a very detailed narrative of your ordeal in Romania. Almost felt like I was there with you being detained:(. Well I guess I have learned a lesson from your travelogue; backpacking adventures are not for muslims:) I am glad my adventurous spirit has reached its demise thanks to school, or else just imagine a hijabified female backpacking across the atlantic and creating havoc whereever she sets foot. Good luck in the future, and hope to read more from you. Welcome to CHOWK:).
You have penned a very detailed narrative of your ordeal in Romania. Almost felt like I was there with you being detained:(. Well I guess I have learned a lesson from your travelogue; backpacking adventures are not for muslims:) I am glad my adventurous spirit has reached its demise thanks to school, or else just imagine a hijabified female backpacking across the atlantic and creating havoc whereever she sets foot. Good luck in the future, and hope to read more from you. Welcome to CHOWK:).
#32 Posted by echoboom on March 25, 2004 9:08:39 am
The Communists/atheists/socialists in any clothing of whatever hue/stripes/dots such as liberalism/democrism blah blah blah will never ever be allowed to germinate and sprout anywhere anytime again.
The subject and thesis must be given a fitting burial and discussed only as political-archeology.
Muslims desperately need someone like Putin. Thoroughly anti-communist, thoroughly anti-american.Our own. Proudly muslim. Proudly Pakistani..and flaunting it with zeal, gusto, passion and fanaticism.[ One way to remove the sting is to co-opt the word the enemy uses against muslims. If they are against it, muslims must be right.]
Mulla, fundamentalist, fanatic, terrorist, Islamist are GOOD words and must be co-opted because enemy uses them. The enemy believes in Democricism, globalism, americanism, robberism, stealism, exterminatism [THESE are bad words: use them often to describe the enemy]
Read & Reprint: [Dawn scribe: are you around?]
*note:italics and bold type emphasis is mine.
Column by Mujahid [jehadi] ERIC MARGOLIS.( He felt good, appreciated, and thanked me when I called him that)
March 22, 2004
KGB INC.
NEW YORK - Few experiences in my life have been more thrilling or terrifying than visiting the headquarters of the Soviet secret police -KGB – at Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka Prison in 1991, a place so dreaded Russians were afraid to even utter its name. KGB told me I was the first western journalist to enter its HQ- as a guest.
I was shown cells where `enemies of the Soviet state’ waited to be shot, walked the Lubyanka’s musty, dimly-lit corridors, inspected the fascinating secret museum of Soviet espionage, and interviewed two senior KGB generals.
I sat at the desk on which the mass murderers of the Soviet secret police - Yagoda, Yezhov, Beria - wrote orders sending over 20 million to their deaths. The same desk use by their post-Stalinist successors, like Andropov, and Chebrikov, whom I woke up at 4 am on my first night in Moscow, but that’s another story.
The KGB generals and colonels that I met and socialized with during extended visits to Moscow from 1989-1992 made me understand a profound revolution was underway at Moscow Center.
A younger generation of KGB, mostly from the elite 1st Chief Directorate that conducted foreign intelligence operations, had become totally disgusted by the corruption, cronyism and incompetence of the Communist Party. Unlike party bigwigs, the intelligence people knew Russia was heading for economic collapse.
The famed dissident, Dr Andrei Sakharov and a group of his scientific colleagues had warned in 1981 that unless drastic steps were taken to cut military spending and renew the USSR’s run-down industrial and agricultural base, the Soviet Union would collapse within ten years. The USSR crumbled in 1991.
That year, I reported from Moscow that the younger generation KGB, who were the USSR’s best educated and brightest youth, with extensive experience abroad and contempt for communist ideology, were going to ditch the moribund Communist Party and attempt to seize power themselves.
Intriguingly, KGB’s Young Turks repeatedly told me their role models for the `new’ Russia were two rightwing military strongmen, South Korea’s Gen. Park Chung-hee, and Chile’s Gen. Augusto Pinochet. `We will make lazy Russians work at bayonet point,’ were the words of an exasperated KGB colonel.
A decade later, KGB alumni have assumed total power under former KGB colonel, Vladimir Putin. After ten years battling corrupt bureaucrats of the Yeltsin years, ruthless gangsters, robber barons and rebellious regional governors, Russia’s security establishment – known collectively as `siloviki’(enforcers) – have consolidate their grip on power.
Last week’s barely contested elections in Russia confirmed Moscow’s hard men are now completely in charge of a one-party state. President Vladimir Putin has ruthlessly scattered Russia’s feeble democratic forces, brought the media totally under his control, broken the robber barons, and crushed regionalism. He is now an absolute ruler.
During the wildly corrupt Yeltsin era, less than 5% of senior government positions were held by `siloviki.’ In 1998, the security organs staged a quiet coup that ousted the drunken Yeltsin and brought to power a former KGB colonel, Vladimir Putin. This was a first: a coup by intelligence services rather than the military.
Now, six years later, ex-intelligence and security officers control 60% of all senior government positions.
As the USSR was collapsing, KGB hard men quickly moved into business: security, information, banking and finance, oil, metals, trucking and foreign trade. Switzerland became the unofficial headquarters and banking center for the KGB Inc.
After a decade of bitter infighting, often against local mafias, former KGB men now control much of Russia’s major industries and services. The `siloviki’ dominate the military, and are pressing Russia’s exceptionally brutal repression of Chechen independence seekers in the Caucasus.
Most Russians are content to see Putin and fellow hardliners in charge. During the degenerate Yeltsin era, foreigners – notably the US - exerted unconscionable influence over Russia’s political and economic affairs, deeply humiliating nationalistic Russians. Gangsters waged wars in the streets. Putin ended foreign domination and semi-chaos, restoring Soviet-style order in Russia.
Some Russians are dismayed by Putin’s crushing democracy and return to autocracy, particularly Moscow and St Petersburg’s western-oriented elite. But most Russians (polls say 80%) say they crave economic and political stability far more than the luxury of democracy. High oil prices have injected sufficient money into the economy to compensate for the loss of political and press freedoms which, after all, were uncertain novelties to most Russians.
Putin has turned out to be a level-headed, pragmatic leader who commands great respect from his people and manages to avoid censure for incessant national disasters. He has so far balanced ruthlessness with remarkable caution, using his mailed fist only rarely, but to great effect. Trite as it is to say, Russians do crave strong leadership- and Putin is probably the most popular leader since Stalin.
This writer has no doubt the steely-eyed Putin and his allies, all Great Russian nationalists, are determined to restore the power and territory of the old Soviet Union, and again rival the United States. But doing so requires continuing political and financial stability, harnessing Russia’s enormous resource wealth, breaking gangsterism, and making Russians work harder, longer and smarter – at bayonet point, if necessary.
The subject and thesis must be given a fitting burial and discussed only as political-archeology.
Muslims desperately need someone like Putin. Thoroughly anti-communist, thoroughly anti-american.Our own. Proudly muslim. Proudly Pakistani..and flaunting it with zeal, gusto, passion and fanaticism.[ One way to remove the sting is to co-opt the word the enemy uses against muslims. If they are against it, muslims must be right.]
Mulla, fundamentalist, fanatic, terrorist, Islamist are GOOD words and must be co-opted because enemy uses them. The enemy believes in Democricism, globalism, americanism, robberism, stealism, exterminatism [THESE are bad words: use them often to describe the enemy]
Read & Reprint: [Dawn scribe: are you around?]
*note:italics and bold type emphasis is mine.
Column by Mujahid [jehadi] ERIC MARGOLIS.( He felt good, appreciated, and thanked me when I called him that)
March 22, 2004
KGB INC.
NEW YORK - Few experiences in my life have been more thrilling or terrifying than visiting the headquarters of the Soviet secret police -KGB – at Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka Prison in 1991, a place so dreaded Russians were afraid to even utter its name. KGB told me I was the first western journalist to enter its HQ- as a guest.
I was shown cells where `enemies of the Soviet state’ waited to be shot, walked the Lubyanka’s musty, dimly-lit corridors, inspected the fascinating secret museum of Soviet espionage, and interviewed two senior KGB generals.
I sat at the desk on which the mass murderers of the Soviet secret police - Yagoda, Yezhov, Beria - wrote orders sending over 20 million to their deaths. The same desk use by their post-Stalinist successors, like Andropov, and Chebrikov, whom I woke up at 4 am on my first night in Moscow, but that’s another story.
The KGB generals and colonels that I met and socialized with during extended visits to Moscow from 1989-1992 made me understand a profound revolution was underway at Moscow Center.
A younger generation of KGB, mostly from the elite 1st Chief Directorate that conducted foreign intelligence operations, had become totally disgusted by the corruption, cronyism and incompetence of the Communist Party. Unlike party bigwigs, the intelligence people knew Russia was heading for economic collapse.
The famed dissident, Dr Andrei Sakharov and a group of his scientific colleagues had warned in 1981 that unless drastic steps were taken to cut military spending and renew the USSR’s run-down industrial and agricultural base, the Soviet Union would collapse within ten years. The USSR crumbled in 1991.
That year, I reported from Moscow that the younger generation KGB, who were the USSR’s best educated and brightest youth, with extensive experience abroad and contempt for communist ideology, were going to ditch the moribund Communist Party and attempt to seize power themselves.
Intriguingly, KGB’s Young Turks repeatedly told me their role models for the `new’ Russia were two rightwing military strongmen, South Korea’s Gen. Park Chung-hee, and Chile’s Gen. Augusto Pinochet. `We will make lazy Russians work at bayonet point,’ were the words of an exasperated KGB colonel.
A decade later, KGB alumni have assumed total power under former KGB colonel, Vladimir Putin. After ten years battling corrupt bureaucrats of the Yeltsin years, ruthless gangsters, robber barons and rebellious regional governors, Russia’s security establishment – known collectively as `siloviki’(enforcers) – have consolidate their grip on power.
Last week’s barely contested elections in Russia confirmed Moscow’s hard men are now completely in charge of a one-party state. President Vladimir Putin has ruthlessly scattered Russia’s feeble democratic forces, brought the media totally under his control, broken the robber barons, and crushed regionalism. He is now an absolute ruler.
During the wildly corrupt Yeltsin era, less than 5% of senior government positions were held by `siloviki.’ In 1998, the security organs staged a quiet coup that ousted the drunken Yeltsin and brought to power a former KGB colonel, Vladimir Putin. This was a first: a coup by intelligence services rather than the military.
Now, six years later, ex-intelligence and security officers control 60% of all senior government positions.
As the USSR was collapsing, KGB hard men quickly moved into business: security, information, banking and finance, oil, metals, trucking and foreign trade. Switzerland became the unofficial headquarters and banking center for the KGB Inc.
After a decade of bitter infighting, often against local mafias, former KGB men now control much of Russia’s major industries and services. The `siloviki’ dominate the military, and are pressing Russia’s exceptionally brutal repression of Chechen independence seekers in the Caucasus.
Most Russians are content to see Putin and fellow hardliners in charge. During the degenerate Yeltsin era, foreigners – notably the US - exerted unconscionable influence over Russia’s political and economic affairs, deeply humiliating nationalistic Russians. Gangsters waged wars in the streets. Putin ended foreign domination and semi-chaos, restoring Soviet-style order in Russia.
Some Russians are dismayed by Putin’s crushing democracy and return to autocracy, particularly Moscow and St Petersburg’s western-oriented elite. But most Russians (polls say 80%) say they crave economic and political stability far more than the luxury of democracy. High oil prices have injected sufficient money into the economy to compensate for the loss of political and press freedoms which, after all, were uncertain novelties to most Russians.
Putin has turned out to be a level-headed, pragmatic leader who commands great respect from his people and manages to avoid censure for incessant national disasters. He has so far balanced ruthlessness with remarkable caution, using his mailed fist only rarely, but to great effect. Trite as it is to say, Russians do crave strong leadership- and Putin is probably the most popular leader since Stalin.
This writer has no doubt the steely-eyed Putin and his allies, all Great Russian nationalists, are determined to restore the power and territory of the old Soviet Union, and again rival the United States. But doing so requires continuing political and financial stability, harnessing Russia’s enormous resource wealth, breaking gangsterism, and making Russians work harder, longer and smarter – at bayonet point, if necessary.
#31 Posted by malik99 on March 25, 2004 8:43:46 am
fundyar # 28 - I very much agree with you regarding learning through travels in the world. It were the european ``travellers`` in India, China, and Muslim lands who paved the way for later colonization. It was Al-bairuni who travelled to then `hindustan` and lived a few hundred miles south of modern Islamabad and penned `kitaab-ul-hind` which at that time was the most authentic commentary on inhabitants of the land. If one story can epitomize the decline of arab civilization in the 13th century, it would be this: A western traveller was walking through the streets of old Baghdad. He met a muslim scholar and told him that he has travelled thousands of miles to come and visit the arab lands. Why wouldn`t the scholar travel and go see the western lands. To this, the scholar replied ``I don`t need to go anywhere, I am already there``. This sentence on one hand gives commentry on the height and wealth of the arab civilization which seemed to possess all the material and knowledge wealth it wanted. On the other hand, it also shows the lack of curioisty to learn and un-earth secrets of the world.
Sobia # 27 writes: ``zain: oh okay okay..kya yaad karo gay..likh deitay hain aap ka naam diary mein...oh the things i have to do to make my subjects happy ;-) ``
Thanks Sobia. Now I can declare to the world: Zain Has Arrived.
Zain Malik
Sobia # 27 writes: ``zain: oh okay okay..kya yaad karo gay..likh deitay hain aap ka naam diary mein...oh the things i have to do to make my subjects happy ;-) ``
Thanks Sobia. Now I can declare to the world: Zain Has Arrived.
Zain Malik
#30 Posted by tahmed32 on March 25, 2004 8:43:45 am
fundyar #28 So you were at Oaxaca jail. While travelling is good, breaking other countries laws to get in is not (you were without a passport you say). Hope you got a chance to check out the beautiful murree-like scenery in this area after getting out of jail.
I visited Oaxaca once. Home of the mexican hero Poncho Villa (as my mexican friends in Oaxaca proudly informed me, and were shocked when I expressed only vague familiarity with this individual - its like saying one never heard of Jinnah in Pakistan). Had my own adventure (had to drive back to mexico city due to airport being blocked by striking teachers; car was loaned by the hosts, and it broke down at 2 am in the middle of the desert (brakes stopped functioning), leaving self, driver, government official and lady translator stuck in middle of nowhere in the dead of night; managed to wake up a cab driver in a small town nearby who then drove us to mexico city. Not as scary an adventure as the Romanian one describe in this article, but I did have thoughts of the ghost of Poncho Villa and his men riding once again in the mexican desert, raiding and robbing stranded travellers.
I visited Oaxaca once. Home of the mexican hero Poncho Villa (as my mexican friends in Oaxaca proudly informed me, and were shocked when I expressed only vague familiarity with this individual - its like saying one never heard of Jinnah in Pakistan). Had my own adventure (had to drive back to mexico city due to airport being blocked by striking teachers; car was loaned by the hosts, and it broke down at 2 am in the middle of the desert (brakes stopped functioning), leaving self, driver, government official and lady translator stuck in middle of nowhere in the dead of night; managed to wake up a cab driver in a small town nearby who then drove us to mexico city. Not as scary an adventure as the Romanian one describe in this article, but I did have thoughts of the ghost of Poncho Villa and his men riding once again in the mexican desert, raiding and robbing stranded travellers.
#29 Posted by flyhighkites on March 25, 2004 4:32:27 am
A very interesting read. One good thing about your piece is that it is free of any judgments or commentary, and the reader can have their own perspective. (ZahraJ is another writer who writes such lively prose.)
A fluid piece of writing - i agree with others that it paints a vivid, real picture; I could also picture a dark night, a secluded icy piece of land, where the narrator shook in cold isolation.
As for commentary on the episode itself - perhaps it is best to reserve judgment as you somewhat have. True, for an ordinary backpacker this is a torturous ordeal. But several countries have seen their fair share of fear, and it is understandable. The Romanian checkpost was all deprived of any system to validate the passport or the claims of the traveller. Their fear is understandable; but of course the sad state of security makes one shake their head.
A fluid piece of writing - i agree with others that it paints a vivid, real picture; I could also picture a dark night, a secluded icy piece of land, where the narrator shook in cold isolation.
As for commentary on the episode itself - perhaps it is best to reserve judgment as you somewhat have. True, for an ordinary backpacker this is a torturous ordeal. But several countries have seen their fair share of fear, and it is understandable. The Romanian checkpost was all deprived of any system to validate the passport or the claims of the traveller. Their fear is understandable; but of course the sad state of security makes one shake their head.
#28 Posted by fundyar on March 25, 2004 2:52:24 am
Hey Zain,
Good job on the article. Was fun reading it, reminded me of my stint at the Oaxaca (mexico) jail, how I got out of it considering I did not even have my passport (paki) on me is another story. Do send it out to as many papers/romanian friends as possibel. I will send to my romanian friends. Though the sinister side in me is glad to know that even if I have a US passport chances are I still will be harrased.
Interesting interacts you got there.
To those that think traveling is a sin then I declare you as insulting the teachings of the holy prophet
` Go all the way to China to Learn` we are told under Islam. -- by traveling and meeting people and having them meet you is the best learning there is!
regards
izk
Good job on the article. Was fun reading it, reminded me of my stint at the Oaxaca (mexico) jail, how I got out of it considering I did not even have my passport (paki) on me is another story. Do send it out to as many papers/romanian friends as possibel. I will send to my romanian friends. Though the sinister side in me is glad to know that even if I have a US passport chances are I still will be harrased.
Interesting interacts you got there.
To those that think traveling is a sin then I declare you as insulting the teachings of the holy prophet
` Go all the way to China to Learn` we are told under Islam. -- by traveling and meeting people and having them meet you is the best learning there is!
regards
izk
#27 Posted by Sobia on March 25, 2004 2:52:23 am
zain: oh okay okay..kya yaad karo gay..likh deitay hain aap ka naam diary mein...oh the things i have to do to make my subjects happy ;-)
#26 Posted by soundmeister on March 24, 2004 8:29:44 pm
Zain,
I never said you don`t write a mean travelogue. I`ve written a few myself, mostly on my trips to the Far East and Australia, but never on chowk.
It`s scary to be interrogated anywhere, but immigration people are somehow the scariest! A friend was describing her experiences as a Pakistani at Mumbai airport and at the police station during ``registration`` and they were really alarming. Me, I`d never venture anyplace without a valid visa, a faxed confirmation of a hotel room and a few dozen local phone numbers! Call me scaredy-poo, if you will ;)))
I never said you don`t write a mean travelogue. I`ve written a few myself, mostly on my trips to the Far East and Australia, but never on chowk.
It`s scary to be interrogated anywhere, but immigration people are somehow the scariest! A friend was describing her experiences as a Pakistani at Mumbai airport and at the police station during ``registration`` and they were really alarming. Me, I`d never venture anyplace without a valid visa, a faxed confirmation of a hotel room and a few dozen local phone numbers! Call me scaredy-poo, if you will ;)))
#25 Posted by tahmed32 on March 24, 2004 1:44:29 pm
malik #24 you write ``I will keep my sword sharp and cut you clean the first opprtunity i get.``
To find a chink in tahmed`s posts, my friend, you will need the eyes of a hawk and the agility of a mountain lion. :-) And now, if you will excuse him, the Great Warrior must prepare some marketing material that he has promised himself he will finish before sundown.
PS: And look forward reading the next installment of your Adventures in Turkey.
To find a chink in tahmed`s posts, my friend, you will need the eyes of a hawk and the agility of a mountain lion. :-) And now, if you will excuse him, the Great Warrior must prepare some marketing material that he has promised himself he will finish before sundown.
PS: And look forward reading the next installment of your Adventures in Turkey.
#24 Posted by malik99 on March 24, 2004 12:57:29 pm
tahmed32 # 23 - I never said sorry to you for harsh words spoken, and there is no need for you to do so. The harshness and ferocity of critique is what makes a board lively. These boards are not for sissies or faint hearted :) In that spirit, i give you my warrior`s promise -I will keep my sword sharp and cut you clean the first opprtunity i get.
Urstruly # 22 - I was looking forward to your comments and appreciate your encouraging words. This has been my first experience to write this kind of account. Next, I am thinking of writing about my travels through Turkey.
huma_mir #9 - I covered all of the mentioned countries in the same backpacking trip. The trip lasted about 1 1/2 months.
Sobia # ? - my baited breath is turning me blue. once again, siiiighhhhh.... :)
Zain Malik
Urstruly # 22 - I was looking forward to your comments and appreciate your encouraging words. This has been my first experience to write this kind of account. Next, I am thinking of writing about my travels through Turkey.
huma_mir #9 - I covered all of the mentioned countries in the same backpacking trip. The trip lasted about 1 1/2 months.
Sobia # ? - my baited breath is turning me blue. once again, siiiighhhhh.... :)
Zain Malik
#23 Posted by tahmed32 on March 24, 2004 10:15:52 am
malik #20 Fair`s fair, and you did write very well about this ordeal you went through. We may still do battle in future of course ): after all, the fate of the world rests upon who scores the most point on chowk. :-)
I have found immigration people to be generally quite friendly and even jovial at times The best was the fellow at DC airport - a perfect blond wasp - who looked at my name on the passport, then asked me the opposite of my name which, while I was still considering his unimmigration-like question, he proudly informed me was ``shirk``. He then went on to tell me how he was fond of reading islamic history and philosophy: all this while there was a small line forming. All this was before 9/11 of course, but even now I find the US immigration to be among the politest and friendliest in the world (even as they ask you once in a while to take off your shoes, which is understandable given the security concerns).
I am sorry for the mean stuff I wrote in a couple of past battles. I need to control these fingers better once they start flying on the keyboard.
I have found immigration people to be generally quite friendly and even jovial at times The best was the fellow at DC airport - a perfect blond wasp - who looked at my name on the passport, then asked me the opposite of my name which, while I was still considering his unimmigration-like question, he proudly informed me was ``shirk``. He then went on to tell me how he was fond of reading islamic history and philosophy: all this while there was a small line forming. All this was before 9/11 of course, but even now I find the US immigration to be among the politest and friendliest in the world (even as they ask you once in a while to take off your shoes, which is understandable given the security concerns).
I am sorry for the mean stuff I wrote in a couple of past battles. I need to control these fingers better once they start flying on the keyboard.
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- Eklavya: maumdar dada, other than... India-Pakistan: Empathy, grief in
