City Landmarks – A Park over the Hill

One of my earliest memories of Karachi are that of Hill Park. I often visited it with my family during our short trips to Karachi from interior Sindh and I distinctly remember the gentle breeze, alien and very much welcome to visitors from outside Karachi. I remember it being clean and friendly. I also remember seeing a lot more families than I have witnessed in last few visits to Hill Park. I could actually count number of women that I saw in the last trip. In Aug 2018, right after Eid.

Karachi is at the footsteps of Kirthar range which meets Arabian Sea at Cape Monze. Karachi’s landscape would not have been different from other areas around the range had it not benefited from fresh water supply from Keenjar lake and Hub river. Water makes the difference. The essential ingredient for sustaining life. There was no water in the small lake inside Hill Park when I went there last. The flock of ducks in the lake, which is one of the biggest attraction for kids were restricted to a small filthy basin with little water and a lot of garbage, shopping bags. There were more men. Sitting in groups on benches in Shalwar Kameez doing nothing in particular. I could see more garbage in distance in front of the cafes. It appeared that all disposables plates and glasses were thrown right in front of the food stalls. We moved forward and reached abandoned Mairaj Park. You would perhaps remember it from your childhood. A new amusement park on the far end of Park has replaced Mairaj Park. I could see old rides and rusting billboards but there was no way in. The entry has been blocked on purpose with debris. I saw a door which was locked and some men inside the compund. We decided not to explore the possibility of going in.

Instead we went to the viewing deck where a lot of people were looking at the city. There were few families.There were few kids who were enjoying rides on the small area on the left to the deck. We decided to take a walk and saw group of boys posing for photos. There were three men in front of us, walking leisurely holding hands. One of them carried a small radio which played a love song. A little further we saw a family sitting on a mat over green patch with all picnic goodies. They looked out of place.

Karachi is a city of migrants. We chose this city because it offered something different from our ancestral towns. Hope we remember it why we chose Karachi in the first place.