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A life less ordinary

By Samina Perozani

Karachi

Most days, Karachi is bursting at the seams with emotion. We’re hot-headed, teetering at the edge of sanity, and often looking for an excuse to hurl expletives and get into a fist-fight if need be. And if, despite all that, we’re still angry, we take matters into our own hands and make sure someone out there listens to what we have to say. Sometimes, the underlying desire to be heard is justified – especially if it is during, or after, a 20-or-so hour power outage in the city (and the province). 

Being touted as The Great Blackout of Karachi, the province-wide power failure occurred on Wednesday evening and continued well into Thursday evening, much to the dismay of sweaty, seething Karachiites. 

There are several theories that surround the breakdown – some say it was a storm that knocked out our connection with the national grid, others say that it was perhaps the worst case of sabotage in the history of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) so the company could promptly be nationalised once again. Whatever the reason (and the vested interest), the fact remains that it brought the entire city down on its knees, throwing it all the way back to the Dark Ages – people slept out on the streets, there was absolute mayhem at the petrol stations and people walked in to work with un-ironed shirts and bloodshot eyes. But perhaps most heat-rending story in all of this, was that of an acquaintance whose mother passed away on that sweltering Wednesday night because the ventilator in the hospital would not work; because the generator in the hospital eventually died and acquiring fuel took longer than usual and because there was no time or power to take her to another city. Yes, the Great Blackout will be forever etched in the minds of Karachiites, particularly those who lost a lot more that night than the food in the refrigerator or the chance to watch TV.

The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel this week was Pakistan’s surprise win in the T-20 Cricket World Cup. Having been in the news for all the wrong reasons, Pakistan’s victory this Sunday give Karachiites – and indeed, the entire country – a chance to celebrate our feel-good moment.

A colleague wondered why the city seemed to have all but lost its mind in the festivities that followed after the game.

“It’s not like we haven’t won tournaments or a World Cup before,” she said. True as that may be, we as a nation have not been good at anything – or have got recognition for it – in a very long time. 

I mean, no one fancies being called a terrorist (despite the promises of the ‘moral high ground’ it supposedly gives you by extremist factions) because the label doesn’t exactly put you on top of the world. So after all the bomb blasts and military offensives, the wheelings and dealings, Transparency International’s report that calls us more and more corrupt with each passing year, after all of that when we bring home a trophy, that is reason enough to celebrate. If nothing
else, it tells us that we still have something in common with one another – even if it is cricket.