Why is that the common notion? Because that is the belief of the ma! jority that resides in this city, some 90% of the residents do not fall under the “Burger” category. Who exactly are burgers? This is an unanswered question largely because it is an unasked question. The remaining 10% classify for the “Burger” category because they are comprised of youths apparently residing in privileged areas called; Defense housing authority, Clifton or KDA or as they say in Karachi, “Pull kay us par”. The burger category also includes overseas Pakistanis who visit Karachi and are well-exposed to the global issues; be it politics, fashion, economy or eatery. 90% of the city defines burgers as people who have no knowledge or a sense of association with Karachi or Pakistan. The burgers, according to them, tend to live in their own little fantasy world where there is lots of partying, BBQs, beaches, fancy cars, girls, exotic houses, forefathers’ businesses to run, first-class travel tickets for vacations across the globe and are barely concerned with the daily issues of Pakistan like; poverty, crime, unemployment, power shorta! ges, economic meltdown, terrorism, water inadequacy, unexpected hike in oil, rice, flour or sugar prices etc. Their belief is that a burger’s life is all set and there never was or will ever be anything to worry about.
The burgers on the other hand have tolerated this stereotypical terminology for over a decade and a half, and have hence come up with retaliation when exposed to this term. Whenever an individual is referred to as a burger his first reflex is to call the referrer a “Maila”. This is a term that has evolved over the past 5-8 years, and what it exactly means is also unanswered because it too is largely unasked. According to a few burgers that I met in my recent trip to Karachi during summer time, “Maila” stood for, “Any individual who can’t speak English, is a fashion disaster, belongs to a lower middle class faction of the society, can’t impress girls, does not drive a vehicle, attends public school and eats a lot of PAAN, CHALIA and MANIKCHAN!”.
I was fortunate enough to have a few 2nd cousins who fell into the rather non-burger category. At first, they resisted breaking it to me, but after a few days of hanging out with them at another cousins wedding they told me straight up that they think I am the typical definition of a “Burger Batcha”. Upon my suspicion and curiosity they elaborated as to why they thought that, “you have spiked up hair, you dress in baggy clothes at times, most of your conversation is in English, you know nothing about Karachi and hence you are a classic burger”. Focal point of their conversation however was my hair-do and my insufficient knowledge about Karachi’s everyday issues.
I strongly believe that “Maila” and “Burger” have emerged as strong terminologies over the years as a result of our societal change and its movement towards Neo-liberal capitalism; where the poor become poorer and the rich get richer. My interaction with the defined Mailas made me feel that they were low on self-esteem, felt unprivileged, hence rebelled and consequently they came up with a term “Burger” to disrepute the privileged. As for the burgers, over time they started taking pride in being referred to as burgers since it was a term used for the up-class residents of Karachi.
Today, after years and years of bloodshed that Karachi has seen in the 90’s and the miraculous infrastructural and economical development witnessed by Karachiiets from 2005-2009 along with the electronic media revolution during Musharraf’s regime, youths of Karachi now want to be seen as, or referred to as Burgers. This is widely because of the “VJ & Rock band-Culture” that has evolved as a result of the increased number in entertainment and music channels, and the only people that make a mark as VJs are the ones that! look Western or, in other words are, Burgers. Another significant social change has been the dramatic increase in the number of Rock Bands in Karachi. Approximately every one out of ten youngsters that I met in Karachi were either in a rock band, struggling to be in one, learning to play guitars, thought they were exceptional vocalists, strongly believed they should be on Coke Studio or that they are the next Atif Aslam. It is also essential to look, walk, talk, act and have a stud attitude of a burger today in order to impress girls, and Mailas apparently have a hard time doing it. Hence the entire youth is trying to engage themselves in becoming a part of the media industry by book or by crook; they are either doing auditions for VJs or starting their rock bands, solely to fit in. Contrasting traits b/w the two has also resulted in famous "burgertips" and "mailatips" pages on famous social network, facebook.
All in all, I can only conclude by stating that eating PAAN or having spiked up hair does not make one a Maila or a Burger. What makes a person rough and tough or sissy is their upbringing, surroundings and the spark in them to be realistic. Judging a person by the clothes they wear, the language they speak, food they eat, the parties they go to, would be unfair. I personally oppose the existence of both these conflicting terminologies.
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