Top Two Reasons To Live In Lahore

Continuing the famous (ha) top-two series, I'd like to start with the mention of the rains in Karachi. Us poor Karachi-ites flock out everytime it drizzles (as the lahories so eloquently put it; jab barish hoti hay tou dadu or karachi-itte nikal aatay hain). We pray for rain every day, every Friday, every Eid. Apparently all those prayers have a delayed cumulative effect... Now Karachi has had two years worth of rain in a few days, and it's ever-famous and only underpass is flooded beyond recognition.

(This post is meant to be highly ironic and very cynical, highlighting the only two trivial things that I could find good to say about Lahore - and that too after a lot of soul searching)

• Lahore has nice roads. Yes, well, the roads ARE very clean, well lit, nicely painted, and well paved. Too bad nobody here knows how to drive. I think they're still recovering from the tractor revolution.


• Lahore has more than ONE underpass that doesn't flood at the hint of rain. tee hee.

Another thing I feel I must mention is the distinct lack of awareness in our nothern areas (anything above Multan) about the water shortage in the South. Sure they see it on TV, read it in the news, and hear about it on the radio (AM channels, no doubt), but it still doesn't really hit them the way it should. You'll see water hoses left running, public water taps leaking, fresh water given to roadside greenery (!!! blasphemy!) and no one seems to care. Coming back from Nathia gully earlier this year, I was in a taxi as it went over a lot of water lying on the road apparently left over from rains a few days ago. The taxi driver said "if the weather even thinks about raining, our gutters overflow and our streets fill up with water". I replied saying that that gutter-overflow water is probably what flows through our taps in Karachi. Moral of the story (as everyone keeps missing) is that there's a water crisis in this country. It's not an imaginary problem made by politicians for votes, but is very real. Get with the programme people.