How Red Sneakers Changed My Life

If I look through my posts, sift through the garbled mess of my half-written stories, I find a pattern emerging. I can identify the aspects of life I care most about, and the things that captivate me the most on this lonely planet...the sun setting over a chaotic Karachi road, a blazing orange disc in the sky, the buildings lit up from beneath with its yellowish warmth basking in the afterglow of yet another sunset, the solidity of the apartment buildings that enclose our rooftop, cutting off the view of the skyline altogether so that all you can see are rows upon rows of bright windows, each one permitting you a narrow view into the room beyond, each one a story separate and distinct from the next, unaware of life on the other side of the wall, the loneliness of the human existence and the futility of the world's many machinations which leads me to God, as everything always does in the end. We come full circle to God, to God, to God. The Beginning and The End.  Why do all my pos...

Today is May 11th. It's finally election day! And even though I'm finally old enough to exercise my right to vote, I probably won't have an ink-stained thumb later tonight. As much as I appreciate the ECP's efforts at ensuring that the majority of Pakistan's population was registered for the elections this time round, things haven't gone smoothly at all obviously. Turns out all of my family's polling stations are scattered across the city. I'm registered at some school in Malir, my grandparents are supposed to cast their vote in North Nazimabad, my mom is the only one fortunate enough to have her polling station in our area, and my dad isn't a registered voter at all. Keeping the security situation in view and the Taliban's hours-old announcement of planning nation-wide attacks on election offices tomorrow, it's probably better to stay locked indoors. But isn't that what we've been doing for the past decade or so? Where is our faith?...