In 1961, my parents and I lived in Karachi, West Pakistan. I added "West" because that was before East and West Pakistan split into two separate countries (Pakistan and Bangladesh). My dad was working for an engineering company that was designing drinking water supply for the Karachi area.
Karachi was a difficult time for the family. The city was primitive and dirty. Food standards were low. Prices for a western lifestyle were unexpectedly high. My dad rented an apartment, but the price was well above the housing allowance provided by the company. I recall the apartment and yard were OK, but the municipal electricity was sporadic. We could not drink tap water.
The expatriate (expat) community was active, and we associated with other Americans and Europeans. As was common among expat communities, we bought furniture and household goods from other foreigners who were leaving for other assignments. That included buying and selling LP records (that seemed to be a big deal, according to my dad's diary). The American ambassador used to show movies on a screen on his rooftop. We used to visit our friends, who lived in an adjacent house, and sit on their roof to watch the ambassador's films.
Here are some street scenes from the city. Unfortunately, my dad did not label the slide mounts with date or exact location. Please click any picture to see it enlarged.
Home
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| Couch transportation device, Feb. 2, 1962 |
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| Moving day, Jan. 22, 1962 |
The black Chevrolet was a company car. A black car without air conditioning in Karachi? It might have been a bit more convenient than the camel.
Unfortunately, I could not find any photos from inside the apartment.
Downtown
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| Kandawala Building, Bunder Road, Karachi. It housed offices of the US Embassy and US AID. |
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| Professional letter or document writers |
I have seen letter writers like this in other countries. For people who could not write or did not have paper or a writing situation where they lived, the professional scribes provided a vital service.
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| Vital shaving service |
Saddar District
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| Jahangir Park (possibly) with the Empress Market in the background |
According to the current internet, Jahangir Park is now walled and has dinosaurs in it.
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| Empress Market, Saddar district |
The bustling Empress Market in the Saddar area was built between 1884 and 1889 during the British Raj. I do not remember visiting markets, but I assume we explored. This may have been similar to Scott Market in Rangoon, also a major mrket from the era of the British Raj.
My dad and I liked busy markets like this, my mom less so. But this looks pretty clean, so maybe she would have been reasonably comfortable looking around.
City Outskirts
The outskirts of the city had miles of shanties and huts. Local people, often children, collected camel and cow dung to dry in the sun. They sold these patties for fuel.
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| End of the road - somewhere |
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| Sailing boat excursion somewhere on Hawke's Bay |
Looking at these slides brought back memories of another time, another life. I would love to go back and explore, but the political and security situation of the 2026 world makes a trip to Karachi unlikely, especially for US citizens.
My dad took these pictures on Ektachrome slide film with his Leica IIIC camera with 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens. I scanned the slides with a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED film scanner controlled by NikonScan 4.03 software. The slides had changed color to red, but the auto color function in Photoshop Elements 2024 did a remarkable job at retrieving some original color.
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| Karachi and the Indus River valley (from Google Maps) |
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