Karachi by streetlight is a very different place from Karachi by sunlight. The touch and feel and look and smell of the two places is vastly different. It is as if there are two sides to a coin, flipped every time the sun moves across beyond the horizon.

The sunlit ambiance of a cloudless city undergoing a very mild winter is completely opposed to the misty ambiance of an urban metropolis deep at slumber in the late hours of December. The throng of people on each and every road during the day reminds one of a tropical climate. The empty roads and misty atmosphere during the night reminds one of an alpine climate where the business of life ends after the sun falls. One gets to see both sides of the coin each day every day.

Traffic during the day has an irritated; rushed; getting late for work feel to it. A rather mild irritation at having to go about the business of life and that too in a hurry. Traffic at night has a melancholy; anxious; getting late for home feel to it. A rather mild tiredness at having finished the day and now anxious to get to the nest. Like people traffic has moods; like people traffic can be read; like people traffic is very hard to understand; like people traffic is very easy to understand. Like a mistresses one gets to understand the city anew every day. Live and learn. Day by day.

All said and done, I get to feel the difference most when my morning drive to work is about 40 minutes / 5 Cigarettes long and my late night drive home is about 20 minutes / 3 Cigarettes long.