KARACHI: The entire city became a playing field for 57 four-member teams with 21 riddles as clues for guessing landmarks during a one-of-its-kind scavenger hunt as part of an annual fund-raising event organised by the Young Education Supporters (YES) of The Citizens Foundation (TCF) on Sunday.

‘Dhoondo Karachi’ had everyone getting into their cars as soon as they registered and were handed the 21 clues, which read something like: “What if I told you there was a place/ Where you bow down together regardless of race/ When you look up you see the largest dome in the world ...” or “Boy was it glorious in its years/ A broadcasting channel familiar to our ears/ Whether it is a village or a small town/ This channel is sure to come on/ It’s time to pay a visit to this station ...” (for the record, these two happened to be Masjid-i-Tooba and Pakistan Television). All clues required a photograph with all team members present and visible. There were also some clues, such as number 14 and 19, which required more than a photo like the one where the contestants were needed to roll on the ground or sing the Pakistani national anthem with a stranger. There you needed to make videos.

Having solved all the 21 clues, each team was expected to return to the TCF’s Qayyumabad campus, where they had all started from, by 3.30pm. The teams with interesting names, which they had given to themselves, such as ‘Finders Keepers’, ‘Clueless’, ‘4G’ and ‘Talha and the Tomatoes’ were all up for the challenge as they never forgot that it was all for charity. No one seemed disappointed at deciphering wrongly or reaching the wrong place. It was all in good fun as the teams cheered for one another along.

One of the teams, Bella Italy, was 50 per cent Italian. Roberto Rizzo, head of the administration and diplomatic attache of the consulate of Italy in Karachi, was heading it. With him were Elena Grazia, his wife, and Mohammad Haroon and Aamir Butt, two other members of the consulate staff. Asked if they were familiar with the city to be looking for the landmarks here, Roberto said he had spent two years in Karachi already and felt quite confident. On returning from their running around town, they said that they were sure that they had nailed almost all the clues. “But we got confused on one where we ended up at Dolmen Mall in Clifton instead of the correct place,” said Roberto.

“We drove to Saddar, Clifton, Korangi, Karsaz, Doraji and back. If we didn’t know our city well before this, we sure do now,” said Zeeshan Zaffar of the ‘Finders Keepers’ team.

Finally, the top 12 teams were announced. All the prizes such as leather goods, iPods, tickets to PSL final, etc, were sponsored or donated with a round trip to Dubai as the first prize.

Speaking on the occasion, Bushra Afzal, director of the TCF board and the leading force behind the ‘Dhoondo Karachi’ initiative, said they were committed to improving the state of education in Pakistan. “We strongly feel that no child should be denied education on the basis of cast, creed or low income. Hence, the aim of the TCF is to provide quality education in the poorest communities of Pakistan ensuring that our children have an equal chance of a better and brighter tomorrow. ‘Dhoondo Karachi’ event, now in its second year, is a small effort in the direction to not any provide a healthy activity to Karachiites but in the process collect funds for the cause of education.”

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2016