Sunday, September 23, 2007

More from Pakistan

I am still on my trip to Pakistan and am currently in Karachi, I will be leaving for Lahore in a couple of days then i will have more access to a computer and internet and will post pictures. This is my first ramadan in Pakistan after many years and here is some of my reaction to things in Karachi this ramadan, some heard and some observed.

  1. Pakistan has become more and more of a place where people show off their "standing" in society, ramadan brings an oppertunity for a lot of people to throw, big well catered Iftar parties for people they know, so you witness an obscence amount of money spent to entertain guests in the guise of ramadan.
  2. Crime apparently increases during ramadan in Pakistan, while people are having iftar parties at their friends houses, others get a free hand in their houses to come steal and rob houses.
  3. I have also noticed that during the tarabi times the mosques are empty and people go for tarabis to houses of the affluent so that they can say they offered tarabi at so and sos house. I have the privelage of seeing an empty mosque 20 yards away from someones house who had tarabi arrangements in their house including a kid you not "Valet" service.

I know most of this is negative and a lot has changed from the last time I had ramadan in Pakistan, but there is a lot of positives too, you also see people offering iftar to hundreds of poor, you see gift baskets available for charity. Through this dark cloud you can still see the sun trying to shine its way through, may Allah give us strength to serve him and his people, to think of those less fortunate then ourselves and to thank him for all his blessings. Ameen.

3 comments:

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Boo! said...

Hmmm... the valet parking taravih service is definitely new. I don't recall anythin such while I was around (and that was less than 2 years ago).

However, as you said, there are also people trying to uphold the true spirit of the month. Let's hope their numbers continue to grow as well.

Anonymous said...

ayy you forgot high profile sehri parties :P

anyways.. hv fun!