Curtailing extravagance at marriages

IN a letter-to-the-editor in an English daily last week, a reader had compared the attempt to regulate the number of dishes at wedding functions to totalitarian tendencies by the state. The reader argued that the rectification of this ostentatious social custom should come from within society rather than being imposed by the state.

One can argue whether the state is behaving in a totalitarian manner by restricting the number of dishes at wedding functions. But there can certainly be no argument about the fact that it has long been a popular public demand for measures to be introduced to curtail extravagance in expenditure at marriages and to check the practice of demanding/giving excessive dowry.

Governments’ efforts in this respect have largely been focussed on enacting legislation prescribing limits on dowry, limits on expenditure at wedding functions, and limits on the number of dishes that can be served at such functions. It is a different matter altogether that most of these measures have been difficult to enforce in practice, and governments have not succeeded in changing much the general attitude of the people towards the issue of dowry and ostentatious spending at marriages.

The first concrete attempt at controlling marriage expenditures and the demand for dowry was the 1976 Dowry and Bridal Gift Restriction Act. The Act prescribed Rs5,000 as the upper limit for dowry and Rs2,500 as the maximum expenditure on meals at a marriage.

Under the Act, the nikah registrar was bound to inform the district commissioner about the worth of dowry and other expenditures within 15 days of a marriage. The Act prescribed six months of imprisonment and confiscation of the excess dowry for violators.

However, the provisions of the Act had never been implemented by the authorities concerned, although it remained a legal statute in all the provinces, it having never been withdrawn or repealed by any subsequent law. Violators of the Act were never taken to task, partly because enforcement was next to impossible given the fact that it depended on the bride and bridegroom’s families submitting accounts of expenditures and gifts. Besides, it was not in the interest of a whole group of businessmen and traders associated with arranging lavish wedding functions to see the Act being implemented.

Rather than being interpreted in the spirit it was intended to, i.e., restrict the monetary value of dowry in order to benefit women, this Act, as with some other laws in this country, has been misused by some people. This is particularly so in cases where men, in response to suits filed for recovery of dowry, have stated that as the total value of dowry cannot exceed Rs5,000 under this law, the value of dowry in excess of this amount cannot be recovered by the wife.

In 1993, the Law Commission had recommended amending and updating the 1976 Act. It was suggested that the limit for dowry be increased from Rs5,000 to Rs50,000 in the case of urban areas and Rs20,000 in the case of rural areas. It was also suggested that the limit on expenditure for wedding functions be increased from Rs2,500 to Rs25,000 in the urban areas and Rs10,000 in the rural areas. The Law Commission also recommended that “all forms of extravagance, unnecessary illumination, firing or fire cracking, ‘mujras’ of any kind and serving food more than one dish at all marriage functions shall be avoided”.

Then in July this year, the Law Commission announced at a seminar in Islamabad that it was preparing a draft law on Marriage Expenses, Dowry and Bridal Gifts (Restriction) Act 2003 to supersede the 1976 Act. Under this new Act, the total expenditure on marriage including mehndi, barat and valima should not exceed Rs50,000, and the value of dowry should not exceed Rs50,000.

The fact that the very existence of an anti-dowry and anti- ostentatious marriage spending act during the last 27 years has failed to change society’s ways and curb the social trends, is proof of how deep-rooted and entrenched the problem is in our society. For the state has not only to change an established social custom within society, it has also to deal with resistance to such a change from various business groups — ranging from wedding-hall owners to caterers and chicken sellers — whose interests will be hurt by any change in the attitudes of society towards marriage spending and dowry.

The 1997 Act banning meals at wedding functions has been somewhat more successful in limiting expenditure at weddings than the 1976 Act. In terms of enforcement, the 1997 Act is more practical, as violators stood out easily and thus could be penalized. Many families readily took advantage of the meals ban to reduce their wedding expenses, serving guests with only cold drinks, soup and pastries.

In the Punjab, the complete ban on meals at weddings was earlier this year replaced by a new law which restricts meals at valima functions to only one dish. Enforcement of this one-dish law is also likely to prove relatively effective, given the provincial government’s stated determination to implement it and penalize violators.

As for the proposal for a more comprehensive dowry and bridal gifts restriction act, such a law will probably meet the same fate in practice as the 1976 Act when it comes to implementation, unless the government supports the new piece of legislation with a vivid attempt to change the attitudes of society through a massive education and legal awareness campaign.

‘The more he gave the more he got’

THE Archives and Publication wing of the National School of Arts (NCA) has been doing wonderful work which has largely gone unsung and unnoticed so far. It has undertaken to reprint rare books and reports which are of vital interest to Lahore.

One such book which the NCA Archives people propose to reprint is a biography of Sir Ganga Ram by BPL Bedi. Without Ganga Ram Lahore would never have been the city I have known since childhood. Let me give you a preview of a letter the NCA people have secured from Sir Ganga Ram’s great grand daughter for inclusion in the reprint. She now lives in Britain. She says about her great grandpa:

I never had the chance to see my great grandfather but his presence permeated my childhood. Everything we did, everywhere we went, great grandfather’s name was there and his presence was almost tangible. If we went to the hospital, it was the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, if we went to the village it was Gangapur. My school was Sir Ganga Ram Girls’ School, now Lahore College. The teachers were trained in the training college attached to the school, the doctors were trained in the medical college attached to the hospital. For me living in Lahore as a child was living in the massive shadow of great grandfather.

Of course, at that time I had no conception of what he had achieved. All I knew was that he had made a huge amount of money but had in turn given away equally huge amounts to all sorts of causes. My mother said that he always said “that the more I give the more I get.” All us children knew the legend that he had to study under the street lamp because his parents were too poor even to provide him with a lamp in the home. It is amazing to think how a young boy from such a beginning could reach the heights that Ganga Ram did. A true visionary, a man so ahead of his time.

One of his great causes which has been mentioned in the Introduction of the book was the situation of Hindu Widows. He was deeply distressed by the way widows were treated in general but particularly about the cruel fate inflicted on little girls widowed after child marriages. Amongst numerous institutions such as widows homes, orphanages etc. he also set up two homes for unmarried mothers in the days when most people either killed the girls or threw them out, forcing them to go on the streets. These girls were taught to sew and embroider so that they could earn a decent living.

Recently, I heard about a micro hydro project from someone from the department for International Development in UK as a new way to generate electricity in developing countries. Great grandfather had already set up his micro hydro project in Renala in the early part of the twentieth century to generate electricity which he gave free to everyone around! It seems to me that it would be worth revisiting his innovations to see how they suit the conditions of our countries today.

As I have lived my life as a person of action and reached positions which would not be expected from an Asian woman in UK, my one desire would be to have an opportunity to have a dialogue with my great grandfather. This remarkable man cared deeply about people and his country and had the boundless energy to do so much in so many directions.

The lady signs herself Shreela Flather. She is a baroness. I wish she had grown up in Lahore. Only then she could have some idea of what her great grandfather meant for the city of Lahore. As noted above, he got more than he gave. This is an understatement. Actually he gave much more to the city than he ever got. And then he could never even dream of 1947.

TO RETURN now to my favourite chronology, The Statesman 1875-1975. On February 4, 1928, the paper wrote:

Sir John Simon and his colleagues have arrived and the promised uprising of an indignant people which had been organized with such elaborate care has been thoroughly exposed for what it is —- the clamour of small groups of little influences with the people in whose name they profess to speak. In Bombay itself the demonstrations were of no consequence and did not prevent Sir John Simon giving a message of hope and inspiration to India. Delhi was quiet, Lahore had no hartal at all. The citizens of Calcutta generally behaved with dignity and went about their affairs, and only from Madras is there news of any serious riot. In Calcutta we had the real measure of influence of the congressmen, and found that it counted for practically nothing.

On the Simon Commission’s return home, the paper wrote on March 29, the same year:

Leaving India at the end of the week the Simon Commission will carry away very definite impressions after its first survey of the ground. While the members are not likely to underrate the magnitude of the task that lies before them they are equally in a position not to exaggerate the obstacle that lie in their path. The temper of the commission on departure will be distinctly more hopeful than it could have been in the first few weeks at Delhi. Sir John Simon and his colleagues have seen Calcutta and Madras, have stayed at Lahore and other centres and have everywhere evidence of goodwill that they can set against the resolutions of the Assembly. They know that they will not want for amply material on which to judge India’s case than the Nationalists provide with their closed lips and hands withheld. By their calm way of going forward with their task they have already done much to cause the opposition to melt like ice on the plains. The speech that Sir John Simon has made on the eve of his departure from Delhi is evidence of the mood in which the Commissioners are at the end of the first stage of their task. That mood is firm towards the opposition. There is to be no going back, and equally no advance upon the offer of the letter of February 6. So far as the Commission was concerned that is its word about cooperation with the Indian Legislatures. The terms are to be taken just as India chooses. They are no preliminary stages of a bargain but the last word on one side. That is precisely what everybody would expect who knows the fibre of the commission and the mood of the Englishman.

Indian communalism makes good business sense

CONTRARY to the belief that the recent religious carnage in Gujarat has harmed the state’s economy, we could be seeing proof of a smart turnaround.

The economic damage may have been a short-term price paid for happier days that look set to follow for business and industry alike in India’s most prosperous state. Indeed, in several crucial ways, communalism has proved to be a profitable venture in India.

Let’s look at a few recent events to assess how religious mayhem works and how it has become a vital tool in driving India’s massive economic agenda, an agenda that many regard as a euphemism for reckless dismemberment of the state sector and for scandal-marked attempts to woo foreign investors by hook or by crook.

Now it is not a huge secret that the Ayodhya temple movement, which triggered the by now familiar communal eruptions across much of the country, had in fact begun precisely at a time when India’s economic reforms were launched under the Congress party dispensation of Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Roughly a year before Mr Rao’s elevation as prime minister in a minority government, Mr Lal Krishan Advani had embarked on his notorious rath yatra, or chariot trip, in a cross-country campaign for a Hindu temple in Ayodhya.

It may have been a minor corollary to the main theme, but Mr Advani’s journey in a locally assembled Toyota truck was symbolic of how India’s economic liberalization would ride on the back of a regressive agenda of religious fundamentalism in a decade of volatile politics.

So while Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr Rao’s genial finance minister, basked in the hosannas from home and abroad for setting in motion the country’s first sweeping reforms, it was Mr Advani’s Hindutva campaign on the Ayodhya temple that preoccupied parliament right through its five-year term.

On February 29, 1992, Dr Singh presented his first budget. On December 6 that year the Babri Mosque was demolished. The next year’s budget was overshadowed by the Mumbai carnage and bomb blasts. Take any year after that and look up the parliamentary discussions on the budget, and you will always see one or the other communal agenda diverting MPs from the issue at hand.

Economic reforms in India do not have a popular mandate. No elections are ever fought on the management of fiscal deficits and interest rates. That’s because the consuming class is estimated to be no more than 200 million. Even if we factor in an another 100 million wannabes we are looking at a figure of around 300 million who make up the middle class. That’s nearly as large as the EU market but it leaves more than 700 million Indians out of the market as it were.

In a one-man one-vote situation, the 700 million rather than 300 million should be calling the shots. But that’s not how it goes. In the volatile politics of the country, democracy works on two tracks: one to garner votes on religious and caste issues, the other to push the agenda of the minority stakeholders or the 300-million who make up the market.

It was a highly dubious coincidence that the entire Indian parliament sat with rapt attention for at least one full hour on February 28, 2002, to hear the budget speech at precisely the time when bloody massacres were peaking in Gujarat. The budget of course would soon be forgotten. After doling out all the goodies to the minority stakeholders, the discussion, as always, did turn to how badly riven society was. There was much hand-wringing and accusations and countercharges about communalism but no discussion on the budget’s real agenda.

Communalism in India not only takes the focus away from the common man’s issues of bread and livelihood, it also thwarts organized attempts to resist what is a grossly inequitable system. Thus, in Mumbai, the financial hub of India, where the organized left once controlled powerful trade unions, rightwing Hindu groups have taken charge of the working classes’ agenda.

Similarly, the rightwing communal upsurge in Gujarat has deftly used Muslims and Christians as targets to implement a more subtle agenda — to cleanse the region of organized trade unions. It is not a coincidence that one of the well-known victims of the pogroms in Ahmedabad was Ehsaan Jaffri, who was more a left-leaning leader with a strong trade union background than just a leading Muslim personality. He was cut to pieces before he was set on fire while the police turned a blind eye to a day-long siege of his building by fanatic mobs.

It is in this background that we should view last week’s business jamboree in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s prosperous capital and site of the gut-wrenching massacre of Muslims barely 18 months ago. It was an impressive line-up of the movers and shakers of corporate India who lined up under the approving smile of Deputy Prime Minister Advani to commit massive investments in the state.

Indeed, the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit was launched to a flying start with the announcement by the state’s homegrown Reliance group of a Rs 100-billion investment in the state over the next three years.

Similarly, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry announced an advisory council to be headed by Chief Minister Narendra Modi “to prepare a strategy document for the growth of Gujarat.”

Over five days, sessions on infrastructure, ports and roads, oil and gas sector, tourism, bio-technology and pharmaceuticals, minerals and mining, agro-processing and education, were held in Ahmedabad and Surat. There were conferences on textiles and garments and gems and jewellery too. This time though there was no breast beating about the ‘dark side’ of society. It was strictly business, and everyone was in a rush to prove they were on the right side.

WE are told that the much-hyped deal between the ministry of defence and Boeing for the supply of three Air Force One-type aircraft, fitted with a hi-tech missile defence system and special communication package for Indian leaders, has run into rough weather.

The Boeing 737-700s were meant to replace the ageing aircraft of the Indian Air Force that carry the prime minister and president abroad. The defence ministry had floated a tender for these business jets. Boeing had won the order with its offer of $154 million against Airbus’ $171 million for the three aircraft.

Apparently the Boeing deal was withheld because the US company had refused to transfer the technology used in the aircraft’s security system. After the Chinese experience, the Indian Air Force insisted on having full transfer of technical know-how of all the gadgets that Boeing planned to load in the aircraft. No one has forgotten that Boeing had supplied a completely bugged aircraft to China which the Chinese managed to detect, creating an uproar around the world.

Know thy enemy

LAST Friday’s attack that left six dead on the spot and many more wounded, was certainly not something unheard of in Karachi, indeed in the whole of Pakistan. During the past two decades or so, scores of lives have been extinguished by the bullets of the purveyors of sheer terror. Few of the killers have been apprehended, let alone tried and convicted, receiving the punishment prescribed in law for their fell deeds.

Terrorism is now a world phenomenon. What happened on September 11, 2001 in the United States could not be prevented. This leaves us with two lessons or warnings. First, that the terrorist is not a stray frustrated individual, out to settle his accounts with society. Now, the big-time terrorist is backed by powerful political or religious groups with ample resources. The second lesson is that we have no choice but to work harder and not give in to panic. We must continue to nurse the hope that some day peace shall prevail.

Let somebody in the ministry of interior in Islamabad, and home departments in the provincial capitals sit down and try to analyze every serious terrorist incident that has occurred. The question has to be: where did we fail to anticipate and pre-empty the outrage? If we had been intelligent enough, each terrorist attack should have left us wiser. One doesn’t have to say that this has not been so in our case. The forces of law and order appear to be amateurs while the man with the gun is an astute strategist.

All that we have done after the terrorists have done their killing and escaped, is to issue some messages of condolences to the families of the bereaved. Then the government announces its intention to compensate the families with around 100,000 rupees per life lost. This is followed by a meeting or two of the bureaucrats at the highest level. As far as the public is concerned, these meetings are just funerary formalities. Once again the old set of instructions are recited.

This time the wiseacres in the bureaucracy have explained that they feel confident to say that three well-known groups are jointly behind this brand of terror. These three are said to be the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen al-Almi and Harakat Jihadul Islami. These are not unknown entities as far as we are concerned. One should expect that our law enforcement agencies (LEAs) know all there is to know about them. But the freedom and audacity with which they kill and get away with daylight murder leaves us with the dispiriting conclusion that the LEAs have not been able to do their homework.

First of all, what needs to be understood is that these killings are not ordinary crime. There is a great deal of unenlightened religious quackery behind these fanatics who kill for reward hereafter. Here is a disease that the LEAs alone cannot alleviate, let alone cure. We need to do much more. Mere policing, even at its best, would not be able to contain this phenomenon. It is common knowledge that these terror merchants are a well-trained lot. In addition to training, they are indoctrinated into believing that they are operating in the name of God. In all likelihood, these terrorists are equipped with weapons more sophisticated than our LEAs are.

In situations like these the policeman in uniform cannot do much unless duly briefed by police in the civvies. As far the lay citizen can see, the Special Branch of this force has so far been unequal to the demands of the task. A duly efficient Special Branch should be able to penetrate the organizations that train, equip and command the elements behind religious extremism that translates into terrorist outrage. It appears that the uniformed police are not sufficiently briefed by the Special Branch.

In the battle against terror the secret services have a pivotal and decisive role. These services are expected to be fully knowledgeable about every relevant detail regarding at least the three main organizations that are frequently named in this context. These three are supposed to be under a ban. In fact, they are under a blanket of secrecy that our secret services are apparently unable to peep into. Neither the ‘Lashkar,’ nor the two ‘Harakats’ are of very recent origin. They have been there, operating in the open until the ban was imposed on them. There is no reason why the same well-known organizations should be closed books for the secret arm of our civil police forces are concerned.

Where the uniformed police may come in for some criticism is that the wild lawlessness always follows public protest demonstrations. Arson has come to be integral to the smallest public demonstration in Karachi. It starts with burning of tyres and ends up with the private cars and public buses in flames. This is obviously the work of some crime-hardened youth. Since there is a set pattern, one should expect the police on duty to anticipate this kind of trouble and be properly clued up to prevent it and to catch the potential culprit.

One can sympathise with the police. It is obvious that as compared with the strength of the lawless elements this force is inadequate in numbers and also perhaps equipment. Do we have some platoons of police specially trained and equipped to deal with riotous situations? The answer would most probably be in the negative.

In cities like Karachi, so critically prone to risks of public unrest and disturbances, the need for a section of the police force trained in riot-control is beyond any debate. Riot- control is now a specialized task. Police not trained to deal with riotous situations would be all at sea in the face of lawless elements on the rampage. And that is what we see happening so often in this temperamental city.

It is indeed a great pity that the 21st century should find the world in such turmoil and torment. The second half of the last century saw some 600 big and not so big wars. The United States alone is at present fighting its 21st war. Unrest is now a worldwide phenomenon. Police forces in many countries, including ours, are being called upon to cope with peculiarly complex and unpredictable situations. It is obvious that we have to have bigger police forces, better trained, better equipped, and backed by public support. For their part the police shall have to improve their image in order to earn public support.

View from the top

Throughout the world, skyscrapers inspire and command respect, at times becoming the trademarks of the cities in which they are located. The Empire State building in New York City, Chicago’s Sears Tower and Kuala Lumpur’s twin Petronas Towers are a few of the awe-inspiring buildings that spring to mind.

Karachi also boasts a couple of reasonably tall buildings. The Habib Bank Plaza on I.I. Chundrigar Road is one such building. Located in the financial hub of the city, which has no dearth of imposing office blocks, the building dominates the skyline. It is no coincidence that the Ruet-i-Hilal committee meets here to sight the new moon on two occasions — the beginning of the month of fasting and Eid-ul-Fitr. Though it is not known whether the top floor is open to the general public or not, the fortunate few who have surveyed the city from the vantage point immensely enjoyed the spectacle.

Reportedly construction work on a skyscraper with more floors than the Habib Bank Plaza is proceeding apace in the vicinity. Real estate agents claim that when built, it would be the tallest building in the city. Further down the road is Shaheen Complex which, though not very tall, used to have the only revolving restaurant in Karachi. From here, one could have a bird’s-eye view of Saddar and other neighbouring localities.

Away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Karachi, there is at least one more tall building in the city which is ideal for viewing the cityscape, especially on a clear, sunny day. It is the new premises of the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation. This 17-storey edifice, which has not been properly whitewashed, houses the studios of FM-101 whose youthful programmes are pitched for young listeners. (Radio Pakistan retains its old building on M.A. Jinnah Road which has been immortalized by Ahmed Rushdie in a popular song, Bunder Road sey Kemari....) From the roof of this building, one can not only see the shimmering azure waters of the Arabian Sea but also a few of the hills of Balochistan.

Birth certificates

A birth certificate is an important document. A person with a birth certificate can say, without fear of contradiction, that he was born on such-and-such date at such-and-such a medical facility. Jubilant couples, in the first flush of parenthood, often neglect to obtain birth certificates for their children on time.

A law-abiding friend procured the birth certificate of his daughter at the time of her birth three years ago. When another daughter was born a couple of months ago, he went to his union council to obtain a birth certificate for her. He told the city government official at the union council that apart from obtaining a birth certificate for the newborn, he wanted to change the name of his elder daughter. When the official learned that the elder daughter had been born three years ago, he said he could not issue a new birth certificate. He said the city government was not in possession of the old records of the zonal municipal corporations run by the defunct Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. He advised the friend to immediately call on the union council nazim.

The union council nazim confirmed that the city government had no access to the old birth and death records. He added that he had no idea where the records were and how they would be preserved, if at all. An obliging man, he, however, agreed to issue a new birth certificate with the name of the girl changed despite the fact that he did not have the old document to tally the particulars with.

The veteran politician

The late Nawabazada Nasrullah Khan used to come to Karachi frequently. Wearing a traditional fez and smoking his favourite hookah, he remained true to the political profession until his last breath.

It was widely known that he had excellent taste in poetry. He belonged to that old generation of politicians who, unlike the young loud-mouthed lot, set great store by decorum and elegance of speech.

He stayed at the residence of the late Mushtaq Mirza, a fast friend of his, whenever he came to Karachi. Apart from politicians and activists, his friends used to visit him in order to enjoy his company. Taking advantage of his photographic memory, he often reminisced about pre-Partition India and the Pakistan movement.

Traffic woes

Car driving in Karachi needs a lot of patience. If you are among the first four or five as you approach a traffic signal which has turned red, there is a good chance you will be able to drive past the signal post as the light turns green. But if you are, say, tenth or eleventh, or twelfth in line, there is a good chance you will miss the green light and will fume silently as you wait for the next chance. Why?

Because some of the car drivers ahead of you in the line are in no hurry to get past the signal. They have all the time to take a leisurely start, for they know that they will be able to make it anyway. Now if just three or four drivers move sluggishly the cars ahead of you can simply crawl along until the signal turns red again and traffic comes to a dead stop. Quite often the reaction of those at the back of the line in such situations is to start honking their horns in desperation. This does seem to work sometimes, but not always. For if the fellows ahead of you have strong nerves all the honking will not induce them to get moving quickly enough to let the cars behind also take advantage of the go signal.

And these sluggish drivers at the signals are quite often the same who otherwise break all speed limits and weave in and out of traffic, violating lane discipline and pester you by coming dangerously close to you if they think you are driving too slowly or waiting too long at a U-turn.

A cinema buff

A colleague recently went to the cinema to watch an award-winning movie. The film was about an enormous ship which went down after hitting an uncharted rock in the sea. The ship, ironically billed as an unsinkable vessel, had luxurious rooms and halls for the well-heeled and stuffy and cheerless cubicles for the poor. A film buff, the colleague followed the twists of the storyline with rapt attention. His heart went out to the poor passengers in the movie who were not being allowed to sail away to safety. Since the sinking ship did not have enough lifeboats to accommodate all the passengers on board, the powerful elite were being given the opportunity to save their lives first.

As the rich jostled against the poor in the movie, the colleague realized that an almost similar contest was on in the cinema, which, like most cinema houses in the city, was compartmentalized into a grand circle on the first floor and a section having low wooden benches on the ground floor. The colleague found that the occupants of the grand circle exchanged catcalls with those sitting on the low benches downstairs. As viewers from the low benches loudly chastised the wealthy characters of the movie for being selfish and unkind, a few well-dressed men from the grand circle admonished the hecklers to behave themselves. The colleague found it hard to believe that instead of quietly watching such a sorrowful scene of the movie, the viewers were actually screaming at the top of their voices.

Interestingly, a hush fell over the cinema hall when a romantic scene started. As the shot panned slowly into the small chamber in which the British-born leading lady sat next to the American-born hero, many admiring viewers in the audience wolf-whistled. His wonderment knew no bounds when some indecent men from the audience directed the beam of their laser pens, usually employed at computer presentations, on the leading lady wearing a skimpy dress. The colleague left the cinema hall in disgust, and resolved to watch the soulful flick in the solitude of his television lounge at home.

— By Karachian

email: karachi_notebook@hotmail.com