Eunice Gupta and her husband Deen met us at the Karachi airport and took us to their house where we stayed for our two-night stay in Pakistan.
Eunice was the head of LC’s Office which was one of our smaller offices. When Islamabad became the capital in the 60s, we had decided to keep the office in Karachi because it was closer to the center of publishing.
The office had no special problems. The available PL-480 rupees in Pakistan seemed to be bottomless. Our schedule, therefore, was mostly filled by courtesy calls.
Eunice had worked in the Delhi office for several years. Her husband, Deen, was an Indian national. They were accustomed to living around Muslims and had no trouble living in Muslim Pakistan.
Beside meeting the LC staff in the office, Eunice had a reception in her home so that we could also meet them socially.
The most memorable thing about the Karachi visit was our bunder boating trip. Bunder boating, sometimes called crabbing, is taking a medium size boat on a ride in the Arabian Sea. The crew will catch and cook your food while you enjoy the scenery. After we had a wonderful sail in the Arabian Sea, we anchored and ate potatoes which had been fried with onions and crab.
As we ate our meal and looked toward the desert shore line, we were able to see a camel caravan silhouetted against the full moon hanging low in the night sky. Straight out of the Arabic classic Thousand and One Nights. It made the heart sing.
P.S. The bottomless pit of PL-480 rupees were later exhausted by the U.S. government who spent most of them to help the Kurds. LC then was able to transfer its cost for the office to a US dollar program.