WHAT are the real images of this city? What is the lifestyle of Karachi? ... Which images bring out more the lifestyle here? We talked about this and this lady was angry, philosophical, articulate.

Have you seen the faces of poverty and deprivation at the city’s traffic lights, which are intended to depict the urban strides of the Sindh capital? Agonizing faces of ill-health and malnutrition, symbolizing the inequality and disparity of lifestyle that Pakistani society has.

They are images of unhappiness that we seem to have taken for granted. Sometimes there are faces of children, sometimes not. Adults, able-bodied, handicapped, some beggars. Seasoned beggars, shrewd beggars and demanding beggars. Men, young and old, women, young and old. All sad looking, she said, explaining that these moving images of people reflect the state our of society. I thought.

There was much to think about in what she said. She spoke of the children who had been kidnapped, and were intended to be smuggled to Malta, and were kept in a Gulshan-i-Iqbal house. What happened to that awful story? Why is no one bothered about it? This is a city that forgets, I tried to sound mild. She still was intense. Even bitter.

Come to think of it, Karachi’s twinkling traffic lights present to us the sharpest contrast, embarrassing contrast, between the different income groups that the city has (like any other city, really). Look at the new, dream-look cars that stop at the traffic lights, and the dilapidated public transport system that comes to a halt at the same intersections. Look at the people who sit in some of these cars, and look at the people who sit in those buses, minibuses, rickshaws, and even taxis. There is a world of difference, two different worlds really. In fact many different worlds exist in this city, making one contemplate how they all coexist.

Special mention needs to be made of the children on th