Owais Mughal

Clicking on most of the photos in this article will take you to their source websites and larger image sizes.

On my recent trip to Pakistan, I tried to re-live some of the fondest memories of my early youth. One of them was daily travel in public buses during my college days. In order to relive that experience, I decided to take a trip to Empress Market by bus.

Photo to the left shows Empress Market. I took this photo from the overhead pedestrain bridge on the morning of Jan 11, 2007.

At Karaimabad market bus stop, I made a hand gesture to an approaching route 5C bus. The bus driver made eye contact with me and acknowledged by slowing down. The norm in Karachi is that a bus never comes to a full halt for a single ‘sawari’ (passenger) because monetary profits from a single passenger fare is not worth breaking the engine motion. Therefore when bus slowed down to a speed of approximately 5 kmph, I quickly jumped in by grabbing on to the hand rail. It was a proud moment for me to realize that after all these years I have not forgotten the art of climbing onto a moving bus. I looked around the bus with the face of a conquerer but no one paid any attention to me so I meekly sat down at the first available seat.

Photo to the above right shows birds eye view of Empress Market. This photo is courtesy of Ali Zasami.

Guest Post by Shahran Asim

I recently called up on Khalid Irfan and requested him to appear on Urdu Talk Radio, to which he graciously agreed upon. Urdu Talk Radio – now available on the internet- is one of the oldest Urdu talk show services in Noth America and airs live every Sunday from 1pm-4pm EST time. It is hosted by Dr. Mujahid Ghazi besides a few other volunteers including myself.

Khalid Irfan lives in Queens, New york and he is undoubtedly one the top tier poets of Urdu humour today. Over the years I have had the privilege of listening to him and I have always been very impressed with his poetry. In the past, he had been associated with the Pakistan Post newspaper also. He also wrote columns for this newspaper. One of his segments called ‘Mirza Ghalib Jackson Heights par’ became very popular.

As Khalid Irfan appeared on the Urdu Talk Radio show and started reciting his poetry in his own unique style, I was laughing non-stop because I found the poetry too humorous. Here is an example of a ‘sher‘ written in a North American background.

Adil Najam

I recieved a couple of emails with this picture today, and then saw it poste by Vaqas on Metroblog Lahore (see earlier picture here). A great picture by Awais Lodhi. We at ATP have a long-standing fascination with rickshaws (here, here, here, here an here). But, this, of course, is about political commentary, not just about rickshaws.

My best attempt at a translation of the ‘writing on the rickshaw’ is:

Addressed to Honorable General Musharraf Sahib. Accept my congratulations on the passage of the women’s rights bill. Now, please, also give us a bill on Men’s rights. We will be greatful. It is very difficult to drink these days.

Must confess, I am not fully sure how the last line fits. Please suggest a better translation if you will. Or offer commentary on this commentary.