Swat Flogging

Shock. Rage. Gloom. Despair.

The phases I went through during the weekend as the flogging of the 17-year old girl and related opinions were being aired over and over on TV channels.

Shock, that such a thing has been allowed to happen. Shock, that the people's government we have elected after years of dictatorship, a democratically elected parliament with a record majority - this 'people's government' signed the 'peace accord' with the militants that allowed this incident to happen while hundreds stood by and watched.

Rage, that no one could dare to stop it while it was happening. Rage, at the complete helplessness of the woman screaming for mercy. Rage at the utterly sick minds of the men flogging her. Rage, that the Taliban spokesman interviewed felt the punishment was justified and was being made into a big deal unnecessarily.

Gloom, that there are so many others who support this punishment. That some people still believe the tape is 'doctored'. That some feel it is an attempt to jepoardise the peace accord.
Gloom, that there are people who still want to find excuses.

Despair.
At what we have become as a nation.
At where we are headed, if headed anywhere at all.

Someone in the office very rightly said, we should use our nuclear bomb on ourselves. Better to die once and for all than watch our collective soul die bit by bit each passing day.

Sugharean Sath

It's amazing how strongly nostalgic the sense of smell can be sometimes.
Today I went to ada Arshad's (my lawyer cousin) office in Saddar for some informal advice on a corporate issue. As I went inside the building, just beside the stairs some people were unloading stacks of a new magazine issue - that smell of freshly printed magazine paper transported me to over 15 years ago when my mother and aunt got together to launch Sugharean Sath - a Sindhi magazine on women empowerment. For about a year and a half my house was a makeshift office and a storage area for the magazine.

This smell is associated with hard work and courage - the frequent meetings that they used to have with various stakeholders, the constant running around to gather material and pick up articles, endless writing, editing and proof-reading sessions late into the night, letters and mails from readers all over Sindh, the constantly brewing tea, sales and marketing efforts, and towards the end of it all, the tension around the ethnic riots that impacted operations, the ensuing lack of funds and the final stop to the publication work as they ran out of the money they were putting in themselves to sustain the effort.

I would love to be associated one day with a publication - or a similar worthwhile effort with a cause.

Mumbai Terror

My travel jinx is common knowledge to most friends, but I could never have been prepared enough for the horrific episode on Nov27 in Mumbai. I was there to attend a few board meetings, followed by a quiet management day out on 27th. The horror began just about the time we were coming out of a management dinner Wednesday night at the Four Seasons, where I was staying this time thanks to good rates agreed between this newly opened hotel and the Company.

Lynn, our HR Manager for South Asia, was expecting her husband to pick her up, and we were chatting in the lobby while waiting for him. When he hadn't arrived by 11pm, she called him only to find out he was held up on the way because of a reported bomb blast in the city. Worried, we hurried up to my room to check the news which was reporting exchange of fire between Nigerians and the police at the famous Leopold Cafe some kilometers away. There was also news of a blast having been heard, however there was uncertainty about where. Within the next hour the the number of blasts had become three, number of casualties about 10 or so and armed attacks on two top hotels, Oberoi and Taj. Lynn's husband managed to arrive some time after midnight, and we agreed to stay in touch over the developing situation.

I called up my worried folks back home to let them know I was okay, and followed the news till around 2am by when there were already 25 or so deaths reported, 5 bombs and a hostage drama unfolding in the two hotels. Worried and feeling helpless, I fell asleep. At 8am on Nov27, I woke up in a fear-gripped and paralysed Mumbai to the news of over 100 people dead, scores more injured and continuing hostage crisis. Lynn called to say the management outing was obviously off, our Mumbai offices had been declared closed and that we were to stay indoors till further notice. Being a Pakistani in India, and aware of the history of traditional finger-pointing between the two countries, I decided to check on flights and get the first available one back to Karachi. The hotel staff were all very helpful, and with Lynn calling every quarter of an hour to check on progress, I managed to get to the airport, arrange a ticket and head back safely in the afternoon. In the absence of traffic it was probably also the quickest ever trip between the hotel and the airport.

Sure enough, the blame-game with Pakistan has now begun. This whole incident and the situation developing is a terrible thing to happen, especially at a time when relations between the two countries were at a high. The way the media on both sides is behaving, it seems that regardless of how much we work together to build a good relationship, it is all really just a farce - scratch the surface and just underneath there is so much ill-will, distrust and resentment on both sides, built up in all our years of animosity and war, that no amount of effort can really seem to wash it away.

We need to wake up to the fact that terrorism is not only a global problem, for Pakistan it is our single biggest national problem. We know the fear Mumbaikars are facing, because we live through it every day. And those who know this fear would never will it on anyone else. Pakistan has its hands full in dealing with this threat internally to think about unleashing it elsewhere. Instead of talking of troop buildups at the border we need to collectively put our best brains together to solve this issue.
I hope and pray that sanity prevails.

Winds of Change

I felt it this morning, the dry air and scorching heat. It was as if there was a huge fire raging not far away, eating away all forms of life. Autumn is finally here. The temperature today was no less than 45C and one could potentially fry an egg on a car bonnett outside. I love it. And as crazy as it may sound, I love being outdoors in this dry weather when people would much rather stay put in their homes with the air conditioning on full blast.

People associate Spring as the start of life and love and happiness, but somehow for me even September has a powerful effect. For if it were not for the falling of leaves and the destructive forces of Autumn, there would never come the new life associated with Spring. A sense of quiet urgency grips me, the feeling that I must also act quickly to change my state and surroundings the way Mother Nature is doing all around.

In a way I always find myself falling in love in September. Be it with a person or a new idea, with the beautiful earth and with humankind in general. Somehow it is always Autumn when the realization hits hardest - that life is simply beautiful.

Traveling...again

I've been in Colombo for almost a week now, traveling for business. There’s tight security all over the city, random checks and police everywhere - one has to cross no less than three check-posts to get to the hotel I'm staying at, near the Presidential palace. Bombs go off in this city often, and while previously only government or military areas were targeted, recent attacks have been on civilians, in the markets or in buses and trains. YET what's baffling is that when given the choice between Colombo and Karachi for this meeting, Karachi was almost immediately written off as a security threat. I mean, honestly, when was the last time a bomb went off in Karachi market? There has been a civil war going on in the outskirts of Colombo for as far back as I can remember. In Pakistan the unrest has always been thousands of miles away from Karachi, and only recently in Islamabad/Pindi. Yet the general perception is that the entire Pakistan is totally unsafe and unfit for travel. Hmph! I mean, hmph!
That was my rant as a patriotic Pakistani.

Getting into my tourist mode, I'm actually very impressed with Colombo. The streets are clean and spotless, people are helpful, and everyone seems to be well educated here, Even the rickshaw drivers and thelay-walas speak good English. Despite all the security stops, one actually feels comfortable around these police officials (a lot of them are women). They are smartly dressed, speak very politely with everyone, show courtesy and even smile at you. When was the last time a police officer in Karachi did any of that?
Crap yar, whenever I travel in South Asia, I feel so totally bad about the state of affairs back home. I’m beginning to complain all over again, so think I’ll just shut up and go shopping.

Going truly mobile, without moving an inch

Technology. The world on my fingertips.

Here I am, lying sick in bed with a sore throat and viral infection, and therefore bored out of my mind. I reach out to my blackberry and start browsing; checking my mails, reading the newspaper online, viewing friends' latest facebook updates. Haven't had the time to blog for a while, so I go to blogger.com and realize with a pleasant surprise that with a few changes in settings I can actually update my blog via mobile as well. Hmm, let's see if this works.

What will they think of next?
*** This Message Has Been Sent Using BlackBerry Internet Service from Mobilink ***

Break Time

I've been taking a break. From the 'rat race' as they say. Woke up one day and decided I had to get out and take a breather. So here I am, in London. This place has some fantastic associations and memories. I've been coming here almost every summer while growing up, so it feels like home away from home. This is the first city I got to travel alone to, had my first McDonalds experience in, where I read my first Ludlum novel, watched a Bollywood film in a cinema first time, saw my first adult-rated movie and also first place I got expatriated to and tasted the true flavor of independent life.

Walking around Trafalgar, boating in Hyde Park, tea at Covent Garden, watching the punks at Camden town, shopping on Oxford street, I simply love this place in summer time. Driving to the outskirts and exploring Bath, Cambridge, Windsor, there's no better way to take a break. And the experience begins even before one steps off the plane, for the view of the city during landing is simply breath-taking, with rows of English houses with their red bricks and black chimneys lined up like Lego-land, surrounded by vast, lush greenery and the river Thames winding across the city like a snake. Add a few old bridges here and a castle or two there, and you're stepping into dreamworld.

I've been living in this dream for a week now, and another one to go before it's time to wake up and face the big bad world again.

Mumbai Magic

Every time I travel to Mumbai, I like it a little more than the previous visit. I remember the disappointment I felt the first time I was there, perhaps because I was expecting too much from this famous city. I was shocked at the small and narrow roads, the slums and filth smack next to 5-star hotels, designer shops and posh dwellings, the huge number of stray dogs and cats roaming around and the distinct smell that each area seemed to have, such that an area can easily be identified with eyes closed just by using the sense of smell.

But at the same time I was also very impressed with the sheer pace of the city and the people walking it, with women driving scooters, the number of posh malls and branded shops crowded with people of the middle and upper classes, the well-behaved crowds at cinemas, and very creative advertisements everywhere - on billboards, double deckers, bus-stands. A pleasant thing to strike me was that men did not ogle at women as they do in Karachi, even though women in Mumbai generally wear trousers and skirts compared to shalwar kameez and dupatta back home.

I also travelled the local train from Churchgate to Andheri in rush hour after work, and that too in the general compartment despite the warnings of all my local friends against trying something 'so drastic' - that was a unique experience, and had it not been for my friend who held me very tightly I would surely have fallen off the train considering perhaps more than 100 people both got off and on the train in a span of less than 15 seconds at Andheri station. During the journey it was actually very difficult to breathe in the compartment as men and women were squashed against each other and the stench of perspiration was nauseating. Thankfully I had a seat right next to the window and had my nose glued to the gauze for fresh air.

The old and rusty black & yellow taxis are a trademark of the city, and the fact that these are to be replaced in some time is a big shame. The double-deckers also seem to be from colonial times, though I'm not sure if these are on the list of 'to-go' items. The taxi drivers were always helpful, and one even insisted to show me Shahrukh Khan's house from outside in Bandra even though I wasn't interested. The tourist highlihts were Gateway of India and the Taj across, and the walk along Colaba market with a few old cafes on the way for a nice cup of tea.

Pani-puri at Chaupati and the spicy and yummy vadapau available at almost any corner are the main local culinary highlights for me, as I think even the Mumbites would agree with me if I say Karachi food is much more delicious and superior in taste and quality overall.

The hotels are simple excellent, especially the Oberoi at Nariman Point with its magnificent view of the sea. At any given point in time this view of Marine Drive is worth watching, as in the morning one can see many early morning joggers or people walking their dogs, and in the evenings it seems to be a meeting point for couples after work. Just watching them gives a glimpse into what makes this the city that moves India.

A friend of mine was right when she said Mumbai would grow on me, for after five visits it I think it finally has. I'm already again looking forward to my next visit.

Capitalizing on Congestion

Yesterday I went to the Lakson building (across the Press Club) in Saddar with two colleagues to meet an estate agent for some office-related work. The area being quite a busy place, finding parking space was a huge hassle. While I was circling and searching for space, the agent we were supposed to meet signalled for us to turn and drive into the premises of the Sindh Wildlife building nearby. I acquiesced and went in and parked.

When I asked if it was okay to park there for a little while I was told that the building ground is de facto used as regular parking space by individuals upon payment of Rs 1500-2000 per month to the chowkidar, or Rs20 per parking per trip for visitors. I think there must be about 15-20 or more cars parked in the premises at any point in time, which means the chowkidar (and the few others who have to be in it together) easily make at the very least Rs40,ooo per month in this business with zero investment (or tax).

The story is the same in all the other government office premises in the area.
We are such an enterprising people :)

Belated April Fool!

I'm still scratching my head to try and understand this latest twist in Karachi politics. Following the Karachi riots Altaf Hussain announces he is quitting as MQM chief, makes a long, dramatic telephone speech from London in which he cries long, loud and hard and blames lawyers for the violence and riots, following which his workers gathered at Nine Zero threaten to go on hunger strike in protest while the party's assembly representatives and other government post-holders threaten to resign. After a couple of hours of mourning and moaning and groaning he announces to take back his resignation.

What a joke. Even KTN dramas make more sense than this. Or was it his attempt at a belated April fool?

On a separate note I've been wondering how he is able to make such long telephone speeches from London. I mean, this is a party that takes pride in being pure 'middle-class', right? No feduals, no industrialists, no riches. So who pays for the Pir's boarding and lodging expenses in London or his long phone-calls. Or is he on welfare considering he is now a British citizen?