L: Roasted corn, camel, and sunset (photo by Minal S); R: With siblings, cousins, and Ammi at Usman’s mehndi celebration My two weeks in Karachi were punctuated with wedding...
Read more02 Feb, 2022
30 Mar, 2020
on lockdown with the rest of the world…
30 Mar, 2020
Week 1: a Saturday evening sunset at Redondo Beach, a site that is now closed Week One (March 16-22): Two weeks ago, all schools in Los Angeles and most...
Read more12 Feb, 2017
the invasion of plastic…
12 Feb, 2017
Today, before heading out to Karachi Literature Festival at the Beach Luxury Hotel, filmmaker Tehmina Ahmed and I carve out time to visit Khajoor Bazaar. Located in old Karachi,...
Read more10 Feb, 2017
home again…
10 Feb, 2017
Even though my time in Karachi is brief, I’m able to carve out time to accept Asif Farrukhi’s long-standing invitation to visit Habib University, a liberal arts school that...
Read more07 Feb, 2017
vacant airplane…
07 Feb, 2017
Empty airplane seats on my 16-hour journey from LAX to KHI, where I’m heading for just six days to participate in the annual Karachi Literature Festival, which will attract...
Read more11 Mar, 2016
ammunition stores and minal’s project…
11 Mar, 2016
An ammunition store in Houston’s Oak Forest neighborhood Since I’ve been back in Houston, Minal and three of her classmates have been working on an International Baccalaureate (IB) project...
Read more10 Feb, 2016
i am karachi wall project…
10 Feb, 2016
Two images from a wall created by VASL, a Karachi-based arts collective, for a project called I Am Karachi. The project’s Walls for Peace initiative aims to replace “negative...
Read more06 Feb, 2016
karachi literature festival…
06 Feb, 2016
Borderlines panel – participants from left to right: moderator Ghazi Salahuddin, Sehba Sarwar, Noor Zaheer, Naila Mahmood, and Tehmina Ahmed; photo by Akbar Baloch Back in 2010, I participated...
Read more07 May, 2015
essay in gray matters…
07 May, 2015
photograph of my 2009 “Listening from Within” installation dedicated to my father, Dr. Mohammad Sarwar; photo by Eric Hester An excerpt from my longer essay “That Long Monday Afternoon”...
Read more13 Jul, 2014
window-shopping at the forum…
13 Jul, 2014
The pre-Eid shopping frenzy has already begun in Karachi, and shopping centers remain open after iftari. One night, my mother Zakia Sarwar and I wander over to the Forum,...
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