design your heart out.
i can design and design and design some more, but only when i see those thoughts, solutions, suggestions, ideas start becoming a living breathing reality am i truly breathless, overwhelmed with a real sense of my ability to rock the world.
karachi-in-law
I'm sharing one of the most intricate, confusing, egg-shell stepping, long term relationships with this city I call my own. Anyone who hasnt been in karachi in the last 6 months is in for a shock because ALL the roads in clifton are being made, and not only remade, as they usually are after the rains but restructured to create a a whole new travel plan. Cars will disappear underground from the three swords junction and appear magically from the underpass near what used to be mideast hospital and will soon be yet another shopping complex. Yet more cars will find themselves flying over what used to be schon circle and appearing somewhere near what is a ghost town boat basin currently.
Stepping out into the interactive world after 7 weeks of a minimal driving shaadi life, Karachi seems like a new in-law to me. A relationship you need time to discover, tentatively yet persistently. It's familiar, because there are bits and pieces of other relationships mixed in, but the whole sense of not quite of belonging hangs over it. You never know when youre going to go into some street and find a dead end and have to start all over again.
Getting to know karachi right now is taking time. She is not in the best of moods. You simply dont know what shes going to throw back at you and when suddenly she will welcome you, with wide open arms in that augusty emotional feelings that grips us in around this time of the year anyways. Every move, every visit out requires a certain amount of thought and approach and a fair bit of time management. As the days rush towards ramzan, more of our tolerance is going to be tested, as this relationships sours some because of the hungry honking people out there but since it is a love marriage with this city, I will take a deep breath, turn on the radio, shift into neutral and wait for the tanker ahead to budge another few inches.
something to do.
i like coffee a lot but you know we need more things to do in karachi when you find yourself at espresso for the third time in the same day.
hum zinda qaum hain.
every time i take a trip away somewhere i come back looking at pakistan with new eyes. way more critically, somewhat more judgementally, quite a bit more harshly, and
infinitely more passionately. happy birthday, pakistan. i love you.