He’s unlike anyone you know. No I am not declaring what every girl wishes to say about her special someone; I’m describing Sameer. The reason for this statement is that Sameer is an entirely fictional character. But like most fictional characters, he bears an uncanny resemblance to living persons. In fact, from afar, he would appear to be an ordinary Karachiite.
Sameer is a person torn between two worlds: one the one hand he floats in the opulent bubble of the rich and famous and on the other, he is strung in the problems-fraught lives of the middle-class. How he became a part of these two worlds is a tale for another. Today, let’s find out more about him.
Sameer has one true love in his life: photography. For now, he has to make-do with his Sony Cybershot DSC-H20 digital camera that he paid for himself (with savings of 8 months and his eidi). Since his parents deem photography an idle pleasure that must be exercised with care lest it interfere with Sameer’s studies, he intends to take up professional photography only once he’s done with his Bachelor’s and is fully independent.
Why is Sameer content with putting his dreams on hold while he fulfills his parents’? The reason lies in an incident that took place on June 14, 2008…but more on that later.
All you need to know today is that Sameer has spent his teenage years amidst some of the richest and most influential people of Karachi. What few of his school friends realized though, was that he wasn’t rich and influential like them. He comes from an ordinary middle-class family. A family where the amma (mother) does not partake in kitty parties but rather a daily ritual of slurping chai (tea) off the tashtari (saucer) and the abba (father) takes Marwat (a bus) to work rather than being driven in a chauffeured company car.
His dual existence has given him a unique eye to viewing the world. While Sameer commutes daily in buses, eats with his hands and abuses largely in Urdu, he has also gone drifting in a Mercedes, taken a swig of a Dom Perignon and sworn to Jesus.
Sameer now stands at a crossroads. He cannot be a part of two such different worlds without losing himself along the way. Will he choose the lavish lifestyle he was exposed to as a child or continue life as a commoner? That is to be seen.
