Streets
Streets are called arteries of a city, but arteries are
hidden from the eye. Streets may be better understood as the rivers and canals
of a city, ever-flowing, with its rapids, its meandering lanes, it’s teeming
and varied life along its edges.
There are streets,
roads, avenues, lanes or in Urdu, shahrah, sarak, rasta, gali, each with its
own personality. Blogger Julia H
suggests roads represent journeys to or from one place to another, while
streets draw attention to what is happening in them. Streets are places of
social interaction, neighbourhoods and commerce.
Both streets and roads, have inspired books, poems, films
and songs. The road trip is a much
repeated theme in American culture epitomised by the film Thelma and Louise. The
road is personalized by songs such as John
Denver’s Take me Home Country Road and Ray
Charles’ Hit the Road Jack; or become a
central motif, from Bob Hope and Bing Crosby’s seven
Road to… comedy adventures film series, to the grim dystopia of Mad Max Fury Road.
Jack Kerouac’s Stream of Consciousness novel On the Road
became iconic, as did Muhammad Asad’s Road Makkah. Robert Frost’s poem, the
Road not Taken, depicts life’s dilemmas symbolized by crossroads.
While the road in western culture is full of possibilities
for a new life, and streets create a sense of belonging, in Urdu literature, rasta
is often a symbol of difficulty and pain.
Qaisar ul Jafri writes Rasta dekh ke chal varna ye din aise
hain gunge patthar bhi sawal karenge tujhse
(Be careful as you walk down the street otherwise a day will
come when even the mute stones will raise questions)
Mustafa Zaidi’s well know couplet, Inhin pattharon pe chal
kar agar aa sako to aao Mire ghar ke raste mein koi kahkashan nahin hai. ( Come
if you can walk on these rough stones. There are no stars to light the road to
my house).
Much poetry written on buses and trucks in Pakistan reflects
the loneliness and dangers of the road. Road
se dosti safar se yaari, Dekh pyaray zindgi hamari (“I befriend the road, my
companion is the journey. See the life I lead, my dear friend )
The Grand Truck Road or Sarak e Azam, expanded by Sher Shah
Suri in the 16th C from Kabul to Teknaf on the border with Myanmar,
had serais or inns for travelers, wells and gardens. Not even the motorways of
today can boast so much care for travelers.
By contrast, the majority of streets in Pakistan are, as
they say, full of zehmat (discomfort) rather than rehmat (comfort). Open manholes, potholes, piles of rubble
spilt over from construction sites, thela cart sellers and of course double and
triple parked cars are more the norm.
Yet these streets are so much more than laid tarmac. They also hold the life of a city. Straight
roads become winding streets with bazaars, shops, dhabas and Friday worshippers
spilling onto the pavements and roads. Neighbourhood boys socialize at street
corners. The homeless quietly seek a safe spot for the night, as office workers
rush home to their flats or mansions. Young Afghan paper pickers keep their
eyes on the ground in search of discarded pan wrappers and burger boxes. It is on the street that the rich encounter
the poor, even if only through the windows of air conditioned SUVs.
The crumbling heritage buildings, and street names are
witness to a lost past. In Karachi’s Ranchore Line, Ali Budha Street is flanked
by Solomon David Road and Shivdas Road.
The bustling streets transform as night falls and
restaurants come to life and workplaces recede into silence. The night streets and lanes or galis, especially
in Ramzan, become playing fields for night cricket. Or more ominously, as Raymond Chandler puts
it, “The streets were dark with something more than night”.
Streets were transformed into eerie emptiness during the curfews
of the past or the 90s when dead bodies were dumped in the middle of the
streets. To some, a city’s distress is an opportunity. John D. Rockefeller said
“The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.”
Streets are often used as a metaphor for spiritual journeys.
Sufi masters are called Murshid e rah, or Mashal e rah (teacher or light of the
road) Those who lose their way become rah se berah.
Durriya Kazi
Karachi
April 25, 2022
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