 My mother first visited Karachi when she was about ten years old. Her father was posted as a Forest Officer with headquarters at Muzzaffarabad. She remembered occasionally going to Karachi with her parents on excursions to buy clothes, knickknacks, eats and dry fruits.The Sindhi embroidery which she still prides herself in executing was also picked up by her in Karachi. She also remembers coming there with her grandmother. The family was taking the grandmother on a pilgrimage which started in Srinagar in Kashmir and had continued through Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi and so on. In Karachi they had visited the Shiva Temple at Clifton and the Gurudwara - Guru Mandir Sahib. The visit had finally ended at Haridwar, where grandma had a dip in the Holy Ganges, which was the ultimate objective of the journey. This visit has been duly recorded by Kashmiri Panda in Haridwar and was verified by me and my husband in 1981, on our first visit together to
Haridwar.
Karachi, truly the soul of the Sindh province, is a thriving business centre quite comparable to Bombay. Before independence it was the home town of Sindhis who had to migrate to different parts of the globe. Today they are considered the most successful business men in the world. I have been longing to make a visit to Karachi and acquaint myself with the great culture of Sindh for many years; but visiting Pakistan has not been a simple matter since partition. The opportunity to visit Karachi in connection with the Regional Workshop on Rural Development and Family Planning was exactly the kind of chance I had wanted. The visit was full of surprises. I met a whole lot of interesting people and experienced plenty of courtesies, love and affection.
At the airport, Mr. Abid from the M.T.I. (Management Training Institute), the venue of the conference, was waiting for me and without much formality whisked me away to the Hotel Beach Luxury. It is one of the older hotels in Karachi, established around 1947 and owned by a Parsi family known as Avarees. The Avarees are very respectable family at Karachi and own a number of establishments, including the famous Avari Hotel. One of the family members Behram Avaree has been a distinguished member of Legislation representing minorities. Beach Luxury Hotel is located right on the backwaters of Karachi, next to a bridge which goes right across the backwaters. It had a large lawn by the backwaters to hold the parties and gave us plenty of sea food to eat.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a large mangrove forest, spread for miles, along the backwater. Not many people were aware of the uniqueness of these mangrove forests, which is also a distinct feature of Pichavaram in Tamilnadu and Sunder Bans in West Bengal. I could sense that the destruction of the forest was taking place as was the case in Pichavaram. Still there is a lot left, which needs to be preserved and protected. During my visit I did try to create among the journalists whom I met some awareness of the importance of a mangrove forest. As soon as I reached the Hotel, I got a call to my room from the housekeeper, Sayyeda Begum. She wanted to see me immediately. I understood from the reception staff that she had been anxiously waiting for the 'Indian delegate' to the conference. When she learnt that the Indian delegate was from Madras she was terribly excited. As it turned out later her family was originally from Madras.
Seyyada Begum, a charming woman in her thirties, soon came up to my room with a bouquet of flowers and inquired about Madras, the city of her ancestors, with great affection. She invited me to her house for tea and appointed herself my local hostess. She said that her mother would have loved to meet me but she was no more. From then on, I knew I was the most important person in that Hotel. My stay there was made most homely and comfortable by her and the other staff. My friends in Madras had arranged for Mr. Ayub Sait, formerly of Sait Colony at Madras, (incidentally his grandfather was the founder of the Sait Colony) to be my friend, philosopher and local guardian. The Saits were a lovely family of two brothers and two sisters in Pakistan, while one brother remaining in India and the rest of them being in other parts of the world. Due to the kind attention of Ayub Sait and his sisters I felt totally at home in Karachi. My exploration of Karachi, in their company, started as soon as I finished receiving flowers from Sayyeda Begum. I was being handed over from one ex-Madrasi to another
ex-Madrasi.
(To be continued - next week) 
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