Karsaz and the Bride The main Karsaz road in Karachi derives its name from the naval training facility located along its stretch, the gate of which forms one of the city’s landmarks. However, unlike its name, the road does not inherit its history from the naval forces; a history that legend now categories as a ghost tale. Long ago, from a time when Karachi was a small city equivalent in size to the area covered by the city centre today, investors had explored the advantages of the absence of a green belt and started building houses on the outskirts. Like today, marriage lawns were a lucrative business in the times this tale was born. The outskirts at the time were big fields lacking any construction and therefore providing the landscape for marriage lawns. It was one such marriage lawn on the outskirts where a wedding took place at the time our story starts. The newly wed couple was making its way back to the house located near Lal Kothi on Shahra-e-Faisal (one of the two exists now when it didn’t then; and one existed then and doesn’t now, as the vicissitudes of time would have it). Weddings in those days ended real late and consequently the driver was high on sleep deprivation. The only clear route to the destination lay through the main Karsaz road. The giddigy couple was unaware of the consequences a drag, late night wedding would have on an all-day-working-hard-with-no-sleep driver as he rushed the car at high speed and rammed it straight into a pole; dying on the spot and avoiding any embarrassment at his sloppy behavior. Though the crash and the screams are hard to reproduce, envision a scene with gore and blood spread all over; the crackling flames and the typical lone wheel cap emerging out of the debris to clatter noisily to its rest providing the only eulogy for the surely deceased couple. It was from this scene, just as the camera was about to roll away to focus on a cat that had idled up to provide the necessary onlooker support, that a figure emerged from the burning debris. It was clad in red. Seriously. Clad in a red dress, the severely injured bride managed to pull herself out of the car wreck thank ful that the blood matched her dress and hence the stains were not noticeable. However this relief was only temporary as she found her groom counting his last breath.(which the author finds a rather sad use of suddenly finite mental resources as everyone knows it would always amount to 1) Desperate to save him she went to the main road and shouted for help, but at this hour there were minimal passer bys and the cat was of little use. She tried and tried but couldn’t save her husband and in those final moments as the tears trickled down her cheeks, the life inside of her was claimed by Death.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 10:39:39 +0000
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