Mohajirs Are People Too

talented nephew atif: gibberish never helps. Try again.

chacha tahmed # 40 "if i say something stupid, i would love to get beaten into a pulp since that would make me smarter."

well chacha, two things. your use of the word "if" is fine if it is meant in rhetorical sense and not in conditional sense, since stupidity comes unconditional to you. secondly, short of beating you to death, i dont see how one can beat you into becoming smarter.

hope that helps.

atif: when inviting guests to your rooh afza party, you may wish to stop referring to "mohajirs" as an ethnicity. Mohajirs is a bogus label created by mqm to create the us-vs-them mentality among its followers. A simple "Pakistani" should be enough. Unless you wish to extend your largesse to others and simply have an open house rooh afza party.

NYC "Did you not stop by at the Macdonalds inside the terminal?."

nope. after getting my boarding card, i headed straight to the lounge, where the combination of free internet and three pricey attendants kept my mind occupied for quite some time.

perhaps next time I will visit a karachi Mikey D's. Whats their karachi specialty? McMurgh Paratha Roll?

NB boy #8 "All of you miss the main point, Atif found a condom dispenser. Which is a relief, since knowing and loving atif as we all do, we don't want any HIV spreading in the desi population through him."

well YOU should not have to worry about catching HIV from me. as a general rule, I like to keep a distance of at least a continent between us.

madihawaris "but do you realize how pompous and condescending you sound"

i not only realize this but I also intended it :)

you write "like the old white american lady who goes 'ooh how advanced have these spanish/indians/asian people have become' whenever she sees one in a suit"

you dont have to be an old white lady to utter such remark. i have been guilty of exclaiming the same when I first saw a hindoo with my own eyes. turned out it was just a circus monkey.

nikhat "Unfortunately Karachi carries the budnma stain of henious murder of its own heroes like Hakeem MOHAMMAD SAEED.A person who tried all his life to refresh the body of Karachiites with 'Rooh afza' "

well, i am not sure who murdered Hakeem sahib. But I hope the perpetrators are brought to justice. And when that happens, all of us - mohajirs, punjabis, baloch, and pashtoons will come together for a shots of rooh afza.

re #58 .... broken windows theory :)

Re: # 24
Alhamdulillah not so, I can prove for anyone that is an erroneous statement, only those who practiced Hinduism and saw the light of truth said their Shahada and chose Islam as their deen prior to being a part of the movement that led to a separate homeland for the Muslims of India.
Your comment is absolutely irrelevant and shows what your kind of people look for, but you are not going to get what you came seeking to this corner.
May Allah SWT show you the right path and bless you with the wisdom and include you in the ones those that can be guided by Almighty Allah only, ameen.

Re: # 32
Dear friend Aatif
I quite understand regardless of your ethnicity you have done a great job and have contributed to this topic in quite a reader friendly manner, I appreciate very much the effort you have put in to produce such a lovely composition.
What I was pointing in my observation is not the abrasiveness of your writing but it is how some of the interactors have read or interacted with it.
I find it very important that our brothers and sisters from all ethnicities of Pakistan & India quit trying to read between lines and feel charged enviously, if you get my point here. We should be able to take pride in each other rather than finding ourselves envying each other.
Not only Karachi but entire Pakistan on an overall basis would be a heavenly place if all of us would began to practice tolerance for each other and give up our embedded nature of speculating as to what the writer or speaker was saying in between the lines and be able to tolerate if one praises the qualities of another like you did in your article.
I feel that intolerance has prevailed on all sides of the ethnicity, for example when a non-Urdu speaking individual addresses a speaker of Urdu by saying tum or tou it should not automatically be misconstrued to as an insult since speakers of other languages address the one's they like or love most in those terms although it goes against the literary Urdu.
In other words I like that prescription for chill pill and it is necessary for a "kool" environment. :)
It is nice to have read your article, keep up the good work Pakistan needs many more Aatifs to close this gap of ethnicity.

Best wishes.

Zeemax / Salim - I think I have lost you guys in this cryptic talk of chains and necklaces. But "jeweler by copulation" is an interesting term.

Urstruly - thanks for your kind words! but then as echo chacha said in another board, chittarole of these "warriors" is no less entertaining

ZK "In other words Karachi Aapka intizaar kar raha hai so you too can come and see why we Karachiites are so enthralled by our city."

ZK sahiba, it took 54 interacts before a karachiite finally uttered a formal invitation. but dair aayed, durust aayed. thanks!

now all we need to do is to coordinate our schedules :)

Atif

That was a great travelogue. In this place infested with religious and political warriors and their never ending wars, this is a relaxing, comforting, and entertaining relief. Judging by you galleries I assume that you travel a lot. It seems that you have knack for writing travelogues to - see keep it up.

#50 Posted by Selim_Chauhan,

Oh well, the Manhattan Island costs a bit more now than $26, though the foliage and a solitary skyscraper covers the extra cost.

(There's a post waiting for you on the Responsibility Claim thread)

Atif

"And then I noticed something that made me feel proud that Karachi was part of Pakistan."

This compatriot is very proud to call you as one of her own.

Yet another brilliant FP article that I have come to expect from you. What a mastery of words to keep the reader occupied till the very end.

Thank you for your explanation of wanting this to be a humorous piece. Otherwise I was going to swoon and write a most patriotic post. But I am adat say majboor so am attempting a smaller version.

Being a visual person I applied this literary Rorschach Test and found you to be be taking your first tentative steps into the city which is the birthplace of our beloved Founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and where he breathed his last! Hail Karachi!

You seem to be pleasantly surprised and then wonder why you have not been to visit and then it hits you – this is your city too. This is YOUR Pakistan!

"I can only wonder how long an account I would write if I were to spend a full day in Karachi."

I look forward to that account. In other words Karachi Aapka intizaar kar raha hai so you too can come and see why we Karachiites are so enthralled by our city.