Ratodero(Sindh); Kachay Loug, Pakkay Rastay – My Visit Back Home

Mask on, mini-sanitizer in my pocket, and fear in heart, I stepped out of my house in my hometown Ratodero, Sindh. I set about to discover the changes the “Shehr” had gone through whilst I had been away under the precarious setting of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lock-down ensured everything closed after 7. There wasn’t much to see then but concrete. Shops proliferated on plots that had been empty for the past 50 years. Muddy roads (kachay rastey) had been paved by modern asphalt or blocks. “Modern-civilization” finally knocked onto the steps of this now over 100,000 populous town. Development inched its ways through whatever funds made it past the various corrupt elements before they took their cut. Yet, nothing had changed.

I was notified of a recent case of an eloped marriage. This was then another horrifying case of honor killing. Following the SOP’s of such matters, the family of the bride had occupied the home of the groom’s family (Qabza). They had raided the house for whatever they deemed useful to take with them. Under the traditional SOP’s, the groom’s family was also asked for reparations, in case they ever planned to return. These reparations were to be in the form of marrying one of his daughters to the aforementioned family.

The horror continued further. The local State institutions would remain absent from casting their, otherwise mandatory, vote-of-action. Under their SOP’s, this was a “Personal Matter” to be decided by the Sardars of the clans. The people of the city practiced silence for taking too much attention to this matter would only bring uncalled trouble to their own doors. The usually hustling and bustling mouths carried on their business as usual but with an un-reckoning silence that remains absent otherwise.

Conclusion

As I traveled on the pakki streets of Ratodero, Sindh, development in the form of concrete had concreted consumption of absolutely everything but freedom. People constructed bigger homes, bought better cars with not an inch of a lifestyle that guarantees basic civil and human rights. What we then, as the civic of a democracy that remains obsessed with championing self-righteousness, should ask ourselves is would that 10% GDP growth rate still guarantee two people the liberty to their life? A family in their home that they built with blood, sweat, and tears? Our country the future we ask for ourselves and future generations?

I walk on concrete pathways that deceives the common man.