🚗 Ihsanullah’s Red Jeep: High School Drifters in Peshawar

We were in the tenth grade and preparing for our final Board exams. The second half of the school year didn’t bring any new classes; it was just a long stretch of review sessions covering both ninth and tenth-grade subjects.

This incredibly relaxed school schedule gave us the perfect excuse to spend our after-school days roaming around Peshawar. Back then, our world was small—mostly limited to Saddar Bazar, Mall Road, and University Town. You could easily drive back and forth between all three areas in under an hour.

Ihsanullah always had access to “stuff” that ordinary PAF (PAF Degree College) school students didn’t, and that winter he somehow got his hands on a red, hoodless Jeep. It came with a canvas tarpaulin top, but we refused to put it on. Despite the biting cold of a Peshawar winter, we chose to ride with the top down, sitting high in our very distinct school uniforms. In our minds, we were the ultimate show-offs, trying to impress the girls and turn the heads of the other boys at school. We really thought we owned the streets.

Decades have passed, but to this day, every single time I spot a red Jeep on the road, I am instantly taken back to those winter days in Peshawar with one of my best childhood friends.