I had finished College two years ago and all I had done since was eat and watch TV, my family were fed up with this by now and told me to get my act together, I felt too it was about time I did something, but the type of jobs I was interested in didn't pay much as they were meant for the lower strata of society and were considered "menial" by our standards, that is the White collar family of Bankers, Business and Military men that I come from, lots of offers came my way through the family and friends for jobs that paid well and were with good companies, but all were routine office work and I hate routine work, especially a 9 to 5 job in an Office, I love the outdoors, Sunshine, to sit an office and miss out on that is like a prison sentence to me, just cant get over people who return home in the dark having missed all those glorious hours of Sun, sitting in one place doing the same boring thing every day, after day, after day. Sorry! but it's not for me.
I started to browse for jobs in the weekly classified hoping to come across something I'd enjoy, nothing came up, so I went and joined a restaurant just to keep me busy, a restaurant job is no different to an office one, just that in an office you sit around, while here theres a lot of physical work, dealing with food stuff, dealing with loads of attitude, I used to feel sorry for the managers, glad that I was a server, although the money was good for doing nothing, In a short time I knew it was not something I wanted to do long term, but I looked at the positive side, that the experience would open up other doors, perhaps as a steward with some airline. Two months down the road I quit working and sat at home again.
The work experience, though not to my liking, did get me into a routine as far as other aspects of my life were concerned, I also noticed I became more interested in things and myself, it had a good effect and it was good to be out of the house, so I began to browse the papers again, yes the family offers were there but I didn't want to take any favours lest I quit work after a few days, didn't find much except the office assistant types, which involved running from door to door, I passed those up, hate driving in the city even more during office hours, then one day I came across this one ad that sounded like something different that I might like doing, it was for a reputed foreign company, who wanted someone who likes dealing with people, and involved traveling to another town two hours drive from Karachi where, I was living, they needed some one to inspect their vehicles at a depot there, I decided to give it a shot and mailed my resume.
A week later I received a call from the company asking me to come for an interview, I went for it, the manager, said I'd get a call if selected. The call came a few days later and I was asked to report to duty on Thursday, which was three days away. Thursday came and I went to work, the office was nice as are all foreign organizations, it was in a house in a posh locality not far from the area where we lived, I was introduced around, and briefed on my assignment, I was also given a small company car to drive unchauffered to and from the town but not to take home, good I thought I'll be spared maintenance, though the free fuel would have been good for our car.
My first trip came the following day, since I had never been out of the city on my own I was a bit nervous and yet excited, so I took off early afternoon, got to the place, it was rather backward, did my work dealt with all the rough looking drivers, and rushed back before dark, not bad I thought, exhausted I went to sleep. The job turned out to be fun, I would also get to stay overnight in the town sometimes, it was good to experience a different way of life, it had now been five months since I was doing this, during that period I had taken up some computer courses in my spare time, and gotten involved with a fabulous girl whom I had met at the centre, her name was Fozia, she was 20, her family had recently moved to Karachi from Islamabad, I liked her from the moment we met, she was simple, funny and down to earth this despite being a beauty, which is quite rare to find in this day and age, she reminded me of the actress Brooke Sheilds, whom I loved sine I was a kid, and for Fozia to have not only her looks but also her ways, made me wonder if fate had plans for us, I was smitten and she liked me too. I wanted to marry her.
Fozia was on my mind as I drove back home from work as ususal, I was also listening to my favourite numbers from the 70s on a portable CD player, which I really enjoyed, in a daze I drove on when suddenly the CD started to skip, I turned to press some buttons to get it to play, but it wouldn't, as I bent down for a moment to check the player, I felt a hard jolt, followed by a loud flapping noise, I had hit some thing, and the left front tire had burst, right in the middle of nowhere which was a sugarcane field with the thing growing 8 feet tall or more on either side, it was strange that the incident should happen here, I always did dread passing through this place, there was never a person in sight here, and even now there were none.
I was disgusted, hated changing tires, even though its no big deal on the small car, but still, just the thought of going through the hassle grrrrrr!!! I looked around to see what I had hit, it turned out to be a protruding piece of rock, "Oh well" I thought, and started to get all the stuff out to change the damn thing, it was evening and soon it would be getting dark, after getting the equipment out I reached for the tyre, it seemed stuck, I tried harder to tug it free, when it struck me that it was flat! The part that I was pressing had sunk right up to the rim, "Oh Please No" I said out aloud, I was nearly half way out of town and my cell phone was out of range, no way was I going to sit around here in the dark, had heard one too many tales of the unseen in these areas to even consider staying back, and yet these fields were the favourite places of wild boars, those crazy tusked cousins of the pig, known to attack and shred to pieces any one in sight if they were frightened by their presence, not to mention the poisonous snakes, if I did take a hike it would be very risky.
I decided it was worth the risk rather than sit around and wait for nothing like a fool, at least I'd end up in civilization, better than seeing what I didn't want to see in the dark, so I started walking, it was getting to be dusk by now, the town was what seemed like miles away, another threat I hadn't considered were bandits notorious for inhabiting these parts, but what did I have they could benefit from?, again I thought, at least I'd be amongst people, with that I started to walk faster. I had been walking 20 minutes heading in the direction of the town when I saw a donkey cart coming my way, with a man atop. The guy stopped the cart near me, I was relieved to see him as it was Yawar a new guard who had recently joined the depot, he inquired what had happened, I narrated the story and asked him if he'd take me back to town, offering to pay him for the inconvinience.
or Yawar must've been around 40, big built around 6' 3", with a heavy broad bone structure, very dark skin and a big strong face which was balanced by a mustache, thick straight medium length, black hair covered his head, he was dressed in a sky blue shalwar suit which seemed to be one size small for him further accentuating his build, I didn't know him as well as the other staff, but he seemed to be a decent enough, I was pleasantly surprised when he greeted me with my name, since we were in the middle of nowhere he told me its best to come to his house as it was closer than town, it was also getting dark and his animals were hungry, they needed to be fed, also it was not safe to be out at night over here, just as I had thought. The considerate person I am we set off for his home, the ride was pretty rough we made small talk all the way, he told me about himself, married twice with five children , three girls from the first wife, one boy and one girl from the second, passing the car, he saw the tyre and said "We'll get it fixed tomorrow". Tomorrow? I didn't plan to stay on here till then, I thought to myself.
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