The Mangla Trip

The four buses were outside the canteen ready to leave. It was our first major outing as a class. Excitement was in the air. One of the buses was designated the ‘girls’ bus’, since all the girls were going to sit in the same bus. However, there would room for a few boys on that bus. I do not know who were the ‘lucky’ (read influential) boys who sat in that bus. There were some demonstrators chaperoning the trip presumably to keep things ‘civil’. Naturally, they will sit in the girls’ bus. In addition, the class reps ‘had to be there too’. My friends and I, tried to be together in the same non-girls’ bus.

Our bus was crowded, as were the others but our spirits were high. We sang Punjabi tappeys until our voices became hoarse. Some of us like Qayyum, Sadiq Zia and Pervaiz knew the tappeys well while others like me knew some words here and there but that did not stop us from joining the chorus. I would hear the words and sing with half a second delay. With most voices keeping the rhythm, it did not matter much. The idea was to sing and have fun.

On the way, we made too many unscheduled stops therefore; we reached Mangla a bit late. We were all very hungry. We had hot soft drinks and cold chicken. We would have preferred hot chicken and cold soft drinks but we were so hungry that we would have eaten a cardboard. At least it was real food and we were thankful.

After lunch, we went to see the hydroelectric power station and then strolled around the lake. One of the demonstrators had brought a fishing rod and I saw him catch a fish. Apparently so did some of the girls, as one of them responded to a questionnaire after the trip that the most memorable moment of the trip was that sight.

I was enjoying the view of the lake when I heard a thud. I looked around Kamran Hussain jumping up and trying to be in the photo for which Aamir Ali and Aamir Ali Choudhry were posing. It was a tall order to say the least, considering the height differential between Aamir Ali and Kamran Hussain. That moment is wonderfully captured in a photo presented in this blog. Yes, it is Kamran Hussain’s hand that prevents you from seeing part of my face, but that is okay; At least he managed to dangle on Aamir’s shoulder long enough for the snap.

While others were busy taking photos, I decided to take my shoes off and walk over the stones to dip my feet in the Mangla Lake. I spotted a group of girls just standing and staring at the lake. In a rare bold move, I suggested to them to take their shoes and dip their feet in water too. They politely declined, saying ‘We prefer to just look at the lake. Thanks’. To this, I made a comment to no one in particular, that ‘Dakhney aur mehsoos karney mein farq hoota hai’.
No response.
I decided to move away from the spot thinking to myself, ‘Nauman, this talking to the girls thing is so overrated’. It was then I saw that they were taking their shoes off and dipping their feet in water.
Okay, a delayed response perhaps, or maybe they wanted to do that all along, and I was simply in their way.

The sun was about to set and it was time to leave. Reluctantly, we packed ourselves back in the buses. For some reason, it seemed a lot more crowded. Luckily, I found a window seat and soon, I dozed off. When I opened my eyes again, I saw familiar tall structure of Minar-i-Pakistan, standing proud and tall in the night lights of Lahore.


• The Mangla Trip took place on September 20, 1979, according to Naveed Yazdani.
• The photos presented with this blog were shamelessly copied from Aamir Ali Choudhry’s Facebook page. I hope he will forgive me for not asking first.
• This is my recollections of the trip. I do not claim accuracy.
• Please contribute your recollections about the trip for the rest of us.