KARACHI: Donkeys named Mawali, Bay-akal, Chingari, Talash, Nokia, CNG and Daal Roti were all ready with their masters as excited as they for the Donkey Cart Race on Saturday. Well, actually the masters seemed more excited than the beasts, who seemed quite cool about the whole affair.

Daal Roti’s entire head, face included, was orange. The rest of him was gray though. “I applied henna to his head to help him keep cool in the sun,” said Asghar Shah, popularly known as Badshah in his donkey cart racing circles.

“Donkey’s are very difficult to control, especially on Karachi’s roads. And running them in a race is an even bigger challenge so I am doing all I can to help my four-legged champion not lose control of his nerves during the race,” he said.

Everyone was gathering near the Ali Baba Chowrangi near Bilawal House for the race that was to start from there and end at Village Restaurant. Donkey cart racing, though quite a popular sport among the people of Lyari, hasn’t been able to pick up from there. The Lyariittes aren’t very pleased about this.

“The race should get international recognition just like horse racing. It is also an equine sport after all. Donkeys aren’t anything to be taken lightly. They are the beasts of burden after all. See, even the Democrats election symbol in the United States is the donkey,” said Asghar.

About the training of donkeys for these races, the masters said that they had been working hard with them for a week now. “We have been feeding them the best food we can afford for the last eight days, including apples, milk, cream and jam,” said Ghulam Hussain, adding that he had been taking part in these donkey cart races for some 40 years now.

Mama Saleem, who has also been into the sport for as long, said the younger the donkey the better it ran in the races. “Four to seven year old donkeys, with two teeth, run better. We also keep them in good shape making them trot for several kilometres early in the morning or making them run on the beach in the water to help the muscles in the legs develop. Otherwise you’ll just have a labourer donkey like us poor labourers, transporting goods from here to there the whole day, instead of a race runner,” he said.

“Now, this race is on Abdul Sattar Edhi Avenue so we are all gathered here in Clifton and Defence for it. Otherwise, people frown at us poor donkey cart wallahs if we enter the posh areas of this city.” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2016