Memorable Day of my life

The most important and memorable day of my life was when I was with one of my best friends, Noman, and we were on our way to home. The reason I remember this day so well is that it affected not only my life but also the lives of millions of people who witnessed the event with their own eyes. It was the day when the renowned political leader in the history of Pakistan, Bibi Benazir Bhutto, was shot to death and chaos took place in almost every part of Karachi.

Unfortunately I and my friend were also the victims of this incident. We had long been planning to get my friend’s car modified and so we were out on the streets of Zamzama looking for the latest tools that would best fit the car. The very first thing that was to be done was selecting some gear for the outlook of the car. So we started looking up for seat covers, rims, bumper stickers. When one is out looking for the latest modification tools with someone as picky as my friend, times flies by unnoticed. And as it turned out to be, we were already running behind the tentative schedule we had mentally prepared for ourselves. So we started searching for a sound system which was the last thing on my friend’s list. By the time we started leaving, it was 5:30. Everything was going according to the conventional way until we noticed an usual traffic jam, however, we disregarded this peculiar thought as traffic jams were nothing new to us and started blabbing about the “more” important things in our lives. As we glided in our car a bit further, we noticed a sudden haphazard. A bunch of angry mob was out on the streets with hockey sticks and bats in their hands, making sure that every shutter was down. This sudden incident caught us off-handedly and we were in a sudden state of panic. We overheard someone shouting Leader of PPP has been shot to death! The immediate thing that came into our minds was to get away from that place before the conditions further worsened.

We managed to get out of the chaos and had the guts to stop by at a calmer place to enquire if what we heard was true. The not-so-interested man standing near a paan shop said that it was just a rumor. We tried very hard to believe in him and hoped that it was only a rumor. But by looking at the sudden awkward silence, our instincts warned us that things were not as simple as they seemed to be.

Some prevailed in us and we decided not to take any risk and head home. Another shock was when we heard gunshots at a distance. People started panicking and were running here and there to save their lives. The safest way out was to look for some safe alleys. Although we were fully aware of those streets but in that panic every street seemed to be new, we had no idea where we were going. While we were trying to find our way to home in those alien alleys another major dilemma was that our cell phone networks died. There was no way to inform our parents about how we were or where we were. Somehow, we managed to text on one of our folk’s cell phones that we were safe and will be coming back home as soon as the traffic allowed us. After informing our parents, we parked our car at a place where we might get safe from any harm. The place where we parked our car was totally alien to us and so our first task was to find out where we were. The place seemed to be deserted and after a few minutes, we found a store that was surprisingly open. We entered the store, bought some chips and drinks, enquired from the store owner about the location. Instead of replying to our question, he asked, “Which area are you from?”
We replied, “We are from Garden area and due to Benazir’s incident, we rushed out into alleys and lost our way.”
He said that, “You’ve entered in Defence and I think you guys should stay here in the store until the situation gets under control.”
We thanked him for his generous advice and then we rushed towards our car.
We sat there for few minutes and then decided to move on. Again, after driving for 25minutes, we finally entered Tariq Road. We thanked God for reaching there safely atleast this time we knew where we were at. We were moving on and then again we started hearing the gunshots at a distance. Again, we decided to wait somewhere where we could get safe from any harms. After waiting there for 10 minutes, we started moving on and finally reached in our area and we were no longer worried, and moving on as if nothing has happened. As we were moving, we saw some people robbing the bank while KFC was set on fire. The angry mob tried stopping our car as well, but we took a chance by not stopping because we knew that the consequences were bad either ways. I hit the accelerator, turned into the now known allies and finally entered the safety and security of our society. The moment I entered my house, I could see my family thanking God for my safe return.

So, this was one wisp of the many memories that is never going to whither away as long as I live. It was one experience when I saw the brutality and the hostility of the angry mob, the fear on people’s faces and my own feelings towards the entire incident.