A Lost Association : Part 1

Meri Canteen Mein Tum Ho !

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time." -Leo Tolstoy

December 14, 1995. Nishtar Quadrangle, Multan. It was chilly even in the daytime. Jumpers and jackets were on. There was fog in the mornings. The annual fun fair was taking place in our second year. The hype was in the buildup. A group of guys in N44 were looking into organising a stall. A new project and a uncharted one .It would need manpower and organising and entertainment not to mention food.Although they had the men to help they lacked one key ingredient - their class fellows. It didn’t seem at one point, they’ d get any as those dark December days progressed.

One of the guys used his links from DG Khan to get one of the hostelite groups on board. They were six.Following that a four girl group named after a different city also joined. They were also helped by Multan‘s own day scholars both senior and from N44 who also joined. This meant a brilliant turnout.As the junior most class at Nishtar at the time, N44 put up numbers in quadrangle. The stall now had man and woman power. Game on.It needed a name and in my hometown , in October a new shopping mall opened.A new fad thereby was born - PACE.The guys had their suited jackets on now.

Back in the Canteen, preps for Eid are in full flow. As an expected a lull in start of June activities was expected after a raucous May period with many a feud taking place. One of them started when Malika Jee’s week long Lahore vacation ended. This was to be a canteen battle to witness.It was short lived, thankfully.

There was a 72 hour ceasefire established just a few days before Eid break as the one month anniversary of the Queen’s( Malika Jee ) title took place. This was over the non invitation of Pakistani contingent to Mudassir’s summer dinner on 24 August. In the transition period many corner meetings started taking place. These would be in Sheffield, Lahore Multan and an event in Sydney, Australia where Sadaf ( our drama producer )and Arooj hosted Bilal. There were lots of pictures shared leading a general sense of calm which is usually not the case in canteen. Overall, bari Eid( Eid ul Azha) in Canteen was a fun time. There were lots of greetings, pictures and memes that helped console the quorum.

Ayesha came to visit Sheffield on a conference attendance in early June where I met her. Eventually a Barnsley visit ensued in which Asim was on call still catered for us in good time. Each of the admins had visited Sheffield now two weeks apart. A night earlier she was questioned about the Reunion canteen which led to Asim threatening to jump over a cliff. That was hilarious. But that’s how the Canteen is. Vibrant yet caring. The corner meetings were in full flow. She had earlier on Eid met a few of our class fellows in a whirlwind tour in northwest UK. She asked me about her role in Season 2 ( Mere Canteen Mein Tum Ho ) to which I stated a saraiki translator of the drama might suffice.

The calm didn’t stay for very long though. The fights continued to some extent albeit transiently settled. Muddassir had his third in three weeks which resulted in a dim Wednesday. I recall Malika Jee and Ayesha calling for olive branches to be thrown and a bit of stalemate in the canteen. Order was restored and it seemed we could only progress until the next feud would ensue. The real fight though was now on for the August showdowns. Ali Yasin’s birthday in second week vs Muddassir house party of N44’s overseas folks on August Bank Holiday weekend.

The next distraction came from Malika jee trying to infuse excitement by having a Libras quiz which was well received. A fact based quiz that had people around the globe thinking for some time. The query was also on the statement stated at dinner time on the main table which Malika Jee stood. Waseem received the most picks but Jareer was the right answer. The time for submission was lengthened to allow folks from Australia to take part. Although it attracted a lot of attention, it led to barrage of minor quizzes as well which were not so well received .

In December 1995, I was told the stall works best when your own class comes to it. The action would begin by 12 noon in blurry skies. I recall going into the quadrangle and finding PACE at the 1st stall of the anatomy corner of quadrangle. My friends dragged me reluctantly to the glee of the class fellows. The stalls definitely needed games to work and work big. They worked hard all day in PACE with facilitation of games. There were other stalls by N44 as well having a look around in the bright sunshine.

The day was filled with a typical fun fair like atmosphere. There won’t be any classes on this Thursday. Not only from Nishtar but many from outside the college and from the whole city would come in to enjoy a day in the quadrangle. It was something we had never been accustomed to before as far as FSc. college life went. An in-house college event for all. There would be a variety show in the heart of December would round of a wholesome day’s proceedings. There was music, games, food and a love jail. People from all walks of life could come and attend.

As the day turned into evening and fading light, things came to a close. Many photos were taken.I had to be part of one of my favourite photos of the afternoon. Yes it would be Waseem and I sandwiching the Nishtar fun fair’s clown in 1995 !

( To be continued )

Left to right: Nauman Chaudhry, Ali Malik, Jareer Sufian,Adeel Rauf, Waseem Pasha, Hamed Anwar, Imran Janjua, Khalid Manzoor,Bilal Nasir, Omar Bhatti, Ahmad Raza, Hassan Salman, Saima Buzdar, Fozia Gul.

This blog is dedicated to all N44 class fellows who took part in the PACE stall, 1995.

Photo: Grand studio, Multan

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