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Zainab Market, Karachi

They are like jilted lovers, victims of unrequited love. Those who made them with great affection and kept them close to their hearts are no more. So they are aging not like fine wine or a rugged pair of jeans, but like forlorn entities banished into nothingness. In case you find yourself bewildered what this intro is alluding to, visiting four buildings on Inverarity Road - Jehangir Kothari Mansion, Krishna Mansion, Duarte Mansion and Isa Bhai Trust Building - will suffice. The negligence with which these lovely structures are treated is saddening, if not criminal.

Karachiites or non Karachiites, who would not be aware of Zainab Market, a bazaar that defies class disparities? The discussion on fancy T-shirts and cheap slacks needs a separate platform. Hop across Zainab Market and you will be facing a grand work of construction, Jehangir Kothari Mansion. The same building on whose ground floor there are known tailoring shops and carpet stores. Who has the time to crane their neck to look up and appreciate the delicate carvings and noteworthy symmetry of the structure? It is a building made before partition by stonemasons with such adroitness that it will take you by surprise (a pleasant one, mind you) with its well thought-out proportions and architectural features. The balconies, the pillars, the openings, the spiral staircases at its rear … all are worth looking at. If this writer is not incorrect, a scene from an aesthetically shot music video (Khamaj by Fuzon) was also recorded in one of the spacious rooms of this mansion. A little bit of care (and love) can easily make the Jehangir Kothari Mansion a visual treat representing the days when even stones were given due respect.

The next building, Krishna Mansion, despite being pretty and well-made, is a tad away from the spotlight. Reason: a variety of dazzling signboards (not to mention a famous restaurant) highlighting the stores that it houses obscure its graceful stonework. Climbing the stairs from the side where there is a dug out plot between Jehangir Kothari Mansion and Krishna Mansion will take you many years back.

A couple of blocks ahead of Krishna Mansion, lies Duarte Mansion, and here comes the tragic part of this short journey. You can, without a jot of doubt, make out that in its heyday the structure was something to feast your eyes on. Not anymore. The building is in a deserted state, with gaping holes in its windows and layers of dust and dirt on its walls painting a picture of Eliot’s wasteland. Locals say sometime back construction of sorts began from inside, but for inexplicable reasons never carried on. Those who know old Karachi like the back of their hand will tell you Duarte Mansion has a fair amount of history that is akin to the city.

[Source: Karachi Legacies of Empires by Peerzada Salman]