Where Karachi Fell in Love

The jewel in the crown of Karachi is no more.

In the early days of Karachi, there was only one coffee-house-cum-restaurant of repute. It was the haunt of the top elite and the very rich. It was called Shezan.

Founded by Lahore’s rich and famous Shahnawaz family, the name Shezan was coined by Mrs. Shahnawaz after her daughter, Nazesh, by spelling her name backward. Mrs. Shahnawaz was a leading socialite in Lahore, whose home was the hub of the city’s top intellectuals, poets, artists, bureaucrats, and politicians.

As children and teenagers, we were very lucky if our parents occasionally took us along to this treasure house of high tea with the most mouth-watering meringues. But as young men, we were neither invited there nor could we afford it on our own.

Then the Shezan owners had the brainwave of opening another place, smaller, less haughty yet posh in its own way, and less expensive, for the younger generation from good families. It was called AMPIS. Rather small, with a posh, very artistic interior, it was tucked away in a corner next to what is now the entrance to the Services Club behind the Metropole Hotel.

AMPIS became the haunt of the young elite, students, and young executives on their first jobs. It was also the go-to place for dating and romancing. On the mezzanine floor was an alcove suitably furnished with sofas rather than chairs. Hidden from prying eyes, it was in greatest demand among couples and those hoping to develop a romance. The ground floor also had little nooks and corners where you could have some, if not total, privacy. The afternoons were the best time to grab one of these much-in-demand corners or the alcove above. It was basically a coffee or tea house. But the waiters were liveried, well-trained, and most courteous. The cuisine consisted of pastries, patties, and meringues of the same standard as the home place, Shezan, but at a lower price to suit the pockets of the younger generation.

It became the meeting place and haunt of all the young elite in town, all of whom will carry treasured memories of the pleasant afternoons and evenings spent there. It also became the happy hunting grounds of people still in their infancy in the art of conmanship. One name that comes to mind is the to-be-world-famous and notorious great charmer Mahmood Sipra. He would be there every evening. He would “invite” a new sucker every evening to come there and join him for high tea. When the bill came, he would frantically search for his wallet, then confide to his guest that he had forgotten it at home and ask the guest to pay the bill, to be refunded by Sipra later. The refund, of course, never happened.

But the bottom line is that AMPIS was an integral part of our social and romantic life. One cannot, now, imagine life in those days without it. There are many treasured memories of that jewel of a place that a whole generation, male and female, will carry with them until they die.