Omar Kureishi died yesterday at the age of 77. He was probably one of the most well-known citizens of Karachi. With links to the worlds of cricket, journalism, and advertising, he was immensely popular. I think his nephew is the famous British writer Hanif Kureishi, but I’d need to confirm that from other sources.
The English Speaking Union (ESU) debating competition,which is one of the most prestigious,international debating contest,is all the rage in Karachi schools these days.The auditions are being held in each school respectively and the regional debates will be held on the 22nd of March 2005.Karachi being the headquarter,gets to present 6 best debators,while Lahore and Islamabad will be represented by 2 each.The National debates will be held on the 23rd of this month and two best speakers,male and female,will be representing Pakistan in London on the 13th of May 2005.*sigh* What I wouldn’t do for an all expense paid adventure of this sort..but *sigh* Best of luck to the karachites! Hope you kick some arse!
A fabulous exhibition that’s being held currently at the Mohatta Palace, the most beautiful landmark in Karachi. They’ve done an excellent job of getting artifacts, photos, and archived records of Karachi in the days of the Raj. I think a few photos of my family members are up there - a great grandfather or two, a grandfather. If you haven’t seen this already you must go, although now that the weather’s turned humid, take along plenty of bottled water and a portable fan too because the upper area of the museum gets very hot and stuffy.
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Well, hello everyone. This is an experiment I’ve been watching for some time and I’ve decided I’d like to be a part of it. So thanks for having me on board. Right now I’m feeling the effects of weather shock; the change in Karachi’s weather from the 70s for about four months to now the 90s in the last three days has got me in a spin. Still, it makes for some beautiful gardens and blooming flowers. Some neighborhoods of Karachi have the most amazing plants and flowers. Here’s a picture I took of a tree in bloom.
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An image from our family archives dated 1953 of Karachi. It is a view of the Ilaco House and Victoria Road (now Abdullah Haroon Road). The trees are where Hotel Jabees stands today.
Karachi sure had some class back then (black suited men and snazzy old cars) does the gentlemen class still exist?
I got so many requests for the wallpaper that I decided to make it public instead of sending it to everyone separately. We are all lazy, aren’t we?
Beyond the electronic market in Saddar, Karachi, lies a road, dotted by shops, restaurants and more importantly, streams of vehicles, passing by. Hidden away behind the clouds of smog lies a building, once a house, or an office, or a place, where people lived. A 100 years later, it lies obscured from view, because one is too busy too look around and see what could have been.
When one mentions ice cream in karachi your mind goes straight to Baloch or Rajoos, both located at Boat Basin. In case you are in the mood for a faloda you should pick Baloch while Rajoos would be a better choice for the peshawari ice cream. Then there is Iceberg in saddar, love his kulfis and blueberry and strawberry ice creams.
One of my favorite restauarants in Karachi used to be Ponderosa. Situated on Stadium Road, it was the only place that served authentic South Indian food in the 90s. When their lease expired, and McDonalds moved in, Ponderosa packed up and shifted to the mini-foodstreet of Karachi, Mohammad Ali Society and then to Seaview. While the Seaview branch has now closed, a friend discovered that Ponderosa was still open at Mohammad Ali Society (in the lane next to KayBees). I recently visited the place and while they have certainly fallen from grace in terms of customers, the food continues to be mouthwateringly delicious and satisfying, with crisp dosas and freshly made idli sambhar.
Today while I was coming home from work, I witnessed an interesting event.
It so happened that a man was probably travelling in bus for the first time and was not much familiar with the streets. He wanted to get off at nursery bus stop, but was very skeptical that he might miss it, so he was asking from other passengers and the conducter that whether or not nursery was approaching. Finally nursery came and he was informed by the conductor that your stop is coming and come at the gate. But instead of standing and waiting at the last step of the bus exit, he kept waiting where other passengers stand. It seemed as if he was afraid of the bus and didn’t want to stand too close to the door. This annoyed the conductor and he went, “bhai saab gate per aa jao na”. But the poor guy was too scared.
In the mean time the stop came and as the bus drivers usually do, he didn’t stop the bus completely, but slowed it down just enough for the passengers to get out. So when the bus slowed down enough the conductor just pushed the man out of the bus door because he was still not close enough to the exit (maybe he was waiting for the bus to come at a complete halt (this is karachi, stupid!))
And thus starts a fight. Between the conductor and the nervous traveller. It could have been a nice show but the driver was impatient (or maybe intelligent) so he started moving the bus and the conductor had to get on it. Otherwise it could have been a bloody war.
