A story behind every name October 21, 2009
Posted by Halai in brits, history, karachi, landmarks.1 comment so far
The following is an article printed in The News on Oct 21st, 2009 reproduced here without permission from Fasahat Mohiuddin.
While the face of Karachi may have changed rapidly during the last few years, the bedrock of Karachi’s existence and growth lies in areas developed for migrants arriving from India in 1947. Millions arrived in Karachi after Partition, and the government of the time was faced with the task of rehabilitating them.
Historian and former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official M. A. Tatari told The News that successive governments purchased land for the purposes of rehabilitating the migrants. “Nazimabad, a population of Mohajirs, was established in the name of late prime minister and governor-general, Khawaja Nazimuddin, in 1952 to rehabilitate the public and government servants who migrated from India. This work was carried out by the Pakistan public works department,” he said.
“The migrants had to be given some land to make their houses. The land rate at the time was Rs3.50 per yard while a bag of cement cost Rs3 only. But many were apprehensive of coming to this area because of the wilderness. This place only had bushes and wild trees. No one was prepared to purchase land in Nazimabad,” he narrated.
Another story is that of modern-day Liaquatabad, an area many continue to refer to as Lalukhet. According to Tatari, the area came to be known as Lalukhet because it was once the agricultural land of a man named Lalu. The government of Pakistan had purchased this land from Lalu, but this became an area where people started haphazard and arbitrary construction, he said.
North Nazimabad was originally established in 1958, Tatari said, with Karachi Improvement Trust (KIT) starting that housing scheme. “Land was purchased from Masti Brohi Khan, and the official name given to the area was Taimooria. The public name, North Nazimabad, emerged because quite simply, the scheme was being built to the north of Nazimabad,” Tatari said.
However, Ayub Khan became Field Marshal and KIT was declared defunct. A new body, the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) was then created, which started its own housing schemes. The first one, KDA Scheme No. 1, was built at Karsaz, but the second one, is what developed into modern-day North Nazimabad. “Both housing schemes were prepared by a Greek architect named Mr Polo,” he said.
“Just adjacent to Lasbella Bridge was the official house, or consulate, of Nawab Lasbella. The area was called Lasbella because of the Nawab from much before Partition. The bridge existed at that time as well, and was known as Lasbella Bridge,” he continued.
Talking about Federal Capital Area (F ‘C’ Area), Tatari narrated that former prime minister Mohammed Ali Bogra had initiated the housing scheme for low-paid government employees. At the time, Karachi was capital of the country, but there was a shortage of houses for government servants. Houses were then made of ‘G’ and ‘F’ types in 1958, and some government employees retired and settled there.
Tatari said that Federal ‘B’ Area was also initiated by Bogra, and a 120-square-yard housing scheme was launched. The official name of the scheme was Mansoora, KDA scheme No 16, and citizens could acquire a plot for Rs5,000.
According to the retired bureaucrat, Federal ‘A’ Area included the modern-day areas of Jacob Lane, Jet Lane and Bazerta Lane. All these areas were barracks of small army officers which had been constructed in 1888, but the Army later handed this area to civilians.
When asked who proposed the site of the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Tatari said that former Karachi chief commissioner Syed Hashim Raza had proposed the location as it was on a higher plane. The land was then occupied by Kutcha hutments, and these people were allotted alternate space in Korangi and Landhi.
When asked why the government of Pakistan had to purchase land from Lalu and Brohi agriculturists, Tatari said that when Pakistan was created, these two were in possession of large tracts of land that were identified for the rehabilitation of the migrants.
Tatari said that Drigh Colony was established by late prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan, and after cordial relations were developed with late Saudi king, Shah Faisal, Drigh Colony was renamed as Shah Faisal Colony.
He said that Lawrence Road, now Nishtar Road, was where the houses of different Nawabs were situated. Nawab of Bhawalpur, Nawab of Khairpur and other Nawabs all had their homes and offices on the road.
Talking about Pir Elahi Bux Colony, Tatari said that that land for the colony was donated to Mohajirs by a major agriculturist. A private contractor, Mr Hasan, was then awarded the task to make houses. “In those days, and I’m talking about 1948-49, Hasan made 150-square-yard houses at a cost of Rs1800. These houses had bedroom and wash rooms, but no roofs,” he said.
Tatari said that Firdous Colony was made by a former MLA from Bihar, who made a cooperative society with the help of friends. He purchased land from the government in 1948, and the land was sold at a rate of Rs3.50 per square yard.
Usmanai Colony was established by those who migrated from Muradabad (India). One of the official Hakims of the Pakistan government, Hakim Syed Zakir, is credited with conceiving Usmania Colony, while 99 per cent of the residents of Muradabad were provided land and houses in this colony. Tatari said that those who built the society were affluent people, as they were adept at making utensils.
Rizvia Colony was made by a school teacher of Sindh Madressah, Maulana Aneesul Hasnain, along with Advocate Qazalbash in 1948. Their concept, maintained Tatari, was to provide plots exclusively to Shias, and not to people of other sects.
Tatari said that Gurumandir was known because of a Hindu temple situated near Islamia College, a structure that still exists. He said that many Hindus came to worship here, and thus, the place became famous as Guru ka Mandir. The road adjacent to Islamia College was named as Pandit Lal Nehru Road back then, but this was changed to Jigar Muradabadi Road when the municipality came into existence.
The retired bureaucrat revealed that there was a substantial population of Hindus, Parsis and Ismiailis who lived in the area now known as Patel Para. “Whenever any Hindu died and had unclaimed property, the Patels would automatically become the custodians of that property. At that time, Patels in that area were in a majority, and thus this area became Patel Para,” he said.
To another question about Soldier Bazaar, he said that it was an area inhabited by small Army officers during the British era. These soldiers would shop in the area, and thus, the vicinity became famous as Soldier Bazaar.
let bygones be bygones August 27, 2009
Posted by Halai in food, history, karachi, landmarks, places.3 comments
so we’re past the glory days of living in karachi when parents told us stories of yore and tales of liberal partying and fun days when karachi had trams running through it’s arteries. now comes the time for me to tell the next generation about what we used to enjoy which they never will.
let’s try and cover food first, because, as i mentioned before, i love to eat, and i always have. now let’s get one thing clear, i grew up in clifton. most of the exposure to major landmarks and institutions have been in this region. feel free to add your own institutions from your locale in the comments below.
there were a bunch of eateries in clifton which aren’t around anymore, and eating in clifton has historically been synonymous with boating basin. this was when people actually used to take their boats within the basin from the karachi boat club. this was when we used to take long walks along it’s shores and get scared of the big crabs coming out of the rockery and not the hooligans down at the other end of the park, and when pink flamingos could be seen flying in the horizon. nowadays all you get is a road named after a woman who may or may not have been the lady the city is named after, and a sorry excuse of mangroves which have been hacked away by land reclamation killing a thriving shrimp industry and loss of migration of swarms of migratory bird populations.
boat basin is very different today than it used to be about 20 years ago. first of all, as kids the only cool place really was Mr. Burger. they used to have a very fun orange theme which isn’t around anymore, but they’ve expanded and changed it to a pinky purply look. they used to hand out stickers and colouring penciles and have cool posters and pictures of characters famously stolen from mcdonaldland. now mr. burger is still around and hopefully remains so for a long time to come but the KFC right next to it, used to be a restaurant called Red Carpet. that’s gone. used to have atypical pakistani bbq and nothing much else, but used to be a staple landmark of boat basin.
if you kept walking along the footpath towards the other end of boat basin, coming next was Sagar video game arcade. all the goonda’s of the area would reside there. if your parents found out the kind of people you hung out with at Sagar, they wouldn’t really let you go back there. but arcade games were 5 Rs. for ten tokens so entertainment was cheap. But what came right after was another restaurant, this one with VERY dark tinted windows was Seagull. i know absolutely NOBODY who ever went in there, though it remained there for the longest time.
a few stores over you come across mezban. it’s the proud standing store that’s been around ever since i can remember, and always been the go to place for the best kabab rolls and chaat this side of (insert favourite bridge here).
and of course the hidden prize of boat basin ended it up with kings and queens, the only pizza in town at the time. (claims arise that jacana in PECHS on tipu sultan road was there prior and better but thats purely a debate up for another time).
another wonderful restaurant at the time was a bit further down the shoreline called Dolphin’s located on 26th street. i still remember the amazing beef stroganoff. too bad since it got replaced by a petrol station.
if you were interested in dessert, the only ice cream parlour in town worth going to was baloch ice cream, and the only reason i say this, is because theres nothing funnier than a mallu waiter trying to pronounce pistachio. if you were a bit more uppity in the social ladder, you may ended up having a few ventures over at Carvel’s parlour too but it wasn’t as fun there (people on the other side of the bridge would say kaybees but it doesn’t count since it’s still around).
there’s a whole bunch of other places that i used to hang out at, places that just aren’t around anymore. places that people still fondly remember and talk about, but those days are long gone. they are just memories. there are many other such landmarks that people talk about today and refer to by name which aren’t around…places like submarine roundabout where a submarine used to hang out at, lighthouse (though not really a lighthouse, but the fact that the cinema there was lighthouse cinema), and many other locales, but i suppose that will have to wait for another post.
feel free to mention other fun places below in the comments or anything in the clifton area that you remember that i missed out on. actually i think i only really spoke about boat basin. oh well. *shrug*
what’s in a name? – the british edition July 27, 2009
Posted by Halai in brits, history, landmarks, roads.5 comments
as far as naming conventions go, karachi roads and landmarks have a lot to improve upon. since our colonial brothers left us with a wonderful legacy of british architecture and engineering, we have done very little to better ourselves. abbas’ post and comments inspired me to write this up.
first of all, let’s get the simple ones out of the way.
bandar road: (today named m. a. jinnah road, and if i have to tell you what the initials stand for i’m gonna beat you up first and then tell you) let it be known publicly and widely there are no monkey’s on this road, there never have been, and hopefully the only monkey’s around that will remain are the ones perched on the shoulder of the guy who makes them re-enact the bangladesh war and aptly naming them aalloo master all to the beat of a hand drum and random shouts of attaaaaaanshun. the word bandar comes from farsi and literally means a port or haven, combining the words of band for enclosed and dar for doorway. bandar road stretches all the way from quaid’s mazaar till tower (more on tower later).
following suit from there, same deal with kharadar. khara meaning salty, is due to the sea port that karachi is and historically has been. and similarly meetha dar. (there’s one in lahore too). meetha dar generally is a river port. they also refer to the old walled gates of the city of karachi which stood between the two modern neighborhoods at the time. the khara dar used to open it’s doors towards the arabian sea, and the meetha dar would open towards the grand liyari river.
behind zainab market (no clue who she was), is an area known usually and generally as elfy. the name of the road here used to be elphinstone street and just got short changed and is now called elfy by the general populace. more than likely, named after lord elphinstone. (for the torontonian’s reading this, one of the little streets intersecting it is also called dundas street). today the same road starting at (or what used to be) star cinema and going all the way to avari towers is called prince aga khan iii road.
same deal with a lot of other colonial roads which today are named something else altogether. macleod road is i.i. chundrigar (by the way full name ibrahim ismail chundrigar and has been a prime minister of pakistan for a grand total of two whole months). drigh road is shahra-e-faisal. believe it or not, this one is named after king faisal from saudi. god knows why. burns road was named after a smart fellow dr james burnes. napier road for charles napier (also aptly nicknamed the butcher of sindh, go read your history to learn more about that. on capturing the province of sindh in 1843, sir charles napier reported his triumph back to london with the single latin word “Peccavi”, meaning “I have sinned”. by the way, if you didn’t get that, that was a rather tasteless pun). today napier road recognizes him as hosting the red light district of the city.
so where were we. oh yeah, tower. for those not in the know, this is the mereweather tower memorial. and known to all bus drivers across the city as simply just tower. it’s essentially one of the focal points of the city where you have the intersection of bandar road, macleod road, kharadar, maulvi tamizuddin khan road, keamari road and mauripur road, and pretty much the starting and end point of the entire trucking industry of the entire country, i.e., the karachi port. (port qasim and gwadar have started taking a bit of the limelight lately, but this is the shining star of the lot).
many of the other historic area’s of karachi which were colonized generally remain in the core of the city, near or around saddar, garden, and clifton. reasons are fairly obvious, the further north you went, the city didn’t exist and urban sprawl didn’t get to the gulistan’s and north’s until much, much later (after the 60′s). the brits didn’t wander too far i suppose. you can see some fun photographs here if you’re bored enough. by the way, saddar is actually saddar town on paper. and is bordered by lyari town, jamshed town, keamari town, clifton cantonment, and the sea.
some of the fun buildings that the brits left us, the old kpt building, karachi grammar school (the school houses in kgs are named after charles napier, bartle frere and another two guys named streeton and papworth, but i got no what their first names are) , empress market, st. andrew’s church, frere hall (which by the way is the equivalent of sadequain’s sistine chapel, if you hadn’t heard of him prior to reading this, shame on you, oh and the building is named after this guy), and the sindh club.
for some of the most fascinating and in-depth research that i have found about the colonial history of the city you should go here. complete with images and wonderful writeups, the author has tried wonderfully to put together pieces of a puzzle which i’m sure people will be doing for a long time coming.
i live in… khair choro July 15, 2009
Posted by Xill-e-Ilahi in landmarks, places.8 comments
this is based on a post originally made by the author on the karachi metroblog two years ago to the day:
like all the other denizens of our concrete jungle i know, cannot claim to have seen the whole of karachi. this is both a tragedy and a comedy. it is also largely irrelevant to the discussion at hand. for this post is about the bits of karachi that i have seen. that and the funny names they have. its amazing some of these are actually officially recognized names. sometimes it makes you think how crazy the city planners must be to actually have come up with names like these ones. then again, they’re planning a city which was named after a dancing girl from a fishing village on the coast of sindh. that brings lurid and largely unmentionable images of a makrani gentleman’s club to mind with a plump sheedi girl in a grass skirt and a shocking pink teeshirt that reads baybee gurl dancing on a table to the tune of jiye bhutto benazir… but lets not dwell on that.
dear reader, if you exist, keep this post interactive because there is no way in hell i can cover all the locations with names thought up by a committee chaired by manto’s lunatic from toba tek singh which included the mad hatter and the march hare, among others. feel free to add
any in khi-town which you can think of in the comments section – just stick to the unusual ones please.
1. geedar chowrangi: a place in landhi not far from bhains colony (buffalo colony) apparently so named for the hyenas or jackals or maybe just wild dogs that used to be seen around here when karachi had not sprawled as much as it had.
2. golimar: the unofficial name of gulbahar. golimar (which literally means “fire a bullet”) attained notoriety in the 90s as a hotbed of violence lending some reason to the name it is known by. it is much better known these days as home to one of the largest plumbing products market in the city.
3. nagan chowrangi: a major traffic junction in north karachi, this roundabout which would be called the female cobra roundabout in english, branches off in so many directions its impossible to count them from a moving vehicle. indeed, one story goes that it was actually named nau gun initially, meaning “nine ways”, which later got distorted into nagan. in karachi, everything’s possible.
4. do minute chowrangi: as wierd names go, the two minute roundabout probably has the wierdest of them all. and i haven’t even been able to find a single story for why its named what it is. to further compound the wierdness, to get here you have to cross unda mor (egg turn) and karaila mor (bitter gourd turn).
5. perfume chowk: this is not such a wierd name as it is an interesting story. the perfume chowk person who basically owns or owned an eastern perfume pushcart which was permanently parked at a spot in gulistan-e-jauhar, marketed his business with a can of spray paint and the confidence that graffiti was his right as a citizen of karachi. you can find the words perfume chowk spray painted on walls and shop shutters from gulshan-e-hadeed to surjani town to clifton. the spot has become so famous that bus conductors call out “perfume chowk” to commuters to signal the arrival of the bus stop.
6. chaakiwara: they tell me the name is not actually that wierd. if you’re balochi. or maybe martian.
7. khamosh colony: khamosh (or silent) colony is actually a place in karachi. at least i’ve heard of it often enough to think that it is. now why anyone would to name a place something that sounds so creepy and graveyardy is beyond me – unless – it is actually so named because it is or was near a graveyard. which is a silent place. and this is something truly possible.
8. “san day”: i’ll level with you. this is not really a name of a place. but its what every bus conductor in karachi calls out when his bus passes a place he wants to call “seven day”. which still doesn’t make sense. if, that is, you don’t know that he is referring to the seventh day adventist church behind empress market.
9. “naitee jaitee”: again, this is a mispronunciation. one used by almost every karachiite when referring to the place. the place in question being the native jetty, reknowned as the most enduringly popular spot for comitting suicide in the city of lights (or light bulbs. kesc ensures they’re never lit).
10. chacha chachi park: (uncle aunt park) this is a tiny green patch in district central hardly large enough to park a small skateboard. the funny thing for me is not that it is for some obscure reason named as a tribute to an even more obscure pair of paternal relatives but that it has the grand idea that it is in fact a park – even though there is only enough grass on it to cater to a gandhi-esque goat on an afternoon when he is not in a particularly hungry mood.
this list could go on for ages. but i’d like to hear your contributions. so give us a name and a story to go with it if possible.
(note: i may have gotten some of the geography and most of the history wrong here. being what it is, there is no way some of this can be verified. most of it comes from stories of people who live nearby. but sometimes that adds spice to the local flavour. so don’t kill me if you know something i don’t.)
the bridge across forever July 15, 2009
Posted by Halai in landmarks.Tags: bridges, demographics, karachi
2 comments
there’s many things that demographically separate the miniscule 2% of karachi’s populace (almost 20 million and going strong) from the other 98% but the one thing that strikes most people (usually striking only those who can pronounce bourgeoisie and bordeaux correctly, or rather point out the fact that anyone else is screwing it up so bad that their english ordinary levels tuitions teacher was a waste of time) is that they live on the other side of ‘the bridge’.
this infamous bridge is unanimously considered to be clifton bridge connecting clifton and defence to the rest of karachi. in case you’re wondering, the road going from the bridge till do-talwar is khayaban-e-iqbal. in the years gone by, of stories told by elders, clifton was a far off suburb where people would only drive to go see the coast line, have picnics, or go see the lights during eid. today it is completely absorbed into the city of karachi. clifton bridge itself was quite an engineering feat during it’s time (or so i’m told) and it has rather pretty blue tiles adorning it (notice them).
i’ll be honest i have no idea when it was built or who built it. i do know that today the stone on it is rather weathered and grayed from the pollution and heat. it used to be swept daily in the early mornings when the traffic was light, but i’m not entirely sure if that’s the case today. also it now has another bridge towering over it which has taken a bit of traffic off it. the divider line between oncoming lanes of traffic has only also been added in recent years.
driving under the bridge was the quickest method to get to queens road, lalazar, before mai kolachi road was built and it’s arches were also the rumoured abode for the hathora maar gang during the 80′s.
most burger kids today rarely need to venture over the bridge as everything that they need is within the confines of clifton and defence usually at exorbitant markups from the rest of karachi (at least in terms of retail). most of the brands that are famous around karachi that our parents used to talk about have their presence now on the good side of the bridge. kids have their very own hanifia burger for which they would otherwise have to go to golimar, mr. burger which started off at tariq road, cd and video stores which were found at rainbow centre, books from fancy liberty books as opposed to tit bits or urdu bazaar or pak-american.
hopefully at some point on this blog we will discuss all the places beyond clifton bridge. we’re talking about faraway places like feberal b. area, north karachi, lyari, keamari, machar colony, golimar, garden, kda, nazimabad, baloch colony, saddar, bohri bazaar, empress market, haidari, pechs, timber market, gulshan-e-iqbal, motandaaz, paper market, lighthouse and many other rumoured places you’ve never been.
Xill-e-Ilahi
Halai
cymarizwankhan
Mystic
