Commoner's duty

Yesterday night I was lost in Islamabad. Nazim-ud-din Road in F-6 is undergoing construction and somehow I got on that section and promptly lost the exit/entrance.

I drove up the road and down the road. I crossed the median and repeated to no avail. I was lost on a 100 m piece of road construction after dark. Surely, I made the men sitting on the side laugh; I would have laughed at the 'gora' driving in circles.

Eventually, the onlookers waved me down. They weren't laughing; they were being helpful. The language barrier of English-Urdu remained between us but they pointed in various directions and one guy jumped in my car. He guided me down a dirt road and out of the construction area. The only think I understood him say, "duty." He viewed it as his duty to help me.

This whole experience made me a bit nervous wandering the new roads - but it open me up to the 'non-elite' of Islamabad and the generosity of the people there. That made for a pleasant evening detour.