Share this story!            

Noodles, chips and biscuits make the main course for hostel-dwellers

By Maliha Rehman and Uroos Ahmed

KARACHI: Ever since Benazir Bhutto’s death, college student Aslam, who lives away from family, has been surviving on a diet consisting mainly of instant noodles. During the three-day mourning period that all shops and restaurants in Karachi remained closed, Aslam wasn’t able to have a single proper meal.
“I am a university student but my parents live in Lahore,” he explains. “For the past one year, I have been living independently in an apartment in Clifton. I usually eat out and hardly keep any food at home. I even buy items like bread, eggs and milk on a day-to-day basis, depending on what I feel like eating.” Needless to say, Aslam was completely unprepared when Benazir Bhutto died and all he had in stock at home were packets of instant noodles and a few crackers.
“I did manage to buy a few food items from a nearby general store but even there, the choice was quite restricted as only a few items were available. All the shops are apparently running low on stock due to the closure of petrol pumps and the imminent threat of vandalism,” he said.
Other students like Aslam, who buy their groceries on a daily basis are facing problems not just in obtaining their daily rations but also due to the increased prices of products. “We are students and live on fixed budgets,” complains Aslam’s neighbor, Sajid, who studies at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and lives away from home independently, like Aslam. “It has been difficult enough buying basic commodities like bread, eggs and yogurt. Furthermore, shopkeepers have increased the prices of goods. Sugar is now being sold at an astronomical price of Rs 100 per kg. A simple calling card that has a standard, fixed price of Rs 100 is now being sold at Rs 150. We can’t afford to stay within our budgets given such unreasonable price hikes.”
Shafaq Mirza, a medical student who lives on-campus, said that food had not been an issue so far because the hostel was stocked for a month or so and because many people had gone away for vacations. “The water situation, however, has been horrible. We don’t get sufficient amount of water as it is and now, we have had to be extra careful not to waste it.”
Another medical student Sohail Yasin stayed back during the vacations, as there were a lot of weddings he had to attend in Karachi. “I wasn’t able to go back to Saudi Arabia for Eid and since I got back after the summers, I have not seen my family. They were coming down for a family wedding, so I was staying with them and only came back to the hostel to pick up a few things before the mehndi when I got stuck here as the roads were all jammed and riots broke out.” Since then, he has not been able to commute back to his cousin’s house in Defence.
“I had to take the risk of going out, looking for an ATM and finding food. But, I couldn’t find a single working ATM because of the vandalism, but thankfully the small shops are still functional with the shutters down,” Sohail said.
Private hostels that Daily Times spoke to haven’t had it any better.
Shariq Mir, who lives in the hostel in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, said that commuting in the area had already been difficult because of the construction going on in the area but since Friday, they had been completely homebound. “We have to get our own food as this is not a college hostel and we are all working class people living away from home. We finally got hold of the number of a nearby “dhaba” and the owner was kind enough to provide us with food and small utilities once a day.”
The women’s hostel in Clifton however has been hit worse as many residents require medicines that are only available in big medical stores, which have remained closed since Friday.
“It has been a rough three days without any nurses as they can’t get here and this home essentially looks after elderly women,” said the warden.
Mrs Mushtaq, 67, said her granddaughter had brought her all the supplies she thought were necessary. “But I really hope this craziness stops as it is wreaking havoc with everyone’s lives.”
An extremely irked resident Mr Kasuri, 72, felt that the elderly needed to live in peace. “We are old and all we need is a comfortable old age, to be able to walk in parks like we are supposed to and have the right to live as we please.”
Sadia, who lives in a private hostel near Tariq Road, was supposed to leave for a wedding the night before Benazir’s death but fate had it some other way for her. “I was supposed to go visit my parents in Mirpurkhas after attending a friend’s wedding on the night of December 27. The wedding never took place and neither was I able to go so I have been stranded in the hostel,” she said.
Since she had not been planning on staying at the hostel, she had not kept any food in handy. “The first day I survived on chips, biscuits and sweets I had bought for the journey but by the second night I was starving. I ate the next few meals with the kind couple who run the small hostel.”

Home | Karachi

Share this story!