My journey to Pakistan Part 3: Rich and poor (happily together)

As a developing country, Pakistan’s social classes are very clearly separated: the poor with the poor, the rich with the rich and the poor working for the rich. I’ve seen great poverty and incredible luxury, exclusivist golf courses reachable through the slums, people living under the starry sky and others sleeping in million dollars mansions.

Disclaimer: I may be wrong about the apparent nonexistence of the middle class, as my observations are strictly based on what was available to me.

I never thought I would have someone do the dishes for me (here my sister Laura would strongly disagree because I don’t like washing dishes in evening, so she “voluntarily” washes them in morning – THANK YOU), cook, clean, iron for me, wash my clothes, water the plants and so on. And to be honest, I found it strange to have people do things for me while I read, sleep or just do nothing. But the first time I wanted to wash the dishes I was stopped by my mother in law so I decided to do as I am told: rest.

Yes, people like to rest in Pakistan. I was most of the times under the impression that people have no pre-determined schedule and that the ones who have, don’t follow it as rigorously as I am used to. This reminded me a little of my vacations in Greece where people value their leisure time greatly. But although the day may have a lazy and late start, it always seemed that Karachi never sleeps.

Rich or poor, people love to be out on the streets. Food streets (yes, there are streets only with restaurants, tea places, juice bars) get incredibly crowded after 10 PM. On these food streets you can see rich and poor people eating in the same diner, same 100 rupees dishes (less than 1 euro), drink the same tea. I loved this about Pakistan: when it gets to food and eating, manners are dropped and people are enjoying a lot.

But enough about food for now. A special post is needed just for this so I will give it it’s time and space later on.

Another place where the line between rich and poor seemed to disappear was at the sea side. Karachi is a city on the coast of the Arabian Sea and people love to go to the beach. Although sunbathing and bathing in the sea in the way that I thought of is forbidden (bathing suits are taboo and appearing half naked in public can get you into a lot of trouble), a lot of people still go to the beach even if it is just for the fun of being outside, cooling (your feet only) in water, riding a camel or a horse on the beach. Some come with their land cruisers straight on the beach and don’t even get out of the car (can’t really understand the fun of doing this), others take a more classical approach to things and walk on the fine sand.

When we went there the waves were enormous because of the monsoon season and rumors had it that some young men drowned there the day before so people were very careful about going in the water. However, it was a fun day once I got used to people staring at me.

At the end of the day everybody went back to their normal high or low class life, rich people drove back home in their air conditioned cars, while poor people walked back to their homes. Some things take time to change.

Conclusions of the day:

• class differences are very obvious, with some people living in open air with their children and their cattle(s) in one place and other people enjoying maximum luxury (just like everywhere in the world)
• it is the most common and affordable thing to have employees do all the house work for you
• good food bridges the class gap