Owais Mughal
This photo is from 2006. I apologize for hoarding it for so long but it had got lost somewhere in my collection. Today I found it and immediately decided to share it here.
The famous landmark of Lahore called Shalamar Gardens (landscaped in 1633-1642 AD) was closed for repairs last year and this hand-written notice was pasted outside to keep visitors away. Nothing wrong with a hand-written notice except noticing the 410-fountain grandeur of the gardens, this notice appears as a ‘makhmal mein taat ka pewand’. Times have certainly changed a lot since this garden’s prime time.
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Owais Mughal
Today’s news is that South Africa has refused to play 5th One Day International of the series at National Stadium, Karachi. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has now moved the match to Lahore. South Africa made this decision after some of their players showed their uneasiness at playing in Karachi due to recent events. This is bad news for Karachi. The city’s reputation as a peaceful cricket center was finally coming back to normal. Since 2004, all matches played here have been successful and peaceful.
South Africa’s current decision will put Karachi back in a situation where other teams in future may refuse to play here for reasons which have nothing to do with crowd behavior or cricketing facilities. I also believe the team security in Karachi is not worse than any other city of Pakistan.
Owais Mughal
This photo is courtesy of Mr. Raja Islam. The place is Gadani’s Ship Breaking area some 40 km west of Karachi. Ships of all sizes and shapes are broken down into small pieces of scrap here using mostly the hand tools. It is a work of sheer labor. When I first saw this picture in Raja Islam’s collection it was titled as ‘Egyptian slaves at work’. Breaking a ship into small pieces by using simpe hand tools is probably very close in effort to building a Egyptian pyramid.
