Karachi "The City of Lights" is a fascinating and rapidly changing city. The OLD style hang on as the city landscape is becoming cramped with modern skyscrapers every second, as the city is the country's power house people from around country are converging here. For a common man who has been living here too busy to crisscross Karachi or for a new arrival the idea of roaming the city seems rather perilous and life threatening. Rest  assure, KYC is no more dangerous then Mumbai or New York for that matter. 

in the past Karachi was the epitome of peace, class, modernism and lavish lifestyle, obviously that is not the case anymore, due to the cultural diversity of its inhabitants, coupled with the ever growing need of power that corrupts the leaders the lifestyles of the people of Karachi has became alot more tense. gone are the days when buses roamed the city filled with tourists (as depicted below), now all that can be seen are dirty buses laden with commuters going to and from work.

  
    (tourist bus in 1972)(Ron Pinto band performing at The Beach Luxury Hotel)

At present the city seems confused as are its residents, confused in whether to live as  staunch muslims or pro-western liberals. 

  

If one starts to travel from the Karachi toll plaza i.e. start of the city it would appear that while coming from Hyderabad the driver has some how entered Peshawar or Quetta, shocked as he or she might be, rest assure you are still on the right track. Moving on the first establishment that can bee seen is the New Fruit and Vegetable market that has been established by the Local Govt. and what a market is it, exporting agricultural products to the entire country and the world from a mere a few Km's of space, it is well and truly a business hub. 

Moving on the Karachi Hyderabad motorway which takes us through the city and leads us through Malir Cantonment which is a Military controlled Residential colony initially designed for the forces, it has got both military bases as well as residential colonies for officials as well as high earning civilians. even though anyone wishing to visit the residents of Malir Cantt has to spend hours in line for entry in log and must submit original identification else entry is strictly prohibited. (I know it sounds like some sci-fi filck but its real)

    

Along this fortified residential colony the city's airport is located namely Jinnah International Airport. I can honestly say that KYC is probably only metropolis where the air port is inside the city rather then the boundary. Largest international and domestic airport of Pakistan is named after the founder of Pakistan ‘Muhammad Ali Jinnah’. It served as major transshipment base during World War II and got further expanded in 1980’s. The current infrastructure of the airport was part of the expansion program of 1994. Airport has two runways each of width 46m. Each runway has the capacity to accommodate 15 flights per hour for landing and takeoff.  

Right alongside the airport are the towns of Model colony and Khokrapar. both towns are densely inhabited and their residents boast from all economic, cultural and religious sects. Record states that Model colony has the highest number of Qadyani residents as compared to any other part of Karachi. the town has a rich array of cricketing talent including Pakistan cricket's legends Saeed Anwar and Rashid Latif. 

               (shahrah-e-faisal)            
It's a fact that Karachi is dissected by a few main roads which enable travelers to access any and all parts of the city. one such road is Shahrah-e-Faisal. Is starts from the outskirt of the city and takes the commuters to the very heart. it is named after the King Faisal of Saudia Arabia who has played a pivotal role in the development of the country. the road is one of the few that transports hundereds and thousands of people from one corner of the city to the next. along the Shahrah one can find the airport, residential and official complexes, offices of the forces, railway lines and God knows what else. it is estimated that their are over 18,000 different offices located in the various buildings located on the sides of the road. shahrah-e-faisal is also known for its midnight races, drunk drivers, mobile snatching and long stops to let the VIP's transit from the airport to their lodgings n back.
Next we look at Shah-faisal colony. the town which is most famous for its  Chappli Kabab. It is a pure middle and lower middle class society and at its heart is the town's business hub The all illustrious Shama Center. It is the landmark of the town and is the busiest of all places, always crowded with haggling women, cranky children, "Gutka" eating shopkeepers and smelly pathans.          (shama centre) 

On the other side of the  Shah faisal colony the industrial extension named the Landhi Industrial Textile Extension. it is one of the biggest and developing sectors of the city. the members of LITE include giants like Younis Textile, Lucky Textile and Al-karam textiles. In order to facilitate the exporters of the city the govt of Pakistan has established an Export Processing Zone near LITE. this EPZ allows its members i.e. mill  owners certain tax brackets that enable them to boost their trade activities all under the watchful eyes of the govt. it is however said that the Talibans are slowly growing their presence in the textile areas of Landhi and Korangi sectors because these places allow them to mingle with the crowd and stay within touching distance of their high profile targets. Landhi also happens to be one of the few places where industries occupy 90% of the total land area. Next to the Landhi Industrial area is the residential block. I think it is worth mentioning that Dr. Naweed I Syed the man behind the humanoid chip was born in Landhi(unconfirmed from Dr. Syed). At present he is working in Canada on a chip that can be connected to a human brain.