"When in Rome, do as the Romans do"

Had a very interesting experience that last week, which re-enforced the fact “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. We were trying to locate a street in Garden City by the name of “Mohammed Ali Jinnah”. Now, I was familiar with this name as being that of the first President of the then newly created state of Pakistan. But my chauffeur totally disregarded the “Jinnah” in the name when he asked for directions the first couple of times. Obviously, he thought that the “Jinnah” in the name was a mistake in my understanding, and I actually meant “Mohammed Ali Pasha” of Egypt

When he met with no success, on my prodding, he asked for the street by its complete name of “Mohammed Ali Jinnah”. But everyone he asked said “marafsh” (I don’t know), while shaking their heads. When after much driving around, we finally did stumble onto the desired street and my chauffeur read the street name written in Arabic, he said "oh you mean Mohammed Ali Genah!”, pronouncing the “J” in “Jinnah” as a “G”. I had completely forgorgotten that the Egyptians pronounce the “J” as “G” –so the name “Jamal” becomes ‘Gamal”, and “Jinnah” becomes “Ginnah”.

Now only, if I would have remembered this small detail, I could have spared myself the trouble and saved on some precious time.