A VISIT TO KARACHI’S LITERARY HEAVEN

A well-mannered placement of economically-available paperbacks

Last Saturday, I happened to convince my friend RF to accompany me during a random, unexpected, and haphazardly-planned visit to Regal (Saddar) the only place in Karachi (Pakistan) where you can buy three 400-pages-long paperbacks merely for 100 rupees. Where else can you enjoy such a royal discount, eh? I’ve heard a lot about these jewels scattered along a singular pathway somewhere in Saddar but I could never collect the courage needed to venture a trip to the powerhouse of Pakistan, the markets that collectively paid more tax than the entire population of Lahore. So, on the blessed occasion of my 24^th birthday, I felt as if the time had come to view these beautifully tossed-away booklets with my humble eyes.

You won't find cheap editions on stalls rather they are gracefully thrown out on the road

My friend picked me up at noon and, after roaming around Urdu Bazaar and Burns Road, we finally reached the Holy Land every literary pilgrim and Pakistani bibliophile cherishes with his/her deepest adoration. Our motorcycle was parked safely at the mouth of the hallway of manuscripts and, with a shaky heart that was filled with serenity mixed with a sense of respect for the dispersed knowledge all around us, we entered this jannah of Kitabistan. If you wish to learn how we searched for our destination online, just go to Google Maps and search for “Old Books Street Sunday Bazaar” and the first link to pop up shall show you how to book your next luxury trip to this piece of heaven. We arrived from the opening that lied between Prince Electronics and Mercury Electronics. The shops were all closed on Sunday, of course! The usually-busy pavements were empty save for queues of books all lined up neatly for every passerby and onlooker.

My friend has a better phone but all he took were pictures of either me or of Jinnah's graveyard

This road, I am now finding out while I jubilantly type these merry words, is called Sohrab Katrak Road. It lies between Shahrah-e-Liaquat and Clarke Street. That Sunday was a quiet one, an unusual sight to observe in Karachi on normal days. I guessed if it was the result of a COVID-infected metropolis. But then I realized that most of my countrymen were still convinced that the pandemic was a mere hoax created to frighten the firm believers and compel them to take a male-impotency Gates-manufactured Dajjal-sponsored vaccine. But it was a glad sight to witness a silent Karachi with few buses, cars, and motorcycles. I wished – and don’t hate me after this – for the pandemic to last at least a decade.

A collage of three different stalls I paid homage to

The first guy we encountered gave us the best deal. I bought some books I never intended to read just to add into my collection. In only 200 rupees, I bought three rather good-smelling editions, including an autobiography of Lauren Booth, the British woman whose conversion to Islam in Iran shook the western world. I have always thought she was a Shia Muslim but a glance at some pages told me she had chosen to become a Sunni Muslim. She became rather famous for being the sister-in-law of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby wasn’t a bad purchase either. But my eyes were set on Hawking’s four editions I haven’t bought yet but they could cost me 150 rupees apiece so I remorsefully abandoned my dreams to own some excellent books penned down by the most important scientific mind of the late 20^th century.

Some cats I found that seemed intellectual enough to live among such remarkable manuscripts

While I was passing by some old editions to look for something charming, I heard a bookseller – an ancient mullah-looking gentleman who was lying on the ground with winter clothes clad around his thin body – speaking in a rather loud voice with some two grown-up Deobandi-looking chaps on a subject that is near to my heart: the Science of Hadiths. He was telling them – and it didn’t look like a sales pitch because he was not pleased with his potential customers – how a weak hadith is discarded by the scholars and only the narrations found in the Six Books (Sihah-e-Sittah) contained authentic sayings of the Prophet. He told me when I approached him that cheap editions were to be found on the ground and one could only find relatively expensive versions piled neatly on stalls. That was a conclusion my observation had agreed with.

Look at these Islamic beauties! I couldn't take my eyes off them

‘The secret of finding good ones lies in acute observation’, I tactfully confided in my friend RF who congenially listened to my gibberish. ‘You take a book that checks for three things. These things indicate if the book is in any good condition to purchase.’ With a few polite exclamations, he expressed his readiness to listen more. ‘You see’, I began, ‘First, you pick up a thick one.’ I grabbed a fiction named Blue Dress Girl that was thicker than the other smelly editions in the pile. ‘Then you smell it’, I said as I buried my face in the book’s ample bosom and inhaled like a drug addict. ‘If it smells nice, it means the book’s fit for your collection otherwise it belongs in rubbish.’ My friend laughed. ‘Lastly, check for dampness’, I searched for rotten editions to compare them with my selection. ‘These tricks helped me rob many bookkeepers at KUBF and KIBF’, I referenced to how I and my Applied Physics friend AAZ had robbed guys at the Karachi University and the Karachi International Book Fairs.

Would you believe that I swam in this pool to find three books that collectively costed me 100 PKR?

There were a lot of Islamic manuscripts there and a book about the history of gay men in the world. My cousin K scolded me for not buying him that one. ‘You could’ve gotten yourself the deal of a lifetime, mate’, he sorrowfully remarked. I found a guy buying Hidayah al-Shiyah and it reminded me of a unique fact about this street. You could buy anything here! There was no discrimination in this heaven. I saw a bunch of anti-Shia books and editions that were filled with discriminatory stuff about Shia Muslims. I also saw books written by Shia scholars. You can find the picture of one Taudih al-Masa'il by an estemeemed Persian Ayatollah above. There were some versions of the Bible too (go and see the cat one again!). There sure is a lot of hatred against “heretical” Muslims and Ahmadis in Pakistan though! Go and read more about persecution of minorities in my beloved country. A Google search would suffice your curiosity!

There's a reason why this image isn't straight!

I bought a large book regarding English history that was worth more than $6 in hardcover from Amazon in just 100 rupees. After spending half an hour searching to complete my pair of 10-rupees-per-unit gloves, I found my way back to my house where the family was waiting with numerous delicacies to celebrate my birth anniversary.

Yes, I bought these three books for less than a 100 PKR, in fact!