Intend a getaway, an action-packed adventure full of hair-raising rides and thrills this summer? Take a few days off, pack your sun block, helmet, mosquito- repellent, motion sickness medicine, hire a car or buy one if you don't possess one already and head down Shaheed-i-Millat. Your very own amusement park, nature drive in your very own neighborhood.
To the left is an amazing sprawl of garbage peering enticingly from behind the nurseries (legal? illegal? who knows!). This garbage sprawl or nature reserve is ideal terrain for any nature like research into the decomposition of natural matter and the non-decomposition of man made artificial matter, ie plastics bags.
For studies on insects, roaches, rodents, repellants and if you are lucky you can stumble upon the occasional cows, horses, cats, dogs out on their evening stroll. (Even dogs need a break from life even though it may be a dog's life!) Trucks come from far and wide to add to the beauty of this scenic place, dumping sacks of garbage to rot and fester. The resultant ooze, a treat for the olfactory senses of the residents neighboured by.
This scenic Elysium was a few months ago set ablaze (no forest fire!) by your hardworking Afghans burrowing deep into the heaps of garbage for odds and ends.
The bags are thrown open by this industrious lot, torn, the contents and garbage cast out and about with abandon so that the dump is not just a place of neatly piled bags but the refuse is strewn and scattered, brimming onto the roads and streets as if struck by a cyclone.
One of these pickers may have set it ablaze accidentally and the thick bushy undergrowth rapidly caught fire, which was carried by the wind, burning the trees down the road. Thankfully, the wind direction was not the other way for it would have enveloped the houses next door too. Now the craggy burnt branches remain as reminders or warners of future outbreaks thanks to these diligent workers.
The area is an amenity plot yet for the past many years it has, over time, been converted into a dump yard to the nuisance of the residents who have been trying in vain to have it removed. People from near and far still insist on coming here to dump their refuse.
The fact that it is an amenity plot attracts land grabbers who eye it as prime property to be sold for millions for illegally commercial purposes. The thought of a shopping malls in that narrow by-lane in an otherwise peaceful residential area causes many a shudder.
None of the residents can, however, purchase the property to close the dump once and forever. It continues to draw crowds of garbage pickers, garbage, flies and animals and bacteria. Why can't the administration seal the area and instead, ensure a proper system of garbage collection as is evident and successfully functioning in many areas of the city?
Where the residents place their garbage in bags, bins, outside their homes which a refuse truck regularly comes around to collect. (But the trucks should, in turn, not dump the refuse in some other illegal area, defeating the purpose, but must dispose of it in a lawfully designated refuse disposal area.)
Finally, why are these Afghans allowed to freely delve into the garbage spewing out geysers of waste helter-skelter around? They should not be allowed to excavate the garbage at all as it is hazardous for health.
Next along this famously bumpy road is the Unity roundabout, built by Allied Bank, one of the many eyesores that pass as monuments to tastelessness and crass waste of money in this city.
Not only is the roundabout the ugliest piece of cement, mortar, masonry with metal and paper , (God knows how the Bank can proudly claim it as its own, money does literally make one blind it seems!) but it is also a traffic hazard.
The structure is built beyond the one and half foot limit for traffic on either side of the roundabout to get a view of the other side.
Below the towering mangled cement structure of the four provinces are huge ugly drums which stand for coins, which obstruct completely the view making it dangerous for cars coming from all sides, ensuing in collisions as a result. (The mayhem not much helped by the most-of the times- dysfunctional traffic lights.) To add to the misery and confusion, a metal railing surrounds the entire structure which has a firm layer of banners, paper posters etc that succeed in completely annihilating whatever vision that remained.
Why is this ugly monstrosity allowed to remain none knows. Why couldn't the bank just have sustained a mossy embankment of green grass, which would have soothed the eyes, and allowed the pedestrians a place to flop down and rest and watch the world go by? Similar roundabouts in Cairo and recently the embankments down the Defence road in Karachi have been extremely successful. The islands of this area are littered on holidays with women and children picnicking on the green turf.
To return to the mysterious nurseries, whose owners never seem to be around, near the Bank and on either side of the main road: yes the greenery is welcome but not at the expense of their cutting down the ancient trees which they have stealthily been doing to make place for their pots.
There is no check, whereas it a crime in other countries to cut down such old shady trees. Even the bank has pitched in and cut the shady trees in front of its façade. Will the plunder continue?
If your eyes are tired of looking at the ground, turn skywards or what's left of it by the gaping, jeering ugly billboards. More signs of greedy commercialism.
From every nook and cranny of the multistoried building hover these hideously clunky structures obscuring the entire city. What is the need for such gigantic proportions? Shouldn't there be a check in an already congested city? These hoarding obtrude from every tiny space and corner posing as health hazards to passer-by and residents.
A strong gust of wind and how many will fall? Lord knows. So welcome to the card board town of filth and cement and mortar and metal. The Karachi of the twenty-first century. Now, who said that we are not a progressive nation?
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