Lakshmi building – Stands tall amid falling historic structures

By Hasan Mansoor
Lakshmi Building, once an enchanting five-storey edifice every Karachian was proud to behold and now a smoke-ridden facade on MA Jinnah Road (Bunder Road), was the tallest structure of the city till partition. It was in the mid-fifties when it lost its stature to Qamar House. It stands tall, nonetheless, at times when most historic structures are succumbing to the builders’ ruthless greed.
Then the city saw many high-rises built and got each other replaced. Qamar House succumbed to the height of Mohammadi House for a while until Habib Bank Plaza’s 311-feet high building literally concluded the race in 1963. The Plaza reigned for around four decades as the largest manmade structure in the country until 27-storey MCB Towers finally eclipsed its height, but, undoubtedly, the white and round building is still the most beautiful post-1947 structure of Karachi.

Lakshmi Building, one of Lakshmi Insurance Company’s properties, was huge news for the inhabitants of a small and beautiful town called Karachi over eight decades ago. Its red bricks were not the big deal for the people because the city’s every second or third building was made of that stuff mostly coming from Jaipur. But, what Karachians admired the most was its height, its state-of-the art clock-tower, its location (then) in the middle of the city and, of course, its iron elevator, which was the rare facility then offered by the city’s skyscrapers.

“It was a great sight to visit Lakshmi Building and people would love it like a property of their own,” octogenarian Mohammad Ali, who still lives in a worn-out apartment house along Outram Road in Mithadar, reminisces.
He has some loving memories about good old history pertaining to Lakshmi Building and the rest of Karachi that now sound as fairytales and

myths. “The city roads used actually to be washed every morning, and the great buildings like Lakshmi Towers and the (City) Courts used to be watered down every year by the hoses of the fire department,” says Ali.

But the municipal authorities have forgotten their old schedules and have not washed these buildings for a very long time, which have actually been the hallmarks of Karachi, for around six decades now.
Despite being subjected to fire several times, the latest was two years ago after a blast on an Ashura procession, Lakshmi Building still gives a great look and stands like a king surrounded by the new and shabby structures that are even not worthy of being called as pawns. Its façade still gives a great look but the interiors have seen huge changes.
Its original colour inside the offices and along the corridors of the five storeys has turned asymmetrical and lost its originality. On the fifth storey one finds the door to the roof locked.
“It remains locked most of the time because there is nothing worth witnessing upstairs except refuse and waste items,” says Karim, a peon at one of the offices situated in the building.
The historic escalator still serves its visitors but most of the time it remains out of order due to lack of maintenance. The old manual bells (shaped like teacups) had been fixed beside the escalator’s door at every floor and one would use it to notify to the lift-operator. Some of these bells could still be used but they have become rusty and lost their grandeur now. In fact, the entire iron escalator-mechanism has become rusty and complains of huge neglect it has been meted out.
But, it still houses dozens of shops selling toys, watches, wholesale items etc and is able to gather a great buzz around despite decades-long apathy towards it. In fact, this structure still offers ample lakshmi (wealth) to many. 

Wealth is not everything, for some at least

   By Hasan Mansoor   
The history of Bunder Road, now MA Jinnah Road, would have been different altogether had one man not refused a “lucrative offer” given by his Englishman student some 150 years ago.    Britishers have a history of adjusting themselves to the environs and culture of their conquered regions. After conquering Sindh in 1843, they decided to learn Sindhi.    In Karachi, an angrez (British official), whose name is not known to history, hired Akhund Abdur Rahim, a primary schoolteacher, to learn Sindhi. A few months later, the angrez was able to express himself fluently in Sindhi with a British accent.    “He was thrilled,” Abdul Hameed, great-grandson of Akhund Abdur Rahim, a resident of Lyari, said. “And made a unique offer to his teacher.”     "The angrez got Akhund along on a Victoria and asked his subordinate, riding a horse to get off. “He then turned to the grandpa and asked him to get on the horse,” Hameed said.    Akhund Rahim was confused, staring at his student with probing eyes. “Akhund Saab,” the angrez said, “Please, get on the horse and ride till it stops by itself. The distance that the horse covers will be your property.”    They were standing at a point where now Boulton Market is situated and the horse was bound to gallop eastwards that now ends at Gurumandir.    “What will I do with all that property,” Akhund said, “I don’t want to become a landlord; I am happy with reading, writing and teaching,” he had said.    The Briton was amazed, saying: “Sir, this area is going to become the most expensive in Scinde (Sindh).”    “So what!” said an unimpressed Akhund.    Soon after this incident, still buried under the debris of unknown history, Bunder Road was built and became the economic hub of a city that was to inherit a cosmopolitan culture along the western borders of the subcontinent. The Akhund saved Karachi from succumbing to a single family –his own!    Bunder Road conveniently catered to the needs of a little over 300,000 of Karachi’s population before it became the capital of Pakistan in 1947.    Descendents of people living in the neighbourhood of Akhund Abdur Rahim say he was a saintly man, as their ancestors told them. “My grandpa said Akhund Saheb had the keys to fourth heaven and he used to travel there,” Ahmed Ali, who still lives in a rundown building in congested Mithadar, said.    Akhund’s house was near the famous Madras Hotel. At the time of the partition of India, the Hindu owner of the hotel asked the Akhund’s grandson to take possession of the building.    “He (the owner) even offered him to transfer the ownership rights in his name, but Akhund’s grandson turned down the offer, saying his grandpa’s soul would not be happy if he accepted something that did not belong to him,” said Ahmed Ali.    After his death, Akhund Abdur Rahim was buried in Mewashah cemetery, but now it is difficult to locate his grave and is not easily accessible.

Karachi has Mumbai within!

By Hasan Mansoor   
Before Sindh’s separation from the Bombay Presidency, Karachi was considered to be a replica of Mumbai in many ways, particularly its architecture and markets, as historians put it.    Historians say the British used labour from Mumbai to build a port in Karachi more than a century ago which is evident from the striking resemblance between the dock areas of Karachi and Mumbai. When the British decided to build a port in Karachi, they brought in labour from Mumbai. Probably that accounts for the fact that the dock areas of the two cities look similar.    And there are many places which have lost their original colour but are still named after Bombay (not Mumbai).    Bombay Bazaar is one of the oldest market places in the city and was named so because the traders here had century-old relations with their counterparts in Mumbai. It deals with all sorts of things. One can buy textile goods and sophisticated clothes manufactured in Pakistan. Besides, grocery markets, wholesale markets for cosmetics and food outlets are its main features.    Its most prominent feature, which distinguishes it from the rest of the city markets, is that it is a hub of the “khepias” (carriers who carry out export-import in personal baggage) who take bundles of Pakistani textiles to Mumbai and on their return carry Indian manufactured items that are in high demand in Pakistan, particularly ointments, dry fruits and cosmetics.    Shopkeepers and carriers call it the “done” business.    Shopkeepers in Karachi and Mumbai are well connected for the business. The Karachi carriers are given contacts of the Mumbai shopkeepers for the sale of Pakistani goods and a similar arrangement is for the Mumbai shopkeepers who give contacts of their Pakistani counterparts to the Indian carriers.    Whenever a “cold war” resumes between the two countries this business gets affected, but it gets boost when the enemies opt to get closer.    Bombay Hotel is situated in the heart of the city at McLeod Road. Built before the Partition, the building has become a landmark for the city. It has an old and less-impressive structure, but it housed a number of regional newspapers, magazines and small publishing houses. It has been sold to a builder and may become history any time!    Karachi has also a Bombay Town in its North Nazimabad area where a large number of people originally belonging to Mumbai live. There is a Kokan Society named after a town near Mumbai. It is inhabited by the people hailing from that part of India.    The old and famous Bombay Dyeing on Napier Road has lost its charm and also most of its clientele.    Late Omar Kureishi, a world-acclaimed sports writer who grew up in Mumbai and moved to Karachi, once said: “Both cities have a strong cosmopolitan character, despite Karachi having a vast desert hinterland and being ridden by sectarian violence. So in this sisterly relationship between the two cities, Mumbai has become the dominant sibling.”    It is not just sectarian violence to mourn. Almost 1,000 people have been violently killed so far this year on ethnic grounds. July has been the most violent month so far since 1995, which saw 324 people killed. All poor and innocent! August 2011

Tales of Aurangi’s hidden spring and Karachi’s kotiro

By Hasan Mansoor   
Some amateur archaeologists exploring the fast vanishing traces of ancient Sindh have failed to find a mountain spring that was once discovered by British officials before partition of the subcontinent in the city’s western hills that, at that time, was part of an area called Deh Aurangi or Audangi, now spelt as Orangi.    “Someone has told me that it is still there, but has become part of some private property,” a traveller and explorer says.    In their writings British officials and noted archaeologists, including Pithawala, Majumdar and Carter, had cited many wonderful traces and evidences of ancient life in these hills that have now become one of Karachi’s most populous and violent areas and is inhabited by around a million souls.    In their decades-old writings the British explorers reported about traces of prehistoric times in the city’s mountainous western part, which even included evidences of stone-age human life.    Some classic English writings have also cited the presence of a spring there since times immemorial. Local archaeologists and anthropologists had been reckoning such writings merely based on imagination until recently.    But someone informed Badar Abro, an amateur archaeologist and traveller, that the spring really existed and was part of one of thousands of houses dotting the thickly-populated area now called Orangi.    “An enthusiast like me is always in the hunt for something new, newly found or unexplored and this information had really excited me,” Abro says.    But no one, including Abro, has yet found the actual location of the legendary spring. But, Abro says, this spring is not the only historic location that has been ruined by the city’s unplanned growth and discusses many more which are no longer in sight now.    In this connection Abro terms the disappearance of kotiro (houses of pre-Islamic Sindhis made up of huge blocks carved out from the hills and mountains).    “I have read about their presence in abundance in Sindh and archaeologists found plenty of kotiro (a Sindhi word meaning a little fort) in the suburbs of then sparsely populated little Karachi,” Abro says.    According to him, people of ancient Sindh would get stones from mountains, carve large blocks and use them with fine stone pitching to establish their kotiro. Each block was that much heavier that four to five people could carry it.    “I visited various locations to find such kotiro, but now they are no more extant,” Abro says.    Some experts say there was a kotiro with traces of a temple near Hawkesbay and it has also vanished now. Archaeologists generally believe the mafias involved in illegal breaking of stones from mountains have also played a monstrous role to ruin history.    They saw fine stones present everywhere with no one there to stop them from destroying history and they literally destroyed history,” says an expert.