Last night I went to Clifton Jamatkhana (my 4th Jamatkhana in Karachi!). Very nice, pristine, pretty... but as my Aunty says, "it's the Dollar Jamatkhana". It's in the wealthiest part of Karachi, and everyone there is in all their finery... feels more 'Westernized' -they actually even read firman in English, so basically it felt almost exactly like khane at home. Nice of course (khane is khane after all), but the thing doesn't happen to your soul the same way. Anyway, it's been good to try out all the different ones.
Then we went to dinner with some good friends of Uncle and Aunty (who are our good family friends whom I keep bringing up in these posts!), both of whom are doctors and professors at AKU (cardio and GI specialists), with lots of experience and interesting stories. It was especially fascinating to hear the true story (and it will sound like something out of a book to you) of the lovely interactions between the doctor-couple, Uncle and Aunty, and a very famous painter, which they recalled with such fondness... and then of the sudden gruesome murder of the painter and his wife by their servants. Sad, really -very sad. But very interesting to learn more about the kind of people that this painter and his wife were, and what may have led up to the tragic demise... And then also to hear about some of the crazies who worked as guards / servants for the doctor-couple themselves, including the thievery, and "military trained", suspected-to-very-likely-be a... well, you know, one of those guys who belong to the non-state militant group whom certain countries are fighting ... anyway, of course the dude was fired long ago. But really, stories like you never thought happened in real life to people you'd meet!
Then this morning, I essentially paid $10.50 for waxing (unheard of, right? wrong! now I finally understand why Desi girls at home feel like they're getting ripped off if they have to pay more than $4 to get their eyebrows done...)
Later today, we went to visit a well-known tailor of the kinds of clothes worn in this country, who is also a good friend of Aunty's, and who has also made clothes for Royalty (Ismaili royalty at that...) in the past, and who will be making some gorgeous clothing for my sister, my mum and I (hey, I'm not big on shopping, but if you've gotta shop, might as well get really nice things made, rather than buying lots of cheap stuff that will give you a rash when you wear or use them and turn to rags upon washing... am I wrong? And plus, although they are slightly pricey by local standards (and also by home standards, I suppose, unless you're shopping designers), if you were to actually buy them back home, they'd probably be more than double the price!).
And then, I met up with some of my AKU friends at Zainab market (which is like a huge bazaar, very much like the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, with a billion little shops that all sell the same cheap, fake stuff...), as well as a couple of other markets in that same 'downtown' / 'old Karachi' area. What was really fun was playing one shop-keeper off another to get a better deal (sometimes you can just bargain, but sometimes, they're so rude they won't budge on the price at all, and if they're even more obnoxious, they won't chase after you even when you 'walk away'... however, when the next shop-keeper sees that you just walked away because the dude wouldn't sell you the 200-rupee chumpals (local-style flip-flops) for 150 Rs, then this new one will in fact sell it to you for 150 Rs. The most ridiculous part really is that if you think about it, that whole drama revolved around a price difference of less than 1 Canadian Dollar).
My favourite part of this quasi-authentic experience though was riding in a rickshaw. Twice! We were 5 of us and there were 2 guys, so once you've got some young men in your group, you're a billion times safer, and can do crazy things like take a taxi or a rickshaw in this city. And really, it's a lot of fun. Great way to take in the sites, smells, and bumps of the crappy city roads, as well as scare yourself half to death with the crazy city traffic in which stop lights are just a suggestion, as are lanes (including the division between on-coming traffic!), and all the while you're nostrils are level with the exhausts of the 7 cars that surround you. Yeah, it's pretty fabulous (I'm not being sarcastic here by the way... it really was amazing! I mean, where in North America do you get an experience like that, right?)
When I came home (Aunty and Uncle's home of course -my weekend home, as it were ;), I ate some kitchri (mushed rice and lentils) for dinner (still have stomach-upset), and then we watched "Coke Studio", which has all kinds of fusion-Pakistani bands / solo-artists... really cool music indeed. I think my favourite was "Aankhon Ke Sagar" (translates to "A garden in your eyes") by Shafqat Amanat Ali. Here, enjoy some Pakistani culture for yourself at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
And if you want to get to know some of the cricket-madness here, check this out (a very happy day for Pakistan indeed... kind of like how Montrealers would feel if the Habs won the Stanley Cup):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Yes there is beauty, and there is hardship in this country... but there's also lots of fun! And I really didn't want you to think that it's all serious Light and Darkness. Karachi has all the colours of the visible light spectrum too! Although they say the rains have stopped for Sindh (monsoons khatam hogya!), there are still rainbows at which to marvel and smile. And it's okay for us to enjoy it...
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