What It's Like to Live In...Karachi, Pakistan

We think Arubal lives in a fascinating place...and we're jealous that someone picks up her dirty laundry. —Sparkitors

Hi! As you can see from the title, I'm from Pakistan (Karachi, to be exact). I don't think I need to tell you what Pakistan is, because I'm sure you hear about it in the news from time to time. LOVE the place, though it could do with a little less, umm..attention.

I was once talking to this person from the States, and when I mentioned that I'm from Karachi, the person's reply was, "The place with all the bombs and people dying?!".

To try to explain what living in Karachi is like, I say, "Karachi is to Pakistan what New York is to America." Karachi is one of the busiest cities in the world (and it pains me to admit it that crime rate here is very high too).

We don't have one single educational system here; most of the people in the middle, upper, and elite classes go to private school, as the education standard of the public system leaves much to be desired. I'm currently doing my AS levels at one of the best private schools in Karachi (if you don't understand the O levels and A levels Cambridge system, just think of O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S from Harry Potter). We don't have a large campus, but we have all that a student needs from school..except for a swimming pool :(

You have your favourite hangouts, your friends, parties, and yes, we have some of the classic fast food chains here like McDonald's Pizza Hut and KFC. (No Burger King.)

The legal driving age here is 18, but you will always see underage drivers on the streets and what's more, they always get away with it. You know the saying about how the parents never know what the kids are up to? Well..the majority of Pakistan's population is Muslim, and since Islam doesn't allow dating, drinking, or even boy-girl friendships, there's more sneaking going around here then you can imagine. However, there is a new generation of more liberal-minded Muslim parents, so the lives of kids growing up now are drastically different from the lives of people who grew up 10 years ago.

Security is a major issue here. There is political instability, and with the whole Taliban problem blowing up in our faces, life gets hard at times. My parents have often made me cancel plans with my friends because there's a bomb threat.

Half of the population can only speak Urdu. It's pretty cool to be able to say, "Oh yeah, I'm bilingual"..but then there's a language barrier and with that comes a difference in the mindsets of the people. All in all there's a lot of controversy over the "way one should live." Some resent any attempt to adopt western policies, and others are more open-minded.

I never thought it would be hard trying to explain my life :P But the thing, is your background has everything to do with the kind of existence you have here. Honestly speaking, if you're well off, life here isn't much different from what it is anywhere around the world. It's kind of sad, but the divide between the classes is huge. I mess up my room, my iPod is on the floor, my clothes are thrown on my writing table...another girl my age comes and cleans up my room, puts my iPod where it belongs, folds the clean clothes and washes my dirty ones...while another girl my age is on the streets, has never seen an iPod, and only owns one pair of clothes.