Moon Market, Lahore Burns

I live in Iqbal Town, the same unfortunate town, where last two bomb blasts rocked one of its most crowded central markets named Moon Market. At 8:49 PM, I got a panic filled phone call saying the market had been targeted by two blasts, more than 100 shops were burnt, leaving more than 40 dead and several injured.

I immediately called my father (he teaches evening classes in one of the academies very near to moon market) I took a sigh of relief that he wasn’t there at that time. While responding to couple of dozen calls from my relatives and friends, concerned if I was all right, I started driving towards the incident.

Growing up in this town, this market inhibits my childhood memories. When this market was born I was almost 7 years old, there were only a couple of shops including one pharmacy and a bookshop. These two shops were my nightly ride, along with my brother, on his motorbike. The front of the market has so many popular restaurants, young people and families love to spend their evening, tasting Tikkas, fried fish as well as Chinese soup, fast food burgers and chai.

I remember my brother, who was fast food savvy some 15 years back, used to love the hotdogs at “ moon burger”, he used to bribe me with chocolate ice cream, and we used to have our mini treat riding on a motorbike.

When I became an adult, this was my first stop place for a haircut, my sister I used to go to Zaib’s Saloon, and last night I saw the same saloon converted in ashes.

Winter sales in moon market used to be my mom’s spot for buying warm stuff for winters, I used to drop her and used to go to the CD shops in the market to buy some music for my car. I saw dead bodies carried out from the music shops last night.

The moment one used to stop the car on the road, it would get crowded by the waiters of roadside eateries. Young boys and adults used to serve with all the hospitality working through the night to treat and feed the people, whilst making some extra bucks.

Last night I saw them all crying sitting there, so was my childhood memory, shattered with emotions. Soon after I was out of my Journalistic passion, the dreadful scenes haunted me. I saw the same market burning, where I had shared so many giggles of my childhood shared with my family and friends.