A Journey through the time

Chapter Two -The Shock

In anticipation of the travel, I enrolled in a three-month German language course at the Goethe Institut, Lahore so that I would have some basic knowledge of the language when we arrive in Germany. There were close to thirty students in the evening class and on Day One the instructor called out our names but not a single person responded as he pronounced all names in a heavy German accent and none of us were familiar with that pronunciation. After taking a look around, he said OK let us try again and this time he pronounced names as they would be pronounced in English and everyone responded present, so that was quite a start. I found the German language a little difficult at first but gradually became fascinated with it. I was keen to pronounce the words as they would be pronounced in Germany and not with a foreign accent. This three-month training came in handy once we arrived in Germany as after a week or two, my ears started to pick up familiar words and I could then communicate a little bit in German language.

Two weeks before the journey was to start, Shahid dropped a bombshell saying his mother had locked away his passport, so he couldn't go. I was shattered as all the planning looked like coming to a nought and I had my mind set on going on this adventure with Shahid and now he was dropping out. I pleaded with him to convince his mother to give him his passport but to no avail. My gut feel was, he had over spoken and had in fact not been on this journey before, so perhaps he became nervous and backed out. 

After the disappointment wore down a bit, I thought of exploring it with Bilal again. Fortunately, he was ready and willing, so the two of us headed to Lahore's historic Anarkali bazaar to buy backpacks. We were able to find a store that sold very nice and strong canvass backpacks, so we came back with our backpacks excited and mentally ready to start the journey.

Bilal's family knew about the adventure and approved it too, but I knew that my parents would never approve, so I decided not to tell them. Only my older brother Imtiaz was in the know and fully supportive, as he himself was planning a similar trip with his friends later. I had to be very careful and not leave any telltale signs, so I put away the backpack in my cupboard, packing it a little bit each time with travel essentials so as not to raise suspicion. A couple of days before leaving, I informed my family that I was leaving for Rawalpindi to visit with my eldest brother Ahsan, the family had no issue with that.

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