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.
#22 Posted by Urstruly on March 24, 2004 9:17:34 am
This is the stuff, the Chowk should be made of - the real people with real experiences to share. I think chowk staff should also start categorizing articles by categories such as travelogues etc. because as the database will grow it will be hard to keep track of the subjects.
Malik - very good. very well penned. Hope to see more penmanship from you soon. I think this american sponsored anti-Muslim hatred will go a long way. Unfortunately hate is always a two way street. I think two years is enough time for americans to understand why rest of the world hates them - and this despite the fact that their opponents are terrorists who kill indisciminately.
#21 Posted by pmishra2 on March 24, 2004 9:17:21 am
I think the more elite pakistanis are strip-searched and publically humilaited world-wide, the better it is for peace and prosperity in Pakistan. We have a situation where a small elite group of pakistanis has sub-contracted the running of the country to mullahs and military. This elite group, based on its loot of the country (`rent from Mullah and Military``) is busy going to Harvard, living in London, backpacking in Europe. Meanwhile the military and mullahs have transformed the country into a kind of suicide-bomber nation state, threatening its neighbors and minorities.
There is a relationship between your community and yourself. My advice to you is to seek to change your country. And until that happens, I for one, hope you are strip searched and every national border and airport.
There is a relationship between your community and yourself. My advice to you is to seek to change your country. And until that happens, I for one, hope you are strip searched and every national border and airport.
#20 Posted by malik99 on March 24, 2004 8:52:47 am
soundmeister #10 - ``whinning`` was not the purpose in my mind when i sat down to write this article. I simply wanted to share one of my experiences as a traveller. However, I would say that dynamics of being harassed on San Francisco airport are quite different from the dynamics you face on a remote east european border crossing.
tahmed32 #17 - after all the battles we have had on chowk, it was nice to read your positive comments :)
Zain Malik
tahmed32 #17 - after all the battles we have had on chowk, it was nice to read your positive comments :)
Zain Malik
#19 Posted by Saminasha on March 24, 2004 8:16:03 am
Absorbing account. Seems you were a gypsy in the political sense of the word in Romania..
#18 Posted by malik99 on March 24, 2004 7:48:30 am
Temporal # 2 – Currently I am in New York City. I am expecting to be in Toronto in late April. I would sure like to get together with you, and few other chowkies. Lets touch base later.
Echoboom # 5 – thanks for your caution words. Having worked in the information security arena for a while, I am quite aware of the pits and falls of sharing email addresses. I have shared my email address in the hopes to get to know a few Pakistani globe-trotters who would share tips and tales from their excursions.
Sobia # 11 - siiighhhhh.... Please make a mention of my article in your personal diary :) Once you do that, i would consider that ``I have arrived``
Echoboom # 5 – thanks for your caution words. Having worked in the information security arena for a while, I am quite aware of the pits and falls of sharing email addresses. I have shared my email address in the hopes to get to know a few Pakistani globe-trotters who would share tips and tales from their excursions.
Sobia # 11 - siiighhhhh.... Please make a mention of my article in your personal diary :) Once you do that, i would consider that ``I have arrived``
#17 Posted by tahmed32 on March 24, 2004 7:38:22 am
Well written article - clear narrative and the good build up of suspense. And certainly a terrifying adventure. Reminds me of the Romanian pen pal I had in college - I lost her address, and she kept writing anyway for quite some time inquiring about why I was not responding, but never bothering to put her return address on the envelope. Seems like they dont think too hard in Romania.
#16 Posted by temporal on March 24, 2004 7:10:46 am
#15 Posted by aquaris on March 24, 2004 7:00:18 am
You Should write a personal letter of thanks/curses to Mr Bush
#14 Posted by omar_r_quraishi on March 24, 2004 7:00:18 am
interesting -- you should send your travel piece to a newspaper -- i think some of them would gladly publish it -- try some pakistani newspapers zain
#13 Posted by M.B.Z.Isphahani on March 24, 2004 7:00:18 am
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#12 Posted by samankhan on March 23, 2004 11:27:57 pm
Uff! Baal baal bach gaye!
This piece reminds me of Ijaz Gul`s mountaineering travails.
Good account.........held the interest and was not boring.
Good luck to you Zain, on your future adventures!
This piece reminds me of Ijaz Gul`s mountaineering travails.
Good account.........held the interest and was not boring.
Good luck to you Zain, on your future adventures!
#11 Posted by malik99 on March 23, 2004 9:38:10 pm
I appreciate those who liked my account of travel in Romania. No, I do not have any bitter feelings and would love to go there again. However, next time I will get a prior visa, just to be on the safe side.
A few of the readers have asked me through email if it is risky for Pakistanis to go backpacking given the current tense climate. I would say that generally crossing borders in western Europe is far safer than eastern Europe. Old soviet era laws and bureaucracy still lingers in much of Eastern Europe, which can cause nuisance in addition to bribe money. Also, if like me you are planning to leave the big cities aside and visit the smaller towns in east European countries, you can face the added discomfort of suspicious glances. They are not used to seeing non-white backpackers in their midst.
East European countries do not have a well-planned infrastructure for backpackers. It took me several visits to the Ministry of Tourism in Bulgaria to get a local map – and even that was in Cyrillic alphabet.
Having said this, I find a higher sense of adventure in figuring out your way in the less known towns of eastern Europe, than in the well trodden cities of western Europe.
Zain Malik
A few of the readers have asked me through email if it is risky for Pakistanis to go backpacking given the current tense climate. I would say that generally crossing borders in western Europe is far safer than eastern Europe. Old soviet era laws and bureaucracy still lingers in much of Eastern Europe, which can cause nuisance in addition to bribe money. Also, if like me you are planning to leave the big cities aside and visit the smaller towns in east European countries, you can face the added discomfort of suspicious glances. They are not used to seeing non-white backpackers in their midst.
East European countries do not have a well-planned infrastructure for backpackers. It took me several visits to the Ministry of Tourism in Bulgaria to get a local map – and even that was in Cyrillic alphabet.
Having said this, I find a higher sense of adventure in figuring out your way in the less known towns of eastern Europe, than in the well trodden cities of western Europe.
Zain Malik
#10 Posted by huma_mir on March 23, 2004 9:38:10 pm
wow Zain !!
Well written. Very absorbing. Your description was so powerful I felt as if it was happening right in front of me. I even felt cold shudders sitting on my computer table while reading your description of the ``siberian cold`` and the ``howling winds`` :)
Did you visit all those countries on the same trip? How long was the trip?
Well written. Very absorbing. Your description was so powerful I felt as if it was happening right in front of me. I even felt cold shudders sitting on my computer table while reading your description of the ``siberian cold`` and the ``howling winds`` :)
Did you visit all those countries on the same trip? How long was the trip?
#9 Posted by soundmeister on March 23, 2004 9:38:10 pm
Zain,
While at a human level, I do appreciate the trouble you went through, I suppose you need to count yourself among the lucky ones. All the Romanians did to you was refuse entry into their country. You were not tortured, or jailed or even subjected to the third degree. At the most, treat this experience as a valuable lesson never to fukk around with immigration policies of foreign countries.
You are an American citizen, surely you know better. The one time I travelled (from India, pre 9/11) to your great country, the immigration goon at SF international airport wanted to see my list of appointments, the invitation to a seminar I was attending, a hotel reservation slip. The fact that I had just got off a 30-hour journey mattered little to him. I was irritated, sure, but in the end it`s HIS country, so I calmly told him my appointment list was in my checked in baggage somewhere, then showed him a copy of the seminar brochure and invited him to call up the event organiser to confirm whether I was welcome there. I must say that seemed to convince him and I had no more problems. The bottomline is that YOU alone are responsible for what happened to you that night. Stop cribbing about it, it has nothing to do with being Pakistani or Muslim or whatever other baggage you lug around. Grow up and stop whining, is my sincere advice.
While at a human level, I do appreciate the trouble you went through, I suppose you need to count yourself among the lucky ones. All the Romanians did to you was refuse entry into their country. You were not tortured, or jailed or even subjected to the third degree. At the most, treat this experience as a valuable lesson never to fukk around with immigration policies of foreign countries.
You are an American citizen, surely you know better. The one time I travelled (from India, pre 9/11) to your great country, the immigration goon at SF international airport wanted to see my list of appointments, the invitation to a seminar I was attending, a hotel reservation slip. The fact that I had just got off a 30-hour journey mattered little to him. I was irritated, sure, but in the end it`s HIS country, so I calmly told him my appointment list was in my checked in baggage somewhere, then showed him a copy of the seminar brochure and invited him to call up the event organiser to confirm whether I was welcome there. I must say that seemed to convince him and I had no more problems. The bottomline is that YOU alone are responsible for what happened to you that night. Stop cribbing about it, it has nothing to do with being Pakistani or Muslim or whatever other baggage you lug around. Grow up and stop whining, is my sincere advice.
#8 Posted by Sobia on March 23, 2004 9:38:10 pm
Very well-written, Zain...i couldn`t stop reading. What a horrible ordeal to go through, and that too all alone! Keep writing for Chowk, you have a flair for it :)
#7 Posted by sadna on March 23, 2004 6:22:46 pm
I was wondering where I had read another such story recently. Well, it was Narayana Murthy, CEO of Infosys talking about his experience in Bulgaria many years ago.
(www.dailypioneer.com, March 14, Agenda)
``...N R Narayana Murthy: Yes, I was a very committed socialist. There was, of course, the age factor. It is said that if you aren`t a Leftist in your youth, you have no heart, but if you remain a Leftist after 30, you have no head! I grew up in an environment where Jawaharlal Nehru and his socialist ideas dominated the public discourse. Nationalisation was seen as a solution, setting up industries in the public sector was the economic mantra. In college, I used to strongly espouse the socialist cause. I was quite active in promoting Left-wing ideas.
CM: What happened then? How come you changed your views so completely?
NRN: Things were changing all around anyway and my ideas too got modified over time. But it was my brush with the socialist system that came as a revelation. I was shocked and shaken out of my fascination with socialism. I reasoned to myself `If socialism means this, I would rather not be a socialist.`
CM: What was the experience?
NRN: Well, I was hitch-hiking from London to Mumbai when I was still a student. We would move in buses, trains, cars, whatever came our way. Travelling by train through Yugoslavia, we crossed into Bulgaria. At a town called Nis, I encountered difficulty getting money exchanged. A girl who was travelling in the same compartment with another man, got talking to me about this. Gradually, we started talking about various things. Suddenly, when we reached Sofia, I was yanked out of the compartment by the police. It appears that the girl`s companion had not liked her talking to me although it was completely innocent conversation.
I was bundled into a detention centre, my passport and money taken away. They threw me onto a cold, stone floor and I wasn`t given anything to eat. Three days passed that way. They didn`t tell me why I was being held, what was the crime I had committed. I suppose they thought I had lots of dollars - which I didn`t. Then, just when I had lost all hope and felt terribly depressed about spending the rest of my life in jail, they came to my cell and said I was free to go. `You are from India, which is a friendly country, so we are letting you off,` I was curtly told.
Naturally, I was overjoyed at being free again, but the experience shattered me. Is this what socialism means, I wondered. I think that was the day my illusions were broken and I have never looked back...``
(www.dailypioneer.com, March 14, Agenda)
``...N R Narayana Murthy: Yes, I was a very committed socialist. There was, of course, the age factor. It is said that if you aren`t a Leftist in your youth, you have no heart, but if you remain a Leftist after 30, you have no head! I grew up in an environment where Jawaharlal Nehru and his socialist ideas dominated the public discourse. Nationalisation was seen as a solution, setting up industries in the public sector was the economic mantra. In college, I used to strongly espouse the socialist cause. I was quite active in promoting Left-wing ideas.
CM: What happened then? How come you changed your views so completely?
NRN: Things were changing all around anyway and my ideas too got modified over time. But it was my brush with the socialist system that came as a revelation. I was shocked and shaken out of my fascination with socialism. I reasoned to myself `If socialism means this, I would rather not be a socialist.`
CM: What was the experience?
NRN: Well, I was hitch-hiking from London to Mumbai when I was still a student. We would move in buses, trains, cars, whatever came our way. Travelling by train through Yugoslavia, we crossed into Bulgaria. At a town called Nis, I encountered difficulty getting money exchanged. A girl who was travelling in the same compartment with another man, got talking to me about this. Gradually, we started talking about various things. Suddenly, when we reached Sofia, I was yanked out of the compartment by the police. It appears that the girl`s companion had not liked her talking to me although it was completely innocent conversation.
I was bundled into a detention centre, my passport and money taken away. They threw me onto a cold, stone floor and I wasn`t given anything to eat. Three days passed that way. They didn`t tell me why I was being held, what was the crime I had committed. I suppose they thought I had lots of dollars - which I didn`t. Then, just when I had lost all hope and felt terribly depressed about spending the rest of my life in jail, they came to my cell and said I was free to go. `You are from India, which is a friendly country, so we are letting you off,` I was curtly told.
Naturally, I was overjoyed at being free again, but the experience shattered me. Is this what socialism means, I wondered. I think that was the day my illusions were broken and I have never looked back...``
#6 Posted by Cemendtaur on March 23, 2004 3:57:59 pm
Excellent travel story! Thanks for sharing this with us.
I surely could not be the first backpacker that ever entered Romania! I wondered if perhaps being the first “Pakistani” backpacker entering Romania was the REAL issue here.
No, You were definitely not the first Pakistani backpacker in Rumania--many have done it before you. [I was fortunate to do Eastern Europe in 1992--not too long after the iron curtain was lifted.
I went through a similar harrowing experience, but mine was at the Rumanian-Hungarian border--Hungarians threw me back to Rumania; middle of the night I had to hitch a ride on a truck to sneak in Hungary. I have written about it in my travelogue, `Khusk wa tur mulk wa loag.`]
C.
I surely could not be the first backpacker that ever entered Romania! I wondered if perhaps being the first “Pakistani” backpacker entering Romania was the REAL issue here.
No, You were definitely not the first Pakistani backpacker in Rumania--many have done it before you. [I was fortunate to do Eastern Europe in 1992--not too long after the iron curtain was lifted.
I went through a similar harrowing experience, but mine was at the Rumanian-Hungarian border--Hungarians threw me back to Rumania; middle of the night I had to hitch a ride on a truck to sneak in Hungary. I have written about it in my travelogue, `Khusk wa tur mulk wa loag.`]
C.
#4 Posted by soysauce on March 23, 2004 3:57:58 pm
Very unusual destination for backpacking! Why Romania of all places? You sure had an adventure and a story to tell..
My feeling is that if you had offered the bulgarian immigration guy some money he might have called a cab for you..
My feeling is that if you had offered the bulgarian immigration guy some money he might have called a cab for you..
#3 Posted by echoboom on March 23, 2004 3:57:58 pm
Zain-Malik:
A good matter-of-fact reportage.
It is precisely that you are a proud muslim that most of us muslims would like to know more about your travels.
What else is ``adventurous?`` In some stupid minds it is anything that has nothing to do with being muslim.
just say your piece and move on. Inter-acting on a personal level thru e-mails or what not I would strongly discourage. In fact may I suggest not to flaunt around your addresses and numbers. Those aware of inter-net protocol stongly advise never ever to divulge such info. unless it is for business purposes.
It also shields you from those lonely ones who can`t find friends in ``real`` life.
I hope you would pay attention. You are a proud muslim and I care.
A good matter-of-fact reportage.
It is precisely that you are a proud muslim that most of us muslims would like to know more about your travels.
What else is ``adventurous?`` In some stupid minds it is anything that has nothing to do with being muslim.
just say your piece and move on. Inter-acting on a personal level thru e-mails or what not I would strongly discourage. In fact may I suggest not to flaunt around your addresses and numbers. Those aware of inter-net protocol stongly advise never ever to divulge such info. unless it is for business purposes.
It also shields you from those lonely ones who can`t find friends in ``real`` life.
I hope you would pay attention. You are a proud muslim and I care.
#2 Posted by temporal on March 23, 2004 2:13:23 pm
Zain:
first a warm welcome!... and hope you will continue to share and regale us with your travel experiences...whenever i get a chance...rather less and less of lately i try to get away and back pack...if you are still in TO we should get together someday and exchange notes...
...presently others will comment on what a liability being a muslim or pakistani is these days...i`d rather not indulge in that discussion for now...
rgds,
t
first a warm welcome!... and hope you will continue to share and regale us with your travel experiences...whenever i get a chance...rather less and less of lately i try to get away and back pack...if you are still in TO we should get together someday and exchange notes...
...presently others will comment on what a liability being a muslim or pakistani is these days...i`d rather not indulge in that discussion for now...
rgds,
t
#1 Posted by kaurasach on March 23, 2004 12:58:29 pm
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