An Ode to Karachi

I read this with a lump in my heart and post my own ameturish effort, penned a year ago.

regards

Qambar

``Karachi, the city of light, the city of Blood``

As once the pristine Arabia lapped my shores,
Blood adorns my streets today,
Mingling with the gutter,
It flows and laps my feet today,
Where once I looked for a rose,
now all I see are bloody streets


As once the brightest sons walked my streets,
And our brightest daughters did all achieve,
Blood has replaced the light,
The Brightness streaked to other shores,
The city of lights has dimmed somewhat,
And life has fled these Arabian shores.

Where once Mai Kolachi nurtured my life,
A concrete wasteland has crusted my shores,
My breath has been choked out of me,
Now all I hear is screams of hate,
The gentler pillars of sand and stone,
have given way to harsher tones.

My eyes have wept a thousand tears,
Each time the blood has flown on me,
Alas no one can soothe these tears,
My doctor sons, whose blood does flow.
My cry of lament has few listeners,
Aah, once I was the city of lights, the city of love...

Yes Karachi was once the city of lights and life and it seems those days of exciting happiness are gone......... The poem in a simple lyrical style and down to earth approach is quite impressive.

HOW SAD,

It is heart wrenching to see the good pakistanis taking flight on the wings of peotry to the shangrila of karachi. There is hope, you can attain the old glory, llok est to bangladesh, reliving the glory of tagore and styajit ray. Unlike Dhka, there is no race course in karachi, and that is the only problem.

Sayed ali, can you suggest an alternate site, may be this time for 200,000 faujis to assemble.

Oh City of Lights!
Pray tell
from where has darkness descended
upon these glimmering shining lights

Nakedness gyrates on the streets
Supple & lissome bodies wiggle
Drunkard, brimming over
---------------------------Why nude bodies are put on display
---------------------------In the late, late hours of night

Shamelessness, immorality around
Destituteness, joblessness abound
The modernity, a glowing ember
------------------------------------------A fire rages all over
------------------------------------------What is this scourge all-around


Habib Jalib: Revloutionary Poet, in the true sense of the word. Not an Drawing room armchair ``A`` class monday morning quarterback.

#13 We have indeed destroyed it, and there are so many reasons. Yet amidst it all , karachi lives on, as Ustruly said and i quote``The military despots and 178 syasi haramzadas`` and loads of others, like the ones who still like to call themselves immigrants(Muhajirs) whilst ironically demeaning the sacrifice that our grandfathers made by coming to this country for an identity. Or the feudals who can wreck a good thing (city) when they see one. or the upper classes for abandoning the middle and the lower classes, or the mullahs who took over as the guides of those disenchanted classes and turned them into fanatics who cannot treat women properly. The reasons are numerous, yet karachi may have swelled and bled, yet, it still is our identity, the streets are strangely enuff , home... the blood speckled walls are still recognisable and though no amount of innocent blood can ever wash away the memories of this city. Here we are , ardent lovers of this city. Will we ever let karachi drift away?.....never. It will always be alive may it be in our dreams.

Ah! and I read this as I am sitting in an internet cafe in Bangkok waiting for my flight to Karachi. It has been several years now since I have been back. After reading this poem several times, this wait at the airport is becoming more and more tortorous.

Perhaps temporal can quote the appropriate parts of Yousufi`s ``Peshawar ka eik unpadh pathan`` from``Aab-e-Gum.`` There was one part where the pathan guest says(Sorry about the crude translation):

``What kind of a city is this (referring to Karachi and its` people`s dismissive nature towards confrontations). People never get into fights here. Do they not have relatives that live here....`` (This is supposedly in reference to earlier years of Pakistan perhaps the 50s or so)

And then Yousufi says in a footnote, and this I cannot translate, so here it is in Roman Urdu,

``Afsous, Karachi ko apni he nazar lug gayee`` (Updated 1989)

The pain in this one statement is just overwhelming to all senses. To all the Pakistanis, Karachi at one time reflected everything that Pakistan could be. We have destroyed it. We, who apparently have no peers, save a huge imaginary wrecking ball, in our capability to destroy, can cite Karachi as an example of a job very well done by us.

Karachi is,
Bombay, with guns?

+++

In 1979, a few days after Bhutto was hung, I was stranded at Karachi Airport en route Teheran. Indians and those of Indian origin were asked to stay onboard, but later in the day, friendly faujis took us out for a short tour of the area, in exchange for ykw.

Never been there again.

it is mystifying how you all can say all that about karachi. makes one want to discover it. sounds like the megapolis has been burdened with all that`s good and bad and it takes it all with a sigh?

in contrast, lahore, the `cultural capital`, is basically still an over grown village that has not come to terms with it`s growth. in fact, it could care less.

O Karachi Mine

Nice to remember, nicer to recall
the past glows when compared to present
before it passes into today’s past
lovingly I recall that Karachi
a fact all my friends and family
remind and accuse me constantly of
growing up, getting it out of me.
But how can I help? I simply cannot
it throbs just like that other organ
imprisoned in chest walls, and I concede
while that bundle might cease functioning
the city will live, survive and grow!


If Karachi dies so will Pakistan
Karachi’s pulse reflects the nation’s will
a microcosm of all that is good
and a catalogue of all that ails it
that’s what Karachi is and will remain.

From sparkling lighted boulevards
to the ghettoes across the tracks
the glimmering shops of Tariq Road
and bustling Burns Road nihari kebabs
overflowing mosques on Fridays
playgrounds full of future stars
parks with families in open green
and the addicts lurking in the bushes
ostentatious flaunting of wealth
abject poverty averting contact
eyes brimming with bright dreams
looks reflecting stricken nightmare.


My Karachi is a throbbing living
city with warts, not Moen jo daro.

Hey...Karachi is still a cool place...you are making it sound so depressing!

...vivid imagery...v.nice...and this coming from a pucca lahorite...:)

Syed, thank you!

The Karachi of the 60s and 70s as described by my father surely sounds like a dream. Unfortunately, our generation`s nightmare refuses to end anytime soon. This Shehre-GhareebaaN has welcomed all Pakistanis (and Bangladeshis) with open arms. Alas, the favor is never returned in kind.

Karachi is not dead... its alive, ask the people eating, sleeping, making out, and living there.

#4 u r right, karachi has never had justice. Maybe it was my techinical ability in this case, but then the ruin this city has seen is just continuos. Every decade has seen a new set of problems. Justice I am afraid is not what Karachi expects any more.....

dude...u havent done justice to karachi

Unfortunately, it is not time for odes it is time to write eulogies for this unfortunate city. The military despots and 178 syasi haramzadas have once again pitted paksitani against paksitani in this city for a government that does not seem to last for 6 months. The un-ending violence has once again been instigated by callous and heartless men. The bride of the cities has once again being raped.