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

Karachi, After Midnight: VOLUME 2—PART III compiles Shams’s entries from September to December 2004.

The year closes heavier. Illness, funerals, fatigue, and depression settle in. At one point, Shams stops blogging for weeks. The tone grows more fragile. Desire remains, but it carries greater risk. In one entry, he realizes he is parked in a red-light area, staring at men. When a man opens his car door and sits beside him, panic sets in. He imagines being recognized. He imagines his family finding out. The night shifts quickly from possibility to danger.

Yet beauty still interrupts him: a stranger on the street, a room perfectly arranged, a spontaneous “good job” to Allah for making men beautiful. Fear and gratitude exist side by side as 2004 ends for Shams, without resolution.