A Stroll in Peshawar

Today's was an unusually long walk along the busiest road in Peshawar. The place where I started from was a building opposite to the famous Pearl Continental Hotel, and a site of huge bomb blast a few months back. The Health Directorate building where I had a meeting with my former supervisor is almost adjacent to the judicial complex where a bomb blast had killed several people a few days back. I saw the gate which was damaged in the blast. I recharged my cell phone account at a vendor and started moving towards my home in Hayatabad.

Almost a few hundred meters from my starting point, I came across the site of another recent bomb blast. This was for the first time I came to know that the headquarters of ISI were located there. As soon as I saw the destruction, a spontaneous though erupted in my mind: what a devastation! An enormous devastation indeed. It was surprising how one single bomb blast can level such huge installations to the ground. There was construction going on and the workers were busy making a new boundary wall for the complex which appeared to be different from ordinary. "Blast proof wall, may be?" I thought to myself as I walked past.

For next couple of kilometers, I was walking with nothing significant to notice except the noise of the heavy traffic on GT road. A Gora Qabristan, I crossed the road and came on University road. The sight of the KFC restaurant there made my mouth water. I suddenly thought of their Zinger Burger. But then I thought of the calories and the weight gain aspect of it. I finally decided in favor of having a burger. But then I realized that the huge fencing and barricades erected outside KFC was not without reason. What if a blast occurs? I am not afraid of death but the thought that in case my body gets charred beyond recognition, this is going to make the trouble of a time for my family which will never believe me being one among the victims of the blast. For they would think I only went to meet my supervisor. Thus, I finally dropped the idea of eating a burger and carried on.

A slight descent was fun to climb and I actually started jogging until the road became plain again. This area, called Tehkal, is actually inhabited mainly by Afghan migrant who came over to Pakistan fleeing their homeland during the Soviet War in the eighties. There are many vendors selling meat, both mutton and beef, almost too many of them, reflecting the excessive taste of these people for the food.

Walking a few more kilometers and I was almost in University Town. Since there has been a relative mum in the serial blasts in the city for the past couple of days or so, and since Eid, a major Muslim festival, is around the corner, a lot of people thronged the markets. I stopped at several garment stores. I was looking for a leather jacket. There were a few which really looked cool, but I wanted to do an overall assessment before buying any one. It was a pleasant surprise to see the outlets of so many local and foreign brands. I made up my mind to buy one jacket Textillion and a pair of shoes by Epcot at Imperial store.

Evening was approaching so I had to hurry up. I stopped at one point to have Faluda at a small ice-cream shop where I was sure no one would want to come with a 'jacket' on. I loved the taste of it for I was really hungry. I then rushed toward my destination. At Board, I saw something new. There were scores of people selling coal. It was for making Bar B Q with the meat of the sacrificial animals slaughtered on Eid day. I also bought a five kilogram bag of coal but I did not intend to keep it for the Eid. Instead, I thought I would use it tomorrow the day after.

I reached home rather late. I was exhausted after my long walk and had a nap.