Part VII - My Adolescence Memoirs - Larkana in 1970s

Larkana was a hub of sports activities in 1970s. Watching boys playing Cricket, Hockey and Football was my first experience in Larkana. I tried playing all games from school level onwards and fell in love for Cricket only. This love affair is life-long, though most of the time it is restricted to watching only. I was a mediocre in sports. Perhaps because of this reason I poked my nose in every sport sans successfully.

It would also be worth mentioning about the bustling sports activities in the city during 1970s. While Hockey and Cricket dominated among children and youth, other sports like Football, Badminton, and Table Tennis were also played and enjoyed vastly. School playgrounds would remain crowded during afternoons every day, and especially Sundays. But the main hub of sports activities was beautiful Larkana Stadium. Hockey used to be played at main ground while Cricket on a side park. Regular tournaments of Hockey and Cricket pulled huge crowds during afternoons. All Pakistan District Hockey Tournament on annual basis was a regular feature wherein teams from across the country would come to participate. Former great Hockey Players like Islahuddin, Samiullah, Akhtar Rasool, Manzoorul Hasan, etc played many a times in Larkana. Similarly I remember a Cricket tournament when test cricketers Intakhab Alam, Talat Ali and Umar Masood came to play here. Interestingly, Hockey was popular in Urdu speaking boys and Cricket in Sindhi speaking youth.

During early 70s, whether grownup college boys or school kids, all used to play cricket with the genuine hard ball that was available at a paltry cost of about 1 to 3 Rupees. Playing Cricket with a tennis ball was simply out of question and not in vogue like it is widely used today. However in late 70s when the Cricket ball became dearer and went beyond the affordable reach of a common player costing 10 Rupees each, boys switched over to playing with tennis ball wrapped with electrical insulation tape. We too switched over to playing Cricket with tapped tennis ball but not before I sustained a terrible injury.

While fielding at “Silly Mid-On” position (just 4-5 feet away from the batsman) during a cricket match, the batsman swept the hard cricket ball with full force. The ball landed on my upper lip ferociously. When came to senses I found myself holding my mouth while blood dripped through the fingers profusely. Later, it was learnt that my four upper front teeth were nearly hanging. I was rushed to a Dentist (on bicycle) who refused to treat me declaring that the patient`s serious injury demanded his immediate shifting to Hyderabad or Karachi. Instead, my friends took me to a “Quack Dentist” who provided me with first aid, tied my upper teeth with a horizontal curved metallic arching rod temporarily, and interestingly, grinded my lower front teeth so that they shouldn’t touch the extremely aching upper ones. Panic gripped my family when I reached home with swollen lips. The very next day my mother took me to Hyderabad and after going through a full week’s treatment with Dentist named Dr. Essa I was allowed to return home, with teeth remained tied with braces for the next six months. That was the last time I had played cricket with hard ball.

Beside playing Cricket, Hockey and Football my other pastime (Time waster) was bathing & swimming in “Aabro” and “Punj-Pullee (5-gated)”, the two small irrigation canals off-taking on right bank from main Rice Canal at the outskirts of the city. Interestingly, the city has sprawled so much in last 40 years that these canals (drains, in fact, with all sewage of Larkana flowing into them) run almost through middle of the city now.

During every hot and scorching summer the non-perennial Rice Canal and its two off-taking small irrigation channels on right bank were thronged and swarmed by people of all ages, especially on Fridays (being holiday), for taking long dips in the flowing turbid waters of these canals to cool down their body temperatures, have fun, and enjoy eating dates and mangoes that they would bring along with them. We also used to go for swimming in these canals almost every week. Once, on such a swimming trip to these canals, while jumping into “Aabro” at its Regulator, my brother Munir hit the edge of concrete pier separating two gates of the canal. What we saw was bloodied turbid water and a deep cut underneath his lower lip. Some two hours later we reached home, after Munir`s wound well stitched and bandaged at the Civil Hospital.

Mild winters and early springs were no less fun; it was time to enjoy kite flying and playing marbles in the street. Kite flying was also one of my passions besides swimming, watching action movies and reading story books/novels (in Urdu only). Unlike Lahore’s famous “Bo-Kata” term shouted at the time of Kite flying contests during “Basant” (early February) we simply yelled whenever won the contest while flying the kites on rooftops. Some big contests also used to hold sporadically either in the grand Municipal Stadium or on a large open space near city’s “Red-light Area”. Most of the contestants were always happened to be rich pimps coming from other big cities, even from Lahore too. They would carry fine and expensive kite flying strings and large but beautiful kites. Continued….