A gay man’s online diary from Pakistan’s dial-up era.

Karachi, After Midnight: VOLUME 2—PART I compiles Shams’s entries from January to April 2004.

The first part of Volume 2 begins at night. Shams drives through Clifton and Defence, racing through the city with friends and lingering at traffic signals a little too long. He writes of testosterone and instinct. Desire feels everywhere, uncontained: in chatrooms, in passing glances, and in strangers on motorcycles.

One night, he attends a gay party. It is not grand or cinematic. It is awkward and observant. Yet for him, that night marks a crossing from imagining desire to inhabiting it. He notices the way Karachi becomes a stage after sunset and the pull of the city after midnight.