KARACHI: Who didn’t know monsoon rains were going to lash the city on Monday? The Met department claimed so, the provincial government knew, the mayor’s office was aware of it, K-Electric was in the loop, and the citizens, who are trying to come to terms with the pandemic and the life patterns that have come with it, were expecting that this time around things might not be as bothersome for them as they usually are every time it rains cats and dogs in Karachi. No. Nothing changed. Not one bit. What does it signify? There’s a serious lack of the megapolis’ ownership.

Rain and romance, they say, go hand in hand. It’s a mood-changer. Since early March, everyone is faced with the kind of uncertainty that has never been experienced before. The coronavirus has put everything else on the back burner, and the priority appears to be the effective handling of the pandemic. Fair enough. But then moments such as these, cloudy skies followed by three months of scorching heat, prove to be a huge respite, a great breather for those who have got the rough end of the stick. Well, that doesn’t seem to be the line that our authorities concerned think along.

The coronavirus has put everything else on the back burner

The instant the rains came down on Monday afternoon, there was power outage in some areas for hours; even in those neighbourhoods where apparently it didn’t rain much. For example, while lanes and streets in the Saddar region had accumulated 22mm of rainwater, Defence in comparison wasn’t much affected. And yet, electricity in Defence went kaput for six to eight hours. Now imagine the localities where it had rained a lot.

Secondly, it’s not known how much time it will take for the city administrators to drain out the water that’s standing on roads and streets in several parts of Sindh’s capital. Unfortunately, there’s prediction of more showers. One shudders to think what will happen next. So forget enjoying the heart-softening aspect of the monsoon.

Infrastructure-wise, on Monday walls of houses in Shamsi Society, Ibrahim Hyderi and Liaquatabad caved in, killing at least six people, including children. This only increases the despondency that has crept into our hearts and minds. There’s a line in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, which is uttered when everything has fallen apart: “the readiness is all.” It may have other connotations but one of them is that to be prepared for a difficult time can save us a lot of hassle … and face. Or, as the proverb goes, well begun is half done.

This is the 21st century. We are a nation of 220 million people, almost 20m of them live in Karachi. Shouldn’t by now we have been a wiser people? Or will we always remain wise in hindsight?

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2020