Ode to 55/B Shah Abdul Latif Road

Re: # 5
please passs my salam to mohammed your dad and moshin and all the other crazy bhagats of 55/b shah abdul lateef road
fuad cochinwaa

Re: # 10
this is fuadcochinwala shahzad pass me your e.mal iam in houston texas

Re: # 11
Sikander, this is Shahzad, Naveed Qazi`s brother. I am an old friend of Fawwad`s.

Re: # 10

Both of them are my brothers

Sikander, any relationship with Fawwad and Asad Cochinwala??

Re: Pakfin and Syedfahd
Thanks for reading...just to clear something up , the Shah Abdul Latif Road I lived on was near the Quaid`s Mazaar and Soldier Bazar, so not the one in PECHS Block 2 although i know exactly which street (in PECHS) you`re referring to as I work near there..

Sikander uncle: Thank you. Pappa was delighted to hear about you..

i know exactly how you feel...we used to live in PECHS block 6....now the house in which i was born is a freaking furniture factory...breaks my heart whenever i go there

Re: # 5

Give my salam to your Dad and all your Chacha`s , Raza(chotto). Akbar(aku), Anwar, Nisar,
Asraf, Afzal and Mohsin.

You are a good writer. Keep it up.


Not Mr Cochinwala-it is Sikander Uncle

Here is someone else from the neighbourhood. We lived off Shah Abdul Latif road in the 70`s. I dont remember where 55 A and B were, but we were near the end of the road that looked over the telephone exchange on Razi Road. I remember my childhood friends Farooq and Osman the children of the owner of the famous Farooq restaurant. I remember Mr. Jafri the poet who used to live at the other end of the street nearer to the PECHS college. There were many others but it has been a long time.

Cheese: Yes my sentiments exactly...A said this was `self indulgent` :) Dad sent me the photos while i was in toronto...still have them but didnt put them up as it just doesnt do justice to what the house once was..

Mr. Cochinwala:
You have no idea how happy your post made me! My father`s been telling me stories about your family for ages...how the boundary wall was demolished so you all could play etc. My father is the youngest of the Bhagat brothers..Mohammed to be precise.
It is indeed sad to see the lane once lined with lovely old houses now a collection of rows of haphazard apartments buildings. Literally all the houses are gone save one.

batool,

ref # 3, how wonderful is chowk? you found a neighbour from before you were born.. incase you dont have them, we took pictures when the house wasnt entirely demolished.. theyre with your pop and mine... that was a depressing shaam


this piece bought memories for me, mainly because my beautiful crumblin havaeli may soon go the same way... i dont want it to- our babies should be able to play in the same bageecha you and i did, fight over games of pittoo and swim in that awful hole of a water tank, if you remember? :) ours and a few others are the last of old karachi havaelis built before or just after partition... in a few more years- a decade or so shayed, there wont be anymore 30 feet ceilings, massive airy courtyards, verandas for shaam ki chai under the peepal ka darakht, and a bloody forest of a front yard... it sounds impossibly perfect but our childhood WAS pretty damn magical, no?

give A our love :)

Hello Batool,

Article brought back lot of old memories. We used to live in the house next door -55A Shah Abdul Latif Road. I also went to the house in Dec 2005 when I was visting Karachi and was very disappointed find out that it was no longer there. I do not think you would have been born when we moved out in 1978. I am assuming that you are the daughter of one of the Baghats brothers. If you are then please let know which one.

Sikander Cochinwala

I am glad that someone wrote about their feelings of nostalgia(not nausea).

You are obviously a type ``ISTJ`` as per Myers Brigg theory.

I have similar feelings about my old house Punjab and my aunts house in Meerut. But my friend life is like that, stuff happens.

I remember that when I went to my old house and wanted to save the 200 yr old marble tile that read ``Mamlooka XXXXX`` on our Chaubaara and the person living there thought that I was weird to protect that old a marble.

memories.....

As a great poet said:

TumheN is inqilab-e-dahar ka,
Kyaa gham hai Akbar;
Bahut nazdeek hain wo din,
Na tum hoge na ham hoNge.