I was never a too devoted practicing religious person. I am still not.
My parents went to Hajj in the year 1974, by sea. They travelled by the famous SAFEENA E HUJJAJ.
They used to tell us the details of what they did and what had happened there. They had been narrating their personal observations to us frequently. Due to my father's involvement in the field of journalism, he was in the habit of observing everything from different angles. So he had been narrating such observations which we had never heard from any other Haji before.
One of those observations was that Hajj needs physical fitness. Thus in their opinion it was never a good option to leave Hajj to be done in the last part of our ages. One must perform Hajj during his young age, when physical fit. His observation was that a number of old Hajjis usually fail to perform all the parts of the Hajj, due to their weakness and sickness. The heat of Mecca also plays its part in effecting physical fitness of old and weak hajis.
After completing my chartered Accountancy, i had started working in the Rahim Jan &Co. Chartered Accountants. My parents suggested that it would be better if i go for Hajj at a younger age. I said OK to them. The year was perhaps 1984. I was 29 years old. I filled the Hajj Application form to go by air. I deposited the needed amount and waited for the announcement of my name in the names' draw.
My names was not among the list of probable Hajjis, when the names were announced. We decided not to draw back the amount deposited and to try our luck for next year.
It was 14th August 1984. I had gone to the house of my maternal grandmother in Nazimabad Number 1, Karachi. Suddenly my parents came there. (Keep it in mind in those there were no mobile phones, and there was no normal phone in the house of my grandmother) They told me that they had received a call from a friend of my father, who was working in the Hajj Department, that there were some vacant dock seats in the next voyage of the MV SAFEENA E ARAB. It was 14th August and the ship was due to sale at 5AM on 16th August. There was just one day left.
An adventure person i am, i instantly said Yes to my parents. We rushed home back. My father phoned back his friend in Hajj department, and told him that i would be going.
There was not much time left. It was 14th August, most of the shops were closed. We decided to go and meet some close relatives that evening.
At that time i was working on the audit of KESC. It was a special annual audit that we used to do for the World Bank. The reports and information had been submitted to them on the prescribed form. I was the job incharge. Muhammad Zaki was the senior of the job. (He is now the Director Finance of Interflow group of companies in Karachi). I told him the situation, and told him how he would be finalising the report in my absence. I phoned my boss, Syed Hafizullah FCA, the partner of Rahim Jan & Co. Chartered Accountants, and told him that i would be going to Hajj the next morning. He was stunned, he asked me about the situation of the audit job, i told him that Muhammad Zaki was competent enough to finalise the report in my absence. There was no other option left for him but to accept my request. I left the office.
The remaining part of the day, me and my parents spent to buy the necessary clothes, the ahrams, a thin portable plastic folding foam to be used as emergency bed, a cup, two steel plates, two spoons, and some other necessary things etc etc. All these were put in a canvas bag that i could carry on my back or in hand. That was all that i was going to have with me. We went to the Haji camp and got the necessary papers filled there. Not to forget, that we took a book about how to perform hajj, from the Haji camp. By night i was all ready , both physically and mentally, for the unforgettable adventure,due to start the next morning.
I must mention that due to shortage of time my passport and needed visa from the Saudi Arabian embassy could not be have. No MUALLEM was made responsible to lead me during Hajj.
The next morning we reached the port at about 5Am. There was a huge crowd there. The ship was going to carry 1200 passengers. I was one DIFFERENT passenger among them...........without any passport.
I boarded the ship. I had never travelled in a ship before. But i did have an idea about how the travel was going to be, because my parents had told me a lot. It was going to be 9 days and 9 nights in the ship. I felt myself alone, as i waved goodbye to my parents and the younger brother and sister, from the ship and the ship sailed. Most of the passengers were on the sides of the ship waiving hands to their relatives. We all kept on looking back to the wharf, as we moved ahead, leaving everybody on the shore. It was a very sentimental sort of moment. Some tugs helped the ship to move away from the wharf. The speed boats of KPT accompanied the shift till the end of the wharf.
Most of the passengers had returned back inside the ship. I was still standing there on the other side of the ship, just looking at the one single pilot boat at full speed by the side of the ship. The pilot boat had had to accompany the ship to a few more kilometres. I liked the scene as if the vesell was racing with the red coloured pilot boat. Then the most important moment arrived. I saw somebody (must be the captain of the boat) coming out , he stood alert there on the deck of the boat , facing the ship. He saluted our ship, and the pilot boat took a U turn, while our ship galloped ahead, giving a loud whistle of depart. I lost the sight of the boat a couple of minutes later. I did not see it anymore. All of a sudden my heart sank. I had felt myself lonely. Perhaps i had considered that pilot boat as my last connection with Karachi. The last connection with land. For 9 more days and nights, i was not going to see the land anymore. Just blue sky and blue sea. I had felt my heart sunk. The real adventure had just begun.
It was a very large ship. I did not know where to put my bag and sit. I started looking for some place for myself. There were 3 huge holds in the ship. If i remember correctly the ship had 4 storeys. The hold mean the bottom of the ship, under which there were the engine rooms. The base of the hodls were made up of wood. Quite large.
( photo of a small HOLD of a ship)
There were cabins for the first class and second class passengers. The third class were the majority, like me .....the deck passengers. They were supposed to find a vacant place for themselves anywhere in the ship, within the allowed portions, and enjoy themselves. There were quite too many hanging beds on all four sides of the holds, but mostly people had decided to remain on the bottom of the hold. There were three holds in the ship. I put my bag somewhere in a vacant spot on the floor of the hold. Opened my folding foam and sat on it. There were quite too many people around me, Different people, different ages, men and women, different faces, different colours of dresses and sheets, different languages. But we were all one. Heading in the same direction, under the same conditions. I looked up from the place where i was sitting squat. Open sky could be seen in square form, four floors ahead. It was a unique scene. The ship was going too fast. I left my bed and bag there and set off for a tour of the ship.
It was a huge ship. I passed through the hospital, the toilets, the cabins, the mosque, residential portion of the crew, the kitchen, etc etc. There were 2 or 3 big TANDOORS. The two men there had already started working there. It was too early, but indeed the did have to feed 1200 persons . A very hard job indeed.
I returned back to my place, because the breakfast was going to be distributed.An announcement was made by the captain that everyone must go back to his place and wait for the breakfast. A couple of crew members were distributing tea, biscuits, cake pieces etc to everybody. Everybody was advised to remain seated at the place where he was. They were approaching to each and everybody. Everything was very disciplined. No one was shouting, no hustle and tussle, everybody was sitting quietly, nobody was pushing . I thought if they were the same persons who used to push everybody while boarding the buses, or in lines. But they were the same people. Some may say that it was because they were going to perform hajj, some may say that there was no other option left to them but to obey the directives given to them by the captain and crew of the ship.
I enjoyed the breakfast.
I looked around to see the people between whom i was sitting. A big number of people there seemed to belong from Northern part of Pakistan. I did not know their language, but they did know mine. In a short period of time, we managed to loosen up. Since most of the persons there had already met each other in the Haji camp in karachi, so they had already taken their places in the form of their groups. I was not in any group. I was going to be simply someone or to be very correct nobody.
I realised once again that one has to find his own way by himself. I was used to this. But i was not and still not, a person who make friends easily. I always prefer to have my own ways, which frequently do not match to other people.
I continued my tour of the ship. There was a barber shop too. A small shop providing the newspapers too. It was a huge ship. Perhaps everything was there. Something like a small city afloat. I tried to read some newspapers, but left. I was more interested in looking at the huge fishes chasing the ship. They were jumping out of the blue sea and thumping back metres ahead. They were trying to outwit the speed of the ship. My parents had already told me this scene many a times.
The weather was not very good. Strong winds were there, and huge waves could be seen everywhere in the sea. The ship was moving ahead with great speed, but the way it was groppling with winds and the waves, we the passengers were feeling it inside our stomachs. The movement was exactly like this. First the front of the ship was going up high and then the whole ship was falling down with a thud over the wave. The same exercise was being repeatedly in harmony. Everybody started feeling vomitting. I saw the crew of the ship spreading all over the ship, directing the passengers where to vomit and where not. They were having cleaning utensils with them and cleaning everywhere. The situation had become too different from what it was a couple of hours earlier. The majority of the passengers were vomitting. The foul smell was everywhere. But the experienced crew was fast taking the remedial measures. Luckily i was not vomitting.
At lunch time once again we were advised to sit at our places. The crew started distributing food. Everyone had had to have their own plates. The food was of high quality. My favourite dishes were there. The mutton and potatoes. The tandoori roti (bread) and rice. But the most important item was AAM KA ACHAR (the mangoe pickles) . It was compulsory to eat the achar, since it was going to stop vomitting. The crew was asking each and everybody to eat it. We all obeyed.
At Zuhr prayer times, although most of the people had formed separate jamaats at different places, yet i preferred to go the ship's mosque. It was a small place. The movement of the ship was such that repeatedly we had had to hold each other to be able to remain on our feet in the saf.
By evening , most of the passengers were better. The initial attack of vomitting was over. After all we all were going to go through the same conditions for 9 days. How long can one continue vomitting? Our internal body systems had started adjusting itself to the demand of the time. Swinging right, left, front and back with the movement of the ship, our bodies had started becoming used to it.
I slept on the wooden floor, just like so many other passengers. It was cool. I was deep in my sleep when i felt my stomach going upset. I was vomitting. I ran and managed to reach the place where we were advised to vomit. But it was not stopping. I felt very very bad. I returned back to my place, but started feeling myself very sick. It was just the time of Fajr prayer. I was feeling too bad. My stomach was out of my control. I was feeling very week.
I raised myself from the place where i was lying. Collected whole of my strength, and went to the ship's hospital. I was feeling myself in so bad a condition that i had thought that the doctor would immediately admit me. But the situation happened to be very different from what i had thought. The doctor listened to me patiently. he did not give me any medicine. He told me to go to kitchen, and take some green chillies, and a Tandoori roti. He advised me that i should remain in the middle area of the ship, just because the effects of movements of the shops were minimum there. He further advised me that when i lay down i must not sleep flat on my back. At first i was somewhat shocked at his advices. But later on as i acted according to his advices, i realised that he was correct. I was too happy and active in a very short period of time.
There was nobody to take care of me. I had had to take care of myself alone. That was just an another reason that i was back to normal in a very short period of time. I had learnt yet an another lesson, to guide me in my future life.
The days and nights kept on passing fast. I had made a couple of friends, but mostly i preferred to spend my time alone, watching sea, fishes by standing on sides of the ship. I was too interested in how does the crew of the ship worked. I did speak to some of the cadets and other staff there. Interestingly, the owner company of the ship. M/s PAN ISLAMIC SHIPPING was one of the clients of Rahim Jan &Co. Chartered Accountants, but unfortunately i did never get a chance of auditing their accounts. Mr. Saeed, who had been my Senir Job Incharge in Rahim Jan &Co. during the days of my Articled ship, later joined Pan Islamic Shipping as its Chief Accountant. I myself did have some understanding of the ships and their management, as i had audited the accounts of Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, the then largest merchant shipping corporation of Pakistan, and of Karachi Shipyard also. So i did have a sense about the ships..
I remember, during early 1980s on one particular day the Safeena e Hujjaj ship was made open to general public on the west wharf of karachi port. I had visited and toured the ship. There were 6 floors of the ship. It was a huge ship. I had enjoyed touring the ship with my father, who was too excited to pinpoint the places in the ship we he and my mother had slept years ago.
Well coming back to the main topic, life continued almost with the same routine for the next 9 days. sleeping, eating, praying, reading the book about Hajj, wandering around inside the ship, watching the games the fishes plays, observing the colours of the sea, which used to change frequently, from blue to green to black of varying shades. Life was going too smoothly. As always i never had the habit of missing anybody. My parents, brothers, sister, relatives, friends, i never felt missing anyone of them. This was my characteristic and still is. I do not miss my wife or children whenever i go out somewhere. I am perhaps aloof of such feelings. I am somewhat different sort of person.
Well the otherwise routine life suddenly got a jolt as we the ship reached the point where we were supposed to wear our ahrams. There was a sudden change of atmosphere inside the ship. Everything seemed changed. Everybody started off, going to take the bath and to wear the Ahram. The goal for which we all were travelling had started making its presence. A totally different feeling that i had never experienced before took me into its grip.
The ship kept on moving fast ahead, and we reached the port of jeddah. After a long period of 9 days and nights we all had seen the face of the land. Everybody took out the Hajj passport, and started disembarking from the ship. But i was without the papers. As more and more left the ship, i found out that i was not alone. There were a few more pilgrims like me, who were not having their documents and Hajj passport. We were told by the crew to wait in the ship.
It did not take too long. Some persons, perhaps from the Pakistan embassy boarded the ship. They had brought our Hajj passports with them. They handed over the passports to us and we too step on the soil of Saudi Arabia. During the period of 9 days the Haj department in karachi had prepared these passports, got the visa stamped from the Saudi consolate, and had sent them by air to Jeddah to be handed over to us on the ship. The first part of the adventure had finished. Much more had had to follow.
They used to tell us the details of what they did and what had happened there. They had been narrating their personal observations to us frequently. Due to my father's involvement in the field of journalism, he was in the habit of observing everything from different angles. So he had been narrating such observations which we had never heard from any other Haji before.
One of those observations was that Hajj needs physical fitness. Thus in their opinion it was never a good option to leave Hajj to be done in the last part of our ages. One must perform Hajj during his young age, when physical fit. His observation was that a number of old Hajjis usually fail to perform all the parts of the Hajj, due to their weakness and sickness. The heat of Mecca also plays its part in effecting physical fitness of old and weak hajis.
After completing my chartered Accountancy, i had started working in the Rahim Jan &Co. Chartered Accountants. My parents suggested that it would be better if i go for Hajj at a younger age. I said OK to them. The year was perhaps 1984. I was 29 years old. I filled the Hajj Application form to go by air. I deposited the needed amount and waited for the announcement of my name in the names' draw.
My names was not among the list of probable Hajjis, when the names were announced. We decided not to draw back the amount deposited and to try our luck for next year.
It was 14th August 1984. I had gone to the house of my maternal grandmother in Nazimabad Number 1, Karachi. Suddenly my parents came there. (Keep it in mind in those there were no mobile phones, and there was no normal phone in the house of my grandmother) They told me that they had received a call from a friend of my father, who was working in the Hajj Department, that there were some vacant dock seats in the next voyage of the MV SAFEENA E ARAB. It was 14th August and the ship was due to sale at 5AM on 16th August. There was just one day left.
An adventure person i am, i instantly said Yes to my parents. We rushed home back. My father phoned back his friend in Hajj department, and told him that i would be going.
There was not much time left. It was 14th August, most of the shops were closed. We decided to go and meet some close relatives that evening.
At that time i was working on the audit of KESC. It was a special annual audit that we used to do for the World Bank. The reports and information had been submitted to them on the prescribed form. I was the job incharge. Muhammad Zaki was the senior of the job. (He is now the Director Finance of Interflow group of companies in Karachi). I told him the situation, and told him how he would be finalising the report in my absence. I phoned my boss, Syed Hafizullah FCA, the partner of Rahim Jan & Co. Chartered Accountants, and told him that i would be going to Hajj the next morning. He was stunned, he asked me about the situation of the audit job, i told him that Muhammad Zaki was competent enough to finalise the report in my absence. There was no other option left for him but to accept my request. I left the office.
The remaining part of the day, me and my parents spent to buy the necessary clothes, the ahrams, a thin portable plastic folding foam to be used as emergency bed, a cup, two steel plates, two spoons, and some other necessary things etc etc. All these were put in a canvas bag that i could carry on my back or in hand. That was all that i was going to have with me. We went to the Haji camp and got the necessary papers filled there. Not to forget, that we took a book about how to perform hajj, from the Haji camp. By night i was all ready , both physically and mentally, for the unforgettable adventure,due to start the next morning.
I must mention that due to shortage of time my passport and needed visa from the Saudi Arabian embassy could not be have. No MUALLEM was made responsible to lead me during Hajj.
The next morning we reached the port at about 5Am. There was a huge crowd there. The ship was going to carry 1200 passengers. I was one DIFFERENT passenger among them...........without any passport.
I boarded the ship. I had never travelled in a ship before. But i did have an idea about how the travel was going to be, because my parents had told me a lot. It was going to be 9 days and 9 nights in the ship. I felt myself alone, as i waved goodbye to my parents and the younger brother and sister, from the ship and the ship sailed. Most of the passengers were on the sides of the ship waiving hands to their relatives. We all kept on looking back to the wharf, as we moved ahead, leaving everybody on the shore. It was a very sentimental sort of moment. Some tugs helped the ship to move away from the wharf. The speed boats of KPT accompanied the shift till the end of the wharf.
Most of the passengers had returned back inside the ship. I was still standing there on the other side of the ship, just looking at the one single pilot boat at full speed by the side of the ship. The pilot boat had had to accompany the ship to a few more kilometres. I liked the scene as if the vesell was racing with the red coloured pilot boat. Then the most important moment arrived. I saw somebody (must be the captain of the boat) coming out , he stood alert there on the deck of the boat , facing the ship. He saluted our ship, and the pilot boat took a U turn, while our ship galloped ahead, giving a loud whistle of depart. I lost the sight of the boat a couple of minutes later. I did not see it anymore. All of a sudden my heart sank. I had felt myself lonely. Perhaps i had considered that pilot boat as my last connection with Karachi. The last connection with land. For 9 more days and nights, i was not going to see the land anymore. Just blue sky and blue sea. I had felt my heart sunk. The real adventure had just begun.
It was a very large ship. I did not know where to put my bag and sit. I started looking for some place for myself. There were 3 huge holds in the ship. If i remember correctly the ship had 4 storeys. The hold mean the bottom of the ship, under which there were the engine rooms. The base of the hodls were made up of wood. Quite large.
( photo of a small HOLD of a ship)
There were cabins for the first class and second class passengers. The third class were the majority, like me .....the deck passengers. They were supposed to find a vacant place for themselves anywhere in the ship, within the allowed portions, and enjoy themselves. There were quite too many hanging beds on all four sides of the holds, but mostly people had decided to remain on the bottom of the hold. There were three holds in the ship. I put my bag somewhere in a vacant spot on the floor of the hold. Opened my folding foam and sat on it. There were quite too many people around me, Different people, different ages, men and women, different faces, different colours of dresses and sheets, different languages. But we were all one. Heading in the same direction, under the same conditions. I looked up from the place where i was sitting squat. Open sky could be seen in square form, four floors ahead. It was a unique scene. The ship was going too fast. I left my bed and bag there and set off for a tour of the ship.
It was a huge ship. I passed through the hospital, the toilets, the cabins, the mosque, residential portion of the crew, the kitchen, etc etc. There were 2 or 3 big TANDOORS. The two men there had already started working there. It was too early, but indeed the did have to feed 1200 persons . A very hard job indeed.
I returned back to my place, because the breakfast was going to be distributed.An announcement was made by the captain that everyone must go back to his place and wait for the breakfast. A couple of crew members were distributing tea, biscuits, cake pieces etc to everybody. Everybody was advised to remain seated at the place where he was. They were approaching to each and everybody. Everything was very disciplined. No one was shouting, no hustle and tussle, everybody was sitting quietly, nobody was pushing . I thought if they were the same persons who used to push everybody while boarding the buses, or in lines. But they were the same people. Some may say that it was because they were going to perform hajj, some may say that there was no other option left to them but to obey the directives given to them by the captain and crew of the ship.
I enjoyed the breakfast.
I looked around to see the people between whom i was sitting. A big number of people there seemed to belong from Northern part of Pakistan. I did not know their language, but they did know mine. In a short period of time, we managed to loosen up. Since most of the persons there had already met each other in the Haji camp in karachi, so they had already taken their places in the form of their groups. I was not in any group. I was going to be simply someone or to be very correct nobody.
I realised once again that one has to find his own way by himself. I was used to this. But i was not and still not, a person who make friends easily. I always prefer to have my own ways, which frequently do not match to other people.
I continued my tour of the ship. There was a barber shop too. A small shop providing the newspapers too. It was a huge ship. Perhaps everything was there. Something like a small city afloat. I tried to read some newspapers, but left. I was more interested in looking at the huge fishes chasing the ship. They were jumping out of the blue sea and thumping back metres ahead. They were trying to outwit the speed of the ship. My parents had already told me this scene many a times.
The weather was not very good. Strong winds were there, and huge waves could be seen everywhere in the sea. The ship was moving ahead with great speed, but the way it was groppling with winds and the waves, we the passengers were feeling it inside our stomachs. The movement was exactly like this. First the front of the ship was going up high and then the whole ship was falling down with a thud over the wave. The same exercise was being repeatedly in harmony. Everybody started feeling vomitting. I saw the crew of the ship spreading all over the ship, directing the passengers where to vomit and where not. They were having cleaning utensils with them and cleaning everywhere. The situation had become too different from what it was a couple of hours earlier. The majority of the passengers were vomitting. The foul smell was everywhere. But the experienced crew was fast taking the remedial measures. Luckily i was not vomitting.
At lunch time once again we were advised to sit at our places. The crew started distributing food. Everyone had had to have their own plates. The food was of high quality. My favourite dishes were there. The mutton and potatoes. The tandoori roti (bread) and rice. But the most important item was AAM KA ACHAR (the mangoe pickles) . It was compulsory to eat the achar, since it was going to stop vomitting. The crew was asking each and everybody to eat it. We all obeyed.
At Zuhr prayer times, although most of the people had formed separate jamaats at different places, yet i preferred to go the ship's mosque. It was a small place. The movement of the ship was such that repeatedly we had had to hold each other to be able to remain on our feet in the saf.
By evening , most of the passengers were better. The initial attack of vomitting was over. After all we all were going to go through the same conditions for 9 days. How long can one continue vomitting? Our internal body systems had started adjusting itself to the demand of the time. Swinging right, left, front and back with the movement of the ship, our bodies had started becoming used to it.
I slept on the wooden floor, just like so many other passengers. It was cool. I was deep in my sleep when i felt my stomach going upset. I was vomitting. I ran and managed to reach the place where we were advised to vomit. But it was not stopping. I felt very very bad. I returned back to my place, but started feeling myself very sick. It was just the time of Fajr prayer. I was feeling too bad. My stomach was out of my control. I was feeling very week.
I raised myself from the place where i was lying. Collected whole of my strength, and went to the ship's hospital. I was feeling myself in so bad a condition that i had thought that the doctor would immediately admit me. But the situation happened to be very different from what i had thought. The doctor listened to me patiently. he did not give me any medicine. He told me to go to kitchen, and take some green chillies, and a Tandoori roti. He advised me that i should remain in the middle area of the ship, just because the effects of movements of the shops were minimum there. He further advised me that when i lay down i must not sleep flat on my back. At first i was somewhat shocked at his advices. But later on as i acted according to his advices, i realised that he was correct. I was too happy and active in a very short period of time.
There was nobody to take care of me. I had had to take care of myself alone. That was just an another reason that i was back to normal in a very short period of time. I had learnt yet an another lesson, to guide me in my future life.
The days and nights kept on passing fast. I had made a couple of friends, but mostly i preferred to spend my time alone, watching sea, fishes by standing on sides of the ship. I was too interested in how does the crew of the ship worked. I did speak to some of the cadets and other staff there. Interestingly, the owner company of the ship. M/s PAN ISLAMIC SHIPPING was one of the clients of Rahim Jan &Co. Chartered Accountants, but unfortunately i did never get a chance of auditing their accounts. Mr. Saeed, who had been my Senir Job Incharge in Rahim Jan &Co. during the days of my Articled ship, later joined Pan Islamic Shipping as its Chief Accountant. I myself did have some understanding of the ships and their management, as i had audited the accounts of Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, the then largest merchant shipping corporation of Pakistan, and of Karachi Shipyard also. So i did have a sense about the ships..
I remember, during early 1980s on one particular day the Safeena e Hujjaj ship was made open to general public on the west wharf of karachi port. I had visited and toured the ship. There were 6 floors of the ship. It was a huge ship. I had enjoyed touring the ship with my father, who was too excited to pinpoint the places in the ship we he and my mother had slept years ago.
Well coming back to the main topic, life continued almost with the same routine for the next 9 days. sleeping, eating, praying, reading the book about Hajj, wandering around inside the ship, watching the games the fishes plays, observing the colours of the sea, which used to change frequently, from blue to green to black of varying shades. Life was going too smoothly. As always i never had the habit of missing anybody. My parents, brothers, sister, relatives, friends, i never felt missing anyone of them. This was my characteristic and still is. I do not miss my wife or children whenever i go out somewhere. I am perhaps aloof of such feelings. I am somewhat different sort of person.
Well the otherwise routine life suddenly got a jolt as we the ship reached the point where we were supposed to wear our ahrams. There was a sudden change of atmosphere inside the ship. Everything seemed changed. Everybody started off, going to take the bath and to wear the Ahram. The goal for which we all were travelling had started making its presence. A totally different feeling that i had never experienced before took me into its grip.
The ship kept on moving fast ahead, and we reached the port of jeddah. After a long period of 9 days and nights we all had seen the face of the land. Everybody took out the Hajj passport, and started disembarking from the ship. But i was without the papers. As more and more left the ship, i found out that i was not alone. There were a few more pilgrims like me, who were not having their documents and Hajj passport. We were told by the crew to wait in the ship.
It did not take too long. Some persons, perhaps from the Pakistan embassy boarded the ship. They had brought our Hajj passports with them. They handed over the passports to us and we too step on the soil of Saudi Arabia. During the period of 9 days the Haj department in karachi had prepared these passports, got the visa stamped from the Saudi consolate, and had sent them by air to Jeddah to be handed over to us on the ship. The first part of the adventure had finished. Much more had had to follow.
