Karachi Metblogs » kar_faisal

Congratulations To All My Pakistani Brothers & Sisters..

kar_faisal — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 08:36:07 +0000

on the absolutely stunning performance by our cricket team. The scorecard right now says:

Ireland require another 12 runs with 3 wickets and 60 balls remaining

I am so happy, I just cannot believe my eyes. Anyways, I congratulate all the readers of KMB for the brilliant performance by our team.

Sweet. Sweet Sweet..

Is Pakistan Going Down?

kar_faisal — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 05:05:56 +0000

Take Our Poll from PollDaddy.com

Reading a recent news article on BBC made me question myself? Is Pakistan going down?

So many things going wrong at the same time.
- differences with India, Afghanistan & Iran.
- economy not doing any wonders
- removal of chief justice
- street crime in all major cities of the country
- extremist elements in NWFP and other parts of the country
- PIA crisis
- diminishing exports
- failure in cricket
- disappearance/kidnapping of Pakistani Citizens by the agencies..
- major water crisis in the making

The list can go on & on.. its such a difficult time for our country.
I just pray that our country makes it against all these odds.

Ameen.

Visual Updates

kar_faisal — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 04:31:42 +0000

Democracy at its best

kar_faisal — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:34:59 +0000

More than 20 lawyers were hurt after policemen wielding batons tried to break up the protest in Lahore.
- BBC

A picture speaks a thousand words.
God Bless Pakistan.

Video of the Day: Bohri Bazar

kar_faisal — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:58:58 +0000

Found this nice video by Shajazi, who did it as a assignment for school. Thank you for sharing. Very nicely done.

Where in Karachi #90?

kar_faisal — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:21:47 +0000

Tell the exact location, shouldn’t be too hard.

Click for a bigger version.

The Elite and the Masses

kar_faisal — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 11:53:33 +0000

In form, Pakistan is a democracy; in practice, it is an oligarchy. The ruling groups – civil servants, politicians, lawyers, and a few industrialists, educators, and military officers – have much in common. All can speak English and are familiar with English law, history, and customs; most have been educated in England. Members of this ruling class tend to have a secular rather than a religious or parochial approach to most important problems and are characterized by a vested interest in the success, stability, and permanence of Pakistan. Most live well, travel widely, and have several servants. Perhaps one person in ten thousand will be a member of this influential group.

There is another educated class in Pakistan, considerably larger in size, that does not live so well. The majority are clerks who work in the cities and whose low income barely suffices to pay the costs of an urban existence in a period of slowly rising prices, Petty officials, school teachers, and small shopkeepers also belong to this class, which comprises between 1 and 2 per cent of the working population.
The overwhelming proportion of Pakistan’s citizens is in a third category. They strive merely to exist. They till the soil, perform menial and manual tasks of all kinds, live in an isolated village or an urban slum, visit the mosque and the bazaar, and pass their days in the customary pattern of family and village existence. They accept guidance from those more fortunate but in times of illness or famine rarely seek such guidance. Their way of life has not changed appreciably through the centuries, nor is it likely to change in the immediate future. Their primary concern is obtaining food, water, a small quantity of cloth, and shelter from the weather.
Both the first and the third groups are conservative, for different reasons: the first group has a vested interest in things as they are; the third group is too concerned with survival and too ignorant and isolated to press for change. Any radical political movements would probably get the most sympathetic hearing from those in the second category, which is restive and dissatisfied but not yet politically powerful.
To raise the living standards of the masses requires the greatest diligence and patience on the path of those who direct and operate the government, industry, and education institutions. The country’s resources are marginal at best. There is a shortage of skilled personnel of all types, yet those who are skilled often fail to find suitable jobs. There are signs that too few fully understand the importance of acting in “the public interest.” Pakistan’s future status as a nation may largely depend on the ability of those in positions of influence to place the public interest first even though it may conflict with their immediate personal interests and security.

A chapter from a book printed some 43 years ago, still holds so much truth about our society. Looks like nothing has changed in the last 4 decades and we are still the same exact nation as we were.. or even worst.

Some Aspects of Contemporary Pakistani Society
NOTE: I will be posting some more chapters from the book as I find time..

Nihari Ki Kahani

kar_faisal — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:27:10 +0000

Will update this post later, filhaal Nihari ki kahani enjoy karein ..

But if I could, I would make Burns Road one of the cleanest and best looking place in Karachi. All traffic banned.

Karachi Before 1900

kar_faisal — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 08:35:57 +0000

Bird’s Eye View, Clifton Road
Photograph with a view looking along Clifton Road in Karachi.

Napier Mole Bridge to Keamari
Photograph taken by an unknown photographer in Karachi, c.1900, with a general view along the iron Napier Mole bridge connecting Karachi with Kiamari

The Empress Market
Photograph of Empress Market in Karachi, taken by an unknown photographer, c.1900,

The Empress Market was constructed between 1884 and 1889 and was named to commemorate Queen Victoria, Empress of India. It was designed by James Strachan, the foundations were completed by the English firm of A.J. Attfield, and the building constructed by the local firm of ‘Mahoomed Niwan and Dulloo Khejoo’. The building was arranged around a courtyard, 130 ft by 100 ft, with four galleries each 46 ft wide. The galleries provided accommodation for 280 shops and stall keepers; at the time of its construction it was one of seven markets in Karachi.

Bird’s Eye View, Clifton Road
Photograph with a view looking along Clifton Road in Karachi.

Karachi City Street View
Photograph of a busy street scene in Karachi, taken by an unknown photographer

Trans-Lyari Market
At the end of the nineteenth century the Trans-Lyari Quarter of the city was made up of a cluster of poor settlements mostly consisting of reed and mud plastered huts with some more permanent dwellings. At this time one-quarter of the population of Karachi lived in this area across the Lyari River.

Karachi Gymkhana
The British had also developed the concept of gymkhanas or sports-houses which provided facilities for all sorts of sports and games for the colonial population in the sub-continent. The Karachi Gymkhana Club, located on Scandal Point (later Club) Road, was a large Tudor-style building, constructed in 1886.

Bird’s Eye View Victoria Road
Photograph with a view of Karachi looking in a northerly direction along Victoria Road, with St Andrew’s Church visible in the distance, taken by an unknown photographer, c.1900.

Bird’s Eye View Suddar Bazaar
The Saddar Bazaar at Karachi followed a typical gridiron plan; all the major north-south streets of the Bazaar were laid out at right angles to Bunder Road, Frere, Somerset and Elphinstone Streets which along with Victoria Road, linked the northern part of the cantonment to the southern part. The area soon developed into the most fashionable part of the city, supplying the needs of both its civilian and military parts.

Clerk Street, Suddar Bazaar
Photograph with a view looking along Clifton Road in Karachi.

Part of the town of Karachi (Sind), with Mud Houses; Camels and Villagers in Foreground – April 1851
Water-colour of Karachi (Sind) by Henry Francis Ainslie (c.1805-1879), April 1851. Inscribed on the front of the mount in red ink is: ‘Sindh, part of the native town of Kurrachee, 1851.’
Originally Karachi was a small village made up of a cluster of fishermen’s huts on the three islands of Manora, Bhit and Baba. Due to it’s location at the western end of the Indus delta the town has traditionally served as an important gateway for trade into central Asia. With the development of its harbour it gradually grew into a large city and an important centre of trade and industry.

Note: Got these pictures in an email. So glad my friend sent it to me. Amazing pictures. So much space in Karachi. Love them..
## for bigger pictures, click on them and on the Flickr page click “All Sizes”

All pictures are property of British Library.

Kurrachee: Kar√°ch√≠

kar_faisal — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:37:36 +0000

Crochey, Krotchey Bay, Caranjee, Koratchey, Currachee, Kurrachee & Kar√°ch√≠
, are only a few of its many appellations and ways of spelling, the last being the official one, according to the Imperial Gazetteer of India, but it does not appear to have been, by any means generally adopted up to the present time.
The penultimate of the above names, Kurrachee, is most frequently found in domestic, mercantile, and even in official correspondence, but in its use there are many anomalies.
For instance: there is a Chamber of Commerce of Kurrachee, the annual reports of which are stated on the title-page to have been printed at Kar√°ch√≠; the Superintendent of the Scinde, Punjaub and Delhi at Kar√°ch√≠, but dates his letter from Kurrachee; and the Government of India, in a Report on the Internal Trade of the Punjab, adopts the reformed spelling in writing of the district, but calls the Port of Sind Kurrachee.

Note: I found this old book called Kurrachee Past, Present & Future written by Alexander F. Baillie and published in Calcutta in 1890 and Reprinted in Pakistan in 1975. So I will be sharing some excerpts from the book everyone once in a while.