Gregor Samsa in Pakistan

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As Gregor Samsa — taking liberties with the character of Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis — awoke one morning, the morning for him wasn't fine at all, even though it was drizzling outside in the sweltering summer. The reason? When he was asleep, he was time-travelled to Pakistan. He was greeted with darkness in the room as rain and electricity never get along well in Pakistan.

Samsa stumbled to the water tap to shake off the jet lag by splashing water in his eyes. The tap was desert dry. He turned the tap on and off many a time, but not a single drop of water lingered. He staggered to the kitchen to turn the hob on, but he was out of the schedule for the gas supply.

He wondered what part of the world he was at. He threw open the window to have a panoramic view of the world outside. He got perplexed when he saw some porch lights still on. Imbalance and inequality welcome Samsa to Asia — South Asia, to be more specific.

Rainbound Samsa, to work from home, tried to turn on his laptop, but its battery was stone dead. His mobile phone also excused itself to help him, as it was on its last leg of battery power. Samsa was dumbfounded, as if he had time-travelled backwards on human civilisation's timeline.

Later in the day, Samsa finds that most of the households in the neighbourhood have alternative sources of public services. People have UPS and solar energy installations. People don't depend on the municipal supply of water. They have installed their own water pumps in their houses. They use improvised gas compressors to suck the gas in larger quantities, leaving little for the neighbours who can't afford any alternative source. Samsa laments the individualistic self-sufficiency — too vivid here in its sinister form — spurred by the capitalistic mentalities and state laissez-faire.

Samsa divides the households into have-nots and have-mores. He also finds that public services have trust issues here: they leave the house on their whims and come back as if nothing had happened.

Before the lure of self-sufficiency, whenever a public service supply went off, the resourceful people pulled a few strings to help restore the supply. In a way, they did a community service. Samsa was surprised that in his land, people asked, "What do you do?" and here it's "Who do you know?"

Over time, people got sick of frequent failures of public services. The upper crust of society started having their own sources of utilities. It all disturbed the social balance, making it worse for the have-nots. Samsa smiles at the paradox: those who have alternative sources of public services are accorded more supplies on the platter, while those who survive only on public services get less and disruptive.

Disruptions in power supply, cable TV networks and internet supply precipitate the transformation of family entertainment into individualistic digital screen addiction. The youth then laid into by the elders for their addiction feel isolated and search for moorings in other cultures and climes. Samsa muses that in his land, people discussed Brexit, while here it's exit either from jail or from the country.

Samsa laughs in his heart of hearts that the country runs on contradictions: late night political talk shows and early morning polycrises snowballing into threats. But he reels and rankles at the commodification of the public service of court justice which is becoming a luxury good.

Samsa fails to perceive the failure of democracy, or rather its hijack. He observes democracy in its true form only in the classrooms where the teacher lectures and students vote - with yawns.

All this comes down to existential uncertainty and systemic instability. Here, governments are toppled overnight by alien powers or a swish of judicial quill. Political parties are deprived of their identities or granted carte blanche to vandalise the constitution as might suit them. One segment of society enjoys an unprecedented exponential pay rise, while the other (government employees) creeps on roads for disparity reduction allowance.

Seeing humans living such an abject existence, Samsa wishes that he remain in the fictional realms in his metamorphosed existence of a giant bug, which he had accepted without any demur.