On Friday, 9th November 2018, a group of students along with our school faculty left for the 8 hours long road trip to Larkana.
The journey started from the campus, where all the excited students gathered with their luggage. After taking the obligatory group photos, all of us climbed up the van and were set for the upcoming exhausting road trip.
The most enjoyable portion of this excursion was our time spent on the road, which was packed with giggles. Not an hour had passed on the road and we were already famished. That’s when we had lunch at around 1 PM, in which we had the most delicious home-cooked rolls made by Mrs Khan’s cook. And then throughout the drive, we survived on the snacks and water bottles that all of us had brought with ourselves.
We were expected to arrive in Larkana by 6 pm but an unusual traffic caused by an accident on the highway led us to take a different route to Larkana which stretched the duration of the journey to ten hours from eight. And that was extremely exhausting. Nonetheless, for me, it was really fun, because this way we spent more time laughing and gossiping.
Dinner and a Warm Bed in Larkana
We arrived at Qubra’s house at Larkana by 10 pm. After the tiring journey, we had the most Larkana-like dinner ever. On the table, they had Roasted Duck, Turkey, Biryani, Karhai and Deer Pilayo. All of us were drained out and unexpectedly went to bed at midnight, even though we had planned to pull all-nighters and sleep as less as possible to get the most out of this excursion. The girls had their beds set up on the 1st floor, while the boys bunked in the main lounge of the house.
I woke up by 7 am, according to the plan. I took a cold shower and had a little conversation with the grown-ups on the table since all my friends were still asleep. They were all forcefully woken up at 10 am to get ready for breakfast. We had a delicious omelette and Lassi with parathas along with spicy eggplant and tomato puree. After coffee, we got ready for our next stop: Ghaibi Dero.
Yet again, we loaded up the van. After an hour-long drive, we made a stop at this place, where we did boating by a locally famous lake. The smalls boats were able to handle the weight of only three. Fatima and I, besides the rower, rode the boat. Only a handful of boats were available at that time, due to which half of us were compelled to wait for the other half to come back. All the girls again got into Qubra’s SUV, while the boys got on this custom SUV that had its roof removed. We went on to explore the mountainous area and the desert of Sindh. The courageous amongst us hiked up to the mountain, which included Aruba, Zoobia, Omar, Daniyal, Amad and myself.
The Chandio Shrines
Next, we made a stop at a historical graveyard and then in around half an hour, reached Qubra’s house by 5 pm. There, we had Biryani and some other Pakistani dishes for lunch, followed by an intense Ludo board game (which Mehran lost). At sunset, they had a bonfire set up. We sat in chairs around it and had tea. Qubra’s dad told us tales of his times about ghosts and informed us that the abandoned church-like building behind our house had ghosts. That’s when we decided to go ghost-hunting. We had a torch and a brave protector, Qubra, with us. Even though we tried breaking into the old building, but failed and ended up getting scared by each other instead of ghosts.
Around 9 pm, we came back to Qubra’s place in Larkana and had dinner. Late at night, we went out to get ice-cream for everyone. After long chats and more board games, we slept again at midnight, even though we had planned to stay up all night again.
On the cold Sunday morning, I woke up to find the same people again on the dinner table. Following the cold shower, I had hot coffee and a talk with again the grown-ups, but this time, Rabiya and Zoobia were up too. After breakfast, we loaded our luggage in the van and got ready to come back to our homes in Karachi.
After a long drive with several stops, we arrived in Karachi at around 7 PM, which marked the end of our adventurous Ghaibi Dero jaunt. It absolutely was a trip that we will never forget.
by Arham Khan, As Level Student