NAYAB is not the kind of mango which would explode midway in the air and become fodder for fiction. It is a certain type of mango which was once produced in an area called Damloti near Karachi and was considered the best tasting succulent stone fruit in the province of Sindh. How so? Well, there used to be a fruit-testing laboratory in Mirpurkhas. Yes, in Mirpukhas. Perhaps there still is, but if that’s the case not much is known about it. It was a regular practice of the researchers working in the laboratory to test a wide selection of fruits produced in Sindh for different reasons.

On July 4, 1965, the lab released a statement declaring that a certain variety of mango produced in Damloti was the best among the 16 varieties growing in the southern region. Since at the time that fruit did not have a proper identity, the experts gave it the name of Nayab for having a distinct “flavour, pulp, look and body”. It was also stated that the agriculture authorities would try and take steps to introduce that particular variety into other parts of the south zone. It’s July. It’s the mango season. And the Nayab is becoming increasingly ‘nayab’ (rare).

Another thing that was rare in Karachi and does not exist any longer is the double-decker buses. On June 30, the Regional Transport Authority of the city approved recommendations for a specially appointed committee to gradually replace, what it called, the “present rickety buses” with double-deckers to solve the transport problems. However, the implementation of the plan was subject to availability of adequate funds by all road construction agencies. We all know that it happened for a brief period.

The problem-free transport was part of a cleanliness drive that commenced at the fag end of the month of June. The chairman of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, M. Ziauddin Khan, had even announced a reward for the most clean colony and clean shop of the city. On June 30, the KMC also claimed that over 600 people had been inoculated against cholera and smallpox by the corporation’s health staff on the first day of the cleanliness week.

Unlike today, you could not fault the KMC in those days for, at least, being proactive. On July 5, it decided to remove about 150 hoardings on its land in different parts of the city because their licences had lost validity on June 30. This created a little bit of hue and cry. So M. Ziauddin Khan had to meet newsmen on July 6 to present his point of view. He said, apart from the licence issue, the “ugly looking hoardings” would be replaced with beautiful superstructures to provide an opportunity for better advertisements. It is not clear what he meant by ugly looking hoardings.

The one venue which seldom needed a cleanliness drive is Karachi’s airports, although some might disagree with the claim. On July 5, Princess Helen Shah, wife of the brother of the king of Nepal, arrived in the city for a brief period from Lahore on her way to Europe. She was accompanied by her daughters Jayanti and Kataki Shah.

Not many members of royal families grace Karachi airport these days. Understandably so.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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