The London based novelist Kamila Shamsie
returns to her city of birth every winter,
and this time decides to explore it properly:

1. Arrival, and the family waits for her...

Producer Duncan Minshull

"Each time I visit Karachi there is a particular strangeness that accompanies me... invisible to x-ray machines... undetected by sniffer dogs. It is the strangeness of returning."

London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to Karachi every January to see her family and old friends. But it's not where she lives anymore, so it has a fresh and often surprising quality to it. Over five 'postcards' for The Essay, she explores the city of her birth in this uncertain and often intriguing light

And the experience of arrival is a big deal. Outside the sleek, spare, deserted airport terminal all of Karachi's life comes towards you... Show less