Karachi…
A city that never sleeps, a city that was known as “city of lights” (and now, is in dark, average 730 hours of the year), A city where there is no trust, no security only hi-alerts.
A city in the streets of which daily dies more than a person in either car/road accident, in ambulance (due to traffic jams), in mobile snatching, robbery, police encounter or get murdered by “unknown people” for “unknown reasons” (and these unknowns are never known). Every six months (on average) a bomb blast, hundreds die, thousands affected.
A city which despite of so much, is still full of life!
Every Saturday night dance parties, every other night bottles of wine opened up-for no reasons (and absolute reasons) to celebrate. Concerts (sometimes in the name of charity), thousands of eat outs full of people, streets jam packed with cars, loud music….
“We have all the reasons to celebrate, we are descendants of the city they call “Karachi“”.
And your point is
hey i will be moving to karachi after 10 years, any tips for readjusting
Wow unaiza pretty gutsy. You realise that a lot of people dont want to see wine and dance parties being spoken about without negative connotations? the feedback is going to be pretty fierce i guess you dont care. Power to you.
You know what i wouldve said after all the violence stuff?
That our city’s mentality has historically been welcoming to all – ultr libs, ultra fundo’s, other religions, other ethnicities, women etc etc.
That individuality and freedom is (comparatively ofcourse)respected.
That like all coastal cities we have that big city cosmopolitan feel to us.
That we drive our countries economy with our industry (70% of the buisness revenue of the country)
That the city never sleeps
That we have loads of reasons to celebrate, although we certainly have enough to complain about too.
I dont know if we really have to drink and dance to be happy, but some people like to and i am really happy that they dont end up dead b/c of it.
I’d much rather be from karachi than any other city in the world because for all our poverty and problems the city has incredible heart and for the most part a great mind too. Thats rare.
@ASH: Is it not all true???
When people can do it, why not have guts to talk about it.
Good or bad, these activities are carried out and hence, talked about.
Just wondering how much of Karachi celebrate by going to dance parties or wine parties for whatever reasons?!? In my opinion this is not life at all…and don’t even depict Karachi, may be someone sitting in a defense bungalow can call it a life, but i won’t because this is our so-called fragile definition of life in which we have packed ourselves
The city is called lively if it has tons of cultural activities where people from all the segments of life can participate ( not only rich ), take for example theatres ( you can hardly find 2 or 3 in this big megapolis ), take for example live events where you can watch something or participate by just walking down to your office or home ( street performers I call them ), take for example places where you can go together with your family and friends and have a great time ( here we have so called family parks and shopping malls, if you are single or without a female companion you are deprived of LIFE ), ergh, that’s what Islam teaches us? and now these bans are becoming common, ever heard things like these 20 years back, i must say NO!
Life sprouts from the canteen of a college university where you can have some talk and tea, now fear of mullahs ( jamiat ) lies everywhere… I don’ know which Islam they preach..
Life is just going about the streets and interacting with people, have the pleasure to walk down the road with a stranger and here in our beloved city, travel with the fear of being looted or being deprived of your cell phone? NEVER trust a stranger that’s what your mom teaches you!
Life is roaming around with family, friends, girl friend boy friend or whatever without any fear or is it being teased away by the bikers shouting and staring at you and your family as if hungry wolfs…
Sorry, but i don’t agree with this definition of life in Karachi, its just something which is sequence of events, its going on and it’ll get worse.
When you don’t have ethics, law and order and respect for others I don’t think there’s any life at all, like its said “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life” do we have any?
can we celebrate the city a little less often to keep it just that much more special!
can we celebrate the city a little less often to keep it just that much more special!
couldn’t agree more with turab. its getting a little too “miss goody-two-shoes” for me.
hey how about a post on the amendments to the hudood ordinance?
A pointless post.
If the mention of dancing and drinking was meant to somehow make us feel better about being karachiites…i feel sorry for you and for the karachiites who think it is something to be proud of.
—
Unaiza, I do not quite get the drift of your post. Were you in anyways trying to be sarcastic towards the way Karachiites celebrate or do you really perceive that celebrations in Karachi can not be complete without a dance party and a wine bottle?
Your post points at two completely different aspects of life in Karachi but then again, it gives the message that you see things merely as Black and White… when infact it’s always several shades of grey :)
The things mentioned by Unaiza merely represent 1% of the entire city and majority doesn’t care about it. I feel good about karachi because:
-we generate a big part of revenue[60-70%] of entire country[ That's other thing that we re not blessed]
- Karachiites give more charity/donations than other part of the country.
-Edhi.
@ Turab: Lol, and you didn’t had to post your comments thrice, once was enough.
@ Unaiza: I think, you meant ‘Residents’ and not ‘Descendants’. none of us is an offspring of this mega city, but we sure are residents of this megapolis.
@ Unaiza: I am trully sorry to say this, but I do agree with Kidal, that this is a pointless post. I mean how many times are you going to write just about ‘Karachi’. Give us (the readers) some stimulating topics to discuss about.
@ Turab: Sorry, I meant to say, twice, and not thrice….many appologies.
Forget the post and enjoy this amazing video about Karachi.
theres a very small number of ppl who are partying and dancing and doing all the things Unaiza mentioned. Is it right or wrong, we are no one to say anything about that.
We have definately westernised alot in last couple of years, i could be wrong but i like to believe its the effect of 911. Alot of ppl moved to Pakistan and dollar convertion rate made em rich.
@Sajid,
Excellent comment
@fauzan : yes, i was showing a contrast in life.
the black n white, how people dance, drunk and lost in their wealth forget of what the other part of the society goes through.
I totally agree that people who are involved in these activities are very few but then these people are wealthy enough or may be I should say resourceful enough to make a difference.
@Umer
So America disowned these people :P… How’d 9/11 make ‘em move? was it racism there? or is it just that they were on temp visas trying to get citizenship?
It’s such a shame to see how drinking and partying is considered to be “cool” … when people move away from Pakistan they realise their values, and try to cling to them :P as opposed to the Americanisation which seems to be happening there!
what quite amusing is that a post as pointless as this has still managed to recieve a significant number of responses.
sweetheart , you should really consider taking Writing 101 at a half-decent school . trying to sound intellectual and artsy is’nt really working and having the reverse effect of making your posts sound artificial , hollow and dumb.
and as far as the content of this post goes whats the point ? what is this like an exercise in stating the obvious ????
love , peace and rus malai
DV
Hooray, let’s drink alcohol and pretend we’re white.
Good stuff coconut: brown on the outside, white on the inside. On behalf of the millions of Karachiites who aren’t of the privileged class, let me be the first to offer you a giant STFU!
I think Unaiza has shown the contrast of Karachi.side by side…but you don’t have to identify yourself what she has written becuase there are many shades of Karachi and dance parties and wines are the part of karachi life though we can say (depending upon where one lives) marginally.
I think Unaiza has shown the contrast of Karachi.side by side…but you don’t have to identify yourself what she has written becuase there are many shades of Karachi and dance parties and wines are the part of karachi life though we can say (depending upon where one lives) marginally.
Well, she has her point but this happen in a capitalist, run-behind-money society. Class gap is getting wider with each passing day and everybody is jumping in the rat race of get rich or die trying. We are immitating the western culture where the work 6 days to ‘enjoy’ the 7th and start from 0 again on monday.
“A city which despite of so much, is still full of life!”
@unaiza: BAD ENGLISH, woman. its “..which inspite of so much…” i swear, some of the pathetic english we see on KMB, esp. from mansoor and YOU, is so unnerving.
dont learn english, but drink your stupid wine and dance to your english pop, total coconut, man.that is ONE thing i absolutely HATE about karachiites, the wannabe, pseudo-something tendencies.
GET A LIFE and YES this post is POINTLESS POINTLESS POINTLESS… or in the spirit of good engligh:
its INANE, JEJUNE and NONSENSICAL (have fun with the dictionary)
hey unaiza
“@ASH: Is it not all true???
When people can do it, why not have guts to talk about it.
Good or bad, these activities are carried out and hence, talked about”
At this point i just respect your ability to be honest and not try to placate anyone.
I think that its a little hard to tell from your post whether you were denouncing or rejoicing about the dancing/drinking thing.
I am sure there was more to what you wanted to say that didnt come across.
Some people have better english than others, but what you have to say counts for more than how you say it – at least for me.
Lastly i think your posts always get a big crowd reaction so I think we can assume you are doing a good job here!
@arsalan,
non taken, but it was an internet glitch and not my fault completely…. no spam intended here.
@Kumail .. LOL :) truly amazing how many responses this thing has generated
generation of responses is no barometer for the quality of blogging…
did it occur to you all, that some people might just be too appalled at the complete immaturity and bad quality of the post, so as not to have spoken out…
@unaiza: sis, if you want to make a statement about “taboo” issues or the hypocritical nature of pakistani society, i’m ALL for that, its time we toss out our own dirty laundry and take a good look at it, but you DON’T have to do it INdirectly… isnt that creating just another layer of gray over already existing gray.??.. if that makes sense…
peace
20,000 comments well done karachi…keep it up!
ONE thing i absolutely HATE about karachiites, the wannabe, pseudo-something tendencies
*nods* but not with Karachi only. Do you forget Lahore?
911 just became good enough of a reason for ppl to move, specially those who were thinking about it for ages and couldnt convince there families/kids to move back..
they felt insecure and just moved back
again.. this is my two cents.. could be wrong
I’m thankful that most KMB readers have recognized how utterly useless this woman Unaiza is. I love how the internet allows for self-regulation!
mean elidog. just mean. why do you read her posts? maybe you should try self regulation :(
Hey guys, I was reading each and every reply but when I saw Zahra’s, I was like “THATS IT” man.
Unaiza man come on, give us a break. We are now tired of such b*llshit posts.
@Zahra man, pls teach me English. I am in desperate need of an English techer.. seriously.
hey, i tried to post again, but they DIDNT publish it. HAHA, damned censorship. lets see if this one sees the light…
@ELIDOG: i totally agree with you man, im glad people are realizing..
@ASH: what you’re asking elidog to do is: NOT self regulation, its SELF CENSORSHIP, which in most peoples books is a bigger crime than externally imposed censorship itself…
i wouldnt have expected someone like you to say that…:(
@keep walking: your english is fine, just keep walkin’ ;) or go teach unaiza
P.S. to all those who were saying, oh! look at how many replies this post has generated, that is absolutely NO barometer for the quality of blogging..
did it occur to you that some people were just to appalled not to have said something…???
“people were just to appalled”
Umm Zahra, why not start with correcting
yourself? “just too appalled”
zahra: tsk tsk! the whole point of blogging is letting out what you feel. If you want news and such, go read a newspaper.. im pretty sure Dawn would come up to your “high standards” of english. If unaiza feels so passionate about our city, then its her right to post it here. It may be pointless to you, but there are other ways to interpret it as well. Every so often, we need to take time out to realize what this city is about.. not just continuously criticize every decision taken.
Secondly, i take it positively when some of the readers take time out to correct our english. It is not our first language, and infact, we dont use it much even verbally to communicate. If bashing on linguistic capability is what you’re all about, then i suggest you take it elsewhere.
This comment has gone on long enough.. so i’ll stop, hope i got my point across.
@Mansoor,
Very well written comment.
@Zahra,
Sweetheart, ever heard of the old adage
“People who live in glass houses should not
throw stones”?
@faisal, ever heard of a typo? and im not your sweetheart, uncle ;) and no, i’ve never heard the “adage” lol
also, i agree that a part of metroblogging should be dedicated to the “ooohhh, i LOVE my city” type of posts but not every second day, i mean GROW UP, talk ABOUT the ciy, WHAT you love/enjoy doing there. unaiza rights an “ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh i Luuuuvvee karachiiii” post every few days, and they have no SUBSTANCE, in fact they’re childish and winny
the other thing, that really annoyed me about this post was: the muted references to the “taboo” issues like drinking in our pathetically hypocritical society, if you want to discuss such things: DO SO DIRECTLY, not in a sly, passive manner… cos thats just creating more gray over an already existing gray cover…if you want a discussion about something, start a direct thread on that…
peace
@faisal, ever heard of a typo? and im not your sweetheart, uncle ;) and no, i’ve never heard the “adage” lol
also, i agree that a part of metroblogging should be dedicated to the “ooohhh, i LOVE my city” type of posts but not every second day, i mean GROW UP, talk ABOUT the ciy, WHAT you love/enjoy doing there. unaiza rights an “ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh i Luuuuvvee karachiiii” post every few days, and they have no SUBSTANCE, in fact they’re childish and winny
the other thing, that really annoyed me about this post was: the muted references to the “taboo” issues like drinking in our pathetically hypocritical society, if you want to discuss such things: DO SO DIRECTLY, not in a sly, passive manner… cos thats just creating more gray over an already existing gray cover…if you want a discussion about something, start a direct thread on that…
peace
yup comment held again, for “approval”. thank you, stalin
@Mansoor : Bull Crap- the whole point of blogging on KMB is NOT letting out how you feel without any substance to the post or showing your skills of pathetically 4th class creative writing and critical thinking e.g ,” and these unknowns are nver known ” ..WOW ..that was deep- i think Confucius is turning in his grave right about now – you do this dip-shittery on your personal blog , i am pretty sure the idea is foreign to you . secondly , yes English is not our native language but that is the language of MB (deal with this reality) and if you wnat to contribute here as a Author you better EFFING know something about how to write in English , my nephew in 5th grade in a school in khi can do much much better than some of the authors here.
and last but not the least , if YOU dont like the comments posted here ….why dont you take a hike and go post somewhere else – where mediocrity is apprecited .
as always
love to all
Vader , the Dark Sith
hey zahra,
I am all for non censorship. But if elidog already knows that he doesnt like unaiza’s posts what compells him to keep reading them? i am saying he should exercise the option of skipping her posts (self regulation)
Also, english is the path not the destination. Some people are better than others, that doesnt mean the not so good should stop posting.
Personally i think unaiza’s posts and her pics are really good despite the grammatical errors.
@Mansoor – I was hoping to stay out of this one but your comment has made me respond :) . Actually I am still scratching my head over ‘descendant of the city’ and I do want Faisal to help me out; I really think Unaiza meant ‘denizens’. You can’t be descendants of a place, can you?
Anyway, on to Mansoor’s points:
1. Airing your personal feelings is the whole point of your personal blog; here, on the metblog, we do expect posts relating to the city and what is going on there.
2. Dawn has so many errors and is so poorly written at times that I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
3. I know that English is not our first language, but a lot of the poeple in Pakistan do communicate in English half the time. Just listen to any conversation and you will hear that it is seldom pure Urdu (or any other Paksitani language). I know that most of the schools teach all subjects in English. So that makes me wonder why people who have been taught English and taught in English from an early age, can still not use it properly? And I am talking about very simple and ‘basic stuff’; such as the use of apostrophes. Is our education system so poor?
P.S.(I do remember that you have told me that you welcome any corrections I offer and I appreciate that.)
I know that mine latest ‘comment’ will add further stars to this post, but I had to say it: What started as a POINTLESS post, have became one of the few SUCCESSFUL posts of Unaiza’s.
This shows that we, the Pakistanis have nothing better to do, but to argue needlessly on the net and on the SUBJECT which was as pointless as the COMMENTS following it.
dv: im pretty sure your nephew can do a much better job, what has he to do with MB.. thats what im not sure about. Communication is pretty how people make it. Its the human factor in it.. if not, then why are new words being added to the dictionary all the time? So okay, we dont have grammar equivalent to the ‘queens english’ or whichever u prefer, but its part of how we communicate. If you understand what we’re meaning to say.. we’ve pretty much achieved what we set out to do. And if its all the same to you, i’d rather keep writing here. (as if i care)
ash: Also, english is the path not the destination. Some people are better than others, that doesnt mean the not so good should stop posting. i wonder when people will get off their high horses and actually start accepting this fact!
original-anon: i was gonna sit this one out too.. but oh well, you cant have everything. Personal blogs are for blogging about personal life, agreed. But when those personal feelings cross with the city, its bloggable here (atleast by our definition). Waise bhee, she’s (unaiza) is new here.. let her get these feelings out. Eventually, we all turn to blogging on activities of the city.
secondly, the reference to dawn was in a sarcastic manner :p i know only too well how poorly written at times their articles are. so at least we agree there.
third, “a lot of people in pakistan” ?????????? oh come on man! I didnt expect such generalizations from you atleast. Move around any of the office buildings here and see how many english conversations you’ll hear. (thats where u expect the educated crowd). People talk in whatever language they’re comfortable with, be it english, urdu, pushto, sindhi, punjabi or whatever! i know many people who can communicate well using english yet use their regional language (sindhi, punjabi, memoni etc) whenever possible.
And yes, our education system sadly is :p anyone who is any good at communicating using english is mostly doing on personal initiative.. NOT thanks to the schooling system. Or have parents who guided them.
arsalan: lolzzzz!!!!
i was scrolling down the answers, people talking about good english and what not, and see arsalan’s “mine last comment”….oh GOD,unless thats some new age trend in karachi that im not aware of….that’s just…
@ash: you’ve made your point, i might not agree with you, but in a way you’re right- we cant expect all post at KMB to be of the same standard
@ ARSALAAN: thats NON SENSE, the number of replies generated by a post is by NO NO NO means a barometer for the blogging quality! and the replies are not as pointless as the post…
peace
p.s. correction to one of my posts above it’s “unazia writes…” hehe
I am just wondering if there could be a position for Zahara as the official spell/grammar checker of this blog.
I dont know you personaly, but I find your judging the quality of contributions on this blog primarily by the sytantical accuracy to be extremly shallow. The idea is to get the point across, if you can comprehend what is being said then great, otherwise just ask for an explanation.
As for responses, the only thing they prove in this case is that people love to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Whatever happened to freedom of speech, Unaiza wanted to say something, she did, if you like it fine other wise just ignore it and move forward. As pointless it maybe its not come at an expense to anyone. Thats what rants are all about.
Also Zahra do excuse any gramatical slip ups or spelling mistakes in this response, the mind thinks much faster than the fingers type.
@ Zahra: Okay, I made a mistake and I admit it. The word should had been ‘my’ and not ‘mine’….many apologies for offending you.
Now, since I have apologized to you, I think it is now your turn to do the same to me.
In case you don’t know, what I am talking about, then re-read your last ‘comment’.
You talk about good English, well, your ‘english’ is almost as ‘flawless’ with the absence of proper punctuation and capital letters (where required) as anyone else’s.
I think that was enough to make it as a suitable candidate for, how shall I put it, a POINTLESS COMMENT.
And I have never ever mentioned anywhere at KMB that the number of comments are in any way a barometer for quality of the post. My comments (more than one for this post) have indicated that in my opinion this post doesn’t give out any meaningful information to the readers. Thus, to me, that makes it a meaningless post. And then we have people like you posting irrelevant and useless comments that too in INCORRECT English, all the while advocating CORRECT English to others.
My two cents worth!!! :-))
I am just wondering if there could be a position for Zahara as the official spell/grammar checker of this blog.
Since current govt recently passed a bill for women so I think we should promote Zahra. I am tired of seeing Faisal and Orignal All the time strugging to fix others *grin*
ok, ok, ARSALAAN and KUMAIL, the WHITE FLAG is being waved!! peace guys, let unaiza say what she wants, however she wants. and you guys post whatever you want, however you want, in whatever syntactic (and not syntantical, ooh i couldnt resist!) structure you want… (even though that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with FREE speech, i mean how did that even get into the subject..??!?!)
adnan, i appreciate the support but after the response i’ve received on this thread vis-a-vis good english or correcting others’ english….thanks but no thanks, man, let someone else do the job…if at all!
peace