Some years ago, at the start of a return journey from Karachi to New York, my husband and I finish checking in for our flight.
As we rush from the airport check-in counter to the security line, we come across several men waiting in line at a first-class counter. Like us, they are leaving Karachi, but unlike us, they are not rushing nor carrying heavy hand luggage. They wear flowing white robes and matching headdresses, and they are perfectly relaxed alongside luggage carts draped in dark fabric.
We’ve already passed them when I see it: a live falcon perched on a man.
I stop, surprised at the scene and how full of love and silence it is. Flights are being announced and the rest of us are hurrying. The bird is perfectly still, like the smiling man.
In Pakistan, falcons are trafficked and Sheikhs are given special dispensation to hunt endangered birds in the deserts of Sindh and Balochistan. The moment confuses me. Is the falcon being rewarded for hunting a Houbara Bustard? Could a newly captured falcon and its owner already be in love?
