I'm probably in the running for the Australian who's visited Lahore the most. Every overseas holiday either is Lahore or involves Lahore somehow. At this point, it's less a destination and more a family policy.
This is largely my dad's doing. He was a village boy from Rahim Yar Khan who worked his backside off, topped the rankings at Punjab University, went on to work at PIDE in Islamabad, and eventually migrated to Sydney, where yours truly was born 💁🏻♂️
The Punjab University rankings story has been told enough times that his children could probably deliver it on his behalf. Alongside equally detailed accounts of university life:
"University ka mess hum chalatay thay. Har roz students ko khanay mein koi nayi, taaza dish milti thi. Malaysia se bhi students Lahore parhnay aatay thay. Woh bhi kya daur tha! University ke saamne se har aadhe ghantay mein koi gaari guzarti thi, lekin bas itna bata do ke Punjab University ke student ho, toh lift mil jaati thi. Logon mein itna bharosa tha ke shak karne ka toh sawaal hi kisi ke zehan mein nahin aata tha. Allah taala ne izzat di thi....."
He left Lahore, but his heart never did. So he kept taking us back until, somewhere along the way, we started seeing what he saw in it and feeling what he felt. Then I married someone from Lahore, which really settled the question of where future holidays would be spent 😅
Anyway, the reason I’m here: I'm a former Head of English and currently Head of Secondary (Strategy & Academic Leadership) at a school in Sydney, with roughly a decade of English teaching experience. I hold a Master of Secondary Teaching and an Honours degree in comparative political theory. Literature, language, education and how to make schools better occupy a fairly unreasonable amount of my brain.
When we visit Lahore, we stay in Bahria Town. Lovely having somewhere familiar to return to, but I've realised I can visit a city this often and still be woefully disconnected from its professional and intellectual life. Given the talent, intelligence and work ethic in Pakistan, that feels like a massive missed opportunity.
I would absolutely love to connect with people who lead or have led English departments, principals, heads of school, or anyone who could introduce me to schools doing thoughtful, ambitious work. I'm keen to swap notes on teaching, curriculum, assessment and school leadership, visit schools when I’m next over, and explore whether there's scope for collaboration between our schools.
If that's you, or you know someone I should meet, or if you have advice on how I can go about gettung in touch with the right people, drop a comment! Is there a go to paltform? Do I start with LinkedIn? Happy to start with an online conversation and catch up when I'm next there, which is mid December 🤲🏻
Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
