On GIKI

Nestled on two sides by the busy topi bazaar and the Tarbela colony, at the front of the shallow mountains reflecting the greenness of the dense jungle, and facing the might of the Indus passing through the great Tarbela Dam, there stands erected the Landmark of Ghulam Ishaq Khan, the milky white and pencil-slim clock tower. Beside it are the dry fountains forever at the mercy of rain.

Four faculties sit on the wings of the butterfly and face a wide circular road. At the heart of this road rises the squat dome embellished with pure white, the Agha Hassan Auditorium with its red seats and curtains facing the red proscenium. Hidden beneath it is the GIKafé that works behind the dark glass walls facing a grassy lawn and the broken wooden benches.

Ahead towards the mouth of the butterfly rise the long stairs and white pillars of a two-storey square building. Crowded during exams and graveyard at other times, Central Library, with its large purple carpet, grey sofas and small study rooms, sits quiet and greets the air of the jungle's tall trees. In the evening, the jungle first draws a red carpet on the blue sky, and then with passing time they replace the evening sun with a curtain of darkness, and remove the same for the morning sunrise. The humblest of all buildings is the Academic Block with its floors and stairs slippery with marble, facing the benches made of brown bricks that change color with every rain. Student Mosque echoes mild and reverberate Aazaan. The massive black gate surrounded by guards chattering in Pakhto and students signing their names to move in and out at odd times.

Wooden smells of the echoing lecture halls with their white ceilings, broken cameras, and scraped wood on mahogany desks shewing people's names. These lecture halls witness the dead silent and sleepy engineering students scrolling through their socials, waiting till the clock marks the end of the lecture, or bargaining for it to end early.

Unforgivingly complex corridors of hostels, empty fire extinguishers, and hundreds of cubicles.

Excluding Arham's room, GIKI holds a world record by being home to the worst tea on planet Earth, and this overly expensive sugary water beats its own record every day.

[Shall write more when I find solitude.] This book called GIKI has as its front cover the river and as its back cover the mountains.