Queries…!

I get asked all sorts of bizarre questions whilst I am here in Pakistan. For example ‘What kind of face cream do you use?’, ‘Is London near the UK?’ and ‘Where you ever any good at cricket?’ I always try and answer these questions to the best of my knowledge (it’s Nivea, just in case you were wondering) but besides simply providing a ‘stock response’ I am always grateful for the opportunity it presents to engage in a deeper conversation, as it exposes me to the different ways in which people use language. On that subject I wrote a poem today (in Urdu) for somebody’s birthday card. It seemed to go down well, in spite of my rejection of several grammatical rules that I am very familiar with. What is art without a bit of creative rebellion?!