Karachi Bienalle 2017 (KB17) billed as Pakistan’s largest international contemporary event has drawn attention to the city. Like so much else in this country, this too is a private initiative. The two week long free public exhibition at 12 venues is unique in so many ways. It is as if it’s raining culture in what had become a parched landscape.

But the bright young and old organisers of KB17 did not emerge out of the blue. They seem to have just magnified the scale and scope of the baby steps that were already being taken by so many of the citizens in different areas over the past decade and even more. As if to reclaim the city, own it and declare it in a way that it seems like an overarching culture of Karachi.

Of course underneath, the myriad subcultures flourished, some after a hiatus. And of course, the recent rejuvenation coincides with a relative calm that has returned to the city after many decades of violence. The near disintegration of an all-powerful political party that ruled the city with vengeance has restored the scope of possibilities.

In today’s Special Report, The News on Sunday focuses on this other side of Karachi. It is nothing about politics and problems of a megacity and is all about the residents bring meaning to their lives as they should -- through art, literature, food and freedom and festivals. At times, places like Lyari and Pashtun areas appear like islands. But they all blend in in the larger scheme called Karachi. Karachi their city!

Read it here: Karachi my city