| October 08, 2007 | Monday | Ramazan 25, 1428 |
The fundamental right: atta atta, atta
One expected, with some trepidation, that the traffic of Karachi would move more smoothly during Ramazan. There were announcements of how heavy traffic would be kept away from the main arteries of the city at pertinent hours to alleviate the pain and misery of the common folk. Sadly though, the commoners were faced with a new menace, which was always prevalent but reared its ugly head more aggressively, it seems, this Ramazan.
Whether the VVIPs of the city fast during the holy month or not cannot be confirmed. But they certainly don’t like facing traffic jams. Whatever the level of bureaucratic power they hold, they always seem to be driven around in luxury vehicles with a fleet of cars accompanying them. The public servants, seated in the vehicles in front of and behind the ‘royal ride,’ are seen shooing the very public they are hired to serve out of their way.
That’s exactly what happened to me when I was trying to pick up my son from school the other day. Apparently, the chief minister of Sindh was passing through.
Only when these ‘special’ ones have passed will the white-suited, wireless-wielding hand of the law allow your end of the traffic to move, by which time traffic has accumulated to a disgusting bulge and will ultimately further clog the already clogged roads ahead. But let’s look at the upside of the dilemma. If, for instance, you have moved your automobile out of the VIP entourage’s way, you can glide right behind them from one end of the city to the next if you are heading in the same direction as your ‘supreme’ counterparts. Nobody will stop you, the red light will be meaningless, no constable will dare flag you down and surely the ride will be smooth.
Don’t even think about making any U-turns no matter how urgent your business. You will be forced into taking the next exit for the VIP in Karachi stops or slows for no one. Least of all the public.—Saima Salman
Eid excitement
Preparations for Eid start way before the Shawwal crescent is sighted. But come Chand Raat, activities reach a fever pitch. Since this Eid is known as Meethi Eid, women tend to stock up on ingredients to prepare lots of sumptuous sweets, with a few spicy items thrown in for the main course. Milk shops and sweet-meat vendors do particularly brisk business on the night before Eid.
Come Ramazan the markets of Karachi are a sight worth seeing. Illuminations and decorations adorn the shopping plazas while stalls pop up on the footpaths of markets such as Tariq Road and Barkat-i-Haidery heaped with jewellery, make-up, handbags and slippers. And how can one forget the colourful, fragile must-haves for all women — bangles!
Though all the shops and pavement stalls are attacked by customers with equal ferocity, the bangle shops are the ones visited most the night before Eid. Boys and men — with or without families — feel free to wander the streets ogling at girls, clearly more interested in the females than in what to buy. Women are usually too busy shopping and for once stop taking notice of the unwanted stares.
And while out Eid shopping, who can forget the delicious and mouth-watering (not to mention bacteria rich) food items available as soon as the Maghrib prayers are offered. These roadside food stalls grow directly in proportion to the number of shoppers. But one thing is for sure: not only is the food cheap, it tastes good too.
Interestingly, what seems to be missing this time around is the Eid card stalls. Before e-cards became all the rage, these stalls were seen everywhere, and students in particular used to pool money to buy cards and then sell them to make a little profit.
Another interesting aspect of Eid is that that as soon as the moon is spotted by the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee, women of all ages flock to parlours to hone their beauty, though some would say this makes little difference. From domestic help to begums, everyone goes through the beautification process.
Mehndi is also one of the essentials of Eid. In fact, numerous parlours in the city make special arrangements for mehndi experts to apply intricate designs to the hands of their clients throughout Chand Raat. A friend’s sister-in-law is somewhat of a ‘mehndi expert’ and on the eve of Eid, she is asked by a parlour close to her house to help them as the rush of clients is more than they can manage.
Since her husband isn’t very supportive of the idea of her earning a little extra money by using her mehndi skills, she chooses not to tell him. When she comes back home she tells him that she had been to the parlour for some beauty treatment and it took long as it was crowded. The end result is that she feels happy making some extra money on her own and can spend it on herself.
A lot has changed over the years concerning how Eid is celebrated. But what hasn’t changed is the effervescent enthusiasm witnessed in children. The excitement of new clothes, Eidee, and lots of goodies to eat keeps the young ones awake all night. And perhaps that’s the most beautiful part of Eid.— Meera Jamal
Kisser on the poles
Now that almost all hoardings have been removed from the city -- at least for the time being -- advertising geniuses have come up with the next best thing. Many poles in the city are being festooned with banners of every conceivable household or office-use item imaginable. In places like Karsaaz, the advertisement material is of better quality as most of the signs are made of plastic and can be illuminated during the night. This is also one of the places where huge hoardings can still be seen.
For the time being, a mobile phone company seems to be idolising Indian actor Emraan Hashmi, who is considered the most famous kisser of Bollywood, as hardly any film of his is released that does not contain passionate kissing scenes.
It seems Pakistan has a dearth of heroes or heroines as very few of the local celebrities are seen on the outdoor advertisements in Karachi. Maybe Shahid Afridi, Misbahul Haq, Younus Khan and Umar Gul will not bring in as many customers via advertisements as Emraan Hashmi, Saif Ali Khan, Shahrukh Khan or Arshad Warsi will.
And who cares about Zafar Gill, who earned a place for himself in the Guinness Book of World Records by breaking the world record for ‘ear-lifting’ in Vienna last week by carrying almost 62 kg (137 pounds) from a cord attached to his right ear.
And which advertising agency cares for a simple woman like Mukhtaran Mai, who had the courage to fight against all odds and stand up to the wolves of our society. She rose from the ashes like a Phoenix to run girls’ schools in Punjab. But all this does not count in the eyes of the advertising moguls who keep running after Indian stars.
At present the advertising tycoons seem to be mesmerised by the diminutive hot-selling Emraan Hashmi. The kisser can be seen on poles in almost every main road of the city.—Mohsin Maqbool Elahi
Compiled by Syed Hassan Ali
Email: karachian@dawn.com
We as a people seem to be condemned to suffer endlessly the games our powerful ruling elite play. But we also have the great tradition of relieving the pain by reducing the worse to verse.
And nobody excelled late Habib Jalib in doing that. Jalib shot to fame for the rhythmic sarcasm he poured on the adversity brought to the nation by Field Marshal Ayub Khan, the country’s first military ruler.
That he rightly earned the title of awami sha’er (poet of the masses) is proven by the fact that his verses hold as true today as they did in his tumultuous times. Pakistan has been halved — and become a nuclear power — since Ayub era ended in 1969 but the poetry of Jalib still rings true.
Think of today’s price of atta — Rs700 per 40Kg — under President Musharraf and enjoy what Jalib had to say when it was selling for Rs20 for a maund (nearly 32kg) under President Ayub:
Bees rupaiya mun atta,
phir bhi hai sannata,
mulk ke dushman kehlate hein,
jab karte hein hum faryad,
Sadar Ayub Zindabad
(Atta is selling Rs20 per maund, and an awesome silence is all around. Enemy of the country we are branded when we cry, Long Live President Ayub)
What Jalib would have said today when atta is selling for Rs20 a kg under President Gen Pervez Musharraf, the newest successor to Ayub, is anybody’s guess but his last line holds true nevertheless.
There is no respite in wheat and flour prices for the third month running despite government’s unceasing rhetoric and the federal and provincial governments blaming each other for the crisis. In his days, Ayub Khan had freed himself of economic and political crises by handing over power to Gen Yahya Khan in 1969 whose policies helped India to disintegrate Pakistan.
Four decades later, the same crises are back in a different environ. Today’s military ruler is trying to overcome the crises by co-opting a party whose leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had risen to power in the asundered Pakistan with the slogan of Roti, Kapra aur Makan and could summarily dismiss “pot bellied generals” to great acclaim.
ZAB was made to pay with his life for his political sins by Gen Ziaul Haq, the next military dictator, with the help of supporters of his “Islamic mission” — and his alleged American mentors.
Ironically it is ZAB’s daughter, Benazir Bhutto, who has now come to the help of the reigning military president in the name of national reconciliation, as reflected in the law promulgated to drop corruption cases against her and other politicians with no mention of the case of common man in the law.
In fact, the federal cabinet meeting that approved the National Reconciliation Ordinance on Friday expressed satisfaction that “wheat and flour prices have stabilised in the country due to the government’s efforts”.
The prime minister himself owes an explanation to the nation why he allowed the export of more than 500,000 tons of wheat at the start of the season that created shortages later.
Pakistan exported this quantity for $220 per ton and is now importing one million tons of wheat at more than $400 per ton. If the official argument of wheat smuggling is accepted, is not it a failure of the government to check this menace.
Above all, some cabinet ministers themselves have been talking in ruling party’s inner circles of influential people within the government being responsible for the black-marketing — a charge that needs to be investigated.
Jamaat-i-Islami was keen to challenge President Musharraf’s decision to seek a second term in the streets but not to mobilise people to challenge the government on rising prices - an issue closest to their heart.
In July, I had the opportunity to ask the Prime Minister if his decisions allowing wheat exports and then suspending it within a week were flawed, given the fact that Sindh government opposed wheat exports because it faced problems in procurement. His reply was that export of wheat was meant to deplete last year’s carryover stocks and to facilitate procurement of new crop produce. Meanwhile the international prices rose so high that Pakistan’s entire crop would have been moved to the neighbouring markets, had exports not halted.
Of course the military rule is an issue of public importance but for the 160 million people of the country the issue is flour prices which have increased by more than 40 per cent during the current cropping season.
Interestingly, the notice of the rising prices that the Supreme Court took on its own about six months ago is yet to reach any conclusion. So is the decision about oil pricing scam pending for the last eight months now before the apex court.
Is it that the flour is no more an issue for a common man? Has the purchasing power so improved that it does not affect ordinary citizen? Is the incidence of poverty that President Musharraf claims to be around 24 per cent has something to do with the 39 million people who live below the poverty line? If an answer to these questions is No, then why the poor people who stage demonstrations in small groups with breads in their hands inscribed with the slogans of Roti, Roti are not taken notice of.