Monday 8 July 2013

The Hidden Charm of Khori Garden

My experience of Khori Garden may be limited but my interest in this dense area of Karachi is immense. Interconnected with Jodia Bazaar and comprising of shops laden with dirt cheap items, it is one of the oldest wholesale markets in Karachi. If we enter from M A Jinnah Road, we head on straight to Murad Khan Road which leads to the Garden from which the name originated. With Marriott Road on the right and Khori Road a.k.a Kitaab Gali on the left, it has plenty to offer should one venture into the exploration of the area. Jodia Bazaar of course deserves a separate blog post with its delightful combination of Spice Market, Chalia Bazaar, Crockery Market and Dry Fruit Market to name a few.
I had no idea what today's blog post will be about till I opened my picture folder and came across a lovely series of photos that we got taken for one of our Reimagining Karachi photo shoots. I will share some of them as soon as I'm done rambling about the wonderful Khori Garden. I can start with its history of course, but I decided that this particular post required more of a personal touch; so I'll start with the first visit of the area. A descent from the car onto the street right where Murad Khan Road meets M A Jinnah Road, brings one to another world. From the cool interior of the air-conditioned car, one might claim to know what Karachi looks like but that would be a very limited perception. Karachi is a city that deserves to be explored on foot. It is only then that one can truly merge oneself with the spirit of Karachi and admire the vibrancy that the denser parts of the city bring with them. Coming back to the first visit, I was greeted with the usual hustle and bustle of the infamous Bunder Road a.k.a. M A Jinnah Road. Upon entering the road leading to the Khori Garden itself, my curiosity took me straight down to the Garden. Tucked in between buildings the gate led to the grounds that surprisingly were not as poorly maintained as I had assumed. The basic structure seemed intact and there seemed to be some greenery after all. It was the fact that the buildings seemed to have propped up all around it, disrupting the scale and pushing the Garden into obscurity that it seems to serve no accessibility or relaxation purpose for the community there.
Once outside, I looked around at the cluster of buildings. A number of balconies had remnants of scriptures from the bygone days, peering through the colourful array of cloth canopies that were tied haphazardly to cover the lane in order to protect the passersby from the scorching heat and the sun rays. A lane turned towards the infamous Kitaab Gali - the booklovers' paradise. A few wheelbarrows laden with a variety of books were the first to catch my eye. Of course they couldn't compete with the piles of books outside the shops that had everything from management books to old copies of bestseller fiction. The buildings across the shops again were mostly hidden by the cloth canopies, a regular feature in such small bazaars.
The encroachments, though causing even more congestion in the already narrow lanes, carried all sorts of wares, from plastic goods to household items and some ambiguous brands of fragrant toiletries. Walking past them I turned turned into Marriott Road, another favourite of mine despite the same issues that the whole area faced - encroachments, loading and unloading of mini pick-up trucks, mismanagement. Yet the whole of Marriott Road oozes a certain charm, with its lovely period buildings and its hidden potential of being able to one day, being turned into a pedestrianized cultural precinct. Marriott Road also boasts of a landmark building - Denso Hall. Although it is only the rear of the building that falls on this road, it is still part of it and gives it a unique identity. 
My first visit was followed by many more, and each time I was able to isolate the area from the noise and congestion and see it in its true nature - a cluster of charming old buildings, crying out silent woes of misfortune and negligence.