A Little Karachi Nostalgia

Speaking with a friend a few minutes ago we got to talking about Karachi that inspired me to write this post [thanks Im :-)]. Some things that pop into my head that are part of a Karachi that I know I'll never find anywhere else and that make me continue to think of this space as 'home' even though I haven't lived there for more than 3 months at a stretch during the last 17 years. Part of that Karachi goes with me wherever I am - you can take the Karachiite out of Karachi but not vice versa - but there are some things that need to be experienced physically in that space. This post recollects some of those things that I always think of fondly. In no particular order of preference, these are:

1. The 'do talwar' (two swords) roundabout. I used to love going for drives in which we passed by the fountain at this roundabout. That it was always lit differently on my birthday when I was growing up made me feel very special. (Of course that probably had something to do with the fact that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's birthday fell right around then but I kind of relish my little childhood fantasy. Birthday cakes and colorful lights that made the fountain look even prettier - a perfect birthday!) I remember walking around the fountain with my father. Also revisiting it several times during one night with my parents as we drove around post-dinner.

2. The artwork on minibuses and rickshaws. I know we all made fun of the 'gaudiness' of it all - which was entertaining in and of itself - but truth be told the landscape of Karachi seems alien without them.

3. The daily night drives we took as a family. It involved a stop for a nice cold drink of Apple Sidra or Rogers' Raspberry drink and a quick stop at the paan (betel leaf) shop (Famy on Tariq Road or PIDC) in between driving to Clifton Beach, then the airport, and repeating the same route (chakkar for those of you that recognize the word - route seems mechanical to me; chakkar seems like it has the right rhythm) at least once.

4. Mr. Burger....cheeseburger, fries, and raspberry slush. Yum.Continuing with the food theme a little longer, the gola kababs (the ones with the string that you had to remove) in Delhi Mercantile, Bundu Khan, Kaybees' or Spinzer's icecream - my personal favs included the cold coffee with ice-cream and the vanilla-coffee combo with mango thrown in to spice things up a bit, milk toffees from the canteen at St. Joseph's, halwa puri from Tooso, nihari from Burns Road, Party Slims, the cakes from Sasha or Dinoo's, pizzas at Kings and Queens, ras malai from the Bengali shop whose name I forget, Saeedullah's flying saucers, the gola ganda in Dhoraji, and Shezan Surprises! Yummy again!

5. Playing hopscotch and badminton on the street outside our home.

6. Going to a secluded and undeveloped beach area a little further down from French Beach. We'd go there for a breakfast picnic almost every week-end. I've never done that after my parents moved to the US (they moved permanently in the 1990s whereas I joined them in 1994...long story...another post, another time). Whenever I think of those times and that space, my enthusiasm to visit Hawai'i, Belize, Goa, and Sydney is disrupted...I can't think of a place and time more pristine, more heavenly even if all of those places look picture perfect. Nothing compares to that beach IMHO.

7. The smell of the air on a cold, dry winter night....and of course the peanut guy (it was always a guy - at least in my experience) walking through the streets with his cart full of winter goodies including warm peanuts and what we call "gajak" for which I have no English translation. (Anybody else know this one?)

8. Thursday afternoon treks to Video Cottage and Sangeeta - both video rental stores - once school let out and the week-end began to get the latest American sitcoms on tape to watch over the week-end.

9. Eid holidays. I loved the hustle and bustle of staying out late the night before preparing for the next day. Buying glass bangles, eating barbeque, and then onwards to buy 'mithai' (sweets) and flowers. Waking up early in the morning, getting ready, new clothes for the next 3 days, consuming insane amounts of the most amazing food, going to visit everyone we knew that we were fairly close to, collecting Eidee money :-), Eid lunch at our place.

10. Funland :-)!

11. The walks to raise funds for The Kidney Center.

12. Watching movies at the drive-in. The sound was bad, the mosquitoes were plenty, but the experience of getting so many people together that we needed 4 cars to go watch a movie in was awesome. I enjoyed the togetherness and that it was taken for granted that we'd always go together....so there was never really the need to plan per se.

13. Having family and friends be an integral part of our lives. Of course I'm not foolish enough to romanticize that - I like not having everybody's nose in my business 24/7/365 and then some. But I do miss having so many people around for dinner not because it was the week-end or we were celebrating something but just because.

Anybody else have any Karachi memories they'd like to share? Or perhaps anything from this post that resonates with you even though you grew up in a different city or country? Please feel free to share :-).