Malbari Hotel....An Old Man's Day dreams by Abdul Sattar Lakhana

A Bus Ride In Karachi

It was a cold and gloomy evening. We all four old friends were sitting at the Malbari Hotel and carrying on small talk aimlessly. Suddenly Malbari came to us and told all of a sudden that he will not open his shop the next day as he had to go to his community's gathering.

The information was casual but its effect on us was like a bomb explosion right on our heads. We were so accustomed to sit at the hotel that we just could not think of spending a day without Malbari Hotel.

We were dumb founded when Siddique Master spoke up: “let’s go for a long bus ride.

I will borrow some money from my son to go for the bus ride. We will go to Saeedabad and back it will take 5 hours.” So was decided.

We all gathered at the closed hotel next day and walked to the nearby bus stop and took bus number D3 .The seats were broken and full of oil smears .I hesitated to sit. Yaqoob Kiria spoke up "Dada just sit down and send your suit to the dhobi to remove the stains ".

So we settled in the bus and the bus started rolling on. The journey up to Gul bai was normal but as we proceeded towards Sher Shah it was evident that we were riding a concrete mixer.

I told my friends, “ had we chosen to sit on the footpath it would have been much better.”Ghaffar Kapadia laughed and exclaimed that thousands of people daily travel this way without any complaints. Road worsened as we moved on and bus started tilting heavily on either side.As we neared Saeedabad the entire road was gone. The bus was traveling on a rough ground.

After much beating, we reached the last stop of the bus and the conductor shouted that our destination was here and we had to get down.We were so buffeted that it was difficult to get up, but somehow we got up and got down from the bus.

The entire area was so different from our Kharadar .The work shops and spare parts dealers were all over. There were small tea shops in between. Without speaking a word we silently proceeded towards a Quetta wala tea shop.Master nodded so we sat at the Manjhis spread there and Master ordered four Doodh Pati chai. The tea was delicious and we really enjoyed it.

After the tea and getting some rest on the Manjhis, we started to walk around the area.

As we walked around, we entered a large market .We kept walking and as we reached the end of market the scenario changed.The shops now were again workshops and spare parts' dealers. There was a sign board proclaiming that we had entered Itehad Town. Most people had guns on their shoulders.

We all were a bit afraid .Yaqoob Kiria whispered "lets go away .All people have guns with them.”

There we saw a bus coming Master told that this bus goes to Saddar, lets ride this bus.  .

Ghaffar Kapadia bought some peanuts and we got in to a bus going to Saddar .Vendors came into the bus and started selling their wares. One was very interesting .He was selling cure all tooth powder. He claimed that any illness you have, would be cured by using this tooth powder and that too in 5 rupees. That tooth powder could cure any thing short of death.

X 10 goes through so many areas with various cultures.

Bus Stop At Saddar Karachi

Bus reached Metro Cinema and Siddique Master shouted we have reached Bangladesh .There were Bangalis everywhere. Bus proceeded towards SITE area and there was smell of various chemicals. Bus was now crowded and people were climbing to the top of the bus. This was a dangerous way of traveling but people were used to it. After passing through site area the bus entered Nazimabad this area was full of traffic and the speed was reduced much. Bus now crawled towards Liaquatabad. After passing through entire length of Liaquatabad the bus entered main road connecting to Saddar area. We were happy that we were nearing our destination.

Soon the bus was in front if Rainbow center in Saddar.It was the end of our journey and time to alight from the bus. The bus was going towards Gizri and Seaview.Siddique Master was about to say to continue but we starred at him and laughed. We said good bye to each other and went towards our homes after an adventurous evening.