Seeking Solace in New Places

Appears in
Andaza: A Memoir of Food, Flavour and Freedom in the Pakistani Kitchen
Andaza

By Sumayya Usmani

Published 2023

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When I wasn’t savouring time spent in the kitchen of our new home, I was finding distraction from the silent treatment I was receiving from my in-laws by going out to parties with Juni. Right up until I was married, my parents had insisted on a curfew of 10.30 p.m. – but no party in Karachi began before eleven.

While I relished the freedom of late nights, I didn’t really enjoy the social scene. For the past few years, I’d been on the periphery of the ‘party people’ in Karachi. Seeking to be a part of this set was what most young people from my background craved. After all, there was little else to do in the city at that time: no nightclubs or bars open to the public, no cinemas nearby, no independent cafés where you could sit and have coffee with friends; meeting each other for meals and parties was our main source of entertainment.