The unusual rain these days in Karachi have broken all records for the month of August. Life has come to a halt, and coming so soon after the lifting of the lockdown due to Covid-19, businessmen will suffer more losses. The country's economy, already beyond immediate repair, will be further affected. Perhaps the Almighty inflicts such suffering upon those people who elect or choose stupid, immoral and shameless liars to rule over them.
Middle-aged people nowadays may have heard from their elders the havoc wreaked upon Karachi on 30th June 1977. That was the day a full nine inches of rain flooded Karachi. A relative of mine had to leave his Corolla near the Lyari River and somehow managed to reach his home hours later. Next day his car was found far away from where he had left it. There were water snakes and other creatures in the car.
The Malir River claimed many lives. Two unlucky chaps in a Mercedes car were drowned. There must have been more than a hundred cows, buffaloes and goats that were swept into the sea. The wall of the National Refinery collapsed, hundreds of bitumen-filled drum were lost, many cars were submerged and of course the Nursery market was also flooded (as it happened yesterday).
I remember the mark left on the wall of Dr. Sultan Akhter's clinic. The water had reached a level of three feet, and as his clinic was two feet above street level, teenagers and children could have drowned had they been trapped in the water.
Today is the third day I've not been able to go to my workplace. I wonder how those who make their money gambling in the Stock Exchange went there these past three days.
I remember Mr. Jinnah once saying, "Karachi clouds have no water in them". He wouldn't have said it were he alive today.
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