New year a la Karachi style

Once again its that time of the year when the world is celebrating, rejoicing, partying and welcoming the new year with moments of happiness spent with loved ones. Meanwhile Karachiites as usual will be confined to their houses waiting for the clock to hit 12 and the city echoing with deathly rounds of bullets fired in the name of celebration. This followed by bikers from all corners of the city taking over the roads with their rash driving and one wheeling antics.

Throughout the world New Year's eve is celebrated with joy and happiness, special concerts, fireworks and events are planned. But like everything else going in the opposite direction new year's eve seems like a curse for us. We shut off the entire city; all the malls, cafes & restaurants close down at 6 pm and police mobiles are deployed to stop people from entering multiple areas of the city. I have never understood the point of being such a kill joy on this auspicious occasion.  

We have one of the youngest population of the world. Depriving them of all sorts of healthy entertainment avenues like sports, music and cultural activities will surely lead them into the wrong direction. As a result most of them become rebellious and engage into unhealthy activities. The most dangerous is taking up arms and drugs. Despite the ban on display of weapons & aerial shooting the amount of rounds fired on new year's eve is just unfathomable. It amazes me every year with the kind of firing sounds I hear in that one dreadful hour. Its like we are equipped with the most modern and state of art ammunition in the world. And what a perfect day to let everyone know! 

Rash driving and accidents are also very common on new year. Youngsters on motorbikes feel kind of independence when they are riding and speeding adds to the thrill. This coupled with dangerous road stunts without any safety gear turns in to a deadly game. Now if only there were other activities for them to indulge into for this evening, I am sure most of them would not think of risking their lives on the road.

There are so many healthy activities that can be planned for this evening. Friendly matches in different areas of the city, musical concerts, funfairs, displays of fireworks, food and cultural shows can really liven up the spirit of the metropolis on new year. But sadly like every year this year too it will pass off as a gloomy and dreadful evening while we welcome the new year with bursts of firing throughout the evening.

A typical Karachi style new year check list: 
- bike serviced/tank full
- silencer removed
- one wheeling practised and excelled 
- ammos cleaned/oiled/loaded 
- shift to sea view till 2016

Sales, cat fights & dark Fridays

Recently most of us saw a shocking incident of how women behaved at a particular sales outlet and how far they can go for a mere piece of clothing. These women were mostly from well off families who can easily pay 3000 bucks for a "lawn ka kurta" but the way they behaved made a lot of us think otherwise. Another retail giant offered a 2 day sale last week on its stock that again drove women crazy. There were traffic jams, rush in the malls and mile long cash counter lines.  Later social media was flooded with pictures of the brave warriors proudly showing off their hard earned booty.

Its very heartening to see local brands grow up to become love marks and such hot favourites among consumers. But what is disturbing is the attitude of their customers. Sales happen everywhere in the world with "Black Friday" being the highlight of the season, which was celebrated here too in a grand way.  It is new to our culture and the idea of everything marked down to more than 50% is very attractive for an average shopper. Its good to see it being introduced in our country as well, but this increasing wave of consumerism is overwhelming and is evident of what is wrong with our society.

Social behaviour usually trickles down from the elites to the middle class and ultimately to the lower strata.We tend to mimic behaviour patterns of those who are considered well off, educated and cultured. It wouldn't have been too worrying if these women were from lower classes since then we could associate this behaviour for their need of acceptance and social stature. But sadly the elites or rather the upper middle class segment of our society is stuck up with severe identity crises, specially women. They are expected to behave in a certain way and maintain a certain lifestyle otherwise they are considered social outcasts.  They hardly have any particular interest in the intellectual well being of their families which is alarming since they are directly involved in the most important job in the world i.e. bringing up our future generation.

Most of their time is spent on clothes, getting their hair dyed (in a peculiar shade of red), and planning themed parties where they can show off their wardrobe and other accessories. Very few of them are associated with any community service, social/political groups, book club or libraries. It was discouraging to see very low turnover in the recently held local body elections. How many of us went out, stood in queues to cast our vote? How many of us actually tried explaining the election process to our children? Isn't it the responsibility of mothers to educate and encourage their children to take part in an event which is deemed to be the most prestigious in civilised societies. Instead our children saw women standing in long queues fighting for cheap pieces of clothing. What a brilliant example are we setting up for them!

Women have a much deeper role to play in the advancement of society. Just about time they realise this and start contributing creatively and responsibly towards the intellectual well being of our future generations.