A sensible approach may prompt the planners and the authorities concerned to pause for a while to have an honest assessment of how much beauty has been added to the city so far after years of what is being claimed as ‘relentless efforts,’ besides spending billions of the public’s money.

Save the purposeful retrieval of state land from land-grabbers, encroachers and other unscrupulous elements to lay public parks, little remarkable or commendable efforts have emerged on the ground. Thanks to the “mastermind” of the beatification plan, quite a large number of public parks, many of them portrayed as model parks, have now been serving as prairies surrounded by high-rises, buildings or houses in many localities to provide citizens with some oxygen, who are otherwise constantly exposed to vehicular emissions.

This is, no doubt, a great achievement of the mastermind who has killed two birds with a single stone — retrieval of the occupied state lands for restoring their status as amenity plots and helping the public representatives capitalise on a job they are supposed to undertake as a responsibility.

Although citizens are happy to have many such public parks in their neighbourhoods, the question of proper maintenance always agitates their minds as we, as a nation, never spare time to think over such questions.

Ironically, these parks are generally regarded as property of the party in power, and not the state. Many, if not all, public parks have an office-like structure where the party in power holds meetings to sort out party matters.

Another segment of the beautification plan is the installation of monuments of different shapes at various roundabouts, intersections and such other places. Citizens were expecting something very attractive to be selected for the purpose, but the monuments unveiled disappointed many. So far, a calligraphic epic, “Allah in 3-D,” and a mammoth dinosaur, both made up of concrete, have been installed at some selected sites in the city. A few more monuments, indeed less attractive, may also be seen elsewhere in the city. As far as the dinosaur is concerned, appears to be a great attraction for small children because it’s a legendary creature.

However, in at least one case, the site selected for its installation is wrong, dangerous even. I could not resist breaking my journey to watch a family that happened to be at the site, an intersection in close proximity of an underpass and the adjoining flyover. On both sides of the traffic island runs a busy road. The couple was visibly troubled with their six small children, aged between four and 12, trying to climb up and jump down the dinosaur. The father kept helping one child to climb up while saving the others from getting injured while they jumped down for another “ride.” He had to keep a constant watch on all the children.

The mother had a more nerve-wracking duty. Looking frightened the whole time, she had to act as a ‘guard’ to prevent the children from stepping onto the road next to the island’s boundary so that they were not hit by the vehicles speedily passing by. I could not turn back until the family left the place. “How dangerous is the beautification of intersections,” I thought.

Maybe the authorities concerned have missed this aspect while selecting the site. But seems they have certainly not consulted experts on parks when building the attraction. There are many examples in countries like India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey where very old parks with exclusive features are still of great attraction for local and foreign tourists. India’s Hanging Gardens and Brindavan Gardens and beaches in Thailand come to mind. Not a single park or monument like the ones mentioned above has so far been proposed to be added to Karachi, unfortunately.— Awam

The twilight zone

Walking along pleasant, tree-lined streets is one of life’s pleasures. It is a great exercise if done regularly and gives one a sense of freedom, not having to depend on the internal combustion engine for the tiniest of distances. Legs are free, CNG isn’t. In such a mood, in the middle of the night, I decided to walk to the home of some old friends in Defence Phase-I and surprise them with a hello. Great … but taking a wrong turn (one likes to explore when one walks, or else what is the point?) I went through a street that was too quiet… except for the caw-caw of crows in the trees. Crows awake in the middle of the night? Yes … there was a graveyard behind the DHA offices.

The birds over there are wide awake and active no matter how dark it gets. The birds on the other streets, everywhere else, even on the streets next to this one, were not active. I did not notice any sound coming from the trees in the homes next to the graveyard. The birds on the trees in the graveyard were the only ones out and about, flying here and there like they might have done in daylight.

There is no rubbish heap there and I am sure I did not wake up those birds. They were already awake.

I have never been impressed with ghost stories, but a day later it was observed that birds on the trees where I live have started making noise in the middle of the night, when they should be fast asleep. Did ‘something’ follow me home?

This phenomenon happens only at my home and the graveyard behind the DHA offices in Phase-I. The other graveyard is peaceful.

I would love to know the name of the person who got buried there and then followed me home. I guess I am not the only one who likes to take a walk in the middle of the night. Any other explanations would be welcome.—

Shahzad Hasan
Compiled by Syed Hassan Ali
Email: karachian@dawn.com