Life in the land of the pure. 2024-25 season, episode 13. Shall we eat now or wait for the ceasefire ?

I freely stolen that line from Thomas Friedman’s book “From Beirut to Jerusalem” because, as you probably now  know, we had ourselves a little near war crisis last spring …. When I starred this post. Terrorists who may be connected to the Pakistani government (still no attribution for the attack)  killed a group of tourists in Indian Kashmir on April 22, and as has been the case in the past, the Indian government sought some form of retribution. In 2001-02 it was a major military buildup on the border, in 2016 it was a commando raid, and in 2019 it was a bombing. 

The question that follows is, what has howard doing during the crisis? Hunkering down in a bunker?  Stockpiling water and medicines?  Filling sandbags?  Not exactly. 

For much of the time between the terrorist attack  and India’s combined air-missile attack on Pakistan, the days were pretty normal.  Saturday mornings began with the Farmers market, which meant picking up cheese, freshly made strawberry jam, sourdough bread, and enjoying a strawberry yogurt gelato.  

One Saturday may 3 we did a quick stop at a charity bazaar before heading over to the movenpick hotel at the Centaurus mall for dinner, with my friends Jacqueline (in my office) and Julie (from Energy, who I knew from my 2019-20 tour and who Ben knows as well).  Never having been to this hotel before —it only opened in January — we made our way to the lounges on the restaurant floors, 21 and 22.  Lebanese? Pakistani? Pan-Asian? How to choose? Then the manager offered Sky 24 … the rooftop restaurant two floors above us, adjacent to the (wait for it) helipad.  

So we said “yes let’s do that one.”

Entrance was structured as a 5,000 rupee fee (about $17) which was credited to our food purchase.  The views were stunning …. The food at best mediocre— we had a sad sandwich, a gloppy risotto, and a pizza that would have been rejected by a junior high school cafeteria..  I overheard a conversation by two European men complaining all the flights were booked. That was … concerning.  But the mall was packed, street were full, the small shopping plazas were bustling.  It felt like Islamabad has no idea a small war was coming.   

https://youtu.be/X3Ip7-O0kQ4?si=bX3ZHmAPxYM-fcXX

I got a call at 2am on Wednesday, may 7, to come into the office.  I think I left 18 hours later.  There were missile attacks  and aerial dogfights where the combatants didn’t need to see each other to shoot each other down.  One missile hit a military airport about 12 km away.  It’s been called the 88-hour war, the 100-hour war, I think “the four day conflict” is fine.  

All I can say is it was a crazy busy week, I’m glad it’s done.  It happened so fast we barely had to go into lockdown or restricted movements or anything like that. No evacuation was planned.  We all just worked a lot.  

And, I’ll do better about posting more regularly.  Next up will be a quick review of my recent travel.