Story of a fractured city

{ A KARACHI NOVEL } POLITICAL REALITY MEETS MAGIC REALISM

- Lamat R Hasan

Fouzia and Qazi-ud-din Ahmed started hating their son Waleed when he turned 13. His descent from being their precious firstborn, a boy at that, to a fat, ugly school dropout was quick. The Ahmeds live in Korangi, a satellite town of Karachi earmarked for the poor, and Qazi-ud-din believes he has done his worthless son a favour by getting him to work at his uncle's grocery store in the neighbourhood.

Paranormal experiences in the Ahmed household are routine after Fouzia, eager to birth another boy, visits a sorcerer named Baba Bangali, in an obscure part of the city. The sorcerer promises her a boy, whom she delivers after an unusually extended maternity period running into a couple of years. Thereafter, for the Ahmeds, the apple of their eye is Hameed. He is dropped to school each morning by his father, even though his sister Sadia walks to school each morning too, enchanting gully boys with her hazel eyes.

The shapeshifting shadow and innate strength of Hameed, who may have been fathered by a djinn, intrigues the boys at school.

This is a family only on paper, though. Each member is tired of their daily drudgery, unaware and uncaring when it comes to the demons eating up the other. Life isn't kind to Waleed. One night, he is mugged and his mobile phone stolen. As the bikers zip past, the only clue Waleed picks up is that one of his mugger's ears is sliced in half.