A spot of bother

By Atiya Abbas

Being one of the rare species who, *gasp*, actually read for fun, finding a comfortable spot to read has posed as a challenge in Karachi University. In my experience the very act of reading has come with an interesting set of assumptions. During those early days of the first semester, when I made the mistake of coming on the days the semester was ‘scheduled’ to begin, there was nothing to do but sit in a quiet (quiet being a relative term) corner to read. One friend remarked: “Oh yeah, I have often seen you sitting all by yourself, reading.” Great, I was a loner from the word go. And I cannot count the amount of times I have been asked if I was from the English department, because that’s where the store of readers comes from.


I met a member of this esteemed blog team through books. There I was, innocently sitting on the sofa which back then was not as broken and didn’t make you sink to the floor, when she dropped beside me and chirped, “HI!” I still don’t know what she was thinking…

In my quest for a peaceful spot I have sojourned to the Arts Lobby many times. The closed platform on the left where the large trees grow in the middle makes an ideal spot, if you get the corner with the brick pillar which makes a somewhat comfortable back rest. Once I stretched out and was about to tuck in when:

A boy who was most probably from a “party”, came up to me, “Aap sahih sey bethain, yeh arts lobby hai”.

There are two versions to my response. Here is what I imagined happened:

Me (eyes blazing like they do in books when the hero is angry): Why? It is my constitutional right as free citizen to sit where I want, however I want!

What actually happened:

Face burning, I meekly straighten myself out in a more lady-like position.

After much deliberation, one realizes that anywhere can be a good spot to read. The benches along the pharmacy route, while waiting in line to pay the fees, once you open that book, where you are ceases to matter and where your mind can take you is what counts.