This was the title of an article in DAWN this weekend. It started me thinking - what kind of neighbours have you guys had over your lives? We have had some very interesting parosans. Some of them have become like our family members… i find in larger cities, the concept of ‘neighbourliness’ is decreasing.. the larger a city you live in, the more “modern” the society, perhaps, the concept of neighbours knowing each other and taking care of each other, decreases. Am i right or wrong - i am not certain.
Over ten years ago, we were spending Eid in Karachi; the whole family went out to visit a family friend’s house during Eid. (i was maybe 8 years old). GhanTi baja rahain thay, no one was at home. Itnay main, that family’s next door neighbours saw my parents and us (the kids) standing outside, and they invited us in to wait inside their home until the other family arrived. Na jaan, na pehchan…but that’s how it goes in smaller, closer-knit environments like these - sometimes, there is so much trust.
Turned out we ended up staying at their house the whole evening, everyone hit it off with each other. We became very good friends with all of them. When they visited Abu Dhabi from Karachi, they stayed at our place for a month. This was over ten years ago. Our two families have become very close. Infact, they even sent a rishta for one of us for one of their sons. Didn’t work out, but at any rate - the two families are still close.
i have a few other examples of how our parosans became so close to us. But i find it’s a concept that doesn’t have much resonance today, or maybe not for me personally. The larger the city, the more each society marches on its ‘modernizing’ path, the less concern there seems to be for one’s parosans. Yeah this is a gross generalization thankfully, not all places are like this. But ten years ago, the feeling of ‘neighbourliness’ that used to exist, generally doesn’t exist to that same extent…at least in my opinion.