Champion of Choice: The Life and Legacy of Women's Advocate Nafis Sadik

6 Doctor’s Orders

104 6 DOCTOR’S ORDERS When she was a girl, Nafis had dreamed of becoming a doctor, of doing something “to help the poor.” But like most childhood dreams, while hers provided a beacon on the horizon, the details were fuzzy. Now, after years of preparation, she had indeed returned home to help her people. After the final hurrah of matrimonial celebrations died down in Karachi, the newlyweds boarded a train heading north, alighting in Rawalpindi, where they would make their first home together, in a city strung along the Grand Trunk Road, a route that had for centuries connected Lahore with the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. Further north was the Hindukush and the Karakoram Range of the Himalayas, home to some of the tallest peaks in the world. Pindi, as the locals called it, had been built upon the site of an ancient Buddhist civilization, then had been home to the Sikhs before Partition. Since 1947 it had been designated as the headquarters of the Pakistani Army, sixty miles from the Pakistani/Indian border. This was the spot where a young lieutenant named Azhar Sadik had first landed when he was one of the last Muslims out of India. Pindi was the place he remembered as “weird and wonderful” because the new government ’s branches lay in chaos—with the army at the top of the heap. Now, seven years later, Azhar’s post might have been new, but he DOCTOR’S ORDERS 105 was back on familiar turf in the Punjab. Captain Sadik was reacquainting himself with the region where he was raised, but the locale was foreign to his bride. She busied herself constructing a new life here—one that would be a radical departure from her recent role as society belle living in a Georgetown mansion. The couple’s first home together was an apartment building that had been built as a barracks during the war. The structure had no air conditioning and was topped by a tin roof, a feature that—in a region where the muggy monsoon temperatures regularly topped one hundred degrees—generated the heat of a solar oven. Nafis conquered the water fear she’d carried since her near-drowning mishap in Orissa, and she and Azhar fled to the swimming pool daily to keep cool. But in the way of newlyweds, they had fun with the novelty of married life, starting from scratch to acquire china and carpets, silver and linens—spinning their humble surroundings into an inviting nest. Fortunately they lived in this bivouac for only a few months; then they moved to a nicer apartment building, the Mary Green House, which had a large living room, dining room, kitchen, three bedrooms, and—because it was Pakistan—servants’ quarters. There was one maidservant to cook, another to wash the clothes, and another to care for the shared garden outside where the neighbors congregated. The Sadiks fell into a comfortable daily rhythm, adopting a style imposed by the exigencies of life in a hot climate. They rose early and began the work day at 7:00, finishing at 2:00 in the afternoon and returning home for lunch, their main meal of the day. Because many women didn’t venture outside their quarters, most of the shopping was done by the men. It was best to take care of these duties before the sun scorched the markets, wilting produce and patrons alike. In the afternoon the high temperatures forced everyone back indoors, into the shade of darkened rooms where the fans whirred. And here, behind the closed drapes, the couple embraced their addiction : bridge. They began after lunch and would play seven, eight, sometimes nine hours a day. And they had to play every day. Nafis had 106 CHAPTER 6 learned from her father, so she was already a force to be reckoned with, and the small stakes betting added more competitive fuel to the fire. By the time the Sadiks had finished their stint in Pindi they had honed considerably their bridge skills—a mixture of information exchange, evaluation, deduction, and tactics—all fine pursuits for a diplomat in training. Following the traditions with which they were raised, the newly married couple welcomed their relatives, a massive collection when combined . Nafis hadn’t met many of Azhar’s extended family, and now that the pair were living back in the Punjab where he was raised, the cousins came...