Weekly Column-Side- Effect (Gutter Bageecha)

LINK: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=195267

Gutter Bageecha

Friday, August 28, 2009

Harris Khalique

 

The visit to Fida Khalidi's home near Gutter Bagheecha was my first introduction to this humble but cosmopolitan neighbourhood of Karachi around 30 years ago. The area which has 18 old settlements going back to the 19th century and a few colonies established after 1947 is a part what is now called SITE Town. I was in school then and often accompanied my aunt who would occasionally visit her ustaad (mentor), Khalidi sahib and, once in a while, take things such as galavat ke kebabs, shab-deg, qorma or Kashmiri chai for him and his family.

 

Khalidi sahib mentored a large number of novice poets, speaking different languages and dialects of Urdu. They would get their ghazals corrected by him and spend hours listening to his literary ramblings. He was a poet of considerable merit belonging to the Dehlavi School of Ghazal. My aunt stressed on her Lucknavi style but eventually, her ustaad would prevail.

 

The afternoon I visited Khalidi sahib was like all other Friday afternoons, a busy one for him. Some poets, fond of listening to poetry, were engaged in rigorously debating the pitfalls and advantages of Urdu prosody. One of his sons, who I fondly called Nazar Bhai, was sympathetic towards the young boy sitting idle and getting bored in the midst of an incomprehensible debate. He came up to us and asked my aunt to let me go with him to the Gutter Bagheecha. Nazar Bhai made me sit on the carrier of his bicycle and within 10 minutes, we entered the lush green park with palms and guava trees, enjoying ourselves thoroughly. Those are my first memories of that beautiful park, which served as lungs for the neighbourhood surrounded by bustling industrial activity. The industrial district, SITE, lies on the east of the park. Marble for construction is processed and sold in the vicinity, besides some old establishments of the traders here.

 

Some citizens have recently complained that the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has changed the status of at least 26 parks and playgrounds in middle, lower-middle and working-class neighbourhoods of the city. On one hand, a large tract of land by the sea is converted into a modern park in the heart of a rich neighbourhood and, on the other, the not-so-privileged residents of the metropolis are being denied their right to public spaces and amenity plots. The residents around Gutter Bagheecha, predominantly Sindhi and Baloch – who have a claim over the city for two centuries at least -- have been foiling attempts to occupy of the park by the omnipotent city managers, after its illegally changed status, for the last 17 years.

 

A rightfully agitated Nisar Baloch is among those running the campaign for the restoration of the park and the amenity status for 480 acres of open land. He is equally critical of both the MQM and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), one for its coercion and the other for its tardiness. He said that when the people of settlements near the park staged a peaceful protest on August 26, they were attacked by members of the law-enforcing agencies. Six women and four young men were injured, one of them in a critical condition, while two protesters were arrested.

 

Sadly, the media has, so far, not been unable to cover the story properly and for those who think that overlooking the matter will make it go away, here's some food for thought the politics of intimidation, profiteering, patronage and prejudice can hold us together only for so long.

 

 

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@spopk.org