The numerous narratives running through this exposition all exist across time and space —

the Greatest Biryani exists in an endless loop of time, somewhere in present-day Karachi,

the Author, in the year 2024, somewhere high up,

and, YOU, the Reader, in whichever year and space you believe you are in.

Every one and thing is somewhere in time —

it is implicated that their existence is parallel and they might, at the very end, be able to come together,

a, the Author, do not know which one i
am, except that i am the Author, and i attempt to bring together the stories, experiences and reflections that emerge around and through the narrative —
with you, the Reader, as perhaps the
main protagonist, if you would wish
to be.

The Greatest Biryani of the Author hails from her homeland and her archive of memories, 

along the coast of Karachi in Pakistan, the land where everything and everyone was always once together,

the coast that blends the Arabian Ocean into the vast Indian Ocean, across which communities once shared cultures, stories, identities, and spices,

the Authors Karachi is one such city of diverse religions and castes and races, but one where when people who were neighbours and families and friends came together, they made and ate together, sometimes a one-pot recipe as old as time itself — the biryani — and today the city has numerous versions of the Authors Greatest Biryani. 

(have you tried it, dear reader?)

The city of Karachi is a wonderful place, at the break of dawn and dusk alike, with towering old forts and a clinging history,

a place where the breeze is soft but heavy,

the sunshine is warm but low,

the mosses are green but tangly,

the sky rages red but blue,

and all creatures run wild and free. 

The Author is, like this story, amongst all — free of time and space, yet somewhere in complex time and ethical space,

the Author exists in this story, examines the future and wonders what happened in the past —

is it still there?

The Author wonders and wonders and begins to write words to you, the Reader, and to understand what happened to the Author’s beloved biryani, the Author goes back in time to the earliest biryani known to man, and the year in which the Author writes is 2024.

You, the Reader, are in your time and space,  but you too can talk to the Author, or can you?

You can tell us — the Author and the other Readers — if the biryani still exists in your time and if everyone is eating it together because the Author hopes you will see the Author's recipe and cook together.

You see, the Author is somewhere high up in another land, where the Author thinks it is safe, because the ground below, where the Author was before seemed like a frightening place, too fast and too loud, too big and too strange, but the Author can indeed see it all, because there are so many times of the present, past and future that are linked via the biryani.

(can you see it yet, dear reader?)