600-word, single space analysis of “No Mas Bebés” that places the film in a longer andThe last time I was in Karachi was ten years years ago. 

I was eleven years old and took a month off of school to visit the city my parents call home. My three younger sisters and my Mama traveled for two days to attend my cousin’s wedding in Pakistan’s largest city. While the experience of attending a wedding in the motherland was extravagant, I never had the chance to really explore the city in between dance rehearsals and tending to all of our guests. 

Since then, I have always wanted to go back to Karachi. I wanted to ride the camels that my parents rode on the beaches where they sat around fireplaces with their childhood friends and I wanted to visit the school where my Nani taught for nearly her entire life. I wanted to buy churiya (bangles) in every color and eat fresh Pakistani mangoes. 

However, with flights costing nearly $2000, this felt like nothing more than a dream.

Then, in March of my junior year, I received an email about the Lowell House Pechet Fellowship. This fellowship is open to all current sophomores, juniors, and seniors in Lowell and awards up to $5,000 to travel anywhere in the world for around two weeks. There are no specific requirements attached to this fellowship, but generally, it is intended for people who have not traveled much internationally. 

I didn’t know right away that I wanted to apply for money to go to Pakistan, but the more that I thought about it, it was the first place on my bucket list. After spending a year leading South Asian organizations on campus and in the process of designing my senior thesis, I realized that this would be the perfect time to go to Pakistan. 

After applying in late March, I found out in April that I was one of the four recipients of the fellowship! In August, I finally got on a seventeen hour flight and landed in Pakistan! 

In Karachi, I was reunited with two of my Baba’s brothers and his only sister. I met my cousins after a decade and we spent the week visiting every corner of the city. From the Mohatta Palace Museum to Clifton Beach, I saw the beauty of the chaotic city where honking never seemed to cease. Despite the loudness of the bustling metropolitan, I fell in love with how alive the city felt. 

In the second week of my trip, I visited Lahore, the capital of Pakistan, where I met up with friends from Harvard. There, I went to the Punjab Public Library and the Quaid-E-Azam Library, when I started to think more deeply about my senior thesis. I also had the opportunity to take a rickshaw tour of Old Lahore, the historic core of the city, which contains beautiful buildings like the Badshahi Mosque, Lahore Fort, and the Shahi Hammam. In our freetime, my friends and I ate lots of good food. 

As a first-generation low-income student,  I really didn’t think I would ever get the chance to go back to Pakistan. I’m incredibly grateful to Lowell House and Harvard for this opportunity — truly, this is a trip I will remember for a lifetime. 

broaderhistorical perspective