Monitoring Desk
KARACHI: Karachi’s Malir village has developed into a “football wonderland” as FIFA World Cup starts today (Nov 20) in Qatar.
The locality already has a festive appearance as it has been doing every four years. The village’s two artists have painted the whitewashed walls with the faces of the most well-liked athletes and the flags of all the participating countries, though there seems to be a particular fondness for Italy, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, and Portugal here.
The Gul Baloch Football Club is the owner of the Gul Baloch Soccer Field. The World Cup matches will be broadcast on a large screen inside the stadium. The owner of the Gul Baloch club, Rashid Abdul Razzak, has said that although a screen was installed on the top floor of the club building during the Uefa Europa League, he expects a larger crowd during the World Cup.
The club has been a significant factor in developing local youth football talent. A local under-18 player named Bilal Baloch currently represents Bremen City in Germany. Another local, Yaseen Baloch, plays for Karachi United, and two more locals, Pir Baksh and Waseem Mohammad play for Iranian soccer teams.
Fireworks will also be set off over the Gul Baloch Football Ground in Siddiq Village in celebration of the FIFA World Cup, which will begin at Al Khor’s Al-Bayt Stadium, as the Baloch residents of this tiny Malir neighbourhood perform traditional dances.
In Siddiq Village,Flags and bunting of competing teams are displayed on narrow streets
In Siddiq Village, according to Razzak, you run into interesting people who are all huge football fans. Ghulam Murtaza is a fitness enthusiast who enjoys learning new languages. He also enjoys football, and his favourite team is Germany.
The German flag is hung over the entrance of the residence he calls German House. Another Italian-speaker has Italy as his favourite nation’s national soccer team. Maqdoom Murad Baloch, a rapper who raps about his favourite teams, is another person you run into.
Mama Brazil, a well-known vendor of samosas and pakoras, is also present here; he closed his small shack and now operates a pushcart. In the morning, he offers salted snacks to passing bus drivers and factory workers. Later, he uses the same pushcart to sell football country flags and jerseys that he purchases from the Lunda Bazaar as inexpensive souvenirs.
Sajid Ali, who owns a video game store, has been visiting Siddiq Village every night since the past 18 days after closing his business at midnight to paint World Cup country flags, player portraits, and various other designs on all the nearby walls until Fajr prayers.
Sajid describes his daily routine for the previous two and a half weeks: “I then head home to grab some sleep until Zuhr after which it’s back to my shop and back here.” Being a fan of France himself, he wanted to paint many French flags and portraits of his favourite player, Antoine Griezmann, but he also made sure to take everyone else’s requests into consideration.
The only place you won’t see his art is in a tiny laneway where Dr. Sabina Hussain, a young woman, has art on display. The aspiring optometrist is reluctant to claim sole ownership of her creations. She claims that some of the paintings there were also painted by her husband. The couple has a serious football obsession. He supports Brazil, and she supports Germany. Since 2006, when she was a young girl and before her husband joined her, Sabina has been decorating the lane by herself. This time, we painted with the intention of making the area resemble Mini Qatar. Additionally, there have previously been Mini versions of Russia, Brazil, South Africa, and Germany,” she chuckles.
As you get ready to leave, you turn around to take in the surroundings. There is a lot here for any game enthusiast to take in and appreciate, including the artwork, panaflex prints, various flag bunting, Mama Brazil, etc. Malir’s Siddiq Village is a paradise for football fans!
