As December rolls around, there is a festivity in the air. Despite the fact that work and school is in progress till atleast the third week, the holiday mode is infectious. The twinkling lights and Christmas decor in shop windows help- yes our Enid Blyton and Archie comics childhood does link holiday season with snow and Santa. What also intensifies the joyous anarchy in the air in terms of work timelines and bedtimes, is the avalanche of friends and family that starts arriving for their annual Karachi fix. Late night chat and chai sessions- a long dinner grabbed with a friend while catching up on the last two years of life, park plans with the many kids, coffee plans with the old comfies, discovering a new breakfast nook with the love- all have a sense of lazy fun and long days all playing to the music of winter in Karachi.
I am in a super illustratey mood these days. Loving the raw marker feel that has Nadi enraptured these days. The roughness of the stroke the loss of details are all qualities in these one-minute sketches that are in line with the current mood of simply letting things roll as they will, without a need to examine, think or control. Want to make tiny little drawings of everything to capture the feeling in the air. Truly feeling the joy.
Loving the illustrations keep them coming! Is upper crust as good as they say?
the croissant was good the breakfast was ok- the coffee was also very good 🙂
Oh God, I didn’t know I missed Karachi so much! Home is after all where your heart is. And now I think, I have pieces of my heart in two different places now.
ah yes the great living abroad debate. 🙂 karachi has a way of getting under your skin somehow.
i keep on telling you all “Aaj Purani Raho Se Koi Mujhe Awaz Na Dey”…I will start crying now. It is A’s last day in playschool tomorrow and I am already bawling in the corner. I LOVED that school. It was Karachi for me.
i like that- how some things are “Karachi” for us.
LOVE the illustration:) finally you is back:)
and lets do uppercrust, i REALLY liked it:)
This is hilarious… I’ve literally JUST posted something that also revolves around winter in Karachi. You’ve captured the feeling so well. Echo Mariam and Meyum on the illustration big time.
such a yummy post.
You live in a beautiful Karachi. The Karachi I live in, I heard two bomb blasts in one week. Children chained in a *madrassa* (so-called obviously) very, very close to home. No parks. Let alone women walking anywhere. Very few (and I wonder at their guts) brisk walking in their muhallas wearing burqas and trainers. Fashionable disaster but at least they’ve chosen not to let lack of style get in their way. They stick to their lifestyle – or life-unstyle? Relatives or friends barely meeting because ‘that side of Karachi isn’t safe!’.
I pray that every Karachiite one day, has the same liberty here as you do. Or at least, find the silver lining like you have.
🙂