CHAPTER 7. READY WITH TIME

Over the next two weeks, Ram Daas had marked eight different places where he had found traces of reservoirs. There were long and tiresome journeys and at times I thought we were lost but Ram Daas and Rahim Daad moved always knew their path. During these two weeks I was in constant touch with Salman who had finally convinced his bosses to invest in this project and in return I was supposed to make sure that they get unstained media coverage. This wasn’t much of a problem for me; all I had to do was to make a few calls to my ex-clients and they promised their help so that in return I would start being their consultant once again.

I would often see Eeman making long calls in the evening, to her family and friends; she was missing them I could tell that but she never said a word about it. She was there with us in every expedition we took; sometimes extremely silent and sometimes she would chatter so much that we couldn’t keep track of her conversations. Everything about her was so natural, may be that’s why I had started to predict her moods; I had started expecting her reactions. Yet, surprisingly, she was becoming more and more interesting as a person. She was real.

On the sixteenth day of our rough expedition, we finally brought it an end. We had eight places marked with high possibility of a water reservoir. Salman’s oil company had promised to be there in next two weeks; by that time they would be done with one of their expedition in Badin and thus would be able to spare a team for this project. I made a few calls to arrange for full media coverage of the event, to make sure the oil company gets all the credit. It wasn’t difficult; I hadn’t lost my touch I guessed.

There was a two weeks waiting period and I was looking forward to it; I hadn’t yet had time to explore the culture, the place and the people and this was going to be a great opportunity. Before I could share this idea with Eeman, she had already proposed it to Rahim Daad who had agreed to take her to a wedding that was taking place on Friday next in a village next to our village. She asked me to come along but I knew this would become complicated for the people of that family, since she and I were practically nobodies to each other. I could see she didn’t approve of my denying her request but I knew she understood the reason.

“I want you to come with me to the wedding, it will be fun” she said while sitting down at the same spot where we had seen our first sunset together.

“It will be too complicated for those people” I said as I sat next to her.

“What will be complicated?” she asked looking straight into my eyes.

“Us” I said looking straight back into her eyes.

“Is it complicated?” she asked without taking her eyes off.

I paused for a while and then said, “No, its not.”

“You hesitated; you thought about it” she said almost complaining.

“Well, what can I say, I am thinker” I tried to lighten up the conversation.

“It is complicated for you isn’t it?” she was still insisting to know the exact answer.

“I don’t know, may be, it’s because I am not thinking about it” I really wanted to get out of this conversation.

“You are not thinking about it… ok” she said almost silently, looking down the dune.

“Is it complicated for you?” I asked even thought I knew the answer.

“No” she answered even before I could complete my question.

We went silent for a while, this was not the right time to talk about this all; I knew there was another time for this, time to come.

“Take my jeep with you, it will be convenient for you” I tried to change the subject.

“I was taking it with me anyway; you didn’t have to offer” she said with a hint of teasing smile and I laughed.

Ali, the messenger boy, came running in from the village to inform Eeman that Rahim Daad was ready to leave; it was time for her to go. She nodded to him in affirmation and Ali left. We stood up and walked silently towards the village. When we reached there, I saw Rahim Daad and two veiled ladies standing there beside the jeep; they were ready to leave for the wedding.

“So what are you going to do while I am away?” she said while walking beside me.

“I don’t know; you have any suggestions?” I asked as we almost reached near Rahim Daad.

“Yes … Just, miss me” she said with that squint and a smile and hurried towards the ladies.

Rahim Daad walked towards me and said, “Thank you for letting us take your jeep.”

I mockingly stared at Eeman as she posted me a sheepish smile, “It’s my pleasure Rahim Chacha. Any idea how long will these people stay there?”

“About four days; I will come back tonight and then go back on the 18th of the moon to bring them back” Rahim Daad laid down his plan.

“All right then, have a safe journey” I stood there bidding them farewell and watched the jeep disappear in a dust storm.

I went into my hut and opened my laptop to check my emails. I had hardly switched it on when my cell phone rang, it was Salman Durrani and he had great news for me. One of the drilling teams was coming back from Badin, they were only about seventy kilometers from Thar and he asked me if I was ready with our research for water reservoirs. I told him we were ready.

“What about media coverage, can you manage it that early?” he asked in a bit worried tone.

“Don’t worry about it, they’ll be here” I assured him.

“All right then, the team is having a stop over now, they will be there in the early hours of tomorrow morning” Salman couldn’t have given me a better news.

I had to make a few more calls for immediate action by the media people. Qaisar Khan owned a private TV channel InSet, I helped him in complete overhauling of the look and theme of his channel and today it was listed amongst top five TV channels of the country. Afaaq Hasan was the editor of an English newspaper which was owned by a largest chain of publications in the country. There were a few more professionals as well as freelance journalists who had promised to show up whenever I wanted them to. The showdown was all set.

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