KARACHI: “Let’s go to Baba’s mazaar,” suggested one motorcyclist to another with a couple of pillion riders holding long bamboo poles with Pakistan flags.

“I only know one ‘baba’ — Baba Ladla. You want to go to his mausoleum?” the other inquired.

“You don’t know Baba?” The first one asked him.

“I only know the Quaid-i-Azam. Don’t call my Quaid ‘baba’ or I’ll take you to wherever Baba Ladla may be buried,” his friend warned.

The conversation was overheard in a big traffic jam at the Boat Basin intersection. Guessing by their looks, way of speaking and accents, the two men and their friends on the motorcycles appeared to be from the Lyari area.

On Karachi roads the party wouldn’t stop. Many people heading to Clifton and the Hawkesbay side, too, stopped several times to dance and entertain people stuck in traffic jams at different locations throughout the city. Only when the realisation that it was they who were making the jam worse dawned did they stop and move on, only to repeat it at the next juncture.

Almost all children out to celebrate with their elders sported the green colour, no matter what shade. White was also there. Ideally some looked like complete flags with green shirts and white trousers. Little girls with green bands in their neatly-tied hair showed off the green and silver bangles on their wrists. A big brother riding a bike brought out some candy from his pocket for his kid sister behind him becoming a little restless at a traffic light and lo and behold, even the wrapper was green!

The motorbikes were in majority. Some riders in their enthusiasm became rather reckless. Bursting silencers doesn’t a trail-bike make, but who was going to explain this to the riders?

Road rage also couldn’t be avoided, especially on Defence Housing Authority roads, where some people from the other side of the Clifton Bridge and Kala Pul weren’t so used to the odd one ways as they also missed the signs telling them about these.

One driver in a bright green T-shirt came out of his shiny black Toyota Camry to confront and give a piece of his mind to a Suzuki car driver coming from the wrong side from Zamzama to Khayaban-i-Shamsheer. The Suzuki driver, who was also wearing green with his friend wearing a clown’s mask popping out his head from the widow, then smiled, apologised and said: “Look brother, let’s not ruin our festive moods for petty matters. Let’s just say Pakistan Zindabad and leave it at that.” At this the Camry driver, who looked furious just a few seconds back, broke into a broad smile and patted the other on the back, asking him to be careful, which he promised to do before parting.

What was surprising was that the healthy atmosphere on the roads transformed the normally quite impatient police mobile drivers who just gesture for you to move aside to make way for them to pass through. On Friday, they gingerly requested for space to pass and when accommodated, turned around to wave and mouth a thank you with a smile. Unbelievable!

For once even K-Electric didn’t disappoint what with all the tall buildings decorated with green and white lights making Karachi once again ‘the city of lights’.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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