an itinerant observer

I heard about the second floor (T2F) in Karachi before hearing about the person behind it. Prior to relocation to Karachi, my birthplace and the city where I came of age, T2F was described to me as the reason why Karachi was still cooler than Lahore. I recalled the 80s and 90s during my school and medical college years, when there weren’t any spaces like the T2F, where one could go and immerse oneself in thinking, for oneself and for those around you.  After resettling in Karachi, I had the opportunity to visit a few sessions at T2F. It was delightful. The talks and discussions were scintillating, photographic or other exhibits impressive, and the café an oasis. But none of that even came close to the person who ran the show, Sabeen Mahmud. Every time I would see her there, I found her exuding vitality and uber enthusiasm for any cause célèbre that she hosted. She was witty and introspective, an intriguing combination - a real charmer, as they say.   Interesti...

Ms. Primrose, the possum, had kept us guessing as to her real identity. Noori had thought that she was some mysterious person in her backyard that was digging up the grass in a frenzy, looking for buried treasure. At night time, the movement in the backyard would activate the motion-detector lights. These inexplicable happenings in her own backyard were driving the excitable kindergartener’s imagination wild. One day, while pottering around in her backyard, Noori thought she had finally figured out who this really was. She came up to me excitedly and pointed to the fence and screamed: “ Biloongra !” (Biloongra is a kitten in the Urdu / Punjabi language). I was amazed to see the creature that resembled quite an unusual Biloongra - certainly could have been a mutant one. Unlike a regular cat or kitten this one happened to have a snout and a long hairless tail. While it scaled the fence it occurred to me that this was not a Biloongra at all. It happened to be a possum. And...

Nine months into relocation from Houston, and I am not racking my head to figure out what comparative essay to write as a next entry for the “Karachi-Houston Diaries”. The reason being, that what I want to write about stares me in the face every time I venture out on to the streets of Karachi. Advanced capitalism is prevalent in both Houston and Karachi. This is evident by the billboards promoting their commercial wares in both cities. But the art and science of advertising using huge attractive hoardings has been taken to another level in Karachi, and Houston is not quite up to mark as yet. All you have to do is drive down Shara-e-Faisal , a major thoroughfare in Karachi, for you to realize what I’m talking about. As summer approaches the majority of the billboards advertise a fabric called ‘lawn’. Lawn is described by Wikipedia, my most trusted online source of information, as a textile that is chiefly made from cotton and it tends to be lightweight, crisp and sheer. It was on...

As the 1 st  year of relocation from Houston to Karachi drew to an end, I wondered what I could write to mark that milestone. As happened over the past, whenever faced with a writing conundrum, I would ask the muse.  “Write about failure, and put it in a relevant context”, said the muse this time around, without hesitation. “Who’s failed frequently enough and could be the protagonist of this story?” I asked her. No answer. And then it occurred to me that the person whom I needed to write about was closer than I'd envisioned. I am a story of failure.  I have failed a lot. In fact, I have failed so often that I will fail again just trying to quantify my failures. Below, somewhat chronologically, I relate my choicest failure stories: One of my earliest, and repeated, failing situations led to my inability to get into an elite, legacy-based school in Karachi that my older siblings and cousins had attended. I failed the entrance test for another private sc...

I recently came across an article that listed ten common parenting mistakes. It got me thinking about my own parenting skills, or lack thereof. The insecurity about parenting likely stemmed from my biases that were challenged by that article. I think parenting is made out to be harder than it actually is or should be. The point I’m really trying to make is this: in parenting misperceptions abound. The so called mistakes simply reflect the struggle that exists within all of us as human beings, compounded by the fact that we as parents are liable to err. The conflict arises when we attempt to assure a fool proof successful future for our children. Because the alternative, that is a presumably unsuccessful future for the child, is simply unacceptable to us. But what is success really? Isn’t it a perception, or contrarily a misperception? For instance, many times I have been successful only to realize that in that success I’m unhappy, so it’s really a failure. Conversely, many times I...

Given the recent surge in “Top 10 Lists” on everything under the sun, I too felt like coming up with a list of 10 items. I thought of listing “Top 10 Parenting Skills” or “The Top 10 Dog Names”, primarily because I had recently written about parenting and owning a dog (in separate articles). However, I discarded those ideas as quickly as I had thought of them as the question that had intrigued me more was: “Is there any purpose to life, and if so what might that be?” Based on that, a list of 10 things that I believed in came to mind, because you see, prior to figuring out your life’s purpose, you must believe that there can be such a thing as life’s purpose. So I share 10 beliefs in no particular order. I need to love myself. For that I first need to be myself and then like myself. I must stop being harsh or judgmental about myself, or the other. And I must stop blaming myself, or the other, for my life's perceived messes. I need not be simply who I am ...