Joel, FogBugz, Kiln … etc

Joel Spolsky, yeah the Joel on Software guy, was here in London this week, on Thursday to be exact, as part of his world tour. He has been to different cities of the world showing his products FogBugz, a project management software, and Kiln, a distributed version control system.

I signed up for it sometime ago, only to learn recently that his half day event has coincided with a shift of development methodology at my workplace. We have recently started using Scrum, and hence are looking for a new project management tool, that supports Scrum. We are trying a couple of them, and are still interested in any better options. So it was a good oppurtunity to have a first hand look at FogBugz, and also see if we might be iterested in shifting to Kiln as well, as compared to Subversion (SVN), which we currently use.

I was on my way to the Oval, home to Surrey County Cricket Club, he was using one of the conference venues at the Oval, when I saw a group of 3 guys standing on the other side of compartment of Northern Line. I dont know how & why, but from my first look, I knew they are developers and are going to the same place as I was And guess what, they actually were developers and they actually did go to the same place. As they say in Urdu, Dil ko dil se raah hoti he, I realized, we developers, have a sense of brotherhood. And we recognize each other regardless of racial, linguistic or geographical background. It was a good feeling.

Anyway, it was scheduled for 9 in morning, and we were greeted with hot tea and cofee, orange juice and freshly baked brownies. There were almost 200-250 people in the refreshments’ room. I picked a brownie, took a glass of juice, and looked for some empty space. There were only 2 people on the table I chose, one of them being a tester for hosted web applications. He was delighted as I jumped in the discussion and talked about the hosted PM software we were using; “you see, here comes another one”, was his response

Khair, after a while we headed towards the conference hall, where a soon-to-crash countdown application was running a clock, which soon converted into a count down screen. And before it did convert, Mr Spolsky appeared from right side and reached for the rostrum. And as the count down ended, the application crashed with BSOD, which we would realize in a while was a fake one. He used this as a bug-report to kick off his demostration of FogBugz.

I kinda liked FogBugz, and its seemless integration with Kiln, their version control product, which is based on Mercurial. The concept is, sort of, similar to Microsoft’s Team System, as you can track a bug/feature from the time it was reported till the time it was integrated into the source code, and released to the customer, in every aspect, which is cool. FogBugz does not have support for Scrum natively, but they have a plugin architecture, and there is a Scrum plugin available that you can use for it to work.

The demonstration was interesting, and Joel is a good speaker, as he kept the attendees still interested in his talk till the end, which is a quality. He was followed by another guy from FogGreek who ran a Kiln university, describing distributed version control and how Kiln does it in detail. I was not very impressed by Kiln as such, I mean its OK if you have to compare it against SVN for example except its branching  support, which is really really good. It makes branching so seemless and intiutive. Although the guy presenting Kiln was so much keen on thrashing SVN and likes in comparison to Kiln, but we didnt buy much of his arguments.

As the Oval, the conference venue, is a stadium, and hosts cricket matches as well; on my way out I spotted the Pakistan room on one of the sign boards, and I couldnt resist taking a picture

Pakistan Room at the Oval

 

I think I was back in office by 12:30 pm, to give some expert opinion on FogBugz

The Footbal Fever

Today, I came back from Jumma prayer, only to find half of the office empty. I was a little amazed untill I recalled a lunchtime conversation about Football Worldcup. Today was the first match between South Africa & Mexico. And yes, you got it right, all of the missing people had gone home to watch football. It reminded me of deserted streets in Pakistan, whenever there was a Pakistan-India cricket match. But taking time off, from office, to watch football, was new for me.

From a Pakistani’s prospective, football is the cricket of England. Probably a little more than that. They are just crazy about it. Butt sb used to qoute a very interesting statement by Bill Shankly:

“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.”

Well, I can see that

In morning I received an email from HR requesting people not to stream the football matches, as it may choke the internet bandwidth. “We gonna connect a computer to the projector in one of the conference rooms, and you can go and watch there instead”, she said. Yes, that was official. I was not amazed to read this, as a couple of days back, I had read a complete article in Evening Standard, about how office networks are going to choke during Football Worldcup, as people watch the matches online during office hours.

It was the talk of the day, all over England, even at the swimming pool where I am taking my swimming sessions these days. There was a guy from Algeria, who was very supportive of his country, off course, and wanted me to support Algeria as well, myself being a Muslim, and Algeria being the only Muslim side playing in the tournament. And I agreed to him.

Ohh, and there was an English flag hung on the wall of the pool as well. Well you see English flag everywhere nowadays, doors, windows, cars, everywhere.

Tomorrow is a big game; first English match of the World Cup. Lets see how its start for England.

And yes, there still are a lot of people who are not that crazy about football, as half of the office was present anyway

PS: I was probably the only person in my office, who was happy that England has won the Twenty20 cup from Australia  Cricket: nobody cares.

“My Name is Khan” with Javed Chaudhary

Yesterday Alvi came over to London. He was going to see his cousin in a nearby town, and decided to stop by London to see me. He arrived around 5:30 in evening, and the first thing he said after salam-dua was “Yaar pehle chal ke khana khate hen” . So we headed towards Tayyab’s. Tayyab’s is a nice place to eat in London. Its owned by a Pakistani, and has been rated as one of London’s top restuarants for somtime now. Their food is always delicious, although Sheikh sb has some differences here

Khair, we ate, and ate a little more than we normally do. Adding to those were those big glasses, as you see in Punjab, of sweet Lassi. By the time we walked out, we were hardly walking. We had a little long walk to reach back to train-station, which was quite helping in getting us back to shape.

We still had a lot of time at our hands. One of the bad things about London is that everything closes at 6 PM, except bars and night clubs off-course. So there aren’t many places to go after dark. Having nothing else to do, we decided to watch a movie, only to find out that Avatar is fully booked at IMAX 3D cinema. We searched around, and found another cinema playing the same, which had some places available. So we headed towards the cinema, only to find out in the middle of the journey that the Tube-line going that way is suspended for the weekend, for maintenance. This is the second bad thing about London.

Now what? We searched again, and found My Name is Khan screening at the Cineworld near to my house. We both agreed to go for it, so we did.

As the intermission started, I saw a couple of guys going out, and looked at Alvi, who was already looking my way. Yaar ye Javed Chaudhary nahin he?  Lagta to wohi he. Chal ke dekhen? Chal aa jaa.

As we walked out, towards the corridor, those guys were standing there. It was Mr. Chaudhary. But still, to be on the safe side , we re-confirmed with him. He was here to attend some conference and was hanging out with friends. We introduced oursleves, and had a light chit-chat. Alvi was too eager to ask his opinion on Imran Khan , and I had to convince him, thats this is probably not the right time to ask this question. We invited him for dinner, and he politely refused.

We finished the remaining movie, along with our drinks, and headed straight home for cuppa tea.

Milad with David Miliband

As I walked towards the mosque, for Jummah prayer, yesterday, I was amazed to see a police officer standing outside mosque. There, sometimes, are traffic police guys, putting fine tickets on the wrongly parked vehicles, but Met Police, never saw them around, before.

Anyway, I walked in wondering about the police officer. I also noticed a couple of cars, which are normally not there, but anyway.

It was just before Mua’zhan was about to say 2nd Azhan, when Imam sb announced that we have some guests with us today. And as he introduced the guests, they happened to be some goverment officials, including Foreign Secretary David Milliband. I was literally shocked. What is he doing here? was my first thought.

Khair, he was invited to speak after a while. And as he spoke, it dawned on me that he is here to wish Eid Milad-un-Nabi to his Muslim country men. As its the birthday of Holy Prophet (SAW), he took time from his busy schedule to wish us. What? Are you sure? was my second thought. And then I realized its the election year, and Labour Party is expected to get some tough competition in this election, Mr Miliband was on a compaign to please his voters.

Aaaahhhh, this politics, what-not it makes people do

And BTW, as he was speaking, myself being on the first floor of the mosque, and there being a big space left out in the first-floor’s floor, you can see the ground-floor hall, I left my place just to get a glimpse of Mr. Miliband. Yes rite, the Pakistani spirit. And as I looked at him, despite disagreeing with all his foreign policy stuff, I felt a little desire somewhere deep in my heart to stand by his side for a photograph . Well to be honest, everybody has a right to think about his future, and who knows I shall have a shop, of anything, in future, in Pakistan, and then I can hang this picture on the wall at least, you know

Khair, what else amazed me was that nobody out on the street was least concerned that Mr. Miliband is around. And there were no dozen police vans around, after all he is Foreign Seceretary of United Kingdom. I could only spot one officer on my way in. And it was just 3-4 men in suits, including Mr. Miliband, standing beside Imam sb, to say some words, inside. No bearucratic baraat or anything. Nothing. And yes, to keep the records straight, I did see another police officer on my way out of the mosque, so it was not just one, rather a couple of them. So much for a protocol.

And as I got back to my machine, in office, BBC Urdu had this interesting piece of news waiting for me. So much for a frustrated afternoon …

Not a bug

I remember, and I hope, if you have been at Ult, you’d remember too, NOT-A-BUG (NAB). It was always fun to find out an issue to be NAB, and marking it as such. Yes Umar, you can grind your teeth, but it was fun thats just being a developer. Sometimes it was quite a task to make your point across, particulary with some QAEs, yes you are right, I am talking about that QAE , but it was still fun Sometimes you needed help from IG/Bilz, but it was still fun

And just yesterday, when I kicked out 3rd bug, in a row, to be NAB, I realized, it still is fun Its a different story, though, that its the first time I had this oppurtunity in almost a year I have spent at this company. Although I wasn’t doing much with bugs, and concentrating on certain other things, but still.

Anwyay, we almost kicked out winters towards the end of January, here in London, with tempratures as high as 12 centigrade, but it has striken back. There has been short snow showers, bringing temprature back to freezing. And its chilli as anything outside.

Semi-finalist

As part of a company-wide promote-social-interaction intiative, every department is holding an indoor game competition. So far we had Table Tennis and Darts. I didnt play Table Tennis, but I did play Darts.

I hadn’t played darts before this, and the only information I had about it was “it has something to do with numbers.”

It was around 20-25 people who registered interest. There was an initial screening, to select 16 players to play pool matches. I was given 3 shots, and without any clue of what I am doing, I tried my shots, and was told I scored 20, yes you can laugh And it was this 20 that scored me a position for the pool matches, although I was the least scorer, that is no 16.

I was happy, I was staying.

Now, I was partnered with our QA Manager to play the pool game. I had no idea that we are competing against each other, I, on the other hand, thought we are a pair, and I apoligized to him in advance, saying that I might not be helpful as I am a newbie

I kept on throwing my darts without much worry, only to learn at the end that I have won. I was a little amazed to hear this, as I thought we are a pair. But I was told that we were competing.  So far so good ….

My manager was standing nearby, and he had played some darts in past, so I started inquiring him about the game. I had developed interest now, as I had won a game now .

He was kind enough to explain the game to me, and as we talked, and I watched the poeple playing, I began to make sense out of it. By the end of our conversation, I knew what darts was all about. Thanks to him.

By now, the pool games were over, and names were anounced for the quarter finals. Lo and behold! I was competing against my manager yes the same guy who was teaching me about the game a while ago.

So we played, and guess what … I won Yes, to everybody’s surprise, I won. I was through to semis.

In semi-final, I was competing against a veterian, who would win the final in 20-30 minutes from now. It started quite dramatically, as I scored a triple 17, a triple 16, and a 6, with a total of 105 in one go, my darts-career-highest so far And my partner in the game was like :O … how can you do that to me … he was a little serious into the game. I was not.

He was still at 190, when I needed 24 to finish off. An easy game it seemed so far, with everybody around in a shock, and I kinda enjoyed that moment almost on the verge of getting into the final. But then … you are not supposed to get into final on your very first day in the game.

I went on a bust. I was not worried as I had time. But then, I stayed at 24, as my partner made it to 20 I think. And then … I stayed at 24, and he won He was really happy.

So was I

It was not a bad start at all.

Ramadhan and us

Well, “us”, here, means me n Waqas

Ramdhan, along with its blessings, brought a whole new schedule of activities, as it does every year.

As I am observing the longest rozey of my lifetime, so far, 16 hrs it is, time has suddenly run short. Before Ramdhan, we used to kill time, watching TV, browsing, FB and all that stuff. But, as the Ramadhan has started, we dont even have enough time to sleep.

The day starts at 3:30 AM, when we leave our beds with half open eyes. Parathas, eggs and tea, in the same order. Yougurt gets its place as a side order. Sometimes, left over curry from dinner also makes its to the table. We hardly make it to sehri-end time, although we are improving on this as the days are getting shorter.

Namaz etc takes it to around 5:00 AM, when we kiss the beds again, only to get up at 8:00 for office. I take half-an-hour break at lunch time, instead of normal an-hour break, and use the remaing half-an-hour in evening to leave early, so getting some touch of Ramadhan-in-Pakistan

On my way back home, I am nowadays reading Princess by Jean Sasson, which I borrowed from office’s collection of novels. I get sleepy again by the time I reach home, so, quite naturaly, immediately after reaching home, back to bed again for a short nap of around 30 minutes.

In the mean while Waqas gets back too, and we offer Asar, before starting to prepare for Iftar. If some meal is already cooked, we are quite relieved. We normally cook once and eat that for 2 days. So we get a day’s break from cooking. Iftar is normally fruit-chat, fruit-juice and samosas.  Sometimes, we do some ehtemam as well e.g. French Toasts yes French Toasts at Iftar. Try it, its fun. MUF is coming over this weekend, and we expect some home-cooked pakoras as well as some Rooh-Afza-and-milk kind of stuff, provided that we get hold of Rooh-Afza. So… delicious iftaries ahead

We are also planning to go out for Iftar over the weekend. Notting Hill Carnival is another attraction over the weekend, might go there as well.

By the time we get done with dinner, its time for Isha/Taraweeh. Although the time is 10:00 PM, we have leave around 9:40 as the mosque is a bit far. We return around 11:40, and after a bit of chit chat, get back to beds around 12:00 AM.

And another day starts at 3:30 AM …

قیمے والے چاول

کل دفتر سے وقت پہ آ گیا تھا. تھوڑی دیر میں وقاص بھی آ پہنچا. ادھر ادھر کی باتوں کے بعد وہی روز کا سوال: آج کیا پکائیں؟
میں: گھر میں کیا کچھ ہے ؟
میں (ہاں دوبارہ ): چنے ہیں. سبزی ہے. چاول ہیں.
وقاص: آج مرغی بناتے ہیں.
میں: لانی پڑے گی.
وقاص: چل نا یار.لے آتے ہیں.
میں؛ اچھا !چل.
دل بالکل نہی چاہ رہا تھا مگر …

قریب میں ہی حلال گوشت کی دکان ہے. شکر ہے قریب ہی ہے. دکان پہ تین قسم کی مرغی دستیاب تھی. ہم نے ایک قسم منتخب کی، ٢ بنانے کو کہا  اور انتظار کرنے لگے. ہم انتظار کر ہی رہے تھے کہ نظر قیمہ پہ پڑی.
میں: قیمہ لے لیں؟
وقاص: لے لے.
میں: یار دھونے کا بڑا مسلہ ہوتا ہے، پر چل لے لیتے ہیں.
میں (دوبارہ ): آج قیمے والے چاول نا بنائیں.
وقاص: اچھی تجویز ہے.

.جب گھر پہنچے تو ہم فیصلہ کر چکے تھے. قیمہ چاول.

گھر پہنچے، وقاص مرغی دھونے لگا اور میں

دیکھنے لگا. وقاص مرغی دھو کے ہٹا تو میں اٹھا اور قیمہ دھونے لگا. وقاص دھلی مرغی فریزر میں رکھنے لگا TV.

قیمہ دھونا میں نے شروع تو کر دیا، مگر اسے ختم کیسے کرنا تھا یہ مجھے سمجھ نہی آ رہا تھا. جی ہاں ہمارے پاس چھاننی نہی تھی. سو ہاتھ سے دھونا شروع کیا. اب پانی نکالنے لگتا تو قیمہ بھی پانی کے ساتھ باہر. قیمہ روکوں تو پانی بھی رک جاۓ. اب کریں تو کیا کریں. خیر کوشش جاری رکھی اور مٹھیوں میں قیمہ بھر کے، اس کا پانی نچوڑ کے، اور پلیٹ میں رکھنا شروع کیا. اب تھوڑا بہت قیمہ ہوتا تو شاید دھل بھی جاتا، مگر ١ کلو قیمہ ایسے کیسے دھلے.

کافی سوچ بچار کے بعد یہی ٹھہری کہ اگر قیمہ دھونا ہے تو دکان پہ جایا جاۓ اور چھاننی لای جاے. کوئی ٨ بجے کا عمل تھا، پتا نہی کوئی دکان کھلی ہو گی کہ نہی. یہاں ٦ بجے کے بعد کوئی چیز لینی ہو تو کافی مسلہ ہوتا ہے. Tesco کھلا ہو گا، مگر تھوڑا دور ہے گھر سے.قریب میں 99p سٹور ہے. جی ہاں ہر مال 99p  میرا خیال تھا کے ٩ بجے تک کھلا ہوتا ہے. سو .. چل پڑے چھاننی لینے. اب جو 99p پہنچے تو کیا دیکھتے ہیں، سٹور بند ہو چکا تھا. ٩ کی بجاۓ ٨ بجے بند ہوتا ہے.

وقاص بولا، قریب میں ایک اور سٹور ہے، وہ شاید کھلا ہو. وہاں بھی جا دیکھا اور اسے بھی بند پایا. اب کیا کریں. تھوڑا دور پاکستانی بھایوں کی دکانیں ہیں، وہ ذرا دیر تک کھلی ہوتی ہیں. سو ، کوسنے دیتے ہوئے اس وقت کو جب ہم نے قیمہ خریدا اور قیمہ چاول بنانے کا سوچا، چل پڑے اس بازار کی طرف.

بازار میں تھوڑا ہی آگے گئے تو ایک رسوی کے سامان والی دکان کھلی نظر آی. شکر کا کلمہ پڑھا اور گھس گئے. ایک خان صاحب سے ملاقات ہوئی. عرض مدعا پہ صاحب نے فرمایا کہ اب تو دکان بند کر رہے ہیں، اور آپ کی مطلوبہ، تھوڑی آگے پڑی ہے اور وہاں تک کے راستے میں سامان رکھ دیا ہے، لہذا پہنچ سے باہر ہے. اب چھا ننی ہمیں دکھ تو رہی تھی، مگر ہم اسے چھو تک نہی سکتے تھے. خان صاحب نے ایک مہربانی یہ کی کہ ایک اور دکان کا پتا بتا دیا، کہ کھلی ہو گی اور وہاں سے چھا ننی مل بھی جاۓ گی. ہم خان صاحب کو صلواتیں سناتے ، اور ایک بار پھر خود کو کوسنے دیتے، آگے کو چل پڑے.

جاتے ہوے دایں ہاتھ پہ ایک سردار جی کی دکان پڑتی ہے. ہم کھانے پکانے کا دیسی سامان وہیں سے لیتے ہیں. کافی بڑی دکان ہے. سوچا دیکھتے چلیں، شاید کہ گوہر مقصود ہاتھ آ جاۓ. دکان میں جا کہ جو نظر دوڑای تومایوسی ہوئی. سوچا دکان والوں سے پوچھتے چلیں.

کچھ خواتین مقام ادایگی پہ موجود تھیں. ہم نے ایک کو مخاطب کیا اور عرض کیا کہ ایک عدد چھاننی کی ضرورت ہے اگر آپ کے پاس ہو تو عطا فرماے تا کہ گھر جا کہ قیمہ دھویں اور قیمہ چاول بنایں. ان خاتون کو ہماری بات کی کچھ سمجھ نہی آی، تو وضاحت کی خاطر وقاص بولا، جی جیسے چاۓ کی پونی ہوتی ہے، ویسی چاہیے مگر قیمہ دھونے کے لیے. خاتون نے پہلے تو ہماری اس معصومانہ مثال سے لطف لیا اور پھر پیچھے مڑ کے ایک اور خاتون سے اس بابت دریافت کیا. وہ کافی بھلی مانس تھیں، جب ان کے سمجھانے کے باوجود ہمیں سمجھ نہی آیا کہ دکان کے کس حصے میں دیکھنا ہے، تو خود ساتھ ہو لیں.  برتنوں والے حصے میں آ کے دیکھنا شروع کیا مگر کچھ ملا نہی. تھوڑی دیر میں خاتون کی آواز سنائی دی، الله، وہ تو ختم ہو گیں ہیں. اسی لمحے وقاص کی نظر ایک ڈبے پہ پڑی جس پہ انگریزی زبان میں چھاننی لکھا تھا. جس پہ ان خاتون نے بتایا یہ تو آٹے والی ہے. ہم نے قیمت پوچھی تو  ٧.٩٩ پونڈ . ایک چھاننی کے لیے اتنے پیسے، ہمارے حساب سے تھوڑے زیادہ تھے، سو ہم نے ان کا شکریہ ادا کیا اور دکان سے باہر نکل آے. اگر تھوڑے کم پیسوں کی ہوتی، تو شاید ہم آٹے والی

چھاننی ہی لے کے اس سے قیمہ دھو لیتے، اس وقت حالت ہی ایسی ہو رہی تھی.
تھوڑی دیر مزید چلنے کے بعد ہم خان صاحب کے بتائی ہوئی دکان پہ پہنچے اور یہ جان کر خوشی ہوئی کہ نا صرف دکان کھلی ہے بلکہ چھاننی بھی دستیاب ہے. خان صاحب کو دعایں دیتے، چھاننی خریدتے ہم گھر کو لوٹے.

اس بار قیمہ دھونا کوئی اتنا بڑا مسلہ ثابت نہی ہوا.

قیمہ دھویا، چاول بھگوے، مسالہ بنایا، قیمہ ڈالا، بھونا، چاول ڈالے، اور تھوڑی دیر میں چاول تیار. لیکن جیسا کہ عموما ایسی روایات کا نتیجہ ہوتا ہے، کہ چاول اتنے مزے کے بنے کہ نہ پوچھیں، تو ایسا کچھ نہی ہوا. چاول بس ٹھیک ہی بن گئے.
ہم نے دہی کے ساتھ تناول فرماے اور الله کا شکر ادا کیا.

آج دفتر سے وقت پہ آ گیا تھا. تھوڑی دیر میں وقاص بھی آ پوھنچا. ادھر ادھر کی باتوں کے بعد وہی روز کا سوال: آج کیا پکائیں؟
میں: گھر میں کیا کچھ ہے ؟
میں (ہاں دوبارہ ): چنے ہیں. سبزی ہے. چاول ہیں.
وقاص: آج مرغی بناتے ہیں.
میں: لانی پڑے گی.
وقاص: چل نا یار.لے آتے ہیں.
میں؛ اچھا !چل.
دل بالکل نہی چاہ رہا تھا مگر …قریب میں ہی حلال گوشت کی دکان ہے. شکر ہے قریب ہی ہے. دکان پہ تین قسم کی مرغی دستیاب تھی. ہم نے ایک قسم منتخب کی، ٢ بنانے کو کہا  اور انتظار کرنے لگے. ہم انتظار کر ہی رہے تھے کہ نظر قیمہ پہ پڑی.
میں: قیمہ لے لیں؟
وقاص: لے لے.
میں: یار دھونے کا بڑا مسلہ ہوتا ہے، پر چل لے لیتے ہیں.
میں (دوبارہ ): آج قیمے والے چاول نا بنائیں.
وقاص: اچھی تجویز ہے.جب گھر پوھنچے تو ہم فیصلہ کر چکے تھے. قیمہ چاول.
وقاص

Des men nikla ho ga chand

Indeed.

Its my cousin’s wedding this weekend. We are really good friends, and most of the people in family still believe that I am going to give a surprise , as I can’t miss his wedding. Also my track record of going back home is not quite good, as I would run back on a 7-days vacation too, and that too with less than 3 months’  break in betwean Aaahh, but sadly enough, I have no such plans this time, for some unavoidable reasons. And BTW, days are too few now to give a surprise anyway.

I talked to my sis today, and she specifically put the phone near to dholki, “bhai awaz aa rahi he?” And I was like … haan aur jalao mujhe

All the usual stuff is in full blow. Almost the whole family is together, except me and another cousin. He has an interesting story too He had an official meeting in the second week of July, in Thailand, and this wedding was being scheduled in second week as well. So he convinced his bosses to move the meeting to first week, so that he can attend the wedding. For reasons beyond groom’s family’s control, the wedding is now scheduled for the first week too   He is furious … quite understandbly … and now has no plans of rescheduling. I think he had his flight today.

Khair …. life goes on.

My best wishes for the groom and the bride and both the families. May Allah bless you guys.

A day at Heathrow

It was a good day last Saturday, for Asif bhaee at least

Yup, bhabhi arrived from Pakistan. Flight was scheduled to arrive at 3:00 PM. Since the time we woke up in morning, he would not sit in peace, yar der na ho jaye, jaldi karo. I would tell him every time that he should not worry and we’ll be in time, but he won’t listen to anybody.

Khair, we left around 1:00 PM and reached Heathrow arnd 2:00 PM, yup  1 hour before time. I had nothing to say, except to give him a look, and he smiled back to me

We checked the board, and the 3:00 PM flight was coming at 3:25.I gave Asif bhaee another look and he smiled again

We had plenty of time at our hands.

My first shot was to have a cup of tea, as I didnt have one with breakfast.

Then we prayed.

We checked the board again and the flight was coming at 3:45

We still had plenty of time. So … we started exploring Terminal 3.

We looked around and saw a lot of people with black caps, similar to the Jinnah cap, but not exactly that. It didn’ have that dip in the center, might be similar to the one Ghalib wears in the picture we have, but shorter in length. They were also wearing black waistcoats. I recon them, they are mureeds of Eidgah Sharif in Pindi. We got near to them and asked an uncle why they were here in that number? It was Pir Saab coming, Pir Naqeeb-ur-Rehman sb, he told.

They were so many and all looking alike giving a good impression of unity. We stayed there for a while, and took some pictures.

We came back to the arrival passage, where some more mureeds were holding flowers to present to Pir Saab upon his arrival. We stayed with them for a while. Now I wanted to take a first hand picture of Pir Saab. So I told Asif bhaee to stay with the group awaiting. An uncle was trying to diciple the people, like side pe ho ke khare hon, rassta chor den etc. We obliged.

I think it was 10 minutes, when Pir Saab arrived. I tried to capture him, but right at that moment, somebody got in between. So it was a

Pir Sahab was now surrounded by a lot of people. I was about to lose heart when the G17 photographer inside me screamed, “You can still do it”.

And so I did

It was 3:40 PM, almost the time for the flight to arrive, so we headed towards the arrival passage again. We stood there, and stood there … and stood there.

While we were waiting, we saw a group of boys coming out, all in Green. Now that was Pakistan Hockey Team, we clapped and shouted slogans, Pakistan Zindabad, it was fun

We stood again, and stood … and stood there

It was around 5:15 PM, when finally bhabhi came out. The wait came to and end, and we headed straight to home.