Multan, city of saints and beggars and mangoes

Saturday 4 December
Munaza, lawyer, political and human rights activist and much else is organising the course here. We have a little time this afternoon so she kindly takes me to a saint's tomb, a shrine, as large as a house, octagonal with a green dome, candles burning outside. I take my shoes off to enter the inner sanctum with two tombs, the saint and his wife. There's an outer cloister with over a dozen smaller tombs. Beautiful carved roof beams. Quite a number of pilgrims, some beggars but no crowd. Some elite cops are outside, there have been bomb attacks on places like this and Muharram, the holiest time of the year for Shiites, is approaching in a couple of weeks. Security is being stepped up. Men riding pillion on motorcycles will be banned.

Sunday 5 December
Interesting day's teaching a mixed group of ten experienced local trade union leaders, together with ten intense, care worn brick kiln workers, quiet much of the time and then suddenly bursting with laughter when someone makes a good point.

In the evening I’m invited to supper by a progressive lawyer, Akram Bhatti, who owns a large orchard of a thousand mango trees, fifty five different varieties. All covered in a thick dust, as is everything here where it so seldom rains. His house has a beautiful, cool, walled garden. Immaculate, lots of elegant plants and a large collection of cacti of all size. It’s his hobby, he says. At the end of the evening I’m asked to plant some new item to commemorate my visit which is tricky as there isn’t much light but a young gardener helps me.

I’m introduced to his five children, 5 to 14, all model students. They do a fifteen hour day I term time: up at five, school at eight, home at four, two hours with private tutor, followed by three hours homework. The eldest two in their mid teens, Petam and Wasim speak English hesitantly but well. They have an exam every month in all major subjects, just like German schools. Their father is keen for them to become medics which he reckons is the only profession where they will be free to choose what they do and not be beholden to a boss. The food is good, the conversation flows but I never find out if there is a mother.