Different Folks, Different Strokes, Same Old Karachi

So, its been about 3.5 (give or take a couple tenths) months since I last wrote here. A lot has happened...well, not really, but then again after living in Karachi, you tend to become immune to many things that a typical American would consider to be eventful. Let's see, on the political front, Zardari was recently lauded for his achievement of having steered a democratically elected administration through the completion of a full term for the first time ever in the history of Pakistan. Sharif has been in power for a few months now and is making loads of promises; first with electricity, then with infrastructure, and now with education. PTI's tsunami has gone from without to within PTI itself, and I don't think anyone knows what's really happening with that party. 

I had the opportunity to go to Istanbul in August, to attend my cousin's wedding. It was such an amazing trip. I got to see the Aya Sofia and Top Kapi Museum. With all the wedding festivities, there wasn't time for much else, really. One complaint I have about Istanbul, the evening and afternoon traffic is the worst! How do people make it anywhere on time, I wonder. 

Anyway, back to Karachi... so Eid-ul-Adha is coming up in about a month, which means a lot of goats are going to be slaughtered and most likely I'll have to be there to watch a few as well. Its a big business out here, well, anything that can be sold is a big business out here period- there's literally no stone unturned when it comes to making a profit on something out here! For those of you who don't know, Eid-ul-Adha is a Muslim holiday commemorating the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was about to commit of his son, Ishmael, and then Allah ordered him not to, and to sacrifice a lamb instead-my Christian and Jewish friends, I know what you're thinking- "Ishmael?! It was Isaac!" Well, Islamic tradition says otherwise, but you get the point.

Other than that, there's really nothing else worthy of reporting, except that in the last 4 months I think I've received about 5 emails from the US Consulate giving instructions on not going to some places in Islamabad and Lahore, more Americans are being kidnapped. Also there was this big trial that was going on for a while here, the "Shahzeb" murder case, which seems to have closed today. This was about a young man who was killed by the guard of a wealthy feudal lord (or commonly known as "Wadera"). This murder case sparked outrage by scores of Pakistani youth all over Pakistan which resulted in protests, discussions on social media, news coverage, news stories, talk shows, and more. Today, it was announced that his parents have dropped their pursuit of bringing Shahrukh Jatoi and his guard to justice. A lot of people are really angry about this, but like most things here, it'll pass, and within 2 weeks, no one will be discussing it anymore.

Come to think of it, I did experience something particularly eventful about 3 weeks ago. I almost got robbed. I was driving on Baloch Colony and as I'm driving (traffic is moving, I'm not stopped), 2 guys on a motorcycle came to my window, and one of them motions for me to pull over. I had two passengers with me at the time, and I looked over at one of them and said "is this guy trying to rob us"? He gave me a very puzzled look, and then all of a sudden, on sheer impulse, I downshifted and pushed the pedal to the metal! I weaved in and out of traffic like a getaway car that just robbed a bank (imagine the irony). I passed a red e-class Mercedes while I was making my getaway, and about 60 seconds after I passed him (while the pedal was still stuck to the ground), he passed me at an even faster speed- I drive a 1.3L Honda City, there's really no chance for any reasonable competition. So the funny thing is, this guy, after I passed him, realized what I was running from, and made a break for it himself. Until now, only by God's will, I have not been robbed and I hope it stays that way!

Well, I've got about 100 people to research before tomorrow morning  (gotta love Advertising)  and its currently 11pm, so I'd better get cracking. Until next time...

:-)

It's Been a While

So, I logged in just now to see how long it had been since I wrote my last blog article, and wow, its been almost 8 months. To just come back like this, you'd expect that I'll just pick up from where I left off, right? I mean yeah, so what if the guy hasn't written but 9 blog articles (including this one) and the fact that he hasn't written in his blog for almost a year, he's still talking about interesting things! Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I wouldn't know where to begin, and so, I won't. I will, however, let you know what's going on now, as I've been sitting in my apartment  for the last hour, clothed in nothing more than my underwear, sitting on my bed with my Macbook in my lap.

I was joking, by the way, but not about me sitting in my underwear, it's pretty warm where in every room of my apartment right now, and this laptop doesn't help either. I was joking, however, about not filling you in on everything that's happened in between, just not right now.

So, I'm sure you must be dying to know why don't I just turn on my A/C and put some clothes on? Well, the reason is that a sizable area within the vicinity of my apartment building is without power, and so am I. For the last few days, there have been massive power outages all across Karachi. There are all sorts of rumors and conspiracy theories involving two neighboring countries, but it it really doesn't matter why at this point. The only thought in my mind is actually more of a question, when is the power coming back?

Now, its time to recap what's been going on since last time. As you may or may not be aware, elections took place in Pakistan on May 1st. Apparently, This was hyped up to be a "free and fair" election. Free, it definitely was, fair, what is fair? Oh! You mean when the votes are counted and tallied impartially? This election was anything but fair. Many estimate that if the votes were properly counted and tallied without showing favoritism to any party, PTI would have won the election, not by a landslide, but by a sizable margin, 15-25%. Number two, of course would be none other than PMLN. I personally talked to people who observed activity at the polls, one of them is an army ranger, who I saw outside a PTI protest on Shahra-e-Faisal in Karachi. This man wouldn't let me take any pictures of him or record him, but I can give you verbatim statements. He told me that he personally had observed officials tearing up PTI votes at a polling station in Gulshan, and then depositing votes for a different party in the ballot boxes.

I will say this for the Pakistani populace, they showed tremendous courage by going out and partaking in the political process. They went despite facing intimidation by politically affiliated criminals and the TTP. Incidents were reported in Karachi's defense housing authority in which politically affiliated criminals attempted to intimidate voters at a polling station, and the voters united and confronted the criminals and chased them away! Witnessing this alone has reinvigorated my hope for a better Pakistan. If there was no load shedding, as well as general law, order, and justice in this land, Pakistan would be one of the most ideal places on earth to visit and even live. In the last 3-4 months, more than 15 new restaurants have opened within the vicinities of just Clifton and Defence! in Karachi, 3 of them are burger places. Well, the power is back, and I'm off! I vow to write more entries for as long as I'm in Pakistan, even if they're only one liners.

Definitely, To be continued...

Cricket Fever

Today, I became infected, don't worry, I'm not ill. I became perhaps the newest victim of a phenomenon, which I, as well as many, call Cricket fever. It began last Sunday when I was watching the Pakistan vs India game, which they played in Sri Lanka for the World T20 Tournament. As an American, I grew up watching and playing Baseball, it was the first sport I was into until I reached my teens, when I got into Basketball, and then later on American Football. When I was younger I had come to Pakistan to visit family, and the one constant throughout the years, which I saw during all my visits here was the sight of children playing Cricket on the streets. I even played a couple of times, not knowing the rules, I just knew that I had to hit the ball. I remember the first time I played, I must've been 8 years old, and the bowler sent a ball my way, and I thought to myself, how do I hit this ball, its bouncing off the ground! Then, without thinking, I hit the ball, in a way that came naturally, given the position of the ball, which was to swing the ball upward in a vertical motion, as opposed to a horizontal strike, as you would in baseball.

I would venture to guess that most Americans don't know anything about cricket, except that its not a national sport in the United States. The British refer to cricket as "a gentleman's sport." The rules of cricket, without going into too much detail, as I understand them are as follows:

You have two wickets, one behind where the batsman stands, and one where the bowler (the equivalent to what would be a pitcher in baseball) bowls (pitches) from. The objective of the game is to gain runs, so the batsman, after hitting the ball will run from wicket to wicket, and each time he touches a wicket, the team gains a run. In baseball, if a team gets 3 outs, the other team gets to bat - in cricket, its about the same, except, there are 10 outs. In baseball you can get out by striking out, a fielder on the opposing team catching a ball knocked into the air, or if the ball reaches the in-fielder at a base before the runner reaches it. In Cricket, a batsman can get out if the bowler bowls the ball and hits the wicket behind the batsman, if a hit ball is caught, or if, while the batsman is running between wickets, a fielder or bowler from the opposing team hits the wicket the batsman is running to with the ball. Another different between Cricket and Baseball, is that in Baseball there are 9 innings (when the teams switch positions from batting to fielding), and in Cricket, there are only two. Team A will start batting to set the target number of runs, and after all the overs are complete, or if the team loses all of their wickets before the overs are complete, Team B takes over to bat, while Team A fields. When Team B goes to bat, they must reach the target set by Team A in order to win the game.  I may have left a few things out, but this is the general idea. I won't go into "overs" because that varies from tournament to tournament, and quite honestly, I'm a little lacking when it comes to knowing those specifics.

In Pakistan, everyone's crazy about cricket. This is for two reasons:

1. Unlike the United States, where you have Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, and American Football, Pakistan only has one national sport- Cricket.

2. With all the adverse things happening in the country - terrorism, extortion, robberies, target killings, etc., Cricket is seen as a welcome distraction to take peoples' minds off these unfortunate realities which exist in everyday life for the average Pakistani.

At the Ad Agency where I work, there are a couple of Hindus working there, and today, I saw one of them cheering for Pakistan's Cricket team in their match against Australia. It doesn't matter if you're Sindhi, Balochi, Pathan, Punjabi, Muhajir, Parsi, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, extremist, moderate, or liberal, Cricket is a unifying force in Pakistan, and everyone's eyes are glued to the screen when Team Pakistan is playing.

So today, Pakistan defeated Australia (technically yesterday, since it's now passed midnight, Pakistan time), on Thursday, Pakistan will play Sri Lanka. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited about this. Let's see what happens.

Stay tuned... to be continued

UPDATE

When I first started writing this blog, I had set a lofty goal, to post a blog entry every night. After taking three days off from writing this blog, I reached a conclusion: I can't do this everyday. I'm going to start writing this only once a week, or twice if something major happens in terms of developments in Pakistan that I want to blog about. The reality is, my work schedule is never regular, sometimes I get home from work by 7 - 7:30, and sometimes I get home much later. There are only so many hours in the day, and after working all day, working out afterwards and dinner, there's usually not a lot of time left. So every Saturday, I'll post something starting this Saturday, October 6th. I also plan on starting another blog which will have more of a marketing and advertising feel to it, I will post the link on this blog as well as post it on Facebook.

Stay tuned...

Pakistan - the Other Side of the Coin

So, what do you think of when you hear "Pakistan"?

a) a country next to India
b) the 6th most populous country in the world 
c) a terrorist state?

If you picked c, then you'd probably be like most people in the developed world.  Pakistanis are very segmented, religiously, economically, socially, and politically. There's no one paradigm which fits all Pakistanis. If you've read my previous blog entries, or if you can point to Pakistan on a map, then you probably already have a general idea about the economic segmentation.

Within Pakistan, reside Parsees, Muslims, Christians, and Hindus. Also within Pakistan are liberals, moderates, and extremists. There are many Muslims in the country who are very religious and non violent, and then there are many that aren't religious at all who kill and steal. There are even a number of middle class and affluent youth who drink and go to underground parties.

As in the United States, the majority of people here are followers rather than leaders, and unfortunately, it often happens that they follow the wrong crowd. Because of the disparity between the rich and the poor, not to mention poor economic conditions including hyper inflation and unemployment, the number of "have nots" is growing by the day. This group of people is easily influenced, and are ready to release their frustration in any outlet which becomes available to them. By the way, this isn't limited just to Pakistan, this phenomenon is also developing in Europe and the United States as we speak, with hate groups such as the EDL (English Defense League) and right wing Evangelical preachers such as Terry Jones.

I have coined the term "extremist opportunists" to describe those religious leaders who prey on the dissatisfied and motivate them to commit acts of violence, while they stay back safe and sound, and collect money from foreign and local interest groups. The harsh reality is, in most situations, there is a beneficiary, and conflict is no different. In wars, weapons manufacturers make a killing, figuratively and literally. Naturally, there are other parties as well.

Its easy to condemn an entire nation for the heinous acts of a few, or even a religion for that matter. Its much harder to take time and try and understand the entire picture, or at least get to know some of the people you're condemning. But that's too hard, right? We, the people of today, are used to taking the easy way out, we're just ready to believe whatever is spoon fed to us. Humanity must evolve if we are to live together in harmony. If we allow propaganda to control our lives, then we'll never get to know one another, and as long as we don't know each other, we'll never understand each other. One constant in human psychology which has stayed with us over centuries, perhaps millennia, is that we always fear that which we don't understand.

Stay tuned...to be continued

Limited Possibilities

When I first thought about writing a blog, I thought, man this is going to be easy. Now its the fifth day of posting on this blog, and I'm already experiencing writer's block. In life I've found everything to seem either effortless or impossible until I've tried doing it. Only after trying do you discover how much effort is required for something which is seemingly effortless, or how easy that thing was which you believed to be impossible. I dedicate tonight's blog entry to limited possibilities.

Today, I saw something interesting, although to the typical Pakistani, this would probably be dismissed as something which is commonplace.  I was driving and I saw a biker with his foot on a rickshaw. Of course to me, this seemed kind of strange, I kept wondering, why does that guy have his foot on that rickshaw, doesn't the rickshaw driver mind? As it turns out, the rickshaw was out of gas and the biker was offering the rickshaw driver some assistance. In most large cities I've been to, everyone is always rushing around trying to get to where they need or want to be. This biker actually delayed his trip to wherever he was going to help out a total stranger, or perhaps he was in no rush at all. Nonetheless, it was a gesture of goodwill, and it was something nice to see.

Many Karachiites, including one of my uncles, are very pessimistic about the future of Pakistan. Last weekend's "Project Clean for Peace," and this good samaritan I saw today, for me, is evidence that there are good people out there who care about their fellow man, and who are willing to do something about it. I'm sure a lot of people don't know this, and neither did I before coming here, but Pakistan has one of the largest copper reserves on the planet. That's not all, Pakistan also has large amounts of natural gas, gold, coal and oil. What's holding Pakistan back? The answer to this question can be summarized in two words, greed and corruption.

The way I see it, there are three possibilities for Pakistan's future, the first one is: If corruption can be curbed, and if enough good people work together, Pakistan has the potential of being one of the richest countries on the planet. By pooling thought, resources, and sweat, even if this is done by a minority rather than a majority, a group of conscientious and concerned people can bring about radical social as well as economic change. The United States wasn't always a welcoming place for non whites, there were individuals who took upon themselves a responsibility to make a change, and they did, some of them lost their lives in that pursuit. The way they dedicated themselves to the task was to forget about their wants and their needs and instead, focused on a collective goal. They didn't think about the short-term, they thought about the long-haul. This is a line of thinking that many Pakistanis will have to break themselves of.

Possibility two: No one does anything, and Pakistan's security situation can continue to deteriorate, to the point of absolute lawlessness. All those abundant resources which can bring Pakistan into a golden era of economic and social prosperity may be left in the soil forever. Scores of innocent lives will be lost in the battle for control of the cities which will rage on between the various mafia entities. The Pakistani government will leave Pakistan with their pockets full of cash and will be living abroad in luxury and comfort along with their families, who, later, will start some kind of social movement under a humanitarian guise to return order to Pakistan. They will be lauded as heroes and will return to Pakistan to do it all over again.

Possibility three: Again, no one does anything, Pakistan's security situation continues to deteriorate, to the point of lawlessness, massive killings and robberies, and in the commotion, extremist opportunists take over. There's no need to go further into this potential scenario, whether you're American or Pakistani, you know what happens next.

So, there you have it, three potential outcomes. Which one will come to fruition, that only the people of Pakistan can decide. Will Pakistan stand united and do something to change its state of affairs for the better, or will it fall divided?

Stay tuned... to be continued

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Someone asked me today, "do you miss home"? Yes, of course I do, I said. Interestingly enough, there's not much I miss about home, my family, my friends, Jackson's Java Coffee House- the people and the Earl Grey, my PS3 and a few other things I left behind, and of course the general security there. All the other things there are to life, I can pretty much do anywhere.  Looking for new places to eat, going to watch a movie, going for a long drive... well, technically in Karachi its generally not considered safe to drive around aimlessly, still I do a bit of that too.  I love driving. In the United States, I've driven from one coast to the other, from Charlotte, NC to Los Angeles, CA. I've driven to Chicago more times than I can remember, and most of the time, I went alone.  I've covered maybe 60% of the United States driving.

Come to think of it, I miss the security in the United States the most. The US in general is a pretty safe place. You just have to use your street smarts a bit more if you're in an unfamiliar area, a poor side of town, or a rest area. Here, my family's very protective of me, and I've been told to avoid certain areas. The perception here is that every area is unsafe. If you go to Nazimabad and ask someone there about Gulshan, they'll say its unsafe. If you go to Gulistan e Jauhar and ask someone there about Mohammed Ali Society, they'll say its unsafe. However, if you ask someone about their own area, they'll say its safe. Fortunately for me, I stay in a part of Karachi that everyone says is safe.

Is anywhere in Karachi safe? My mother calls me almost on a daily basis, and sometimes she calls me when I'm driving. The first thing she'll say to me is "are you driving"? If I reply in the affirmative, she'll scold me for at least 2 minutes about how its unsafe to drive and talk on the phone, not for driving while talking for road safety  (I use a handsfree set when I'm driving by the way), but because someone may steal my phone. She may also take the time to scold me about being out of the house when there are "booray haalat," or a bad situation in the city, the day after something happens. Still, you can't be mad at a mother for worrying about her only son in a place which is regarded as being in the top 5 of most dangerous countries in the world.

Karachi by many has been described as a ticking time bomb which can go off at any moment. Based on my experiences here so far, and from what I've observed on the news, this analogy seems to hold true. Still, it doesn't matter where you are, at any time, there may be random firing, target killings, a bomb blast, or other random acts of violence irrespective of locality. That which ultimately determines your safety or peril is being in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time. I can't stay at home all the time in fear of something bad randomly happening, if I did, I wouldn't go to work or do anything for that matter. I probably wouldn't even be able to continue this blog because I'd have nothing to talk about. Living here, you just have to keep your eyes open, hope for the best, expect the worst, and keep it moving.

Stay tuned...to be continued