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[Credit : Asad Hameed]

Ever since the first coming of BB in Pakistan the doors to liberalism were thrown wide open and out came a whole lot of demons to our generally conservative society. Among them was the easy availabilty of home distelled liquor or moonshine which is brewed in shuttered garages and small back yard distilleries all across Karachi.

The current Minister of excise and taxation has started to address this problem by raiding several spots in this city where such liquor is openly bought and sold.

The sad part is that these raids are only being conducted for the benefit of the many “red and blue” colored government license shops operating across the city selling official liquor. The question thus is of taxes unpaid on the sale of homegrown liquor and not that this ill is spreading in our society without check.

Even putting aside the religious castration that drinking alcohol is attributed to, drinking home grown liquor can lead to blindness, fits as well as other side effects because the manufactiring is more of a bhatti kind then proper processing. As a city we need to recognize the wide sale of both imported and home grown liquor here and regularize the process rather than letting it operate on a bootleg basis. I regularly see kids and women lining up at a liquor shop near my workplace on the way back, and it chills my heart that people are being sold alcohol without check of age or any other verification.

The sooner we realize that this problem now exists in our society on a wide scale basis the faster we can engage it and try to address it. I appeal to our newly appointed Chief Justice to after coming into office take suo motto action on the unchecked sale of alcohol in Karachi and bring it out in the open.

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Yesterday Concern for Children Trust invited the press/media and journalists to cover an exhibition of art work and photographs created by the children of Macher colony. The artwork had previously been displayed in of a couple of exhibitions in different art  galleries in the city but only this time the display was where it had actually come from, the Macher colony it’s self. (more…)

An earlier announced Food Festival for a cause, by the Concern for Children Trust which was cancelled due to bad weather has been rescheduled for 15th Of February 2009. So participate have fun and make a difference for the underprivileged people of “Machar Colony”.

 

Details are as under: 

 

Date:        Sunday, December 21, 2008

Time:       11:00am – 6:00pm

Location:  Rahat Stadium, DHA

By Concern for Children Trust : http://concernforchildren.org.pk/

 

Entry Tickets to the event for a donation of Rs.100, are available at: Espresso, Muzika, Hot-Spot, The Elephant Warehouse and also at the venue.

The Society of Iqbal Sciences is holding its first session at Teachers’ Development Centre, 129G, Block 2, P.E.C.H.S., Karachi, on 7th of February 2009. The session will start from 3.00 pm and program contents are workshop, discussion and Q-A sitting and representation of literature on Iqbal (books and media) published by Iqbal Academy Pakistan.

The workshop will be conducted by Khurram Ali Shafique, Research Consultant for Iqbal Academy Pakistan and the author of Iqbal: An Illustrated Biography. Admission fee per person is Rs.50 per session.

Pre-session registration at henajawaid000@hotmail.com is required.

PS:Being a student of Mr. Khurram, I can guarantee that this would be worth your time as he has done extensive research on life and works of Iqbal having quite an intriguing perspective.

Enough busy because of coming deadline? or don’t want to drive few kilometers in order to save fuel? …. just make a call to your favorite restaurant for home/office delivery of your order! but … what? You don’t have phone number of your favorite restaurant?

Wait… Don’t worry! Karachi Metro is for you. Karachi Metro is a place where you can find phone numbers of popular spots in Karachi. Filter restaurants into different categories by a simple click. You can also find menus of different restaurant to find your favorite meal.

 Since a few days I am spending most of my time swatting flies, it is not that I don’t have anything better to do but when these tiny flying insects bother you beyond your limits of tolerance one has to take these measures, I have got the flours washed with Phenol, have tried bug spray on them but nothing seems to shatter their determination nor they reduce in number because they are plentiful all over the city.

 

Today I parked my car under a tree in North Nazimabad and within an hour there were at least a thousand of flies on the bonnet alone, two days ago I discovered one in the Biryani purchased from a famous Biryani Chain in the city, and today in the morning, Right in our own garden, along side the mint plants one committed suicide in my freshly brewed cup of coffee.   (more…)

In what may have been a three years of splendid coffee [covered by KMB in 2005 when it opened its doors], Costa Coffee has closed its operations across Karachi [& across Pakistan, as I am informed] as of January 1st 2009.

The location at Zamzama stands deserted, with a lone guard manning the front door probably to keep any stray coffee addicts away from rancoffee-beansacking the joint. The location at both D-Marts is deserted as well. Though the official statement [as narrated by the guard on duty] is that they have ‘closed down for renovations’, but the other competing coffee house ‘down the street’ narrates a story of tremendous business losses, as practically everything was being imported from abroad and sustainability in this economic down turn did not bode well for the Pakistani operations.

I for sure will miss out on its coffee …. but more importantly Pakistan also stands to loose on this franchise, as it would surely not set a good example for other similar ventures in the future.

The winter month of december is ending in its full and nippy glory here in Karachi and the never ending series of weddings just keeps going on and on and on. Not only are the residents of this city being made to suffer due to 12 hour load shedding in these cold and desperate times but they also have to lie awake listening to band baja’s, firing and fire works of each and every capacity accompanied by loud and vlugar Indian music and dhols in the middle of the night.

When will this all stop? Each year everyone who is going to get married does their best to schedule a date in this month and then proceeds to indulge in the most possible waste of money that they can manage. It starts from exorbitant amounts spent on clothes and jewelry to crazy decorations to the biggest waste of them all, the food that is leftover after these weddings. I remember a time when 3-4 dishes would be good enough for any palette but unfortunately in the race to outdo one another we have turned elegance to debauchery at the buffet.

Have we ever paused to think what any family has to go through these days to manage a “decent” wedding for their offspring? Not only is a hell of a lot of food just thrown away but this is being done in a time where most of us cannot even afford to waste anything at all. The recent and insane rise in prices of edibles in this city means that caterers which used to charge 250 to 300 rs a head do not even blink in offering the same menu for 500-650 rs a head.

Cities all over Pakistan have adopted the one dish rule for example Lahore and Faisalabad where this is being enforced to a large extent by the law enforcement and marriage halls. Why can we not implement such a law for Karachi which limits not only the number of dishes kept in a wedding banquet, but also the amount of noise one can generate and uptill what hours.

If we can control the amount of food consumption and wastage in our weddings perhaps this will reduce the artificial levels of demand in the local market and bring down the prices of edibles to the benefit of us all.

I appeal to the city government to make and enforce the one dish rule as well as a noise pollution rule for us Karachites and enforce it with its full power to ensure both the regular supply of edibles in the local market and a peaceful nights sleep for all of us, even if it is in complete darkness.

Punishment to those breaking this rule should be to consume their offered buffet for one week straight while listening to the nerve racking sounds of pappu can’t dance salaa!

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