The Essay - Karachi Postcards - Traffic Stops as 'Street Cricket' Takes Pride of Place...

The London based novelist Kamila Shamsie returns to the city of her birth every winter, and this time decides to explore it properly: 2. Traffic stops as 'street cricket' takes pride of place... "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. This time, she takes to the streets to enjoy the mania that is 'street cricket', and explains how this form of the game reflects on the professional version, with its groomed heroes and rivalry with India. Sporting politics are never far away though..