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1/20/1956 - New York to Lahore: Doing It the Hard Way by Walter D. Friedenberg

INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS WDF Nedous Hotel The New York Lahore Lahore Pakistan Doing It Hard Wsy October Mr Walter S Rogers Institute Current World Affairs Fifth Avenue New York New York Dear Mr Rogers There traffic The Mall tells travelers Gujranwala Keep Right Rwalpindi Multan Keep Left London Miles Adding another miles London New York horizon Home enough Karachi available October Brooklyn Dodgers ahead Yankees games World Series Now Lahore miles indeed I sdvertis Coca Cola But already Pakistan beginning provide adequate substitutes The comes Pakistan walloped Australia first Test match cricket between countries I getting littl little Mitchell Orange Squash Dilute Taste With Plain Aerated Water pause refreshes It quite getting however Flying I spent route New York Karachi I stopped barely stopped started Boston Shannon London Amsterdam Paris Frankfort Rome Beirut Meeting Phil Talbot Dr Phil Talbot Executive Director American Universities Field Staff Karachi spent couple getting ready drive Karachi Lahore I somewhere world there visited United States happened couple being married flagpole He course since delivered lecture fellow countrymen The Wedding Ceremony United States shows slides prove everything For dashing through Western Europe across Middle East chiefly matter stands clearing Customs Immigration airport riding checking hotel washing dacron shirt taking I fling before checking hotel boardin airport clearing Currency Emigrtlon And while I wedding spick spangled Pskistani bridegroom being carried bride house horse drawn carriage accompaniment ragtime brsss I people lunch board buses cross streets shopping there first impressions I chest Boston At airport afternoon there voice behind saying Goodbye darling I With sirline steward plcke taining Dsrling black French poodle carried plane The followed I followed Aboard there turned seven members tomers poodle That right steward money Summer Shannon The plane flying eastward robbed passengers night though still between runway lights airport turning yellow again lster Shannon advertised waiting showcases filled linens woollens perfumes cameras whisky plain souvenirs bargain hunters scurried laying treasures AM enteel thick carpeted bargain basemant London In suburbs there elegant brick stucco cottages flower boxes clipped lawns elegantly dressed flower buttonhole clipped accents black bowlers black briefcases black umbrellas black shoes clicked sidewalk ponderous public build stained usually leaklng ceiling clouds Amsterdam Circllng Schi airport looking sober green brown fields distance slope between taxicabs bicycles fought around canals cobblestone streets pedestrians where Sunday afternoon train countryside field smoothness meadows Paris What Two thousand years The seems tired little pinched meney Montmartre plastered outer walls houses shops dirtied crumbling Utrillo exactly right blocks formidable government build wearing hemline trees sparklln streetlight night Saint Germain Class Of sitting silent sorrowful sidewalk cafes young girls really daytime Frankfort New airport terminal airport highway automobiles office buildings stores sidewalk blocked cement mixing machines where still other buildings going housewives thronging department stores peeling bills obvious stiff faced policeman scolding gentleman comanding trying gentleman taking Rome outside occasional stretches unused aquaduct still standing solidly arches stone still looking after little patchwor carrying water Romans suburbs story apartmet houses white concrete broad vertical panels bright purple green warming creamy brown walls older hoUses stylish perfectly tailored sults looking women Beirut East begins Bedouins desert burnouse loose noisy bazaar stalls strolling ndors camels waggling along pulling carts their padded tepping silautly their approach announced bracelets jingle bells strapped above their knees photographs Nasse_osted restaurants newsstands everywhere weary automobile horns traffic lights camels Karachi We Karachi sundown after flight barren burnt yePlow wastes Middle East waters Arabian Sea The plane eased flats glided bumpily runway halted terminal building A khaki turbaned announced stewardess doctor walked aisle plane spraying aerosol The chili broke silence gling adults coughmd We debarked With million people Pakistan fifth populous country world Although million West Pakistan million Karachi whole million matter Until century Karachi small fishing village years independence partition capital And center government entire nation scores thousands displaced dispossessed refugees India backward reasingly economic hinterland stretching thousand miles Himalayas Karachi crowded dirty restless seemingly itself The streets crowded women black veiled white hooded their faces their billow white cotton trousers thigh length outer shirts turbans Jinnah raggmuffin children walking squatting hawkers fried wheat cakes betel chunks sugar combs parrots socks coathangers repair service haircuts almost everything imaginable except refrierat parts papers bicycles horse drawn ton__ carriages bicycle motorcycle rickshaws donkey carts buses street I these people living think where filthy built boards covered matting rusty flattendtln whole precsrious structure leaning against compound smoky dusty crowded alley But those faces poverty anxiety resignation pitiable anxiety Somehow these people seemed important The jungle Pakistan supposed located East there jungle downtown Karachi cling green vines sticky Customs This tangled territory West Wharf East Wharf which paralle fingers across mland includes Customs House sittin between wharves It terrt Phil Talbot spent Or eventually successful effort reclaim family automobile bggage trunks Take automobile He wharf Wed nesay learn He tried again Thursday shipwould Customs action He learned Friday discharging cargo festhhd Customs House On Saturday dockside found Ford East Wharf Berth All right Only there facilities clearing Customs East Wharf West Wharf Over West Wharf Hr Talbot found Customs there manifest since business could settle lifetime career American Express where Mr Butt silver rlmmed eyeglasses provided guide The manifest turned Customs House delivered West Wharf Mr Talbot automobile register proper account accomplished after clerk presented declaration triplicate Messrs Tslbot Butt filled another clerk checked officer signed officer charge Initi8led whole process Back again Customs Mouse officer appraisa division inspected declaration wrote approval inspection appraisal Back West Wharf Messrs T B appraiser East Whsr After returning West Wharf deposit appraiser returned Customs House submit report chief appraisals He calculated value Rs approximately times value New York Once initialed officer charge visit assistant collector charge appraisals entile approved initial This initialed Siate superior chief collector charge appraisals The papers waved chief appraisals sgain further action turned assistant collector charge apprsisals affix necessary number which somehow With chief appraisals signed Customs release application filled Rs wharfage charge clerk inspected application record Mr Talbot Rs Customs release stamped registrar registered payment another stamped stamp progress This sworn testimony Phil Tslbot I think would sworz The following I joined briefly spent hours East West Wharves chasing senior smuggling preventive officers trafic inspectors berth super visors their assistants Like string passed Talbot fully times search signature initial stamp With sight informed althou_gh drained ocean voyage permitted bring wharf Just outside wharf Mr Butt hired towing service model speed camel With camel hitched camel driver driving camel steering miles wharf A minute conference control booth station street The sheaf papmrs finally surrendered total signatures initials nearly stamps about bulky Lif_e magazine nearly Ho Mr Talbot gained possession family trunks other story involving slipping hurry money three times hiring donkey But tales being Customs Karchi heard Pskistani businessmn travelers We heard Karachi elsewhere ineficiency petty corruption government bureaus A partial answer least Krachi Customs would include these fsctors unwillingness perhcps ability given tional levels subordinates delegate authority sense security erate bilingual clerks devotion adherece highly compartmentalized division labor scarcity saving equipment typewriters csrbon paper telephone general idealizatlon efficiency Karachi tLahore In anticipatio retrospect weuld beenmuch easier Karachi Lhore three Pakistan International Airlines flight deing would Us stretch Indus Valley heart West Pakistan desert ceuntry With assuranceef healthful wster sleeping accemmedat nights weuld positive assurance reads markers It advisable tourists ceeding ceuntry their guide maximum temperatures around degrees there adven invelved We started darkness AM dreve through Ksrachi Towsrd occasional bullock csrts trains bringing firewood chiefly markets Shortly rising revealed wstes Lower Sind Desert Paklstn suddenl people occasionl repairmen tenders Shepherds whose flocks rummag grass scrubby These western fringes Gret Indian Desert where annual rainfall averages inches As ereen glistened miles sandy hillocks We dozens dlverslons detours ferced repairs ivememt brlck passed through dozentens By sundown hours cevere miles We Khalrpur We found reems gevernment house supper verandah called The following morning again stopped miles however Lloyd Barrage Indus Sukkar Like threshold doerway barrage river shunts broad water seven major canals either These canals water series smaller canals total length Of miles together rrlgatlng million acres The barrage quarter completed largest irrigation world In Indus complex itibmmt intensively irrigated world drove passed incresinly frequent rigation works canals bundsembankmaqts channels sluices ditches OccasioallY there Persian wheel which blindfolded bullocks tread crcle cranking wheel earthen channel water dumps trough higher level which pours water field In felds cotton white bursts ripeness slick green sugar Along roads providing transport these products other goods bullock carts camels squads donkeys When flocks sheep goats water buffalo hore_ riders truck spurting stream black smoke consideration honking horns shouting herdsmen bullock drivers trying their roperty powdery roadside continually rising falling hullabaloo As traffic increased towns became frequent lying villages walls brick houses streets dering cattle stsring townsfolk All together there brown dullness except whitewashed Muslim mosque By stopped midst grove dined bought peaches Karachl opened pitched stubby plsstic spoons Peaches Bahawslpur moderately automobile degrees serve By miafternoon crossed Punjab Land Five Streams miles under kikar trees I bragging Phil Talbot behalf Punjab stomping grounds See prosper things Look people faster Well seemed cleaner crisper Certainly Pun bread basket Partition India source pride British Indians alike mention prize migrants conquerors centuries After night spent another house Khanewal began Riding Mr Nisa2 Ahmed personable official West Pakistan govern He mentioned incidentally would miles ruins Harappa would I learned ancient along Mohenjo miles south Lower Indus dominated Indus Civilization third second millenia B C It civilizatlon rivalled known antiquity Nile We Id annas spiece cents admission museum building walked sandy miles circumference where stand ruins perhaps people What appeared distance stacked burnt brick turned closer range remains close Set houses three stories tiled roofs finely brick floors baths The streets straight R brick covered drains carried refuse Nearby Great Granarym square where parallel lines narrow brick storehouses faced other across broad street Adjoining section brick barracks workers dozen platforms diameter andade brick furnace bsking brick pottery On outskirts cemetery cleared graves archaeologists Beck intmuseum implements tailed Infermatlon about Harappans flourished millenium before being overrun Veic Aryans aroun B C There household decorated painted birds bulls arrows stars geometric designs household weights knives cores ivory copper knives finely carved seals bearing pictures bulls rhino ceros crocodile stylized characters which scho1ars unable decipher beads bracelets limestone marble human statuettes stone terracotta human terracotta playthings miniature animals chickens carts marbles Weapons tools kitchen utensils jewelry women children things haven changed years In village carts Sind identical wheel those rolled along broad streets Harappa according V Gordon Childe London Unverslty Crescent Green London Cassel Co Our Vii Harappa little minute every century represented there Lahore We Lahore because journey because The ancient capital Punjab capital province West Pak istan Lehore cultural capital Pakistan TM frequently With million inhabitants crowded there placid complacent atmosphere Karachl Lahore should capital Pakistan story troubled Partition Lahore immediately became militarily vulnerable Indian border scant miles Now driving through passed green tiled Chauburjl garden brand government housing quarters brick cupolas Punjab University We drove bustling Mall shady verandahs F aletti Hotel Mind I liked Faletti after rriving I noticed Extract conditions constituting agreement under rooms allotted posted I No Visitors Belogi It The Management ftself responsible Damage Residents Visitors Guests Goods Property Cause tsoever including Loss Da Acts God Enemies War Imsurrection Civil Commotion Fire Earthquake theft If management could provide greater peace Faletti plainly place Here among white washed colonnades Nedous government officers billet k_eep silence about tlmes It cheaper I moved Received New York