Meet Grandma Donna and Christina! Grandma Donna, my 87 year old new friend, is way ahead of her time. She has raised two boys and two girls (all above 55 years of age now) and seen life in its good and bad. More of a ‘tomboy’, as she called herself, Grandma Donna is a baseball player and loves outdoor games. Christina is a Malaysian freshman, who just started college and was greatly enjoying her time in the US.

The three of us talked and talked on the way from Chicago to Denver. Grandma was going to see the Christmas lights her grand nephew had put up. She decided to challenge herself and take the train, and travel more if successful. She asked me about Pakistan -- our cities, our lives; she asked me about Islam and about being Muslim. I asked about her life and her beliefs. She was open-minded and curious.

We also talked about Malaysian politics; Pakistani politics; Grandma’s views on Trump, Bernie and Hilary and my understanding of it all. She told us about her life, her husband, her travels, and her jokes were hilarious! Together, we all had a heck of a time.

During our chat, a 22-year old crazy drunk guy interrupted us and asked me, "Where are you from?"

"Pakistan," I answered.

"Palestine," he said.

"No, Pakistan," I replied.

"All of you are the same," he responded.

I tried explaining to him how both the countries were very different and far apart. He asked me if my ‘beliefs’ were the same, and I said that yes, if he was talking about religion then, yes they were. I asked him what exactly he meant by beliefs.

He said, "Arabic."

"We speak Urdu, Palestinians speak Arabic and Arabic is a not a belief, it’s a language", I elaborated, "Arabs have a beautiful culture and so do we and we share a religion." He tried to assure me that he didn’t want to offend me.

That’s when Grandma jumped in, with a subtle but very effective "Try harder, buddy".

I saw great humanity in her, and had the most brilliant time learning from her wisdom. All in all, it was a great travel experience, and allowed me to interact with different people outside the ‘understanding and nice’ SIPA & I-House bubble that I as a student in the US was used to. It also allowed me to see the power of our shared humanness and experiences that allow us to connect in spite of the many differences in culture, religion and age.

I was sad to bid them farewell. It was a meeting in the middle of nowhere -- a human connection with no agenda, no need, nothing. But it was meaningful, informative and special. I don’t know how time flew; it’s just one of those experiences that shall perhaps forever stay with me.

Overall, this was a great experience, and I recommend people to experience the Amtrak rail passes.

Meet Dwayne, or as he called himself Big Dee. Big Dee is into security, and works at Lyft transportation network on the side. He has a son, two chihuahua dogs and a girlfriend. He is from Nashville, Tennessee, but has been living in Salt Lake City for twelve years.

Before he ran into me, Big Dee thought like any other day, he would just be watching tv. He picked me up from downtown Salt Lake City (SLC), near the Mormon Temple. When he found out that I was in SLC on my east to west Amtrak journey he decided to show me Salt Lake City mountains for free. I didn’t ask for it, I didn’t know what to see; he just thought it would be a travesty if I was in SLC and didn’t get to go

He drove us both to the beautiful mountains. Later, we grabbed dinner at this trendy place called Splitz. Big Dee loved the restaurant’s meat options and decided there and then, that he would bring his ‘gurl’ to this ‘hip joint’.

He asked me to play Pakistani music, and fell in love with Abida Parveen and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. I have never heard ‘daymmm gurlll’ as a positive reaction to an Abida Parveen ghazal but, soon after, other colloquial terms like ‘yo dawg’ followed. In fact, Big Dee nicknamed me ‘Little A’ and even invited me for a lunch at his place. It was a shame I didn’t have time.

He was confused how a country as big as Pakistan could be an alcohol-free zone (at least officially); he was very much into meat and was kind of relieved that at least we had that, if not alcohol. When I showed him pictures of Pakistani barbecue -- mutton tikka specifically -- in his unique style, he remarked, ‘daymmm, that’s yum, A-dawgg’. I had so much fun picking his funky vocabulary and ‘Little A’ soon became a thing.

He was very interested in how Pakistanis dated, or what they ate, drank or lived like. He had absolutely no clue whatsoever of Pakistan or surprisingly even of other parts of the world. His shock on seeing pictures of Islamabad was so hilarious that I couldn’t hide my laughter. He told me that he thought we had huts down there. "No, Big Dee the brick houses there can sometimes be much better that wooden houses here", I told him.

He was a nice guy but I was shocked as to how little he knew not just about Pakistan but the whole world in general. I guess that’s how life is for so many in the US. They are just so busy in their own little world -- the US, its states and its issues that there is no space to accommodate the real world.

Also, the world doesn’t affect an average American’s daily life and probably, in their view, never will. The everyday struggle of the earning middle class is so demanding that whatever time is left is already committed to ‘template designed entertainment’. It’s heartening to see that, on average, American people are very nice but it is sad to see that the exposure of the population to international politics is too less.

I was wondering why it was so different. Why every Pakistani acts as an authority on world politics, and an ordinary American doesn’t give a ‘daymmm’. Why is it that Pakistanis even when they have little knowledge of international relations and world affairs seem to have all kinds of theories about the US and Saudi for instance? Is it good that we have that? Or is it because international politics affects us a lot more than US citizens? Whatever it is, there is a distinct difference between people in both countries.

I made another friend on this journey, Leanne, a mother of two, a hair stylist, a Lyft cab service driver who loves to cook, and hopefully in future will be the owner of a bed and breakfast. We met when she picked me up from Denver Union Station via Lyft and made sure that I reached my Airbnb destination.

I was so grateful for her kindness and somewhat clueless about Denver; so I asked her if she could show me the town she grew up in. To my surprise she agreed.

It was so much fun because I got to see Denver with a person who cared about the place, and knew it since childhood. She took me to Capitol Hill building, and told me interesting stories about its renovations. The old windows of the Capitol Hill were once in her basement, because her father renovated the dome of the building.

She even tried to get me in by calling her uncle who was a senator but sadly the building was closed on January1. He said he would have made some arrangements had he been visiting. It was nice of him to even entertain the idea of showing his workplace building to a Lyft passenger visiting Denver for a day. So in a way, I talked to a senator from Denver through Leanne and wished him a happy new year!

Leanne had helped decorate some of the hotels as she worked in one of them and knew most people around. Through her I got to just walk in and see the oldest hotels in Denver --  the Oxford Hotel and the Brown Palace. The Brown Palace was hosting the fanciest high tea I had seen, where everyone was dressed in their finest and was enjoying tea British bourgeois style. The Oxford was rumored to have a haunted room where the ghost would only show up if a man lived alone in the room. I was a little tempted but then dismissed the idea.

We saw an enchanting church and it seemed like none of us knew much about it. I guess Leanne had walked into this one for the first time and was equally surprised at finding out how beautiful it was. We saw the 16th street, an ice skating ring, and a lot more.

Leanne showed me her photography, and one shot of the sunset with the state building in the background was exhibition-worthy. She talked about her children, their successes. I talked about my family, my work and showed her pictures of my city Islamabad, our places, and our life. I was humbled and touched by her hospitality. We ate pizza at a local specialty, grabbed coffee, and tried eating local cupcakes. Food for me is the greatest part of discovering a city. In that spirit, I tried the Corner Bakery thinking it was unique to Denver, only to realise there was perhaps a corner bakery on every other corner! (Though their croissant was delicious.)

I still have to send Leanne some Shan Masala from New York. As it turns out she was a fan of desi spices and the masala wasn’t anywhere to be found in Denver. I also talked a lot about New York, which kind of made me realise how much New York has grown on me, and how fondly I talk about it now.

I was grateful to experience the Denver city in a car, in public transport as well as on foot, as much as it was possible in a day.

Leanne dedicated a Facebook status to our meeting: ‘The first day of this new year was full of unexpected surprises. I picked up a young man from Pakistan (Lyft passenger) who was just visiting Denver for about 24 hours and he asked me if I’d be willing to show him around town. I’m pretty sure we became lifelong friends today. God works in mysterious ways.’

From being a person who knew no one in Denver, now I know who to call and who to meet -- isn’t that cool?