Karachi: The most cosmopolitan and free-thinking city of Pakistan

'Karachi is a mad palette of colors and like an onion you have to peel through all of its layers to fully understand its complexity and  properly get to know it. On the surface it is not exactly a pretty city like Lahore and Islamabad but it is by far the most cosmopolitan and free thinking city in the entire country. It’s a microcosm of Pakistan – every community from all over the country is represented here. It is a super intimidating yet exciting city at the same time.'

The featured artist this week is Bilal - the doctor saab from Karachi :)

A trip to the beach is incomplete without a ride a top these decked out camels

The Classic Karachi tourist picture

So, who is Bilal?
Bilal is many things, Bilal just can’t be put into one box. Sometimes I think I have a serious identity crisis. By profession and education I am a Doctor but simultaneously I am also a freelance travel writer I’ve been featured in numerous local and international publications namely  Dawn , The Guardian and The Toronto Star to name a few. I am also the cofounder of Pakistan’s first guided city tour bus the Super Savari Express.

Currently I am in the process of completing my Post Graduate medical licensing exams. In one word they are pure torture. But I tend to stay positive and think about the fact that the grass is greener at the other end once I get done with them. You just have to sit focus and give up your entire social existence to get done and over with them – truth be told that has been extremely difficult for a person like myself a) because I’ve had to stay confined to my desk and study for long hours far far away from my friends and family b) because most of my friends and family don’t get how important these exams are to me. I’ve lost quite a few very good friends of mine during this process because they just wouldn’t understand that hanging out and wasting time was just not an option anymore.

Bahrain Grade!

Karachi is a multicultural city. Pictured here a bunch girls belonging to the Dawoodi Bohra community

Evening rush hour

How about your childhood Bilal?
Oh god why must you go there. I was an extremely naughty child. If you were to ask all my siblings, aunts and cousins right here right now on who was the naughtiest and biggest drama out of all of us I am sure I will win the poll unopposed. For eleven years of my life I grew up abroad first in the United Kingdom then later in Saudi Arabia. My most fond memory from those days are the times when all of my cousins from all over the world and country would get together at my grandparents house during the summer. We’d spend most of the summers at their house having water fights, renting out almost every movie under the sun, playing ludo (and cheating royally at it) and just really bonding. It is thanks to those good old days that we are super close today. My cousins are literally like my siblings.

Any inspirations when you were growing up?
Both my maternal and paternal grandfathers left lasting impressions on me. My maternal grandfather was an income tax commissioner by profession but on the side he was also an avid poet, writer and philanthropist. While on the other hand my paternal grandfather served most of his life in the Pakistan national army on retiring he took up archaeology and travelled far and wide all over the country and beyond excavating one historical site after another. He was one of the co founders of a current tentative UNESCO world heritage site in the province of  Baluchistan by the name of Mehrgarh he even wrote a very detailed book on it later.

A typical vegetable market...

A young man with Pakistan's flag...

Both of them always had something or the other to talk about with everyone at a party because they were so knowledgeable and well versed. My parents are pretty old school desi parents that believe you should just stick to one thing from graduation till the end of your life they don’t really understand why their “Daakter Beta” (doctor son) does all this other “nonsense” “waste of time” stuff I guess the only reason I kind of get away with my non medical related endeavors is because my parents know I am kind of like both of my grandfathers. 

What does photography mean to you?
I consider myself more of a photojournalist than a photographer. I like telling stories through my photographs. Karachi is a city that doesn’t exactly have the best reputation world over due to various different reasons. Through my photographs I tend to humanize my surroundings and tell the story at the grass root level. I cover a diverse plethora of topics in my photographs from travel to human rights to food to general city life I don’t specifically confine myself to one particular genre.

The majority of the city's citizens use these colorful buses as a form of public transport

Karachi Railway Station

Before clicking I think to myself how can I make this well known location or subject my own – something different and not seen or felt like before. I tend to take at least 10+ pictures of one particular scene or subject once I get back home I tend to scrutinize each and every one of them for minute details. Eventually I select the best one and post it or I delete all of them and return back to the same area another day and try to recreate the entire scene again.

Karachi! What is your city like?
Home to over 21 million people the city is never short on stories. Literally the streets are like open books each telling a different story from the city’s turbulent yet glorious past.

Truck art...

Traditional truck art style wall mural.

I love Karachi :)

Moreover other than the streets it is the resilient and enterprising spirit of the people of Karachi that make this city even greater. In Karachi there is this unanimous sense of ownership that the city belongs to all of us and we all must play a small part in it. Karachiites as a whole may have sporadically given up on their leaders but they never give up on their city from regularly organizing clean up drives amongst themselves to cultural festivals to painting beautiful works of art all over the city’s former vitriol ridden walls to literally covering open sewers themselves. The Karachiite spirit is like no other in the entire country.

What's happening with your love life Bilal? :)
I am super single at the moment that means I am single and plan on staying single for a while till I don’t get done with the remainder of my education. Most people my age are married and making babies left right center or are in the process of eloping after dating for a long time. I am in no hurry to settle down mentally I think I still have a lot of maturing to do before I can actually settle down with someone.

What is your dream Bilal?
Oh wow that’s a deep question there. My own personal dream is to be a successful Doctor but at the same time also be able to pursue my other passions like writing and photography. Medicine is an extremely demanding field with each passing day I tend to get lesser and lesser time to myself I hope I can always manage to pull out some time from my busy and demanding schedule to get the creative juices flowing.

On the other hand my greater dream is to see more stability and peace within our region. Pakistan is a beautiful country with immense touristic potential unfortunately for obvious reasons it hasn’t really taken off until the past year when the nation achieved a relative semblance of calm. The tourism industry in Pakistan at the moment is in its infancy I hope to see this sector grow exponentially so that we can welcome in more and more people to our country. One day I hope to drive my car from Kabul all the way till New Delhi while passing through the Wagah border. I strongly believe the borders and hate is all in our heads. We’re all so culturally and linguistically so similar that in today’s connected day and age it’s pretty hard to keep us apart.

Bilal Hassan

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