14th August is just round the corner and we’ve decided to have some of the wonderful memories of partition related here by the authors and commentators. Stories which you have been fed by your grandparents or your parents, who migrated from across the border to begin a new life here in the country made for democracy and equal rights for ALL citizens. Stories my grandparents tell me often, follow:

My grandparents (father side) lived in Bahunagar and then Bombay. My grandfather used to have a tea stall which he used to run along with his elder brother, Ahmed. British army was their regular customer and when they came they came in droves and all the war chat would take place there, albeit in English, a language my grandfather never really understood except for the morsels. He also tells me, whenever in good mood, that Hindu banyas were also his prized customers and they would be very rich and very tidy in their manners and style.

Then they came to Karachi, Pakistan.

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I have a radical idea for Karachi and its citizens. For one, I think KESC is all crap now after Musharraf and company (specially his darling PM, Shaukat) sold this fine organization to a private company for peanuts. No external or internal audit reports have ever been shared with citizens who pay their blood to keep this outfit afloat. Yet it dismisses us all like we are beggars. So, ladies and gentlemen of Karachi, should be burn down KESC? I am sure we should. It is of no use; it fleeces honest men and provides electricity free of cost to VVIPs, VIPs, brothers and sisters of PM; it also does not help when it fails to dis-connect illegal connections; and since last two nights I and my family and millions of others have not slept well. Karachi is in crises and we need someone else to bring us electricity.

By the way, which should be the first KESC office to go down?