The Epilogue

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I travelled 1,897 kilometres in 20 days almost exclusively in Punjab and met hundreds of people, made new friends on the field and in cyberspace and renewed many older ones that had gone stale. It has simply been a great experience. I hope I am a bit wiser too now. I shared my experiences from the field and plan to write more about these.

I am more than happy that I could do what I intended to. But apologise that it was limited to Punjab alone, notwithstanding that there is still a lot about this vast province to know and experience.

While I think I can overcome the security threat perceptions about Sindh and Balochistan, I need to find out some way to deal with the real dangers and will welcome any suggestions.

Spending some time with a dacoit and writing about their lives in not a bad idea but the dacoit has to show professionalism and not stoop to the level of slayers.

Next to my life, I am worried more about the loss of my data and less about my property. The phrase should be revised from jaan-o-maal (life and property) to jaan-o-data to suit the new realities of the digital age. It has been a constant fear during this voyage as well. What if I lost or was robbed of my iPad? I think I need to overcome this fear as well, as there is life beyond cyberspace.

Writing daily from the field has been both a joy and a hassle. It imposed a discipline which made me productive. I could not have produced 20 writings in less than a month under any other circumstances. At times, it spoiled joyous evenings though, for I had to cut them short. Dawn.com here, played the role of the dreaded parent that you can't keep waiting for late in the night.

What I thoroughly enjoyed about the dotcom media is the audio visual liberty it offers. I had never experienced it before. I now think that I have been too wordy, while visuals at times are more communicative and help you greatly when the two work in tandem. I partly owe this new freedom to a device – the iPad – as this one gadget enabled me to write, snap and shoot.

Had it required carrying a video camera, I would have dropped the idea. They anyway complicate things as people either find them scary or sexy and in both situations they start playing to the camera. I have used short video clips instead of inserting quotes from the persons that I met. It is much more transparent, lively and interesting. Another aspect of this media, that I prefer over others, is that it offers ample opportunity to your readers to interact with you.

Riding the motorcycle has not been a problem. In fact, I found it easier than I had thought. Neither was finding cooperative people and getting to talk to them about an issue. The night stays were, however, quite an experience especially the bathrooms – from stinky and dark to airy and wide open, some as vast as a hectare of land!

I thank the Dawn.com team, my colleagues at Sujag and my family for not only bearing with me but for also being very supportive. I am also indebted to a lot of friends and friends of friends who helped me during the journey in various ways.