I heard some very interesting 'muhawarays' the other day. For those who don't know Urdu: 'muhawarays' is plural for a 'muhawaraa.' And for those who know Urdu but don't know what a 'muhawaraa' is: its an aphophtegm or an aphorism. For those still baffled: I heard some very interesting 'sayings said in Urdu' the other day. One of them was: 'bandar kya jaanay adrak ka swaad?' which is roughly translated in English as: 'what does the monkey know about savoring ginger?' It didn't make too much sense to me. I mean I get it that it means something like that the monkey is too primitive to really savor the flavor of ginger enough to appreciate it. But why would you want to know how a monkey feels after eating ginger? And what kind of a monkey (or any human being for that matter) would want to savor the flavor of ginger?
Another very interesting thing that I have noticed is the names that people decide to name the buildings that they are building or have already built. For instance, the apartment complex that they have built by the sewerage/drainage is called Lakeview Paradise; there is not a single tower at Park Towers; and 'believe you me,' there is actually a Lahore Grammar School of Karachi. Also, there are so many businesses that have very similar names. Only in Karachi will you find bakeries called Ideal Bakers, Ideal Bakery, New Ideal Bakers, New Ideal Bakery, Bakery Ideal, New Bakery Ideal, New Bakers in Ideal Bakery, and so forth. None of them have any connection with each other except for the words that are common in their names. In Karachi, it is considered good business sense to add the word 'new' before the name of an old business so that people think that since its 'new' it must be better.
I have also noticed that people in Karachi don't take too kindly to humor and satire. Since I have started writing this blog, many people have come up to me to tell me that it's not right for me to write such derogatory things about our beloved city, and that I should stop making fun of Karachi. These same people also ask me, 'what the hell are you writing? Are you trying to be funny? Your blog is so lame.' My response to these people is: 'bandar kya jaanay adrak ka swaad.'
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4 comments:
i think people who fail to embrace the silliness with what our city is made up of are just insecure and fooling themselves into having an image of karachi that does not exist.
i dont think the tone of your blog is insulting from anywhere and this is coming from a hard core born here bread here lived here all her life die hard patriot.
Dude, funny stuff. Don't let the haters get to you.
Let me know if you ever publish a book!
This is amazing....i can read this time and time again and still laugh like i read it the first time. You have a great talent, i hope you start writing again for the year 2011.
Or come in 2012 with bang! The world hopefully wont come to an end :)
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