Heatwave

“Hope Shahdadpur would not be this hot,” I thought as I entered the bus along with my friend Rafiq at a bus terminal at Al-Azam Square in Karachi.

We never knew then that God was not going to be kind of us. It was a sizzling day of May 13 and we were going to attend our friend’s wedding.

We could see the sun blazing on the right hand side that too at 7 o’clock in the morning as the bus was moving towards the north.

From Al-Azam Square to Ayesha Mazil and from there to Sohrab Goth via Water Pump the bus ultimately touched the Super Highway.

No traffic rules could be witnessed even on the Highway just like Karachi’s ‘Formula One tracks’. Surpassing buses, trucks, private cars, bikes and donkey carts, sometimes from the right and the other times from the left, we reached Hyderabad.

I could feel little drops of sweat on my forehead despite the air-conditioner.

The bus turned right towards the East and from there our bumpy ride started as the road was unconstructed.

We took a sigh of relief as we landed at Tando Adam and got down from the bus.

“Oh, look at the Rahila Laboratory,” I told me friend surprisingly. We could see several shops and some medical laboratories at the roundabout. Rahila Laboratory is a famous laboratory in Karachi.

We took tea at a roadside shop and jumped into another bus which was to take us to our destination.

To our bad luck the bus was not air-conditioned. I could literally feel the additional heat as the engine lied in between me and the driver. This extra heat was more than enough to roast me.

And when we reached Shahdadpur we were told that out ‘misery’ was yet not over as we had to take a donkey cart to reach Bilal Garden which was the wedding venue.

The wedding was unique from several aspects. All of a sudden people sitting on the left hand side of the stage stood up and started eating their lunch while the ones sitting on the right did not move an inch.

We kept watching and observing everything with curiosity. Then all of a sudden the ‘fed’ guests left the venue.

People like us sitting on the right were not that lucky and found their lunch after a while.

Sitting under a tent on a day when mercury was touching 45 degree Celsius was a Herculean task.

I had a plan to stay overnight but the hot weather was enough to force our return to Karachi the same day.