There is beauty in Karachi’s chaos and knowledge in its narratives.

In working class lexicon, Karachi is seldom a father. Many tend to describe the city as a mother, always worthy of gratitude because of how it accepted them and nurtured them when they had nothing. Many put their faith in the city to help them build new lives; perhaps the city only banked on their promise when it welcomed them.

The story of the city, any city, is a collection of the varied lives that its inhabitants live and their many interactions across cultural geographies. A compilation of such stories, either in the media or through the academia, provides a window into today’s social processes and today’s cultural realities. Read as a trend, a clearer picture of society begins to emerge, of how society’s fabric is evolving and what is shaping it.

Karachi is a collection of migrants, from various ethnicities and backgrounds, some having arrived soon after Partition and others after having been squeezed in their ancestral villages and towns. With growing population and competition for resources, many entrants were forced to find gainful employment on the street. Most revelled in this opportunity.

From a bustling working class bloc to being brutally thrashed in 1972 at the hands of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the labouring classes were once a stakeholder in the development of the city. Their systematic dismantling by successive governments has meant that younger generations of working class migrants arrived in Karachi with a particular aim: to make ends meet, by any way possible.

The individual found an opportunity to shine in this framework, albeit in their limited, personal sphere. Away from factories and working class organisations, there were many labourers who found creative ways to deal with whatever the city had to throw at them. Most arrived with nothing; but as is the wont of this city, it rewards those who show invention and innovation.

Through the voices of street vendors and service providers, we attempt to capture the mood, temperament, and temperature of the streets in Karachi today and those who roam them. Their successes and failures are not grand or pompous, nor are they earth-shattering, profit-maximising triumphs; these are small, mundane accomplishments that have been carefully accrued over a period of time.

But it is through their voices that we discover how we are beginning to lose Karachi’s softer side. Matters associated with respect, dignity, or even basic courtesy are fast being lost to intolerance and a culture of lawlessness. Serving a glass of water to the postman or a janitor is out of vogue, class biases have turned into blind ignorance of others’ realities, compassion and camaraderie are in short supply, and those who can’t live by the city’s new rules are being forced out by those who will.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, May 3rd, 2015

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