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On an
uncertain road to development: interior
sindh The way we
were karachicharacter
On
an uncertain road to development: After completion of the first two phases of the I.I Chundrigar Road beautification project, what remains is not a slick, well-constructed road, but the debris of construction and a mess that hasn't been so far been cleaned up. Kolachi traces the history of the project, and discovers the steps that might be taken next Clouds of dust rising from broken roads conceal the beauty of the I.I Chundrigar Road (I.I CR), and thick black smoke from frantically honking vehicles seems to shroud the atmosphere. Nevertheless, with centuries old, as well as modern architecture flanking the road, the I.I. Chundrigar swings proudly between the ages. The I.I CR distinguishes
itself from other major roads in the city because of the range of Named after a former Pakistani prime minister, noisy rickshaws and air-conditioned Corollas now replace the carts and bullock carriages that once crowded the former McLeod Road. The road, once a hub of financial activities for the British, now stands as an emblem of the melting-pot-character Karachi is famous for. From the banker in a snazzy suit to the kachori wala in yesterday's rags selling kachoris by the road, from jeans to hijab, from chai-paratha at a pathan's khokha to Subway, from media organizations to shipping companies; the road is home to varying cultures which collectively make up the distinctive culture of Pakistan's Wall Street, which generates 70 per cent of the country's revenue. Despite
the historical significance and attribution of being the 'Golden Mile,' the
I.I CR has
Of plans and promises… Champs-Elysées and Wall Street were termed as the driving force behind the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and CDGK proposed development project for I.I CR in 2003. The project with the goal to replicate international streets aimed at making I.I Chundrigar a traffic-free-zone with multi-storey parking plazas built at either ends of the road. Extravagant shuttles were promised to commuters between Shaheen Complex and Tower. Pavements were to be widened and shaded for passengers waiting for the shuttle and furnished with refreshment kiosks, umbrellas and chairs to promote street culture. To provide those
frequenting I.I CR with a variety of gastronomic opportunities, the Railway The main idea behind the project was to "develop the neighborhood we live in," Dr. Ishrat Hussain, former Governor State Bank tells Kolachi. Therefore, all the occupants of the road were invited to voluntarily contribute to the project resulting in the collection of 160 million rupees by the stakeholders, out of the 220 million rupee budget for the project approved by the CDGK. Started in late March 2007, the project was to be carried out in three phases where excavation and laying down of sewage and storm drainage pipe lines has been accomplished in the first two phases. The third phase is said to involve the beautification of the road, and while the CDGK promises to complete the project by October 2007, a lot of debris from the first two phases can be seen lying on the taken apart side streets and pavements at over half of I.I CR. If only fairy tales were true! As
the government claims finishing the project, the public doubts that the
promises made "We do see such things in the west but they are practically impossible in Karachi," Anjum Shiraz, a banker at I.I CR smirks at the idea of a public park with refreshment kiosks at the road saying that given the commitment of authorities, such things are beyond practicality "even if it happens," she adds, "it will take them decades to actually make it, by which time the condition of the road will have worsened," she predicts, referring to the construction waste left on the undone side streets. Anjum's prediction is seconded by Amina, another regular on the road, "it sounds a bit ambitious," she says of the project, "as far as development in Karachi is concerned, I don't see it happening!" Such doubts are strengthened when CDGK and SBP authorities shy away from discussing the project. The Naib City Nazim, though, vows to make I.I.C.R a "model road at par with other financial districts in the world," but is at a loss for words when asked how? "I don't know much about the project," she admits to her ignorance on account of the fact that she is not a part of the committee or the project. City Nazim Mustafa Kamal and steering committee president Shaukat Tareen, two key authorities of the project, however are unavailable for their side of the story despite several efforts by Kolachi. On the other hand, Project Director Saleem Bukhari is not only available for comment but has a lot to reveal. "It all depends on how much funds we are left with," Saleem says that the project is in its last phase and once they are done with the leveling of the sidewalks and installation of cat eyes and white lines on the roads, then considering the leftover funds, they will decide upon the implementation of the rest of the key components of the beautification project. "We had asked for a lot of money," he says, commenting on the stakeholders, "but did not get all of it, as people are not that generous," he says that it is not as though the project is running out of funds, but that the committee so far hasn't estimated the possible expenses of the project. He adds that even if they are left with enough funds they would first install the shuttle service and then anything else. "Besides funds," he says, "we have to consider if it is practical or not," Saleem fears that the placement of kiosks and chairs on the sidewalks isn't feasible as given the narrowness of the road, the pavements couldn't be widened too much. About the I.T cameras, parking plaza and public park he says that it is all being considered by the CDGK, but, "nothing concrete has been planned so far," Chundrigar reacts… These revelations are enough to make Saad Javed furious "I don't know what plans were laid out for the beautification process, but if this is beautification then it's really disappointing and not worth the entire ordeal," he says, while pointing to the traffic jam and debris on the sides of the road facing the insurance company he works with. Saad feels let down because he feels that though the road has been reconstructed, little or no difference has been made to its condition, in fact it seems to have worsened. "The road was far more beautiful before this beautification project," says Saad sarcastically he says pointing out a broken pavement in front of Saema Towers near his office. Broken pavements are a cause of disappointment for Hashim Shamim as well whose insurance company NJI was one of the stakeholders in the project. "We had contributed to make the road beautiful but so far it hasn't proved to be worth it," Hashim complains that the stretch of the road near NJI has not been carpeted fully and some of the pavements have been left undone, however he is hopeful that once it is completed the project will prove fruitful. Apart from all of that, the facelift of historical buildings is another promise that remains undelivered so far. "The Chundrigar Road is of great historical importance which has been, sadly, not considered in this project," laments Yasmin Lari commenting that cleaning buildings is so simple that even small children could do it easily. Yasmin refers to the cleaning of Wallace Bridge by school children a few years back. The 19th century Wallace Bridge represents the arrival of the railways that facilitated transportation of grain from Punjab to Karachi making Karachi famous for being the largest wheat exporter in the entire British Empire. The historical land mark was neglected by the authorities and the Karavan Pakistan team therefore took initiative of cleaning it. During the activity, various school children removed the dust layered on the bridge with the help of water and detergent followed by scrubbing the surface to remove dirt, soil, and paint till the natural sandstone was exposed. Bandookwala Building, one of the largest buildings on the road was cleaned too afterwards. Saleem Bukhari admits that the cleaning of buildings is not very difficult and they had planned on cleaning buildings but, "during a meeting with the stakeholders it was demanded that the activity be held as dust during the development project would make them dirty again." Developing the I.I. Chundrigar Road to be at par with other financial districts in the world, is truly what the area that churns out revenue worth millions of rupees for the country deserves. Besides, unlike Lahore and Agra in India, Karachi is not rich in Mughal and colonial architecture dating centuries back. Whatever precious few architectural treasures the city is bestowed with should not be left to brave time and the elements on their own. "As it is said to be the wall street of Karachi, so it must reflect and preserve what it originally was, centuries back, otherwise it will lose its distinctive features and will start resembling the other common streets in the city," declares Yasmin Lari, echoing the sentiments of everyone involved with the I.I Chundrigar Road. interior sindh In great pain: Interior Sindh villages continue to bear the aftermath of the recent floods It has been a few months since interior Sindh and the Balochistan coast were devastated by floods and cyclone. Today, the people there are still living life in limbo as it doesn't seem their villages will be rehabilitated any time soon. Kolachi reports By Mahnaz Rahman How poor the people of
rural Sindh - what sad lives they lead! As if being exploited by the Under the shade of a tree… There are several flood
and cyclone affected villages at Keti Bandar. On the way to Ali Mamu and his family live under the open sky in a dry muddy field. His hut is made of bamboo, straw and branches of trees that can hardly save the dwellers from the severity of the weather. The meager belongings of the family are kept in the hut while family members spend their time under a shade in front of the hut which hardly protects them from the sun. In these villages one cannot find safe drinking water; women have to go to far off places to fetch it. There is no concept of building latrines; people use fields for the purpose. Water born diseases and skin diseases are very common here. Nearby is another hut destroyed by the floods. Mamu's married daughter Zarina lived in this hut and now she too is living under the open sky. After the floods, Zarina was provided with a plastic sheet to use as a roof for her hut but that sheet is still lying unused as she did not have the money to erect the structure of the hut. Her husband is a fisherman who had mistakenly entered into Indian territory with fellow fishermen and gotten arrested. She lost her two children to the floods. Her husband was recently released by the Indian government and has joined the family after a period of one year. Like Mamu he too is jobless. They work on daily wages, sometimes they find work, at other times they are not so lucky. Mamu has the axe of poverty and the fear of natural disasters hanging over his head. Like the other farmers in this Keti Bandar village, the elderly man has little control over his fate and that of his children. Looking for life Men, women and children of all ages gather around a cot covered with a ralli in Ali Mohammad Patni village, all of them have one demand; they want reconstruction of their houses that the floods have damaged. Ali Mohammad Patni village is a combination of three villages, with around 150 families living there. All the houses in this village collapsed during the floods and cyclone. However, people have re-erected some of them using the material from the fallen huts. The result is that the small huts have now become even smaller and the whole family has to squeeze in. They have used sheets provided by an international charity organization for roofs. It is difficult to call these structures houses, they use reed mats or brush wood and bamboos to make these shelters. They do not have access to safe drinking water and use the polluted water of irrigation canals or water courses. There is no concept of constructing latrines and people use open fields for the purpose. The nearest hospital is 20 kilometers away, and that too is not a full fledged hospital, just a rural health center with no proper staff. People in Ali Mohammad Patni village are piecemeal workers or daily wage earners and do not have a regular source of income. Twenty per cent people earn their living by fishing, but they are so poor that they can not afford to buy boats. They go to the sea shore and throw nets into the water hoping to catch fish. If they succeed in catching some fish, they exchange their catch for flour. If they do not find any catch, the whole family has to beg. The women are not involved in any income generating activity though they perform a lot of non paid chores. A member of the provincial assembly has constructed a one room school for the village children but it cannot function without teachers, whom no one bears the responsibility of paying. The dwellers of the area do not have the basic amenities of life. Safe drinking water, a teacher for the village school, job opportunities and boats for the fishermen are just some of the things they need. But what they need the most perhaps is the immediate reconstruction of their houses, as well as a proper drainage system as knee deep water accumulates in the village when it rains. An already deprived area, when promises are made to these people, they need to be kept. Mohammad Ludah, a villager, complained that the government had promised each household 15000 rupees as compensation after the floods, but has so far not come through with the promise. In wake of other, equally important, but perhaps more enticing national events, the people living in villages like Ali Mohammad Patni get pushed aside, and wait for someone to lend a helping hand. The way we were Trout magic By Kaleem Omar I have been a trout fisherman for more than fifty years. I caught my first trout in 1951, on a trip to the Kaghan Valley with a large group of family members and friends. The group was led by my late uncle Major-General S. Shahid Hamid, man of letters, raconteur extraordinaire and the founder-president of the Pakistan Anglers Association. Above the door of the association's office in Rawalpindi, my uncle had had a sign fixed reading: "Headquarters for hunters, fishermen and all other liars!" The reference to "liars", of course, had to do with the fact that we anglers are well-known for spinning tall tales about the monster fish that got away. There are probably as many tall tales out there as there are anglers. "How did the trip go?" somebody asked an angler "Not much good. We only caught one fish." "What did you do with it?" "It was so small we got a couple of other anglers to help us throw it back." Over the years I've fished for trout in many places - for brown trout in Swat and in the glacier-fed waters of Lake Saiful Muluk (above which looms the 17,000-ft peak of Malika Parbat), for rainbow trout in the misty Scottish highlands, for steelhead trout on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan, for speckled rainbow trout in the wonderfully named Rogue River in Oregon. In the summer of 1989 I was fishing one afternoon in the Rogue River, near the tiny hamlet of Shady Cove when I noticed that another angler - an elderly gentleman who was fishing about fifty yards downstream of me - had got his line badly snagged in some driftwood in the fast-running water. Back in the 1950s, Old Khaliq, the generator operator in Naran in the Kaghan Valley, and an expert fishing guide in his spare time, had taught me how to free fouled lines. There was a trick to it, he said, the trick being not to tug at the snagged line against the current but to go downstream of the snag and work the line free from there. The technique often involved wading thigh-deep into the icy water in order to get into precisely the right alignment with the snagged line, otherwise you could end up snagging the line even more badly and having to snap it off, losing your spoon or fly in the process - something that is anathema to all anglers. During my many trips to the Kaghan Valley, I had become pretty adept at Old Khaliq's technique of freeing fouled lines. So when I noticed that the Shady Cove angler had got his line snagged, I wandered across to him and offered to try to free his line. Old Khaliq had taught me well, and I was soon able to work the line free - without losing the spoon, I might add. This got the Shady Cove angler and me to talking, shooting the breeze about this and that, as us anglers tend to do whenever we encounter a fellow member of the tribe. The angler turned out to be a resident of Shady Cove, which back in those days had a population of all of 204, or 205 if you included the local cat. "Do you know whose house that is?" asked the Shady Cove angler, pointing to a house a couple of hundred yards away, whose red-tiled roof was barely visible through the trees. "No," I said. "I'm from out of town" - that being the stock answer one gives to anybody one comes across in America. "That's Miss Rogers' house," he told me. "Miss Rogers?" I asked. "Yes, Miss Ginger Rogers," he said.. "Ginger Rogers!" I exclaimed. "You mean the Ginger Rogers?" "Yes," he replied, laconically. Well, you could have bowled me over with a feather - Ginger Rogers, the screen legend, dancer extraordinaire, the star of such 1930s and '40s classic musicals as "Gold Diggers of 1933", "The Barkleys of Broadway" and "Shall We Dance"…Ginger Rogers, the dazzling blonde goddess, Fred Astaire's dancing partner, living here in Shady Cove, of all places, in the middle of the Oregonian boondocks! To a movie fan like me, the thought was enough to make the head swim. I was sorely tempted, then, to go and knock on her door and ask her for her autograph - using the sales pitch that I had come all the way from Pakistan to meet her. In the end, though, I couldn't muster up the courage to go and meet her. Ginger Rogers died a few years ago, at the age of 90. When the news of her death came to Karachi over the news wire, I remember wishing I hadn't chickened out back then in Shady Cove in the summer of '89 and had got her autograph. That would have been something. It really would. But, like many things in life, it was not to be. And, no, the foregoing account is not yet another fisherman's tall tale. The late Robert Traver - who lived in Upper Michigan, fished almost every day of the season, and made several trips to Oregon to catch trout in the Rogue River - was a man of varied talents. A practicing lawyer, he went on to become a judge. In between all his legal work, he somehow found time to write nine books, including two classic accounts about fishing, "Trout Magic" and "Trout Madness", and "Anatomy of a Murder" (a thrilling small-town courtroom drama which was made into a critically acclaimed film in 1959 by the famous Hollywood director Otto Preminger, with sterling performances from a top-flight cast that included James Stewart, Ben Gazzara, Kathryn Grant, George C. Scott and Lee Remick in an Oscar-winning role). I saw the film in 1960 at Karachi's Palace Cinema, which, like so many cinemas in this city, is now no more. "Trout Magic" (published in 1974) is a joyous and maverick look at trout fishing and its attendant tall tales, strange happenings, and all-around fishing lore. Traver recounts the story of a mysterious "dancing fly," speaks pointedly about "kiss-and-tell" fishermen, and takes us along on his strangest fishing trip. We meet the unforgettable Danny McGinnis, a fishing guide, and other choice characters and events from Traver's anything-but-ordinary fishing trips. He even does a fine piece of tongue-in-cheek literary sleuthing into Ernest Hemingway's famous fishing story "Big Two-Hearted River". Hemingway's story first appeared in the "little" magazine "This Quarter" and soon after in one of his earliest books, if not the earliest, first published in 1925 and called "In Our Time". Since then the story has been widely reprinted in a procession of anthologies as well as endlessly dissected and explicated by what an awed beholder might call a whole new piscatorial school of academic writing inspired by the story. Traver writes: "The story's title comes from the name of an actual Upper Peninsula of Michigan trout stream called the Two Hearted River, the maps I've seen omitting the author's Big and his hyphen between Two Hearted. Yet despite these small differences the connection between the story and the stream remains as obvious as it is undeniable. Moreover, as any fisherman knows, it is sound fisherman's idiom to call that portion of a river 'big' beyond where its principal branches come together." There's enough trout magic in Traver's book to rub off on every reader. One of my favourite passages is "Testament of a Fisherman". "I fish because I love to," Traver writes; "because I love the environment where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly; because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape; because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion; because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don't want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters…" That, of course, was back in the days before cell phones. Nowadays even trout waters are not free of the infernal instruments and their shrill beep-beeps. It's all become a bit like what the American poet Vachel Lindsay said: "Then up around the apple-earth they come, / Blasting the whispers of the morning dumb, / Cars in a plain, realistic row, / And fair dreams fade when the raw horns blow." karachicharacter The specialist By By Sana Jamil Abdul Razzak has been a
cook for over 40 years now, however with the goodies he serves Kolachi: Tell us something about Abdul Razzak? Razzak: Basically I am from Delhi, India. I spent the early days of my life there but have been living in Karachi with my family for almost sixty years now. I have nine children. All are well settled in their lives. Kolachi: Seems like cooking is your ancestral profession, is that true? Razzak: Yes, you are right. I have been through every experience of being a khansamaan for more than forty five years. My father and even my grand father back in India were also professional cooks. So it has some how from that time become traditional of my family to go into this profession. However, now it has stopped as none of my children are interested in it. Obviously times have changed Kolachi: After having lived a long life and seeing so much, are you satisfied? Razzak: Oh yes, without any doubt. I have no regrets. I made my passion my profession and Allah blessed me with power to do so. This is enough to make me feel satisfied and happy that I have given my best and worked hard my whole life. Kolachi: Working during this tiring month and being away from your family must be a little difficult? Razzak: Yes, it is, but some how we manage pretty well. Even my family gets worried about me but our work is such that we have to put in such hours. To gain something, one must sacrifice something. Kolachi: Now let us bring some flavour to our conversation, what are your offerings this Ramadan to Karachiites? Razzak: I have pakoray,
rolls, 'cutlass', samosay and even namak paray and kachorian Kolachi: Time whizzes by very fast during Ramadan, how long does it take you to prepare all the food? What do you consider your forte? Razzak: It takes me almost the whole day to prepare the food. I start at around 10 am in the morning, preparing and arranging things for the evening and then get free at about three in the afternoon. The work is as simple as it sounds but it does require one to toil a bit. As far as my specialty is concerned, people like my samosay and kachorian the most. Kolachi: What kind of costumers do you serve? Razzak: Mostly pedestrians and commuters. The basic purpose of setting up this food point was to provide better services to commuters and locals through our ready to eat food items. It is a good source of income. People rushing to their homes stop by and purchase our items. We even serve bus passengers, drivers, etc as well as other public transport owners as they need to stop and break their fast somewhere at times. Kolachi: Do people bargain during the rush hours before iftar? Razzak: When you talk about bargaining, ours is a not big stall. It is just a seasonal food point and this is why our prices are very low. So there is no need for people to resort to bargaining. Kolachi: Do you set up your food point every year in this month or is this a permanent one? Razzak: No, this is the first time this food point has been set up. My supervisor took a step to expand our services. The rest of the year we work in a local campus canteen. Kolachi: Are there any arrangements for sehri as well? Razzak: No, not at all. We cannot afford to go for that. People like Abdul Razzak might not be a part of our daily lives, but crop up during certain times of the year, endearing themselves to us. Razzak seemed to be a man very enthusiastic about the profession he has chosen and is very matter of fact when he speaks of the fact that his job takes up the better part of his day. Working hard to serve through his passion, energetic despite his age and the fact that he is fasting, and not allowing himself to stop for any reason, such is the life of this Karachi character. – Photos by the writer
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architecture it boasts of; with buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries
standing as a narration of the rise of the mercantile aristocracy. The
beautiful Roman arches made of fine Gizri stone, the carved stone balusters
on the walls and the Chhatar (pink sand stone found in Jodhpur, India) make
up structures built mostly by the "merchant princes," (as
architect and historian Yasmin Lari calls them) are reminiscent of times
when Victorian carts, not automobiles, plied on the road, merchants trading
in the financial sector of the British.
failed to
attract authorities' attention to its development, resulting in the road
always being jam-packed, people being looted outside ATMs and stagnant
sewage water after rains. Centuries old architectural heritage falls victim
to the passage of time, and the authorities' negligence bangs the last nail
in this coffin.
Stadium was proposed to be converted into a public park with restaurants
provided with a setting of umbrellas and chairs. Utilities too were supposed
to be shifted from the center to the sides of the road.
about
the parking plaza, pavement development and public park will be kept as they
seem too impractical.
wealthy, powerful feudal lords was not enough, as if they weren't already
being crushed enough under the weight of an existence lacking respect and
any form of human dignity, mother nature too decided to take her share and
in one of her cruel whims, devastated these people even further by
unleashing her fury on them. The damage caused by the floods in interior
Sindh didn't manage to garner media attention for too long, what with the
spicy political debates regarding the president, CJP and terrorism
dominating the spectrum. One has to visit these places to understand the
extreme suffering of these people. They are crying out to the world for
generous and urgent assistance: financial, psychological and spiritual.
Muhammad Patni village, lives a family that has been hit by this disaster.
Three women sit around looking desolate and forlorn; one of them rocks a
cradle made of her head scarf. Near her sits an old man under a straw shade
in front of a hut. To their right are two more huts, one partially and one
fully destroyed by the floods.
up; one would not hesitate to call him a real food connoisseur! The holy
month of Ramadan apart from the wonderful blessings it offers, also brings
with it certain special kinds of food which are characteristic to the month.
Abdul Razzak is a master at whipping up these delights, kachoris and samosas
being his specialty. He starts his day at a reasonably early hour, but
manages to wrap up work well before iftar and is all set to sell his treats
to ravenous customers! Razzak's best customers are commuters, rushing
through FB Area after work, stuck in traffic, and running out of time before
iftari, but find a saviour in the form of Abdul Razzak.
freshly fried well before Iftar at my food point. I make each and every item
with my own hands. After all, this is my duty, as a professional!