I have always come across Karachi in places I can never expect. While walking in Colombo, Sri Lanka, I came across the Karachi Restaurant which was offering Nihari for breakfast. I was checking on Google maps, where I found out atleast 7 streets in the world named after Karachi (listed in Appendix below). For example look at the photo to the right. This book title Assignment Karachi comes up everytime you search for a book on Karachi at amazon.com. But the funniest way that I have ever across Karachi was in professional wrestling.
I was reading a Wrestling blog (yes i am a big fan of wrestling and i know that it is fake) where I noticed a wrestling stable or gang known as the Karachi Vice. I thought for a moment that it must be the name of a new political party and wondered if our politicians have finally seen the light but this feeling was short lived. The Karachi Vice wrestling guys were pretty active in the 70s and 80s. See their photo to the left. And you know what, now the kids of Karachi Vice guys have started their own wrestling group called the New Karachi Vice.
This group was active in Stampede Wrestling which is a famous name in Canadian Wrestling circles. As per Gama Singh, the leader of the gang
Everybody still talks about the Karachi Vice…It was an accidental thing, how it came about. There was myself and Mike Shaw, who I had changed his name to Makhan Singh, and we had Steve DiSalvo and Kerry Brown. I think we were all doing an interview together, we did a few interviews for a few weeks in a row, and then it just sort of came out. ‘This is the Karachi Vice’, because Miami Vice, the TV show, was quite hot at the time. And then the people just picked up from that. The following week, we saw all kinds of signs coming out — Karachi Ice, Karachi Mice and that sort of thing [laughing]. We just kind of followed through and kept it going from there. It became quite a hot thing for a couple of years at least.
Following is the photo of the New Karachi Vice.
Have you come across Karachi in strange places?
Appendix
1. Karachi Street, Midway Point, Tasmania, Australia
2. Karachi Street, Crestmead, Queensland, Australia
3. Karachi Way, Socorro, TX, United States
4. Karachi Street, West Bloomfield Township, MI,
5. Karachi Close, Tidworth, United Kingdom
6. Karachi Crescent, Wellington, New Zealand
7. Karachi Street, Lenasia, Gauteng, South Africa
ATPs Similar Posts
1. Flying Karachi to Baghdad in 1930s
By the way, Karachi Street in Crestmead is right across the end of Lahore street. The is the closest Karachi to Lahore.
I looked up the Karachi Close in Tidworth in the UK on google maps, and was surprised to see that within a short distance there was also a Lahore Close and a Kohat Close (as well as a Naini Taal Road, a Cabul Road, a Bazaar Road and a Grand Trunk Road!). I was quite baffled to discover this – but Wikipedia suggests the reason is a British Army connection (there are barracks in the town named after British Army battles in India).
I did some lookup on Karachi Way in Socorro, TX and was amazed to find out that the entire neighbourhood streets have been named after South Asian cities such as Poona, Karachi, Delhi, Lucknow, Khyber. As far as I know, there are no Indian or Pakistanis in that area but I could be wrong. I pass that area several times a year on highway 10 but have never stopped around here. Next time I go, I sure will stop, explore the area and take pictures for ATP. For now, enjoy this street view from Google. It sure looks like a rural part of Karachi :)
There is a city name Karachi in Eastern Russia.
There is a Karachi Drive in Markham, Ontario.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&g eocode=&q=karachi,+markham,+ontario&sll=37.0625,-9 5.677068&sspn=54.884801,78.134766&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnea r=Karachi+Dr,+Markham,+York+Regional+Municipality, +Ontario+L3S+3J9,+Canada&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A