So close, yet so apart

As I’ve mentioned before, the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are right next to each other and are usually counted as one city since the only thing separating them is a single road.

Today, I was in Pindi and saw something that you wouldn’t usually see in Islamabad next door. Majed and I had gone to get new tires for his car (Rawalpindi is the place to go for getting most stuff like this) and there was a nice little car parked there getting new tires and awesome, expensive alloy rims. While we were waiting for our tires and chatting with the shop keeper, there was a sudden screech and the car with the cool rims pulled out and sped away without paying, leaving the shop attendants (about five of them) standing there in bewilderment.

The thing that amazed me even more than the theft was that the shop keeper expressed some regret and then continued chatting as if nothing had happened.

On the way back, I experienced another thing that made me glad I spent most of my time in Islamabad. Despite the ever-growing Islamabad traffic, the congestion and lack of parking space, Pindi still beats it hands down. At least the former can be considered to be quite orderly. In Pindi, be prepared to dodge everything from pedestrians, bicycles and speeding traffic to pot holes, moving stall vendors and all kinds of fumes. And all of that within narrow roads or streets that were probably never meant for four-wheeled vehicles.