The events of 1971 were a part of the history long before I was born but even years later in the mid 80s as a primary school child I could smell the stench of the vicious broth we had cooked to suppress, degrade, demoralize, dominate and disgrace our very own people, the people of Bangladesh.

I remember being a student of class 4, one day I heard a fellow student use the term “Bhookay Bengali” as a derogatory remark to another fellow student of a slightly dark complexion. That day when I got back home I asked my mother why Bengalis are called hungry? And why the term Bengali is considered a derogatory remark ? It is when she told me how we over powered them used them to our advantage, made them work hard for us and paid them less then half of what they deserved and in terms of respect we gave them none.

It was this day this I first realized how in human we had been to these people. But as time passed and as I grew older historic events, stories and accounts of the events of 1971 kept coming to my knowledge. The picture kept becoming more and more gruesome, the scale went up to a level where it literally became a haunting scene. It painted an undeniable picture narrating the shear brutality we showed towards our Bengali sisters and brothers.

yesterday an evening of literary reading was held at t2f, a local café and the book which was read from was “Fault Lines” an anthology of stories of 1971 by noted authors from both Bangladesh and Pakistan and a few others from this same region, compiled and edited by Niaz Zaman and Asif Farrukhi, both of them eminent writers and noted literary figures from Bangladesh and Pakistan respectively, who were present for the evening along sides with noted writers Intizar Hussain, Asad Mohammad Khan and the editor Books and Reviews (DAWN) Saima Hussain to read out their contributions and share their stories, views and thoughts with the audience.

The event started with the Urdu version of “Fork Lift No. 352″ a story by Asad Mohammad Khan. Which followed by a thoughtfully placed question by Asif Farrukhi: “Do we yet have any competent “driver” for the faulty “fork lifts”, to run them smoothly, and how would we know if the drivers are competent or not ?”. We may blame the faulty fork lift or the driver for his incompetence to trace the fault in time, but form the damage that has already been done have we yet learned something or not ? Was the question which instantly popped up in my mind.

The event continued, Intizar Hussain shared his views of the time and Asif Farrukhi  read an excerpt of his writing from the book while Niaz Zaman followed by sharing her story of those years in history, and her views and expressed her grieve for the unjust sad and later much regretted events which effected the common people of both the sides. 

By looking at the whole picture specially with the prospective I hold, it was not too difficult to see that we had pushed the people of Bangladesh to a point where they were actually cornered and were left with not many options at their hand.

 It was Only three days back when I came across this link, a link which narrated an incident of a horrifying war crime committed against some innocent women. the people we deliberately rendered poor and helpless we victimized, just because we could and yesterday’s event left me with a heavy heart, I had always been ashamed to meet the eyes with any Bengali, although I was not a part of the brutality which was unleashed upon the innocent people to favor just a handful few but still I feel the guilt. For these Crimes and incidents I do not blame the army, I do not blame the foreign elements, I don’t blame anyone else but my self. Me, and the people who took advantage of them, who never stood-up for them, who never raised their voice against the unjust, We never talked to our children about it, we never told the stories we should have been telling. Was this not our responsibility ?

But it is yet not too late to began correcting what we have done wrong in the past and to start with we should first realize and accept our own faults and not to repeat them, We should also bring the stories which were either censored at the time or remained unpublished and unknown and for that matter this book “Fault Line” published in Dhaka and being distributed here locally by the Oxford University Press is an excellent progressive step and hopefully more such books and anthologies will follow. Also as Bloggers, writers and journalists it is time to use the mediums we have in our reach to bring out the true stories images and events of the history with a neutral stance. Not to derogate one another but to make our people realize of their mistakes and the best way to do it is to find our own faults.

In relation to the topic (As someone mentioned yesterday) a group has been formed on facebook to submit our apologies to the people of Bangladesh, I have joined this group and I would suggest that all of us should do so as it will help us sort out our deference’s on a more public level.

1971, was bitter year for both Pakistan and specially for what now is Bangladesh, but now lets take lessons from our own mistakes and try not repeating our selves with the same mistakes again and again in history.

One fine day you are passing by Karachi traffic as usual. However, something catches your eyes and you gape in astonishment to find out more.
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A short interview about the daily life of this ordinary man. Gulam Nabi sells bubble-water at Seaview.
[Low quality version for slow connection, DOWNLOAD for off-line viewing]

There is a massive traffic jam from Baloch colony to Nursary. Avoid this route if you are traveling on share-e-faisal.
One of KMB author MB is stuck in this traffic jam and updating us. Does any one know the reason of this traffic jam!!?? or is it the usual, a VIP movement?

As an urban location Karachi has always been slightly expensive to live in. Recently though the cost of living in this great city of ours has risen by astronomical amounts, with the cost of every day usage products going up by 30 - 40% in the last few months. If we study this increase in costs over the last 2 years we will see a difference of almost double in prices.

In Jan 2006, a five-litre tin of Dalda cooking oil was for Rs395, which has now increased to Rs750. Ghee saw a similar increase, with the five-litre tin going from Rs395 to Rs730. Similarly, Basmati rice went from Rs36 per kg to Rs85-90 during the same period, while kernel rice went from Rs50 per kg to Rs105. Basmati tota has gone from Rs22 per kg to Rs54-60, while Irri 9 is tagged at Rs65 as opposed to Rs16 per kg in Jan 2006.

Obviously nobodies income has doubled in the last two years, specially the salaried class. Therefore everyone is feeling the pinch of these rising costs. People are using less fuel, eating out less and buying only essentials to make their days go by.

The point is though, as an agri based nation how can we allow our prices to go up by so much? Most of this is a result of bad policing i.e the current export of rice from our nation, when there is a shortage of it locally.

I appeal to our new city government to please provide a subsidy in essential food products rather than spending it on meaningless flyovers. I know traffic has to be distributed as well, but the rate of suicides in this city is going up day by day, i would rather be stuck in a jam then see my fellow karachites stand in long lines for flour. I also appeal that immediate bans be placed on the export of all essential food groups from our city and nation.

Lets step aside for a moment and take a look at our city Karachi.

I think of sharing my views with you guys, actually I have just been on a trip to Islamabad and Muree, although I went there primarily for some personal business and not on a vacation to enjoy. I did try take that opportunity and visited the well-known tourist points in Islamabad and Muree. Undoubtedly the places in Muree such as Neelam Point, Bhurband - Pearl Continental, Kashmir Point, the chair lifts and cable cars in Patriata are superbly beautiful. The cleanliness and strict laws of Islamabad and a few worth visiting places are simply awesome. Most importantly the road-trip from Islamabad to Muree is the most enjoyable because of the stunning natural beauty and the curvy dangerous narrow two-way roads cut between the green mountains. Multiple routes connecting Islamabad and Muree are simply unexplainable. Some of you might have been there, but for those who haven’t, let me tell you - I enjoyed the places in the off season, you can imagine what it would be like in the “on” seasons. You have got to be there, take a break from our busy and fast lives and give yourself some good time.

You can see the photos here. I tried to write about the trip while I was there and I did make some posts on my blog, but I lost track in all the traveling and stuff. I was seriously thinking of extending my visit and and spending some more time in Muree, but I had to cut short my tour and get back, my leave was expiring and I didn’t have much cash in hand.

The point in making this post is not to just share my trip details with you, but to actually share what I learned / realized from the trip besides everything. It was a four-day trip from Wednesday till Sunday, on Saturday night I was in the hotel room in Islamabad, I was on the flight to Karachi the next morning.

On Saturday night something came up and I thought I should go out and buy what I need. My hotel was near Aabpara Market (its a busy market). Its 10:30 in the night and what I see amazed me. Every shop was closed, there were just a few people on the street, SATURDAY NIGHT and no cars! I found only a bakery, a medical store and few other shops left open. It was like a day of strike in Karachi! Anyway, I kept walking until I reached the medical store, I just had my dinner so I thought of trying out a meetha pan of Islamabad, and guess what! They don’t have khokas! On the whole road, I walked about 20 minutes, there was no sign of a khoka or any shop from where I could find a pan. May be there was such a shop but got closed as it was “too late”. I don’t mean to portray Islamabad as the “city that always sleeps”, but for me (being a karachitte) it was unusual.

As for the food, the well-known food-street (a.k.a food-court) in Islamabad, for crying out loud! I can’t find a single place where I could get Chicken Biryani. I ate every thing from Pulao to stuff like yellow rice with boiled chicken in the name of my dear Chicken Biryani! The spicy chicken ginger! oh so sweet! and the mini buns by the names zinger burger. I couldn’t find KFC, McDonals, Pizza Huts so common as they are in Karachi, in fact, I never saw one in my whole trip! I realized it when I reached Karachi Airport and saw a big yellow ‘M’ just in front of it along the parking area! :)

All night I was just thinking and comparing the three cities. Besides the natural beauty in Muree and it being an official tourist place, I was just left comparing Islamabad with Karachi.

I came to realize that Islamabad is as good as nothing in terms of Implementation of Law and cleanliness in Pakistan, the underpasses seems to be just a regular natural inclining and declining road due to the mountainous area -unlike Karachi’s underpasses when you bounce off 3 feet in the air while entering one and the drainage cover moves and sounds like its broken into 5 pieces and you just made the 5 pieces 8 with your car, they sometimes also fills up with water too :) .

There is no signal violation, no car on or ahead the zebra crossing on the signal, even the police or government cars being fined for breaking the signal or any road law. There are no coaches or mini buses, “khaan-taiyaara” or “sarko ki malka” -type vehicles on the roads, only 14-seater vans for public transportation. Very few bikes, very very wide roads, proper road signs, minimum chaos on the roads. In short everything is so damn perfect as compared to Karachi and its core and most talked-about problems.

I took my expensive phone with me and I was literally roaming around and showing off :) in the streets in ISB and muree taking pictures and messaging never fearing that a 125 bike will be coming from behind and I’ll be greeted with a shining metal of a gun as a reward to my showoff. Its a lot better in terms of street crimes.

But there is nothing like the life in Karachi! I always thought of myself as a boring person, but I realized that I’m much more fun being in Karachi than anywhere around the country (as far as I have been). You can never have a life that you have in Karachi anywhere else.

Keeping aside the crimes, traffic problems, political uncertainty and every small and major issue, I can bet that once you get a break from Karachi you will realize that we curse the city way too much and how much we are dependent on the life of Karachi. Its not like “aankh aujhal Pahar Aujghal” its like once you get on a “pahar” you will have a much better, clear and true realization of what you have been into and what you have been missing all the way.

I hope that every Karachitte feels and realize what the city Karachi really is and how we are connected to it in every aspect of our lives. Being bloggers, writers readers or any one from Karachi who thinks about Karachi, needs to get a different perspective every once in a while to change our thoughts and views, and probably alter our attitude towards our City.

Its us that is Karachi and its Karachi that is us, a codependent association that needs a little tough outside the box.

Despite repeated rhetoric by the authorities (March 31, 2007: No leniency in plastic bag ban says Sindh Minister for Environment and Alternative Energy, Dr Saghir Ahmed, April 30, 2007: Drive against plastic bags intensified, city district government claims, March 17, 2007:Plastic bag transportation in and out of the city to be checked says city nazim Mustafa Kamal), it has become increasingly apparent that the environment is the last thing on their agenda. Since the ban against plastic bags below the 30 micron weight limit was put into place last year, both the local city district and provincial governments have come out several times with tall claims about strict enforcement of the ban. Yet we see in practice that their claims couldn’t be further from the truth. (more…)

I was seriously disgusted after reading the following news article about a man who committed suicide after being harassed by MCB’s recovery staff.

Due to the alleged immense pressure and threats from the loan recovery staff of a bank, a man committed suicide inside his house within the jurisdiction of the New Karachi police station.

According to his father, Mohammed Munchi:

Mohammed Tufail, 27, was residing in New Karachi, which is where he committed suicide.

He added that his son, Tufail, got married a few years back and had one son. Due to some differences with Tufail, his wife had left him and gone to her parents’ house. A few months back, he had also gone through another setback, suffering a big financial loss in his LPG business.

Later, he applied for a loan from the Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB). Due to a delay in the payment of an installment, the recovery staff of the MCB started visiting his house and threatening him with dire consequences.

On Sunday, when Tufail was present at his house, the recovery personnel once again came calling and began to continuously pressurize his son. Tufail’s sister was home and the recovery team went to the point of grabbing her hand and harassing her. Their neighbors are eye-witnesses to this event. After a heated argument, the MCB recovery staff left.

This harassment of his sister was the last nail to Tufail’s self-esteem’s coffin, because earlier he already had suffered a huge loss in business. He locked himself inside his room and hanged himself from a ceiling fan.

Station House Officer, New Karachi, Pervez Gujjar, commented that they are waiting for the statement of the family and, as soon as they approached the police for the registration of an FIR against the recovery staff of the MCB, they would oblige.

Will the Recovery Staff of MCB tried readily in court? Will Tufail receive any justice? What was his fault?

This is not the first time that I’ve read and heard about the antics done by recovery staff of banks. They don’t only bad-mouth on phone but harass by coming over at office/home address. They are trained to go and pummel down the doors and pursue the “loan offenders”.

However, bank loans are available on silver platter, provided on dropping a few names and documents (which can even be fake). What is the remedy of this? Whatever the condition maybe, why there are not strict terms and policies used by banks so that such people are saved from the system and vice versa. Why give a bankrupt person loan? How many more to follow with our fast-paced and stressful work life?

Updated.

This was a MOST fun sight I came across whilst driving through the Punjab colony area, from Clifton, onwards to Defence… A line of cows calmly crossing the street. Me, armed with my camera, of course did what was so natural - stop and click the scene!

Here’s something that never ceases to amaze me. The time it takes a cow, for example, to cross the road, would be enough to get cars and cars full of busy people going about their busy lives,  to honk like crazy. Few people would take the opportunity to switch off their cars and just let the ‘dairy on feet’ pass by. All this riff raff, running around seems a bit… inhuman.. unnatural.

I know I’m sound like quite the oldie here, but it helps to take a minute away from the fast paced life and well… watch the cows go home, every once in a while. And if we let them cows cross the road peacefully, then perhaps one day we will quite rightfully be able to look at a sight like this and say, “Hey Buddy! Mooooo Over, will ya?!”