The Six Lone Vagabonds!

“Haan bhai Tariq road jana hai!”
“Lai chalayain gai bhai”
“Kitnay paisay?”
“150 ropay!!”
“Abay bhai tariq road jana hai, Keemari nahi!”
“Bhai to hum nai bhi tariq road kai hi bataye hain”
“Ja bhai, mein doosra rickshaw kar laita hoon”

“Haan bhai Tariq road chalna hai?”
“Lai jayen gai”
“Kitnay paisay”
“100 ropay”
“Yaar mein rooz jata hoon, 80 ropay lagtay hain”
“Chalo 90 dai daina”
“80 sai aik ropya zyada nahi”
“Chalo baitho”

Brrr!! Brrrr…RRRRRRRRrrrrr….RRrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

Life on the roads of Karachi starts in this way for many, for the other lot it starts in a fairly simpler manner.

“Jee baray bhai, karaya daina! Kahan jao gai?”
“Baloch Colony”
…
“Jee baray bhai, karaya hogaya?”
“Dai dia!”
…
“Jee baray bhai, karaya daina!”
“Yaar dai to diya hai!”
“To naraz kyun hotay ho yaar?”

Be it either of the two, the experience is the same, painful.

Traffic, pollution, noise and unbearable heat are what a normal karachi’ite faces in the morning, in his/her long/short commute to work. Left aside the pressures or tension he/she has to endure during the routine work, the journey from home to work and from work to back home is tiring enough to make one go mad within a period of few years.

Our professional lives have just begun. 2 years experience would be the most amongst us. With the increasing experience we get to take on more and more complex tasks. But not everyone amongst us faces the same music. The chat-mail that took all of us at once into a world of fun and frenzy have been left desolated. Efforts are made occasionally to reignite the passion with which we managed to score centuries of replies but all in vain. The reason being, that some of the guys started abusing the chat-mail. Result, many went away saying that this is utter madness and really to a certain extent it was. Also the new hype of “look-busy-do-nothing” made many go in to seclusion posing that they were very busy. They might be, but just by not being online or setting your status to busy does not make one busy. Anyways, back to the topic, for two particular people the schedule had been indeed a very hectic one. Office and then university, two back to back mind consuming activities. Mani and Zeeshan ghazi (hero of the last blog). These two people go to university after their jobs and return home late at night, exhausted. Zeeshan recently got some relaxation after he left his previous job, but that relaxation is a great tension on its own. Cut short, mani couldn’t bear it any more. He decided to get some Mental Peace and he consulted Boss about where to get some from. The boss came to his great-enemy-cum-friend, me, and asked me where to go to get some mental peace. He had already decided where to go and was doing the usual “Khana poori”. I, after careful analysis of the situation suggested that we can go to sea view at night time. Boss like always took it the other way, he said what I always wanted was girls, girls and girls. But he didn’t understand me completely. Sea-view is a very versatile place, I believe best place in town to pour out the inner-mental-tensions. The atmosphere is quiet, breezy, with ample amount and types of food available at easy reach. Besides, this you do get to see pretty girls and nice people and there are always spots available for sitting, with limited number of people around (not for the wrong reason you ******s) and lesser noises. But this is my point of view, Boss has his own. He decided that we go to Manora island or if not there then Thatta. I don’t know about Thatta but I know Manora is inhibited by one of the most noisiest of human kind, the Makranis. I am sure my yell would be lower than their whispers and I believe achieving mental peace at such a place is seemingly impossible.

Boss, Mani, me, Khurram, Chunnu and Asif were the selected ones. Jaws, was also requested but he declined the offer saying he was scared of the water. The program was planned for Saturday but I didn’t have the Saturday off. So the plan was shifted on to Sunday. We decided to go in my new Bolan, which was to be driven by Boss. Till the very last moment we were unsure of where we were going. Manora was the more probable of the options. On Saturday night, Chunnu also declined the offer coming up with lame reasons perhaps he didn’t had enough guts to accept that he was scared of the sea too.

The morning promised an over-cast day with cold breeze, which like everything else in Pakistan turned out to be a lie. It was a sunny day but the intensity of heat was considerably less. At 9:35a.m. Boss and Asif arrived at my place, when I was going through the morning paper. I was part ready and hence just put on my clothes and went downstairs. We got in the car and were at Mani’s place around 10:00a.m. Morning had another bad news for us when we were told by Boss that Khurram was not attending his phone. Now only four of the six were left, and it seemed that the plan is ruined. We started deciding whom we can get going with us. Once again Jaws was questioned, this time he said Ok. Five to go, when someone suggested lets ask Asim too, the Russian heart-throb. Asim was called and he accepted the offer without any excuses. We went on from there to have a “Halwa Puuri” breakfast near Disco Bakery. After the breakfast when we were about to move Khurram called. He said he’ll let us know in 5 minutes whether he is going or not. This was turning out to be an enjoyable event. But Khurram called shortly after saying his father had forbidden him from going there, since we would be going this Saturday again. We went to Jaws' place had a glass of Jaws' special Tang there (I got a beating too – was trapped between some Rock band fanatics). Asim arrived there and at 12:00 – 12:15 we left Jaws' home for the destination unknown.

In the car we started deciding where to go. Manora was disqualified as an option and Cape-mount was selected as the new mental-peace-providing spot. We got some CNG filled in the car and started out journey. I, for one had never seen any other beach of Karachi except the sands pit or hawk’s bay. We decided to take the new Lyari Expressway to get there. This was a first time experience for most of us, and it turned out to be an exciting one. Alongside the pretty Lyari river we cruised at a speed of 70 Km/h and were off the bridge at Gulbai in around 20 minutes. The expressway has strict traffic rules and we personally saw a person being rounded up for over-speeding, we also got to see many parts of the Karachi city unknown to us then.

From Gulbai we went to SherShah/ Mauri Pur and purchased a Frisbee, football, and some snacks for out trip. The journey was a very pleasant one with interesting discussions regarding how a fly stays in the car and travels with us at the same speed we are moving. The discussion continued till out way back to home. We reached a fork on the road and had to decide which way to go. We took the left hand and started moving along. On our way we inquired a few people about cape-mount and soon realized we were headed in the wrong direction. Took a U-turn and then started heading towards the right hand side of the fork. The sea somehow seemed more magnificent than ever before. The high tide caused big waves splash on the sea shore and create a magical atmosphere.

After a drive of around 20 minutes we reached a spot where we could sense cape mount was ahead. But a few yards before, we were stopped at a “chowky”, the new community police bearing banners reading that decree-144 have been imposed due to the high tide and cape-mount was out of bounds for everyone, except the navy people who had huts on the road ahead. We were very disappointed and had to turn back, and decided to stop at Paradise Point this time. Paradise point a famous recreational spot once had a very famous monument, a big rock with a hole in between. The hole was broken a few years ago when the top portion of the rock fell off. So, eventually when I got to see the place the monument was there no more. But the remains of it told me of the splendor that rock would have had a few years back. The water was very rough at that side of the beach, rougher than any of the beaches I have yet seen. It was both deep and fast and had throngs of people in the same water. The sea shore is not a very long one and has very less huts on it. Being a small beach the spot is not a suitable family spot but if you move towards the right or left of the main place you will find a peaceful spot with lesser people. But the lack of huts makes it a difficult place to camp at.

We sat there for around half an hour on a high rock, taking in every minute detail of the breath taking scenery in front of us. Then we moved on to have a closer glimpse of the water and moved to a rock that protruded in the sea and was part submerged by the sea. The cold sea water was splashing on our faces and refreshing us, replenishing us from the weariness of the long journey. We chased crabs and looked at the green turtle that was caught in the strong currents and washed ashore, the pathaan kids referring to it as the “Magar-much”. We then moved on from there to a quieter spot that we spotted from here. The peace spot was towards East from where we were standing.

We got in the car and once again started the journey, a few kilometers away from the spot where we were. This was a desolated quiet spot, right next to KANUP, where only two other families were present besides us. The beach was covered by big rocks on both sides and had clear rock-free shore. The water though had weeds in it. We started playing Frisbee, and soon took on football. I, like always, did not participate in the sport. After twenty, twenty-five minutes, the game was brought to an end after the players were exhausted. One more family joined us there. The players went over a big rock, and sat there looking for the perfect blind spots and enjoying the beautiful scenery. We took off after spending an hour or so-on that side and then returned to the car. There we consumed the snacks we had brought with us, and sat down to dry ourselves. We looked around and found another good spot worth visiting and that was the “Floating Umbrella”. We went there and found a Mister sitting there quietly studying something (budgeting). It was the perfect spot quiet and peaceful, till we got there. Initially we wanted to stay quiet but then discussions broke out and we blabbered and blabbered and blabbered to the great annoyance of that person.

We soon took from there, returned to the car and headed to an unknown destination again. Going from Shershah, Mauripur, Tower to Burns-Road where we decided to catch some food. We went to AFC which we chose because it had air-conditioners in it, but to our greatest disappointment it was not ready to serve us BBQ or Desi food by then. We went to another Burns-Road favorite. Got refreshed and then ordered the food. Quorma, Fry Kabab, Seekh Kabab and Chargha were the contents of the delicious menu selected. After a hearty meal, we went out and Jaws, Mani and Asim bought fishes. We got on to the car again and then came back to home at around Maghrib.

The trip was an exciting one, those who were invited and could not make it, I would say missed a major fun time there.

Pictures of the outing are available at Flickr.