Essential Urdu phrases

The universal greeting. Multan is an old shrine city with formal manners, and opening a conversation without it reads worse here than in Lahore.

'May good come to you' — the Saraiki blessing used as thanks, farewell and general goodwill. Deploying it instead of 'shukriya' marks you as someone who has actually listened.

The language of Multan and of south Punjab, and not a dialect of Punjabi however often it is described as one. It has its own script conventions, its own literature and its own implosive consonants. Recognising it as separate is the fastest way to be taken seriously here.

The saints. Multan's title is Madinat-ul-Auliya, the City of Saints, and its geography is organised around their shrines — directions, neighbourhoods and half the calendar are keyed to them.

The annual commemoration of a saint's death, celebrated as a festival at the shrine. The Urs of Shah Rukn-e-Alam and Bahauddin Zakariya fill the old city and close roads for days. Plan around them; do not be surprised by them.

The blue-and-white glazed tilework Multan has produced for six centuries, on every major shrine and still made in workshops in the old city. The name comes from Kashan in Iran and the craft came the same way.

The mango variety Multan considers definitive, and the reason June and July are a civic event here. The city sits in the centre of Pakistan's mango belt and everything from wedding dates to export schedules bends around the crop.

Dense, ghee-heavy, nut-studded halwa sold in tins, and the thing every visitor is expected to leave with. Hafiz's on Hussain Agahi is the name people argue about.

'Dust, heat, beggars, graveyards' — the old four-word verdict on Multan that locals quote about themselves with some affection. Two of the four are still a fair summary of the climate.

The Multan Metrobus, running from Bahauddin Zakariya University to Chowk Kumaharan on an elevated and at-grade corridor. It is the only segregated transit corridor between Lahore and Karachi and it is the spine of how the city moves.

The tenancy agreement. In Punjab registering it is compulsory, and the registration is what gets you into a Rent Tribunal rather than an ordinary civil court.

Police, Rescue 1122 — the Punjab Emergency Service, which runs ambulance, fire and rescue on one number — and the Punjab women's helpline. Edhi's ambulances are on 115.