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Falling Petals. Said the camel driver to a newspaperwoman: "Each time you smile, petals fall out." Standing on the floor of the U.S. Senate, he observed: "When a lot of minds are applied to a problem, you get a better solution than when one mind is applied to a problem.'' In the Lincoln Memorial, gazing up at the statue of Abraham Lincoln, he said: "When a person sacrifices his life for his country, the country appreciates his services and makes a monument like this that will last forever." Wherever he went in his week's journey, from the plains of Texas to the office of President Kennedy, to the final, bewildering stopover in Manhattan. Bashir continued to drop his petals and to charm the natives. Finally, just as he was about to depart from the U.S. on his jet-propelled magic carpet ride back to Pakistan, Bashir got a telegram from Lyndon Johnson that moved him to tears. Wired L.B.J.: "Since your return to Pakistan takes you so close to Mecca, arrangements have been made through the People-to-People program for you to visit there." Cried Bashir Ahmad: "Allah be praised!"
So wise and well phrased were the utterances of the unlettered camel driver that some newsmen were skeptical. But State Department Interpreter Saeed Khan assured them that he was having a hard time matching his English translations with Bashir's Urdu eloquence. Many observers wondered if the camel driver had not been well coached for his journey; he tended to repeat his most popular lines in the different cities he visited. But what ever the explanation, there was no gainsaying that Bashir was a smash hit where-ever he went. And if a tentmaker could be a poet, many asked, why not a camel driver?