Dum darood/bum barood
In the good old days, when the Samjhota Express was running packed with passengers between Lahore and Delhi and back, a Sardarji and a Maulvi Sahab had an interesting exchange. Rumour has it Sardar Sahab kept looking skeptically at Maulvi Sahab and finally plucked up the courage to address him: “Ahem, Maulvi Sahab, aap dum darood valay hain ya bum barood valay?”
Eid Mobarak!
Over the Eid season, the Karachi Port Trust received an application for leave from one of its employees. A peon was asking for four days’ “earned leave” from work. In the section entitled: “reason for which leave is required”, the clever peon wrote: “to spend time with my bull” (presumably the sacrificial animal for Eid al Azha). On the section marked “RECOMMENDED”, an equally intelligent lieutenant of the Pakistan Navy wrote a hand-written note to his subordinate: “Farooq, please confirm whether bull want (sic) to spend time with the individual or not”. Indeed!
The complete works
There’s been much speculation in the US about top model Gigi Hadid’s faith. The young woman was born in America to Muhammad Hadid of Middle Eastern origin and Yolanda Hadid, and lived like an all-American kid until she met Zayn Malik, a British-Pakistani musician-singer. Zayn was born in Bradford to parents who came from Pakistan. Zayn made it big when he auditioned for the British reality TV music competition, The X Factor in 2010. He then teamed up with the boy band “One Direction” and became the first British male artist to debut at Number One in both the UK and the US. This Eid, Gigi (born Jelena Noura Hadid) spent her holidays with Zayn’s family and wore a special jora made for her by a famous boutique in Lahore – the complete works: shalwar, kameez and dopatta!