Day 12: Mosques, politics and the quest for identity
Day 12: Mosques, politics and the quest for identityLocations: Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Pir Mahal, Abdul Hakeem, Rehmangarh
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I decided to have a day's break at Jhang to get my bike fixed, my bruise tended and all my batteries fully recharged. Over the past three nights, I have been staying at places that get electricity for just a few hours and I would leave before my gadgets were recharged. The weather has been exceptionally pleasant and night temperatures were very comforting but I could not do the writing regularly as I had to save whatever energy my equipment had for the next day's travel. It was now time to recoup the deficit.
I was tempted to go out in the city, Jhang, and talk to people here but my hands were already full. I forced a curfew upon myself and stayed shut indoors to concentrate on clearing the back log. The next morning too, I went straight out of the city as if I haven't been here. Sorry, Jhang.
The road from Jhang to Toba Tek Singh is very smooth and it seemed that I got there in no time; that also meant that all the required energy levels were refreshed completely. This small town looked cleaner and better planned than the many that I have already visited on this journey. Another uniqueness of Toba Tek Singh for me was that the campaign of a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate here was quite visible.
Pir Mahal, my next stop, was even more pleasant a surprise. The small town looked quite affluent as it has branches of all the large banks, many of them stood in a row. This simply implies a lot of expatriates sending back money. Another sort of corollary to this is that you will find an enthusiastic PTI campaign here.I spent sometime with Mian Javed Akhtar, the PTI candidate for PP 89. He was preparing to go to a village, that was located at quite a distance, accessible through a kacha road. I wanted to go with him but decided against as it could delay my journey towards the night stay spot. Travelling on these roads at night is never a good idea.
Javed is quite an enterprising agro-industrialist. His campaign and members records were, however, kept in a register. I have seen the similar munshi khata everywhere. I have yet to see a candidate or a campaign manager using computer technology to organise the complex task better. May be we need a campaign software or a phone application!