My Scholarship in Pakistan

To this day I have never seen so many people. Karachi choked and spluttered under the weight of her traffic, pandemonium personified. Men, women and children (but mostly men) from all walks of life thronged the dusty streets, buying, selling, drinking chai; trade seemed to be happening everywhere I looked. There was something almost mediaeval about the place; a busy port city standing guard on the Arabian Sea, bringing in commodities from places too far away to mention.

Each building had its own individual charm; dilapidated shops protruded outwards into the street, electrical cables hung dangerously low above my head, makeshift washing lines.

I meandered through a labyrinthine bazar

 it exclusively sold electrical appliances, and after that an entire thoroughfare dedicated to the sale of wristwatches, each vendor competing with the man next door selling exactly the same thing.  I wondered how each shop got enough business to stay afloat, until I remembered that Karachi had a population approaching 20 million, making it one of the largest urban agglomerations in the World. That’s 10 million wrists needing to tell the time. The few ‘Western’ establishments in the city seemed out of place, an armed guard stood outside Pizza Hut in the hope of putting prospective customers at ease.

• Sometimes it took 5 minutes to cross a single road, due to the density and speed of oncoming cars, motorbikes, and donkeys.
• It seems even the most submissive Pakistani throws caution to the wind the moment they get behind the wheel.