A walk through a forest may be simply to get through to the other side, or to study the foraging patterns of ants. Religious devotion can be going to the mosque to pray on the clock, or to spend hours contemplating the hidden meanings of Quranic verses. Most people take the much-travelled route to work with bumper-to-bumper traffic, a few look for alternate routes and, in the process, discover new neighbourhoods of the city.

Similar choices apply to our perception of different countries, class, race, communities and individuals. Broad sweeping statements about the West or the East, or Africa, or first world versus developing countries, may be supported by facts, but overlook the nuances and subtleties that reveal the true picture.

Whenever we read a biography or an obituary of a person we thought we knew so well, it takes us by surprise to learn about aspects of their lives we were unaware of. People wear many hats — simultaneously a son or daughter, a parent, a colleague at work. Many may have secret passions such as playing a musical instrument, singing, composing poetry, painting, photography, joining fight clubs or an addiction to gambling.

Sometimes the passions become the identity. Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi is known for his humorous satirical writings, rather than as president of United Bank or chairman of the Pakistan Banking Council. Mustafa Zaidi, Parween Shakir, Qudratullah Shahab became famous for their literary contributions rather than their civil service careers.

While T. S. Eliot was writing The Waste Land, he was working on foreign accounts at Lloyds Bank. Music composer Philip Glass did odd jobs as a cab driver and a plumber. The poet William Carlos Williams was a paediatrician, writer Kurt Vonnegut, a car dealer, William S. Burroughs a bug exterminator, and Franz Kafka, a legal clerk. Artist Jeff Koons was a commodity broker, and the list goes on.

The poet Stanley Kunitz asks us to “Live in the layers, not on the litter.” Litter refers to superficial moments of life, floating on the surface, while layers implies a deeper exploration of life and relationships.

Large multicultural cities like Karachi take time to be discovered. They reveal themselves through their layered network of activities. The city is mapped differently for shopoholics, for foodies, or even for burglars. Car enthusiasts gather at a cricket ground in New Karachi’s sector 11-D to buy and sell cars. Bird lovers wait for the last Sunday of the month for the Lalukhet bird market. Rickshaw drivers compete in races on the highway, with engines retrofitted to reach speeds of over 100km/h. Street cricket, carom or snooker teams know where the next match will be held. Gamblers know when the next cockfight will surface.

At a more global level, Special Interest Tourism is gaining momentum. People tour countries following lesser-known archaeological sites, nature trails, music festivals, sports events or cuisine, and even rediscover their own country through another’s eyes, such as Karl Rock’s vlogs of Pakistan. When Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989, it became possible to browse and investigate the layers of other lives and virtually acquire new layers of knowledge and experiences.

Each of us is also an amalgam of layers — our physical selves, our values, our personal histories, our interests, our place in the community. We are subconsciously aware of these layers in ourselves and others. Through conscious introspection, we can delve deeper, to seek the more profound truths of life and to give meaning to our existence.

Critics of literature, art and music are familiar with the process of peeling away the layers of creative works in order to get to their essential message and value. As the world axis wobbles with the unravelling of its power structures, historians, political savants, sociologists and climatologists are also in the process of stripping away the layers of past practices to understand how we arrived where we are today.

Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist. She may be reached at durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, July 11th, 2021