It seems the streets are always under construction and greenery is not an option. When asked, a native said that it didn't rain enough for the greens to stay green. I beg to differ... It doesn't rain at all in the UAE, its still lush and bright. Also, it rains plenty. See: The News on people swimming to work and at work.
When driving down one of those awe-inspiring flyovers, I noticed driving instructions and street-signs painted on the boundary walls. Seeing how Urdu is written right to left and we're traveling from left to right, reading those while attempting to drive can be quite daunting, at least for infidels such as myself that have risen from The Punjab. Maybe Karachiites are more educated. Maybe this is just another road hazard waiting for its prey. Either way, whose brilliant idea was that?
As for street signs in Defense and other areas, they were the same color, etc. as advertisements for some donation scheme as well. "Khayban-e-Something to the Left" and right under it "Donate a book". Another confusion is that Karachi doesn't realize that the world counts as follows "1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." The concept of "3" is lost, at least in the "planning" of Defense - the poshest of posh neighborhoods.
Fauzia showed me these wide array's of concrete with slashes in them which were meant to be rain drains. How do they work? The district government sends water-suction-tank-things at night (inspired by the tooth-fairy) and while you sleep, the water disappears. Miraculous, really.
Forget appearances (or the fact that you can't just turn on a tap and get water, you need someone to come fill the tank biweekly... And its a coastal city), I mean its unfair to judge the book by its cover. I blame the shift of the capital from Karachi to Islamabad for the bad state the city's in. Its like the neglected middle child. Poor soul, I feel your pain. The people: don't get me wrong, a whole bunch of my close friends are from this Country, but they may very well be exceptions to the case. Karachi is full of wanna-be-farangi's. There, I said it. Raised in a pretty burger environment myself, I've been accused of the same many-a-time. However, Punjabi's are pretty paindoo at heart. As Fauz would say "you can take the girl out of Punjab, but you can't take the Punjab out of the girl!" And we're proud of it!
I was there for a wedding... Firstly, life comes at Karachiites pretty late. So, events that are bound to kick off around 10 p.m. PST in Lahore, are only beginning to take shape around midnight in Karachi. So when you send out an invite for Thursday, expect people to show up on Friday, early morning. Dates can be so confusing. Obviously it is of little consequence that the next day is in fact a working day. Maybe that's why we moved our capital. Either way, I now understand why we're suffering financially as a country and it has a simple solution, we need to move our commercial hub out of Karachi.
But I will say this, Karachi doesn't mess with its food. Although Punjab is known for its food and lavish spread, Karachi does complete justice to the edibles. That's all I can think of that would link them to the rest of Pakistan. Not to sound ungrateful, I was well hosted (as always) and everyone was more than hospitable, so thank you! But, Karachi so queer! I was less culturally shocked when I moved Stateside!
I must end with these wise words: Lahore Lahore Hai!
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