Karachi — a life of royalty amid piles of garbage

KARACHI: The seatbelt doesn’t work, the windscreen is cracked and the car engine sounds like a rickshaw. But the singing driver, who saved me from the suspicious claws of the immigration officers at the airport and his obvious confidence in his car’s ability to run, calms my nerves.

“Alhamdulillah, I have finally arrived safely in Pakistan,” I think to myself as my driver whizzes through the dark and dusty roads lined with buildings that seem to have popped out of the desert by themselves.



It is 6 o’clock in the morning when I arrive at my guesthouse. A buzzing fan and the overpowering voice of the muezzin calling for morning prayers greet me – this is the first time I am listening to the azaan in real life. Oriental romanticism is crawling up my neck in the midst of Karachi, the city of lights.

I cannot stop myself from thinking about the times of colonialism when a house servant brings me water and a cup of tea (with milk, of course). It takes me a while to realise that this man is actually domestic help and will be taking care of me during my stay, and not just a friendly Pakistani man who happens to be staying at the house.

My Urdu teacher at the University of Heidelberg in Germany had told me to always ask, “Paani ubla hua? [Is the water boiled?]”, if someone serves me water. I ask the man who brought me the water and immediately feel how stupid he must feel I am since the water was crystal clear and obviously came out of a bottle.

I have come a long way since this first day in Karachi but, even after a month of working as an intern for The Express Tribune, I cannot take my eyes off the windows when I am driven through the streets. There are a large number of motorcycles, cars and rickshaws and a few colourful buses flowing through the city, much like a river. The traffic flow behaves like high-cholesterol blood vessels that have trouble transporting all the nutrients to all parts of the body.

For the love of food

This makes even more sense when I look at the number of fast food delivery services that run through Karachi 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In general, food is everywhere at any time. Karachi-ites are spoiled for choice.

Besides the innumerable local food vendors on the streets, you can find all kinds of food served anywhere in the world in this city. As a person who likes to eat a lot, I had joyful experiences with the local food. Although, who would have thought that I will find the best burger I ever had in Pakistan?

The entire eating culture is a wonderful experience. People actually take the time to sit together, to enjoy and appreciate each other’s company. Karachi-ites spend hours and hours socialising and ‘gupshup-ing’ [chatting] long into the night at one of the numerous tea dhabas in the city. This is something we may have forgotten about a long time ago in Western Europe, where food is nowadays often downgraded as a means to an end.

Trash talk

Perhaps the most obvious thing for a foreigner coming to Karachi, and anywhere else in South Asia for that matter, is the huge amount of ‘kachra’ [garbage] everywhere. The sight of large piles of garbage burning at night may appear romantic from a distance but it is heart wrenching to watch a little kid sort out valuables from these garbage piles.

Armed and proud

Another thing that shocks me about Karachi is the number of people openly carrying weapons. It seems to me that everybody wants to have a security guard. Security guards in blue uniforms are like the newest must-have fashion hit.

I agree that there is a necessity for security measures in this city but is there really a need for that many weapons? Security guards in Karachi are like smartphones – not everybody really needs them but everyone wants to have them. The more important you perceive yourself, the more security guards you will gather around you. So if there’s a big armed convoy blocking the road and pointing their guns to the public it’s probably some rich guy who wants to feel important.

The dichotomy between the rich and the poor in Karachi is also quite apparent. You look to your left and you see beggars in the middle of traffic and dirt. Take a look to your right and you spot the fancy Dolmen Mall or another fancy building.

Feel like royalty

The VIP treatment that you are likely to experience when you’re a foreigner is a strikingly new, weird and extraordinary experience for a student like me. It takes some time getting used to someone bringing you tea and food, and even cleaning up your table when you’re finished with your meal.

I have been taught all my life to clean up after myself so I try desperately to force the domestic help to let me clean up the table. He insists and takes the dirty plates right out of my hands, until we end up in a tug-of-war.



But this treatment is not limited to foreigners. Royalty awaits you anytime and everywhere when you drive through the residential areas of Defence, in restaurants and especially when businessman and politicians are meeting up. DHA and Miami are quite similar in their essence — rich people, huge houses, ocean and lots of sand.

Essence of democracy

The public participation in politics is astonishing. While a lot of people in my country may not care about what happens in the government as long as they get their salary every month, the people of Karachi are actively engaged in the formation of the socio-political landscape.

The Pakistani government may seem oppressive compared to a European one, when it comes to the visa or taking photographs of security officials on the street, we in the West may need to ask ourselves what democracy really means. Public engagement in managing political issues is the most powerful and influential part of a democracy and I saw this engagement and participation almost every day in Karachi.

The mutual respect that most people treat each other with was also heart-warming. If you show respect for the people and their culture, they accept and treat you like a part of their family. Although people generally don’t know how to deal with foreigners, they are trying their best and welcome you with an open heart.

There is even a tour bus, Super Savari Express, that roams through the town on Sunday mornings and allows you to experience the amazing feeling of sitting on top of a public transport bus, which is of course decorated with truck art and more colourful than any rainbow. Truck art is amazing. The colourful public transport buses represent Karachi in its essence. They are packed with an unbelievable number of people, so colourful and diverse than Karachi itself.

A city of contradictions

Karachi is a city of contradictions. It is hot outside but the inside of the building is turned into a new ice age with the help of innumerable air-conditioners. Everywhere you go, you can see the newest hit from the US advertised by an enormous billboard flanked over a historical building hinting at the memories of the past.

You feel like travelling back in time when you visit the mosques in Karachi. Old cultural values are battling with new ones. Unfortunately though, Karachi is following the same path as other developing cities and still tries to find salvation in the capitalistic agenda – higher, faster, bigger. There are enough examples from all over the world where we can see the outcome and the damage of such an agenda that will affect the ordinary people of Karachi who are likely to lose out in this development.

Karachi should stay Karachi and love itself for what it is. Otherwise it will become only one of many industrialised cities and another illusion of the ‘American dream’.

There are many beautiful things going on in the midst of this city. If you look behind the curtain, you will find an open-minded society where everything seems possible. This comparatively young society has so much potential that nobody thinks about when they talk about Pakistan. There is a lot of dirt and garbage but, within this garbage, you will find big chunks of humanity and a prospering culture.

You don’t fall in love with Karachi at first glance. But you build up a relationship with this city and you suddenly find yourself loving every part of it. Because love is not about the looks, it is about knowing each other, acknowledging and accepting failures as well as accomplishments.

I want to thank all the Karachi-ites who made my time in Pakistan a wonderful experience of my lifetime and turned my picture of the country upside down. I have to admit that I was a little bit worried on my way to Pakistan but the warmly welcoming Karachi-ites showed me what this country really is about, and I can finally call Karachi another home of mine. I am looking forward to seeing how this statement holds for me: whoever has lived in Karachi, they cannot live anywhere else.

The author is an undergraduate student of social and cultural anthropology at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He was working for one month as an intern for The Express Tribune in Karachi. He can be reached at [e-mail]

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2016.