Meet the DJs, dancers and food lovers of Lyari

If you forget the ongoing gang wars for a second, Lyari is a place for colour­ful events.

KARACHI: A born and bred Lyariite, Faiz Umrani says that he could never choose to live anywhere but in his “mini-Pakistan”.

“I was born in Lyari. For me, this is the nicest area because I have fun here. That’s it,” he says while speaking in glowing terms of a town which, for him, is a great melting pot of ethnicities, religions and cultures.

Whether it is a football game, a dance routine or a boxing match, people of Lyari are always ready to make the event as energetic and colourful as possible, he adds. Which is why, life, for Umrani, doesn’t get much better than the one he is living at the moment.

While the town is often associated with gang wars and poverty, Umrani paints it as a locality rich with its own culture, cuisine and musical traditions. This is how he says he sees it and how he wishes the world to see it. Which is why, when he was asked to host a documentary on the “Colours of Lyari”, Umrani felt he was capable of showing people the real Lyari.

A new day begins

For the residents of the area, who are mostly Baloch, the day does not begin without a traditional breakfast. Imrani heads towards a kiosk run by Amma. The elderly woman is stationed outside a school and is busy behind a frying pan, serving piping hot pakoras, chillies and bhajias with a greeting in Balochi.

Umrani is eager to spread the word about Amma’s cooking. “I want all of you to come and have this breakfast in Lyari,” he gushes. “Amma makes it very tasty.” He samples from the fry-up before heading out towards the Gul Noor Grammar School, where he is employed as a teacher. Although he is an aspiring model and actor, Umrani says that he loves his current job. He described his students as intelligent, funny and sharp, with a lot of potential to study further.

The art of relaxation

When he is not teaching or playing a game of football, Umrani likes to hang out with his friends, an eclectic mix of boxers, dancers and students, who live in the area and share his enthusiasm for everything that happens there.

Among these are some dancers from the Sheedi community, who, according to Umrani, practice hip-hop routines to music that blares out from the top of a building. “[Dance] is the colour of Lyari,” he says as he greets Mohammed Siddique, a DJ who is known in the Lyari circles as Fifty Cent.

Siddique, who has been dancing for seven years, is inspired by Michael Jackson. “I like how he dances. We all mourned for three days when he died,” he says. Although Siddique and his group of dancers currently practice the art as a hobby, they hoped to become successful as professional dancers some day.

A sporting lot

A game of spirit and resilience, boxing is as popular a sport  as football with the Lyariites. While the rest of the country cheers on national cricketers, Lyari is proud of its boxers. To highlight this, Umrani heads towards the Muslim Azad stadium, where Sabir Baloch, a national boxing champion, runs a training centre for young athletes. Baloch, who held his title from 1990 to 1995, also represented Pakistan at the South Asian Games as well as the boxing tournaments in Dubai.

“Lyari is sometimes called the Cuba of Pakistan,” says Baloch. “If there is any sport as popular as football in Lyari, it is boxing. People watch it and encourage their children to participate.”

The melting pot

Before Lyari became known for its gang wars, Umrani claims that the area was one of the most peaceful places in Karachi. Despite the escalating crime rate, the tradition of communal harmony remains unchanged.

Umrani visits Dhanaji, a Hindu, during the annual Holi festival. A lifelong resident of Lyari, Dhanaji says that he cannot recall a single incident of hostility between the Hindus and Muslims in the area.

“I was born and raised here. I have never faced any restrictions on celebrating my religious festivals,” he says. “I am given every kind of support from my Muslim, Christian and Sikh friends. We celebrate all our festivals together.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2010.