Issue No. 4: Chai Paratha Breakfasts, Wedding Preps & Time with Family
Welcome to the first issue of 2024.
Welcome to the very first edition of 2024. I was in Pakistan the past few weeks and wrote this issue in parts, on different days throughout my trip. It’s going to be a lighter read and a mix of some general life musings from time spent at home and my niece’s wedding xx
THE KARACHI CHAPTER
It’s a little after 7 am at my mother’s place and the smell of parathas is wafting out from the kitchen. Our house help makes these beautiful, layered parathas for us every morning, a rich layer of desi ghee shining on the surface, each bite crisp and indulgent. Dipped in chai, it’s one of my most favorite breakfasts.
I’m writing this issue from back home in Karachi (Pakistan) and the past few days have been a mix of spending time with the family, some wedding preps and breathing in the feeling of being in the place you came from.
Early mornings at Ammi’s place are slow. The curtains are half-drawn, there’s soft light filtering through the windows. My sister and I usually wake up before the rest of the family, and as I make chai for the two of us and my 6-year old niece prances around us seemingly very busy with her own stuff, we catch up on life things in hushed tones. Spending the majority of our adult lives apart from one another, only getting to meet for a few days at a time, this experience of hanging out on a sofa in our pajamas, warm cups of chai in our hands…this is truly what feels like the single most interesting thing we could do after having traveled thousands of miles to be here.
We spend what feels like a long, luxurious hour just sharing stories. Somewhere along the way, Ammi also joins in. We make more chai, we chat some more, until our slow morning melts into the chatter and buzz of a typical Pakistani home.
My eldest niece gets married this month in Lahore (another city in Pakistan) and so our conversations have also largely been around wedding preps. What everyone will be wearing, what roles will each person have at the event, what last minute chores do we need to do.