Lahore is the city famously known for its food and establishing Asia’s first food street. If you are a traveler like me you’ll have the idea that other cities of Pakistan also have their special cuisines. But along with food, they have their multiple traditions and entertainment spots.
I vividly remember when we were growing up in early 2000, my father used to take us all siblings for the famous puppet shows by Rafi Peerzada, Urdu movies, and theatre on weekends or even on weekdays depending on the holidays.
The last time I took my family to see theatre was in 2018 when a local production house with the name of happy owl production presented a fantastic play “Dracula”. It was like living my childhood again but with a better quality of entertainment.
But now due to novel coronavirus and ban on public gatherings, it seems as the only entertainment left in this city of literature is food and trying new eateries.
Whether it’s Gulberg, Defence, Gulshan Ravi, Walled city, or any other local market food stalls and high profile restaurant outlets are talks of the town. With limited access to the parks and lack of other entertaining and literary activities eating out at fancy places, taking pictures, and posting them on social media has become the new trend.
I thought of writing about this last week when I came across a meme in which it was written that if you want to plan a day out with a Lahori, he will tell you that he knows a place and will take you to the mall 1.
At that moment I realized that we are left with no other option than food for our entertainment. Every year I used to wait for the Lahore literature festival and think fest to take my friends there, meet the literary people listen to the international speakers, and enjoy some music.
On the other hand, my friends were always more eager for Lahore eat festival or other food festivals just to get all the famous food chains under one roof. But due to this pandemic, all those gatherings also have turned into virtual meetings and shopping malls and restaurants have started arranging their own small events.
First food street at Gawalmandi
All the weekend plans, all the meetings, or our shopping is also now evolved with the time and turned into binge eating. This has turned the literary culture of Lahore into a culture of culinary and eateries.
No doubt there are many people and teams like Ajoka theatre who are determined enough to provide quality entertainment to people but it’s not the work of just one institution. Reading spots, theme parks, gaming zones and much more decent modes of entertainment are the need of the hour for the Lahoris.
Some places are doing such experiments like standup comedy or karaoke nights or a cycle ride on the weekends by some private cycling groups but they are still lacking in numbers and are not that much accessible for everyone and even a bigger drawback is you never get to know about these things on time.
If you walk through the main Johar town road from Allah hoo chowk towards Shaukat Khanum there are numbers of new chai Dhaba stalls that have opened with live Qawali. But still, you have to eat something to enjoy Qawali.
So we are linking every entertainment mode with food. When I travel to other cities especially Islamabad, I see so many options to explore other than food. You can always go for a walk in the nearest park or even go hiking or cycling.
But these opportunities are very less in number in Lahore.
With the increment in housing societies and concrete buildings, we are lacking places where we can spend our leisure time with the families. People living in societies can still go to the parks affiliated or inside the housing societies but people living in open areas or a larger population of the walled city do not enjoy these perks.
With the increasing population, Lahoris especially need some more modes of entertainment in which you can sit, read, take a walk, or just randomly enjoy a calm sunset or sunrise with your friends.