In Karachi, hot weather is normal … but 44C feels like you’re going to die
K arachi’s heat hits you like a wall when you wake up in the morning. When you are up and getting changed, and the humidity hits you in the chest, you realise it’s going to be really hot today. But it’s another day, so you grab your bag and go to work.
I’m done with Karachi. I don’t want to live here any more. It’s the heat, the infrastructure, everything. You’re sweaty, you have problems breathing, there’s dust in the air. You have to use your brain at work but you have brain fog, and after 25 minutes you already need to step out for air. But when you do it’s hot, sunny, humid.
It’s happened to me a bunch of times that I come home after work and I feel like my body’s not working like it’s supposed to. I can’t work out, I can’t go out, I can’t go for a walk. I feel nauseous. When it’s above 44C it feels like you’re going to die – I’m not making that up.
And it’s getting worse. Now it goes above 40C on an average day, and the intensity of the heat is different to when I was growing up in the city; the sunlight’s brighter, more piercing. Karachi always had a sea breeze but now the air is really still during the day. Our houses are not made to withstand this kind of heat. A couple of days ago, I took out some food but then had a meeting and by the time I came back it had gone bad.
