IGNORANCE is bliss, they say. It is debatable. Is it bliss for those who do not question, or are afraid of knowing, their past? It is only by virtue of exploring your past that you can make sense of the present. As for the future, what is going to happen only happens when it happens.
An understatement: Karachi is a megacity. Over the years, in terms of demographics, it has become a potpourri of cultures, of ethnicities, of social groups, of classes, of schools of thought and of cliques. The problem with the potpourri is that in the present context it does not seem to have one fragrance (anymore) and each of them seems to be vying for its individual identity, making the city a mishmash of sorts. Size-wise, the city has expanded out of proportion, like a boxer who stopped taking care of his body after retirement. These are the two reasons that it is all the more difficult for a history lover to find clues to some sweet-sounding streets and classically built buildings whose names have not been changed to suit a post-partition nomenclature.
Take for example Parr Street. How many people in Karachi are familiar with it? Answer: only a handful. Let’s not count those who have been living around the street for decades. Parr Street is a small, very small, strip of road which basically connects Zaibunnisa Street (formerly Elphinstone Street) to Raja Ghazanfar Ali Road (formerly Somerset Street). Nowadays, only one remnant of Karachi’s colonial past stands on Parr Street, and my word what a crackerjack of a building it is. It is called Fazal Manzil. But let’s build the suspense and not talk about the structure at this juncture.
Abdullah Haroon Road (formerly Victoria Road) is a fascinating thoroughfare. From being a quaint little boulevard flanked by beautiful villas and sheltering trees to a road on whose either side now stands ill-planned, badly shaped concrete buildings, Victoria Road has changed a great deal. It is no mean feat to explore yesteryear vestiges here, as most of them have been demolished and a majority of those that remain are in a state that can only be rued.
Walking along that stretch of the road where the famous Hotel Jabees is located brings into view some strange sights. If you have hit the road from Zainab Market then a little before the hotel you will chance upon a hollow piece of land, which is a building that was razed sometime back. Right opposite that building, a narrow lane leads into a neighbourhood called Allah Wali Colony. Stepping into that locality unfolds before your eyes a world different altogether. Being on Victoria Road does not give you any idea regarding the fact that right behind that gali there is such a noticeable locality.
Allah Wali Colony primarily comprises government offices, a couple of pre-partition structures and a Sufi-saint’s shrine. It is hard to get pictures of any of them because of official reasons.
Time to visit Fazal Manzil. It was built in 1929, as is written on top of the residential-cum-commercial building’s main entrance. It is a lovely piece of architecture. You will be first struck by the protruding balconies. They are beautifully constructed and it seems that whoever designed the structure kept the balconies as its USP. The two-storey piece is topped by a decorative crescent and star. Although today Fazal Manzil needs a bit of a facelift (the two-colour façade is evidence of that), those who live in the building have kept it in a pretty livable condition.
It is not just Fazal Manzil’s façade which is attractive. If you move into its premises, you will realise it is a compound kind of a large structure, and the woodwork used in the inner part of the building is equally worth watching. So much for the hardware (in modern parlance); what about the software of the manzil?
Right across the building there is a tailoring shop. Vasant Kumar has been working there for many years. He says: “Fazal Manzil is the original name of the building and if you had visited it a couple of decades back, you would have liked it even more. It was in much better shape. A famous Urdu short story writer and TV playwright lived in the building. He died a few years ago. His family still lives in the flat.”
Architect Arif Hasan says: “It is not unusual that there are old structures named after Muslims. There used to be Adam Somar building in this area. I’m familiar with the vicinity, but I don’t know who Parr Street was named after.”
It will take some painstaking research to find out who Parr was. The one famous person with the same surname was John Parr, the first British soldier killed in World War I. It is unlikely that Parr Street was dedicated to him. There was also a Colonel Parr, the administrator of Bhavnagar (Indian Gujarat) in the late 19th century. There could be other British men and women, but they do not appear to be as well known as, let’s say, Bartle Frere and Charles Napier. So keep guessing and keep researching.
mohammad.salman@dawn.com