My Commando Action

I have never actually felt scared of being alone, traveling alone or being alone in the dark somewhere outside. But since the episode with the purse snatcher has occurred, I do actually feel a bit scared when going out towards my car at the end of office hours.

I am calling my ‘routine’ of going up to the car ‘commando action’. When I get out of the building I survey the parking lot from afar. I look here and there, as far as I can, to spot presence of any humans, especially males. Then I enter that area slowly, still looking around (literally looking around). As soon as I enter the parking lot, I start walking as fast as I can towards the car. While doing my run-walk I do turn completely around, at least once, to see if I am being followed. Meanwhile, I take out my car keys and keep them in my hand. When I reach the car, I unlock the door, and literally jump in with all my stuff. I quickly close the door and lock it with my elbow.

Once I am secure inside my car, I put my stuff aside and settle down. Then put on my dupatta-crumpling seat belt on, start up the car and speed away.

Doing all this makes ma laugh inside. Finding myself in a cowardly role is hilarious for me. But then I console myself by saying that better safe than sorry. ;-)

Seat Belt is Hazardous for my Dupatta

Since the day I got a speeding ticket and was instructed to wear a seat belt, I have been paying heed to this and regularly wearing it. It is a good thing that now I obey one more law of traffic.

But there is only one problem with it. In the morning the seat belt completely crumples my dupatta. :-) hehehe When I get out of the car, it seems that I have worn an un-ironed dupatta and it looks very untidy. I struggle to make it look as neat as possible but I feel I do not succeed much.

If only they would design such seat belts that would not destroy the ironing of my dupatta so much. Or maybe I should look for a portable iron. :-)

My First Chalaan aka Speeding Ticket

Last week on Wednesday, the day I met the first ever purse snatcher of my life, I got a speeding ticket too. It was in the morning when I was going to my office. I was on the newly built road called 7th Avenue. I thought that the speed limit was 80 KM but it turned out I was wrong. I passed under a bridge and had to slow down as I was instructed to stop by the traffic policeman. I stopped like a good girl. Though I do think that I could have fled the scene of the crime, easily. ;-)

When the car came to a halt, the policeman came to me and said, "Madam, you were speeding". I asked if the speed limit was 80. He corrected me and said it was 70 KM. Then he asked for my license that I handed over without any resistance. He took it, noted something from it on a form, asked me to sign it and then gave that 'ticket' to me. And as he handed over that paper to me, he also instructed me to wear the seat belt as well. I obediently gave in and put on the seat belt. And then finally sped away. No I didn't go over the speed limit. For God's sake I had just got a "speeding" ticket. ;-) hehe

This was my first ever ticket in the 10 year driving history of my life. It made me an 'offender'. But I am sad at only one thing. I got a "speeding" ticket at the speed of 80 KM only, which I feel is a disgrace to all those speeding people on the roads. *sniff sniff*

My Driving Ticket

Flower Bush

This is a lovely flower bush, planted in the garden of some neigbours. I do not know which flower it is but it looked so lovely that I had to take a picture. If any of you can tell me the name, please do.

Flower Bush

Sunbathing Cat

Today it is a bit chilly. The heater is turned on which is helping warm me up. But the farther I go from it, the colder I feel. At this time, I am looking at the following pictures of the fluffy cat enjoying the sun and enjoying myself. You take a look as well and tell me what you think.

Cat Sunbathing Under the Rose Bush

Cat from the Front

Cat from the Side

Funny Unsolicited Text

Being a girl in Pakistan, very often I receive unsolicited texts from unknown people. Those texts contain a variety of items including jokes, poetry and even things like ‘I want to have friendship with you.’ Or ‘I like you.’ But recently I received such a text that was hilarious. You must be wondering what it said.

It said, ‘I miss your sister.’

Now isn’t that funny! ;-)

Daewoo Kisses a Truck ;-)

I spent the weekend in Lahore. I went there by the Daewoo bus service and came back through it as well. For the return I got the seat at the very end. It was the 2nd row from the last and I got the window seat. The journey was smooth. But towards the end of it there was a jolt that everybody felt.

It so happened that we came to a curve on the road. The bus was in an inner lane and there was a truck in the outer one. As the bus over took the truck, I was looking at it closely and felt that the bus was going to hit it. And right in front of my eyes the left back end of the bus hit the side of the truck. The point of collision was right under the window where I was sitting.

I was off course startled because I not only heard the thud and felt the jolt but also saw it happening. There was a commotion in the people sitting nearby. Somebody suggested stopping the bus seeing what happened. But since everything was fine, neither the bus stopped and nor did the noise last long. My sister who was sitting right beside me jokingly branded me as being ‘jinxed’ and we moved on.

When finally the journey ended and we got out of the bus, I went round to the bus to see the signs of impact. There was a deep horizontal scratch and nothing more.

At this incident I just thanked Allah that it was not such a strong impact so as to cause much damage. All passengers of the bus as well as those traveling in the truck remained safe.

Now all I am wondering about is that am I really ‘jinxed’ these days ;-)

Wish I Had a Horse

And while I was stuck in the traffic jam, I spotted this man on a horse. He seemed to be moving faster than all of us as he could pass through places from where cars couldn’t. That time I wished I had a horse too.

Horse

Traffic Jam on November 28, 2007

Yesterday was a troublesome day. There were many small bumps on the road.

I was already a bit late in going to the office. When I finally set out to go, I got stuck in a traffic jam. I couldn’t get out of Chaklala Scheme 3 because of the heavy traffic. All the cars were moving like drops of water trickling down a narrow opening. There was a continuous need of applying brakes and the starting off again. Inch by inch I moved along with the surge of the cars. And finally when I got out of that mess and crossed Ammar Chowk, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I cursed the president a bit for all this choked traffic as it had occurred due to the fact that he was supposed to take off the Army uniform and take up the charge of the country as a civilian citizen.

Take a look at the following shot of the jammed cars in a row. It does not provide a clear picture of the traffic clutter, but you can get an idea:

Chaklala Scheme 3 Traffic Jam

An Encounter with a Purse Snatcher

This always seemed like a thing that would only happen in movies or dramas. Or a thing that would happen to ‘others’ but never ‘yourself’. But yesterday it was proven wrong when I had an encounter with a purse snatcher. It all happened really instantaneously but left me with a racing heart for a couple of minutes and lots of alarming thoughts.

It was 8 P.M. at night. With a shopping bag in my left hand and my purse on my right shoulder, I was walking towards my car in the parking lot. The parking lot is right beside my office building (Green Trust Tower). It was dark there as always, but I could make out from afar, where my car was parked.

As I walked towards it, I felt two guys walking into the parking lot as well. I didn’t pay much attention to this fact as I had seen people pass through that area before. When I walked a bit further I felt those guys were a bit far but right behind me. I was alarmed a bit but not much. By this time I had taken out my car keys and just reached the car.

I was about to unlock the door when I noticed those guys split up. One went further away towards the left of the car and the second one walked right towards me. This literally rang loud bells in my ears and I was extremely alarmed. This movement alerted me as there was no particular reason for that guy to walk in my direction. There was no special path there. No car parked there. No motorcycle.

I quickly unlocked the door and opened it so that there would be some light (the light we get from opening car doors). I couldn’t sit in the car that quickly. By this time that guy was very near me. I turned my back towards the car, slid a bit behind the open door and looked at him as he passed by. As I was looking, he looked at me, extended his hand, grabbed my purse, pulled it and started running like hell, pulling me along with it. Thank God the strap of the purse was strong so it didn’t break. And as I pulled my purse as well so that guy failed at getting hold of it.

At that instant all I could do was scream some random words like “What the hell is wrong with you!” The guy ran like hell after his failed attempt and I quickly sat in the car and locked the door. I sat there for a couple of minutes as I tried to catch my breath. My heart was racing like a charging Ferrari at that time.

I wanted to start the car instantly so that I could follow the purse snatchers a bit and maybe scare them. But as I had turned the ignition off while it was converted to CNG, in the morning, I was unable to start it. It took me a few minutes before I somehow managed to start the car. But by that time I guess it was too late. I sort of patrolled the parking area a bit to try to spot those thieves but didn’t see them. Then I moved out of there, towards the road where they were running to, and tried spotting them but didn’t see anyone there either. Then I decided that they would have long gone far away or would have hidden somewhere so I would not be able to find them. On thinking this I moved my car in the direction of my home and sped forward.

Many thoughts raced through my mind. What if the guy had succeeded in snatching the purse? I would have lost my mobile, wallet, ID card, ATM cards and credit card. What if I had fallen due to his pull? I would have been bruised. What if the guy actually struggled with me for the purse? I would have surely lost the battle along with the purse and some other valuables. What if the second guy had come back to help his accomplice? I could have been badly hurt and molested.

Since all of this had not happened, Thank God, I thanked Allah and kept moving. The only ‘injury’ that was inflicted upon me was a small bruise near my wrist. I got it due to the friction of the purse strap against my arm due to the pull by the snatcher. But it was something microscopic and not worth consideration.

I must admit that I did get scared a bit. But then I brushed my fears away and thought of all this as a ‘bad’ adventure. I even thought of a fun side of all this as the idea of putting it all on my blog came to my mind. ;-) I guess I have done that now and even dragged the story a bit. So I guess its time to stop now.

Let’s pray that may the world be rid of such purse snatchers.