'Once in Lahore, our children wanted to eat pizza at Pizza Hut, but the franchise didn’t have a branch in Islamabad those days. We found the address and got the directions, but without a GPS, we were soon lost and driving around in circles. Finally, the agents driving behind us drove up to our car and asked Ghanashyam in desperation, ‘Sir, aapko jaana kahan hai?’ (Sir, where do you want to go?) Our roles were then reversed, and we followed them to the restaurant. We got lost in Islamabad too, one night and the agents following us guided us quietly to our destination.
The presence of the agents behind us turned out to be useful in Karachi once. Ghanashyam was extremely popular with the business community in Karachi, many of whom were Bohra Muslims, originally from Mumbai and Gujarat. They were happy to meet us when we went to Karachi and talk about ‘apna gaon’ (back home). We had taken a big carton of gifts for friends in Karachi, discarding the carton soon after reaching the hotel. We didn’t bargain for the Pakistani generosity and had no place for the return gifts in our small suitcase. When it was time to leave, we needed another bag! Karachi is a typical South Asian city with heavy traffic.
