Udta Karachi

The bigger problem is authorities’ neglect towards open availability of drugs in several areas of the city

Did you like Udta Punjab? Shahid Kapoor was once again phenomenal, right? Oh, did you notice the new Punjabi dude Diljit Dosanjh with Kareena Kapoor? Aalia Bhatt’s acting was good, too. But apart from all this, did you actually notice what it was that the movie was trying to say?

If you are a Karachiite, then the problem highlighted in the movie would have felt a little less alien to you.

When you hear names like Shireen Jinnah, Kati Pahari, Shanti Nagar— yes, ‘that’ part of Defence — Sultanabad, Purani Sabzi Mandi, Ghaas Mandi, Mowach Goth, Al-Asif and so on, a bell might ring in your head.

These areas may be famous for a number of other reasons, but there is one specific category under which all of these places fall — the availability of charas.

Now this may seem like a speculative piece of writing where it may be assumed that I, the author, have never been to these places and never seen business being carried out, but the fact is that I have been there and seen it all.

Is this a confession? No, this is more of a plea than anything else. The movie’s main protagonist forced a fight against drugs because his brother was affected. I see people smoking a ‘joint’ and getting high. I see a lot of close friends engaging in this ‘leisurely activity’ because they don’t have anything better to do. But I ask: to what end? Even if we keep aside legal issues, the open availability of drugs and the problem of our youth getting ‘wasted’ for no good reason, the bigger problem is the authorities’ neglect towards this issue.

If you look closely, this problem has a very simple solution. Provide your youth with alternate, easy-to-access recreational facilities. Basketball hoops in parks and more importantly, parks with small football fields as well as tracks for jogging.

For the authorities: your youth is in the wrong hands. To my friends: I smoke too, but let us keep it to that and not try things which might hurt us more than we can imagine.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2016.