Karachi is a city of 17million people bustling with activity,bad traffic,hooting cars,exhaust fumes
I live in zamzama a posh neighbourhood according to average karachi standards, nonetheless we have power cuts,water shortages to say but the least, we have pigeons on our kitchen window..pigeon droppings as well, a few scattered cocroaches in the intern apartment.
Karachi has it all, naked children running down the streets and shady restaurants with spicy, tasty yummy food with swift waiters, and it has the quiet comfortable neighbourhoods with large houses, convertibles and huge prados parked in their garages….owned by the moneyed class of karachi.
I work on the other side of town, west wharf, at the Glaxo Smith Kline offices. Glaxo hired me for Concern for children, which concentrates on the community development of the slums, they call it the machar colony…machar derived from the urdu word for mosquitos, this slum is right next to the port, and it smells like rotten fish, the kids in the slum are employed in the shrimp peeling factory, their small vulnerable fingers rot with time, coz of constantly peeling shrimp, the slum is infested with so much diseases,tuberclosis, hepatitis A,B,C,D,E. Concern for children, has a clinic in this slum, which services around 80 pple daily. The school in the slums are one roomed with no window and the kids are so packed inside with a temperature around 40 degrees and no breathing space, they learn and repeat religiously what their teachers are teaching them.
In machar colony, family planning is frowned upon like it’s a taboo! The inhabitants usually have 8 to 10 children, and live in one roomed houses, they cook by the use of firewood, and the smoke usually affects the little children, who develop breathing problems, some of the women are not allowed to venture outside and as the muslim culture stipulates they cover temselves completely and only leave some space for the eyes….some have a net on their bhurka’s(the muslim dress for women) on their eyes).
Lahore has all the historical sites, the mosque, the lahore fort but its not humid, the air is dry and hot
(Population)
Islamabad is a posh city, it all looks like defence in karachi, with posh houses and organised sidewalks, and parking space and proper driving habits, monal is one of the most beautifull places I have ever been, it has a bird view of the whole of islamabad(population…and facts about islamabad)
Muree is a touristic city, built on hills, it has a market and that’s where most of the army schools and police academy’s are, they have afghan carpets and they have the cadet, it was 5 degrees and was raining, after the heat in karachi, it was such a relief!
Burbon is on the other side of murree, on the hills, with a beautifull hotel, pearl continental hotel.