Afrah Jamal

Published in Daily Times / Saturday, January 01, 2011 By Afrah Jamal “O Lord! We have crash-landed !” was Hafeez Khan’s first reaction when his aircraft touched down in what appeared to him the middle of nowhere. The plane was one that could land on unprepared surfaces, which is just as well since there was nothing remotely resembling a proper airstrip at that time in Abu Dhabi. Awaiting him was a king with a dream, a desert starved for greenery, and a dusty blueprint of a future that appeared far-fetched. Today, three things strike first time visitors to the beautiful city of Al Ain — tree lined avenues, roundabouts and the absence of tall buildings. Al Ain, which is the other city in the state of Abu Dhabi, in the past bore an unfortunate resemblance to a gigantic sandbox. It was not that long ago and Abu Dhabi state had just struck it rich with black gold. But no one could mistake any part of the Trucial state of the 1960s for the ‘ garden city of the Gulf ’. Khan may hav...

PUBLISHED in The POST / Aug 22, 2007 By : Afrah Jamal ‘Don’t go back yet! I saw water on the roads’ , cautioned a well meaning Arab friend as I prepared to return from Al AIN UAE. Admitting that the continuing presence of water on Karachi roads leftover from a 2 day old rain is as natural to us as its absence is to them would have bewildered him further. No matter how stifling the weather gets, when people gaze at rain clouds with dismay, you know that you have arrived in Karachi. Always a high risk area for cyclones and tsunamis, this City used to get a glimpse of the Monsoon now and then but the changing weather patterns account for the increasing frequency of rains. The danger of cyclones is age old and the fear of rain may be recent but it is not irrational as heavy rains were such a rarity that people could quote the year when it last occurred. The regular albeit unwelcome appearance of Venetian roads has of course changed their perception of ‘no rain’ in Karachi. If rai...