WHEN we were young and would take our sweet time to complete a certain task, our parents would often proclaim they could have made a trip around the moon in the time we took in completing the task. This was an attempt to urge us to complete the task efficiently. We thought it was just a way to taunt us to expedite matters and ignored it as an impractical, unrealistic statement. However, recently I had to change my views when in a recent real-life demonstration of the practicality of the above statement proved me wrong.

I deposited my cheque with a branch of the largest bank in Pakistan, situated some 30km away from the city centre. Normally, for all my banking needs I avail the facility of the parent branch in Islamabad. However, this time, due to laziness on my part and because of the commuting time involved, I took advantage of the proximity of the bank’s PWD branch.

The amount was credited to my account after 10 days following much hassle and phone calls. It took almost the same time as did the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) mission for a return journey to and from the moon. The only difference was that while the Nasa space ship travelled 1.1 million kilometres, the cheque travelled 30km.

Khaled
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2026