Power generation is definitly required for the lights to come back in KHI, there is no argument on it but that is not the only reason why we were without electricity at times in this mosam-e-sarma. Ummat reports that its not actually the production, its actually the profit and the BIG digits that keep Karachi in darkness. (more…)

We always complain and vain about Karachi’s transportation system and here I am doing that again. I was traveling in a public bus. We know their conditions but some are so bad (like the one in which I was commuting) that you never know if flooring would collapse and your feet might touch the ground. Then one rickshaw literally skipped the chance of accident with the bus and it’s side mirror only got affected or else it would have rock n’ roll-ed on the ground. Btw I love Rickshaws but I equally value safety. Motorbikes walon ke liye tou my lips are sealed.

Then most of us Karachites don’t have any civic sense and many of us don’t even know how to drive, forget the etiquette. Now during such incidents, I sometimes wonder why is it that we get silent after bomb blasts in Karachi. Why are there no reservations at channels to show dead bodies? May be we don’t value human life or maybe the apathy in us has deepen its roots.

 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…)

 It seems to be so that, load shedding has become an all season brute for the citizens of Karachi the bare with even in this season when the pleasant weather insures the air conditioners around the city be at rest and the heaters too are not even out of their storage boxes, which means that consumption of electricity in the city is at it’s minimum these days.

 We in Gulshan have been experiencing at around four to five episodes of power load shedding, which sums up to at least 6 – 8 hours of power outage for each 24 hours. The worst part is that the timings of this un announced load shedding is totally random, insuring to cause maximum inconvenience  

 According to this news report published in The News on the 24 of December, the KESC spokes person Ayesha Eirabie attributed the load shedding to frequent tripping of lines, cable faults and routine bad management.

The news item also states:

 ” It is learnt that two units of the KESC’s Bin Qasim Power Plant have been closed while those functioning are also not performing up to their maximum output. The KESC spokesperson maintained that Independent Power Producers (IPPs) were not providing the required electricity either owing to their own maintenance and repair requirements.”

I wonder if this routine continues what will be the hours of load shedding once we are over with winters…

www.WAR.org.pk

On average, 100 women are raped every 24 hours in Karachi city alone, and a majority of them are working women, said Additional Police Surgeon (APS). Dr Zulfiqar Siyal told Daily Times “…. very few rape survivors have the courage to come forward in search of justice.”

They do not come forward because of the lengthy medical process and delayed justice system in Pakistan. Only 0.5 percent of cases are reported and the majority (99.5 percent) of survivors prefers to stay silent. Part of the problem is that there are 11 medico-legal sections in three major public sector hospitals but there are only six women medico-legal officers (WMLOs) for the 18 million population of Karachi. “I am sure that there are more than 100 rape cases every day … but you can gauge how many are reported from the official data which says that during the last eight months (between January to August 2008) a total of 197 cases were reported,”

I am aware there are some brilliant initiatives already afloat on this issue, so I open the debate allowing people to highlight this problem, offer solutions [existing and planned] which we as the ‘educated section of society‘ can hopefully help to improve.

On the first day of Ramadan it’s 3:30, although more then four hours before one opens the fast with a soft, sweet date still everyone on the road is impatient. Switching lanes, blaring horns, and motorcyclists rushing as if they are on a mad race in a virtual dimension where they have several lives before it’s game over. And cars Screech-halting on every signal and a few even running through the red light. (more…)

A loud bang startled me, and my mind went to the war zone. This is what it sounds like when a bomb is dropped and countless living beings, mostly civilians are turned into a mess of minced meet and charred body parts. The smell of gunpowder which follows makes the air heavy, the images of the war zone,  the stench of the blood, the cries of children in pain, injured, dieing, crying in disbelieve that the colorful world they believed in could be so horrifying are added in by my wild imagination.

  (more…)

KESC, burn it! Break it! Kill them! OH MY GOD! 86 Rs/lit Petrol! Bus Fares to 15 Rupees till 1 stop! How the hell did they snatch a person’s cell phone, burn him alive! Kill them, shoot them, throw stones at them, blow it all up. Government sucks! New Government sucks, Oh the past Govt messed this this and this up! He’s bad, he’s worse, he’s stupid, what’s that, why is that………….

YEA YEA YEA!!!! SHUT UP!

It is valid to say that people of Karachi have lost and are continuously loosing their sanity over the depressing problems in their home town – and for this, it is not them to blame.

Keeping all the problems in mind and giving each, another viewpoint, I would say that apart from the prices of food, fuel and utilities etc, we have yet another problem. The problem we are having are the PEOPLE themselves. Everyone and everything has problems, but finding a solution to a problem requires something of a mind, heart and wisdom. Let this post not be taken against the people of Karachi, but I’m just not satisfied by the way people (we) are handling their (our) problems!

What is a problem? A problem is an outcome of acts in the past creating an unfavorable vision of the future or partially blocking it.

So, the question is NOT “who did wrong in the past”, the question is… WHO sees the FUTURE! Its people who see the future, if the people are not in a normal state of mind, heart and wisdom, they are unable to identify the future. If you are unable to identify the future, how would you be able to walk on a path that actually leads to a better future.

I always give this example, lets say “Mr. X” had an accident and X is lying on the road. X is thinking damn! What just happened, Oh It hurts so bad, it wasn’t my fault… The next second X get squished by a truck that says “Baloach Taiyyara”, and tomorrow headlines reads “noa-jawan halak, truck driver farar”.

If you don’t get up, don’t drag yourself to the corner, or don’t get yourself to the hospital you are actually ignoring the worst that is yet to come. You will have a life time to think about what ‘just’ happened, so its better to stand up and get yourself fixed so that you can have a life to live and deal with the memories later.

This is a typical scenario of our situation, we have just been hit by a car and we are lying on the road, thinking about what “just” happened. We are just crying about and thinking over and over about the things that are going wrong. My friends worry about the drunk truck driver with his Baloch Taiyara coming right at you.

To maintain mental stability is of the utmost importance in the time of crisis!

I’m not sure how many of you would actually consider the people as a problem to the problems of people. Lets hear it from you in comments and based on our comments I will be proposing actual solution of each and every problem.