The old lady was right. After a wait of half-an-hour or so, a van showed up. It took us to the Albania-Macedonia border. In that van I met Florenc Plaka, a young man who had lived in the US for many years and was now back with his parents--his father was the driver of the van. Amazing how times have changed! I have always met interesting people in my travels--most of the time I would lose them forever. But now it is different. Florence is on my FB.
[This picture shows Florenc dad's van that left us at the border.]

Lushnje to somewhere, and then to somewhere else, and finally being stranded in a small Albanian town. Various taxi drivers approached us and offered to take us to the border, but an old lady, our fellow passenger from our last hop, asked us to be patient and wait for the bus. After a while the taxi drivers could not take it any more. A fight broke out between the taxi drivers and the old lady. I don't know what they were saying, but I can only guess. [Fortunately, I have video clips of that altercation, as well.]
Taxi Driver: Why are you siding with these stupid foreigners? Why don't you let us take them to the border?
Old lady: Because it is not right. You are charging them fifty euros to the border, whereas the bus would take them there for a fraction of that price.

Drummers at the Stanford Powwow 2010

For many, Powwows might be the celebrations of a re-gained pride, but to me they appear to be the commemorative programs of an exterminated culture. May the Palestinians not see such a Powwow future! We hope to see the day when the Palestinians would claim back their country--just like the Zulus did in L'Afrique du Sud.

Stanford Powwow 2010
Not too far away in past Hollywood was making ‘Cowboys and Indians’ movies. The stories of those movies might have been different, but the theme was the same: European-descent Cowboys were good, indigenous people (American Indians) were bad. [Who cares if the Europeans were stealing Indians’ lands and that was the reason the Indians were so mad at the foreigners.] But a few decades later things have changed. Popular sympathy is turning towards the American Indians. Now annual Powwows (celebrations of the American Indian culture) are held all over the US. The 39th annual Stanford Powwow 2010 took place May 7 through May 9.

The one-day camp of the Pakistani LA Consulate worked from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. When this correspondent reached the camp at 9:50 am, the Consulate was in operation and over 50 people were waiting in the hall the camp was organized in. The first person served by the Consulate claimed to have reached the venue at four in the morning. By late afternoon, over fifty people were served and almost the same number waited in line. The Consulate operated relatively smoothly, with a few shortcomings—people were not given receipts for the applications and documents they submitted. Applicants served by the camp saved their time and money making trips to Los Angeles.

Pakistan Consulate's One day Camp at Mehran Restaurant, Newark

The Pakistani Consulate in Los Angeles serves a large area of western USA, including the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas. On Saturday, May 8, the Pakistani LA Consulate offered its consular services in the northern California through a one day camp at the Mehran Restaurant in Newark. The camp was sponsored by Mian Shahbaz of the Pakistan Times.

Complete audio recording of the talk is present here:
http://www.archive.org/details/AlicealbiniaInSindhland

Alice Albinia, author of 'Empires of the Indus', gave a talk at the San Jose Peace and Justice Center, today (Sunday, May 2, 2010). The program was arranged by the Friends of South Asia , the World Sindhi Congress, and the Sindhi Association of North America.

Alice (Albinia) in Sindhland

Meeting Hamid Akhter
Kareena Kapoor is a household name. And those who are interested in films know her father Randhir Kapoor. And some go back to even remembering Raj Kapoor, the father of Randhir Kapoor. Go one generation back and you would be introduced to Prithviraj Kapoor who started the Bollywood Kapoor dynasty. So how many people you can find today who can claim to have WORKED with Prithviraj Kapoor? There is at least one. Prominent Urdu fiction writer and Lahore based journalist Hamid (Hameed) Akhter worked with Prithviraj Kapoor in a film produced in the final years of the British Raj. Hamid Akhter is currently visiting his son in California. At a dinner arranged by Ijaz Syed, Hamid Akhter recounted his companionship with Faiz and many other luminaries of the Urdu literary world.
[People who pay more attention to the Pakistani TV plays (and are behind in reading Urdu short stories and newspaper columns), know Hamid Akhter through his two accomplished actor daughters, Saba Hamid and Huma Hamid.]