One year after disastrous rains in 2007 that claimed lives of hundred of Karachiites and disrupted life for weeks at an end, the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has come up with a contingency plan to make sure that the city does not 'drown' during the monsoon season this time.

As the meteorological office in Karachi has predicted that the monsoons will begin late June or early July this year with the amount of rainfall being more than the normal range, the CDGK is confident that with its rain emergency plan chalked out the city is prepared to withstand the downpour this year.

The rain emergency plan which has been devised by Municipal Services and approved by the District Coordination Officer (DCO) aims at minimising the loss of life and property in Karachi during rains as well as "to prevent the city from flooding especially in areas where it did during rains in 2007," shares Masood Alam, Executive District Officer (EDO), Municipal Services. Masood adds that the plan, which comprises three phases, that is pre-rain, during-rain and post-rain measures reflects a great deal of effort by the CDGK during the "52 weeks between the monsoons in 2007 and 2008."

These efforts include establishing rain emergency centres in all the 18 towns of the city as well as the arrangement of heavy machinery to lift the debris or suck the accumulated water as during and post-rain measures. The plan also aims at providing immediate removal of the residents of low lying areas to "safer places." Masood Alam identifies them as "those who are living along the coast of Karachi as well as those residing along Malir River, Lyari River and Gujjar Nullah."  Besides that, measures have been taken in the pre-monsoon phase to prevent flooding during the rains. This includes improving a majority of the 500 chocking points in the city as well as constructing the stormwater drain in Clifton and Bath Island -- areas where water accumulated for weeks during last rains. It also includes de-silting of storm water drain that started in March 2008 and according to the CDGK is 70 per cent is completed. "At the moment, we are confident of less trouble and flooding in the city during rains," shares Masood with Kolachi "the rest depends on nature!" he adds.

The CDGK's preparations during the 52 weeks before the 2008 monsoons, however, fail to impress Karachiites. "Despite desilting," says Salman a resident of Gulshan-e-Iqbal "the drains are going to overflow this year as well" he adds. Salman explains that during the rains last year in August, almost four feet of water accumulated outside his home near the Nipa roundabout and he couldn't get to his home that night as he was on a motorbike. "Though they had claimed to have cleaned the drainage, it did not help much." Salman believes that the actual problem lies with the drainage system of the city which can be solved only after consulting a city planner instead of desilting. "If this is not done," he says "the city will flood again and nature will be blamed for it all."

This is nothing new, according to most people. Every year, despite tall claims by the authorities, the water accumulates on the streets drowning the major arteries of the city and causing a traffic jam. Even a downpour that is slightly above the expected range results in vehicles floating on the flooded streets, people struggling to get out of the waist-deep water while those at home try to prevent the water from entering their homes. As a resident living in a poor locality near the bank of Lyari river remarks: "half of our monsoon spends in trying to block the water accumulated on the streets from coming into our house."

The problem isn't with the residents of poor localities alone. The same situation must be faced by the residents of Clifton and Defence who spent monsoon season trying to get the rain and sewerage water out of their homes. The condition was particularly bad last year as the residents of these areas were stuck in their homes for days at an end. One resident of DHA Phase V says that he couldn't make it to his office for three days, as his garage was flooded with water and the car was literally floating. "I wished then that I had a boat!" he says fearing he may once again be forced to stay home this monsoon as well because he is unsure whether or not the authorities have done enough to prevent flooding this year. Despite the promises to put in new sewerage lines, Karachiites remain unconvinced that these efforts will bear any fruit.

According to the city planners, every year the major areas of Karachi flood primarily because the main outfalls that carry water from Karachi's storm water drains and nullahs into the sea are heavily encroached upon by Karachiites themselves. The Lyari River System and the Malir River system are the two major storm water drains that carry 90 per cent of the sewage and rain water of the entire city to the Arabian Sea. This is transported through the seven major nullahs in the city. Besides, there is also a network of branch drains that carry sewage and rainwater from the entire city to these two major systems. A majority of these nullahs along with the storm water drainage systems are heavily encroached upon at their outfalls. Since the encroachments are expanding every year, the city planners believe that the floods may be much worse in Karachi this year as compared to last year.

While identifying the encroachments, Parveen Rehman, Director Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training (OPP-RT) reveals that the Soldier Bazar nullah and the Pitcher nullah are encroached upon at their outfall by the Mai Kolachi Bypass. Therefore, during heavy rains when encroachment at the outfall of these nullahs hampers the free flow of water, it floods Saddar and I.I. Chundrigar Road. Also the KPT is reclaiming the back water (natural barrier to flood) provided by Boat Basin resulting in floods in the adjacent areas. Apart from that, the width of the Lyari River System has been reduced to one third because of the construction of the Lyari Expressway. Since the Gujjar Nullah and the Orangi Nullah transport sewage to this system, it floods the western part of the city when the water reverts finding no outlet. Moreover, the Malir River System has been reduced to half because of DHA's encroachment at Qayyumabad. The development of Creek City, according to Parveen, is going to add to the misery as it is expected to block the Malir River outfall in the coming years. This eventually affects areas like Malir, Korangi, Landhi and Gulshan-e-Iqbal.  

Apart from the blocking of outfalls, the encroachments by the commercial and private sector on city drains, especially on I.I. Chundrigar Road for decades does not allow the authorities to clean them up, thus flooding the streets.

These encroachments continue to block the flow of sewage and rain water, thus causing floods in the city especially the low-lying areas of the city -- yet nothing has been done by the government to remove them. "They (the CDGK) are addressing the symptoms of the disease instead of the disease itself," says Parveen adding that though the branch drains are being cleaned by the government, it is of no use unless the outfalls are cleared from the encroachments. "Why is it that even after the disastrous flooding during 2006 and 2007 rains, these encroachments weren't removed?"  Parveen says that if it rains even slightly above average this year, a majority of the areas in Karachi will flood more than last year as there was a lack of action on behalf of the CDGK to prevent it.

Masood Alam, on the other hand, not only admits that the encroachments need to be removed, he also explains why they weren't to begin with. "The approximately 200ft of Nehar-e-Khayam has been reduced to the 20ft because of the regular dumping of trash in it by the area residents and encroachers," Masood says, talking about the nullah that carries drainage from the Clifton and Korangi industrial areas. He adds that the nullah has been encroached by the backyards of some adjacent bungalows, a make-shift car parking as well as the expanding premises of an adjacent school. "Though we removed some of the encroachments, we couldn't remove all of them because of the influences of their owners," Masood says "and given the rapid expansion by the encroachers, it seems that the Nehar-e-Khayam will disappear soon." Masood Alam believes that removing the influential encroachers on the major outfalls of the drain system is the responsibility of the higher authorities, which is delaying it probably for "political reasons." Besides that, Masood adds that the less influential garbage collectors as well as the slums have an equal part to play in blocking the outfalls when they build their houses on them or throw away the garbage in the nullah.

He doesn't explain the political reasons that are preventing the government from removing all the encroachers, yet he proposes a solution. He suggests that connecting the present drainage system to that of the British system which is in tact with the natural drainage system in Karachi may help solve the problem. He even proposes demolishing encroachments on that system and has even demolished some in different areas of the city. Parveen Rehman seconds his point provided if the encroachments on the outfalls are removed.

Thus, the million-dollar question: who is going to remove these encroachments? "No one," says Parveen. She believes that in order to remove them, more courage than action is needed "but the CDGK lacks that." Therefore, she believes that this year Karachiites are destined to row boats or swim to their homes and workplaces while the authorities watch the city streets and underpasses flooding during the rains. Happy rowing everyone!

The province of Sindh has been famous for its mangoes given the taste and huge variety of the fruit provided by the region

Every year, people send crates of mangoes to their family and friends living abroad and even within the country to celebrate the 'mango' season. The mangoes are sent through courier companies as well as through Pakistan Post along with trains and buses.

"Mango is not a fruit but part of our culture and tradition. We have grown up believing that no one does mangoes better than us. To an extent, this is even true," Mahmood Nawaz Shah tells Kolachi who is the general secretary of the Sindh Abadgar Board and owns mango orchards.

Being a representative of the growers' body for the province, he believes that as the mango season draws closer, people start planning mango parties along with thinking up of ways to deal with the weight issue (given the high calorie intake that mangoes offer) while the season is in full swing. Such is the power of the fruit.

Shah further elaborates that another important tradition is to give mango as a gift to near and dear ones, since mangoes are not as expensive as compared to some of the other fruit available in the country. Shah adds that all these traditions are deeply entrenched and are typical only to mangoes and nothing else.

Sarfaraz, the owner of a mango orchard located in the rural taluka of Hyderabad, tells Kolachi that every one – both poor and rich – tries to get the best mangoes available during the season. 'There are people and communities in interior of Sindh where mango is the only fruit used as a full-blown meal during the summers or the mango season," he explains. Given the trend of gifting mangoes to friends and families, several courier services have launched special offers and packages for sending mangoes in and outside the country as well.

"This trend can only be described as one's unabated love for mangoes. For example, an average box of mangoes is available in the market at Rs200 to 5Rs00 depending on the quality and kind of mango but the charges of sending via courier are much higher than the actual price," reveals an official who gifts mangoes on a regular basis to his family and friends during the season

A courier company worker says that the charges of a mango box being delivered within the country ranges from anywhere between Rs150 to Rs500 while those sent outside the country costs Rs3000. Even then, come mango season and the courier company has to resort to advance booking given the influx of people who want to send out mangoes.

Mango parties are yet another unique flavour of this season because not only do prestigious hotels organise these parties, but clubs and individuals also arrange for these parties where rice and milk is served with mangoes.

'It an opportunity to get together in these high-strung times with mangoes being served on the table as the sole item for meals. It has now become a tradition," says Shah. However, he says that it is unfortunate that while we are growing mangoes for so many years now, we have yet to take reap its benefits. "We still do not know how to get our mangoes to ripen, and how to transport and keep our mangoes fresh for a longer period of time," he adds.

Food, as an industry has seen a recent boom in Pakistan. We now have assorted companies selling everything from frozen parathas to desi meals, ready to be microwaved to perfection. This boom is not just confined to ready-to-eat items but it has also come to us in the form of TV chefs or celebrity chefs as they are known.

Food entertainment is quite a well-known phenomenon. In the days when there was only Zee TV, Sanjeev Kapoor was the champion chef. His programme, Khana Khazana, was watched by almost everyone with equal furor. Sanjeev gave recipes that were not only quick but were delicious as well. Later on, when BBC food was available, it became an instant success. Here was a channel that showed food as it ought to be – perfect and delicious. What's more, it didn't just stop there. The chefs were entertaining, energetic and charismatic, and watching them felt like it could be you cooking that dish, no matter how difficult it seemed to be. This was the era of James Martin, Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. A bit before them, it was Keith Floyd and Rick Stein -- the two people, who I personally consider the best in the industry of food entertainment. In Floyd, we have this flamboyant cook, who always - always has a glass of wine in his hand, a charming child-like happiness when he's cooking in some exotic region and who, with his hands, can create a magical world of food no matter where he goes. In Rick Stein, we have this gentleman of a cook, who is as surprised and pleased to find out the new and old twists to food from the Mediterranean to Tuscany as we would be if we were traveling. In between these few and countless other chefs that television has given us, we have had a chance of watching and learning from the masters that conduct magic.

 In Pakistan too, in the past few years the media boom has led to several channels being introduced and nearly all of them had some sort of cooking show with an expert involved. One of those channels is solely dedicated to food – kind of like our version of BBC Food.

 However the chefs on local TV channels, no matter which channel they come from, seem pretty ill at ease. They all have a set formula -- lots of make-up, bad lighting which more often than not leads to wilted coriander/mint leaves, an abundance of jewelry and clothes in which most people will never cook. What most of the Pakistani television chefs are lacking is screen presence. A few of them do stand above the rest, where as the others are a bit above mediocre.

Rahat Ali

 Rahat was one of the few chefs who came on television to cook early on. The fact that Rahat can cook cannot be denied by anyone but she has a tendency to go a bit overboard. With food, Rahat might be one of the better people but her screen presence and annoying habit of referring to herself as Chef Rahat after every phone call gets very irritating. Do you see Antony Worrall Thompson referring to himself as Chef AWT every few minutes?

Chef Rahat's food gets a 4.5/5 but her personality gets a 2/5.

Lubna

Lubna cooks like any ordinary woman would. She does not wear an abundance of jewelry but dons an apron and a pony tail and cooks like my mother does. Her series of Hyderabadi dishes were something of a wonder and most people really appreciated them. Lubna has started a new series of Mediterranean food and the few episodes I have seen of her show is proving to be something of a clumsily thrown together series. Maybe she should cook like she had in the Hyderabadi series – with her heart.

Lubna's food gets a 3/5 and her personality gets 3/5 as well.

Chef Zakir

 Good ole' Chef Zakir. Chef Zakir would nearly always use the same ingredients in whatever he's cooking. His food looks good, it tastes good too, but what's really different (and I mean that in a bad way) about chef Zakir is that he uses the same ingredients in everything he cooks. White pepper, black pepper, Chinese salt (which comes out as chinus salt). All of what Chef Zakir cooks buds from few ingredients which he has set out in small bowls. To add some diabolical salt to the wounds, he throws around words like texture and aroma after every few seconds. Texture comes out as tekture, and aroma is always aromay, and the most annoying bit is kiddies. While Rahat had the annoying gullos and pappus for kids, chef Zakir uses kiddies. He just does not use it, but he uses it after every few seconds and that, dear readers, creates a lot of annoyingness in one sitting of the program. His left over garnishes see themselves thrown in the bin (really, do you know how expensive tomatoes are? Are you aware of the hungry people in Pakistan, so why the hell are you throwing good tomatoes in the bin?) One thing does go in his favor though, is the fact that Chef Zakir is a humble person and that shows in the way he treats the regular callers on his show.

Chef Zakir's food gets a 4/5; his personality slightly above Rahat's gets a 2.5/5.

Tahir Choudhry

Tahir Choudry is a chef at a prestigious hotel in Karachi. I don't know if he still works there because frankly, I've never paid much attention to him. Tahir's on-screen presence is nothing to write home about. Can he cook? Maybe he can but frankly I never really paid much attention. The pastas he makes leave much to be desired

Tahir's food gets a 2/5 his personality gets a -1.

Hailing from Swat, Noor Muhammad was 12 when he came to Karachi in 1989, following in the footsteps of his older brothers, who had already settled into the last southern city of Pakistan for the sake of employment. Noor, now 29, has a success story to tell in the melting pot that is Karachi. Currently, he works as a cable TV and internet operator. 

Noor's elder brothers, Khadim Muhammad, 38, and Gul Muhammad, 33, came to Karachi few months before Noor did and started living in Old Golimar. Later, Noor along with his father and infant brother

Zaman joined them."My mother passed away when Zaman was just six months old and then my sister-in-law and Khadim's wife also became ill. She cannot do any work and after our sister got married, we decided to shift to Karachi," Noor said.

The family had a small piece of cultivated land in Swat but they preferred to come to the city for better job prospects. Back then, they did not have any resources to start their own work.

"My elder brothers started working as a labourer at construction sites and I joined a local hotel as a waiter. At that time, I was earning Rs25 per day," Noor said. "In 1990, my father got job as watchman at an under-construction house in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Block 7 and we shifted to a new place," he added.

After a year, Noor also came to Jauhar to help his father. During the day, he worked as a labourer at the same house while during nights, he started helping his father with protecting the materials used in construction.

Noor, who was inexperienced in construction work, still has scars on his left thumb. He received a lot of wounds while splinting wood at the site. Noor continued to change jobs and later started working as a house servant in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Block 6 for Rs600 per month.

In 1992, he started working at a local hotel in Jauhar for Rs900 per month but soon left the job. For next two years he worked as a private helper at a local company which had acquired a contract from the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC).

Noor's relatives were working in the same field and arranged a temporary job as a helper for him. Later, he was offered a full-time job and was about to be made permanent staff when then government was dissolved and the interim government dismissed all daily wages and contractual staff.

Noor visited Islamabad to try to get someone to restore his job but he could not succeed. So he once again started working at houses and hotels. Noor had many friends who belonged to educated families and he spent his time with playing cricket with them. This is probably why he decided to switch to the cable TV business during 1999 Cricket World Cup.

"We had a small Black and White TV set and I arranged for a cable connection to see all cricket matches live," adding he said, "there were 14 houses in the area and everyone wanted a cable connections for the World Cup."

At that time, a cable operator, who was running his business in nearby area demanded Rs16,000 for connections to 14 houses. Residents gave him Rs14,000 for arranging for a cable connection but he ran away after installing cable in just one house. This made starting the cable business all the more challenging for Noor back then.

"It was quite a tough time for me. I asked them to give more money and promised them to provide connections as soon as possible," he added.

For the next eight months, the people enjoyed cable transmission without paying more money. Given the success, Noor decided involve another cable operator in his business who offered more channels and covered larger area then his.

Anwar, the cable operator told Noor to continue his business in the area with his help.  Anwar told him that he would provide every kind of technical support to Noor when and where required for Rs1,000 per month only.

This was a good offer for Noor, who had already learnt a lot and had a good reputation in the area. This opportunity also gave him a chance to extend his business to other areas. Today, Noor is running a successful cable TV business. "I will become Anwar's partner in a year's time," said Noor proudly.