Road trip to Thar

Stepping out of the confines of Karachi last weekend, I ventured into the wild desert of Thar. On my road trip to Tharparkar, I saw a picture very different from that which I had imagined. It was a massive eye-opener for a person who has always wanted to make the trip, but so far had been unable to do so.

On the road I saw a couple of unmarked graves, and a little while later, beds of sunflowers blooming in the villages, leading towards Thar. Since it was daytime, I almost missed out on the fact that there were no streetlights aligning the road, and could well imagine the pitch-darkness gripping the route during the night. No wonder accidents are so common!

The road that wound its way into the desert was more of a lane than a main road. What I saw appeared profound and heart-felt to me even though it may seem innocuous to others — animals looking for food, a donkey standing aimlessly on the road, camels and goats stretching their legs up a wild tree, munching away on the leaves. It was here that I found humans and all animals alike — except for the cows (which seemed healthy) — to be physically weak, their bodies looking malnourished.

I saw the smiling faces of Thari kids and the sounds of the footsteps of an approaching Thari woman, walking briskly. The men glare at you, as if you are someone from another land.

Entire villages of womenfolk step out to fetch the water and do the house chores during daytime. Men seem idle, sitting on a charpoy or at the local chai dhaba. Old matriarchs have a special place in the family; they are welcoming and willing to share their tales, to be followed by the younger lasses.

Considering that the residents of Thar are sitting on a virtual gold mine, where coal deposits have been found and where China clay has originated from, it’s very strange that the local people don’t appear to be taking a more active role in participating in these projects. This seems even more strange when we see people belonging to Thar working hard to earn their living in other parts of the country, including in Karachi; so why aren’t they working in the same way in their own hometown? For the various projects that have been started in Thar, most workers are said to be cheap labour coming in from Punjab. One wonders why this is so. There is a need for the people of Thar to grasp these opportunities.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2016.