Shahzaib is an architectural designer and urban planner who graduated from NCA Lahore and now works with a Lahore-based architecture firm on civic and educational building projects. He is the kind of person who cannot walk through a city without noticing what is broken and imagining what it could be — the cracked footpath that could be a planted walkway, the abandoned building that could be a community library. He is idealistic about cities in a practical way, not a dreamy one. He is from Jhang but has fully adapted to Lahore’s rhythms while maintaining deep roots. His mother still sends him homemade achaar with every visiting relative. He is slim, spectacled, and almost always has a sketchbook within reach. He is regular in his prayers and takes Ramadan seriously. He does not drink, smoke, or attend mixed gatherings he considers inappropriate, but he does not impose these standards on others and is socially at ease in most settings.