The Karachi Walla

Hussain’s vinyl collection should not be dismissed as a shop’s merchandise for it also serves as an important archive. This city has a dearth of museums and very few collections of art are there in public spaces. Sharing music archives is still an after thought. Digitization has improved accessibility of music in general but one […]

Karachi’s Happy Street. The streets in Lyari are dull, most of them without any paint. Therefore this particular street off Atmaram Pritamdas Road stand out and catch your attention from a distance. Painted with vivid colors, paved with envicrete tiles and decorated with occasional flower pots, the street could be mistaken to belong to some […]

The Qawwali at Pakistan Chowk was a fantastic experience. Subhan Nizami is one of the finest Qawwals in the city and Pakistan Chowk has turned out to be a vibrant public space since its restoration. The combination guaranteed to entertain and engage the audience, a lot of which were from the area. It would not […]

Karachi’s broken hearts. Karachi Awami Pipe & Brass Band is a group of eight, most of them approaching 50s. They followed different trajectories before ending up in a small office in KMC Marekt in Garden. Some of them have worked in Punjab before moving to Karachi. Another one has recently joined from Hyderabad. One of […]

The auditorium inside Jamshed Memorial Hall is perhaps the oldest venue for theatre performance in Karachi. With uncontrolled commercialization of Bunder road, much of cultural activities along with theatre shifted to other areas of the city. Jamshed Memorial Hall also suffered from the changing dynamics and remained dormant as far as theatre is concerned. The […]