Karachi young fishmonger hits internet
Entertainment
Khan’s journey to social media success began in October 2023
KARACHI (Web Desk) - On a Sunday morning earlier this month, twelve-year-old Huzaifa Khan walked through the narrow alleys of Karachi’s Frontier Colony, a portable microphone in his hand as his father pushed a wooden cart laden with fish.
The duo had just brought the catch fresh from the port city’s bustling seafood market and were now on their way to sell it in neighborhood markets and also make home deliveries.
Along the way, as the father-son make their daily journey, Khan records conversations between them, talking about their lives as fishmongers and small businessmen trying to seek a living on Karachi’s mean streets. The videos, which Khan began posting in February last year, have made him an instant Internet hit. Vlogs uploaded to the ‘Khanvlogs240’ Instagram page have thousands and sometimes millions of views, with the comments full of people praising him and his father for working to make an honest living.
Innocent questions from the bespectacled Khan, and a speech impediment that causes a minor stutter, has endeared him to a sizable online audience, which has in turn been a boon for fish sales.
“Earlier, my father used to buy fish from here [fish market] and sell it on a cart only but since online orders started coming in, we now also take fish and deliver it to people’s homes,” Khan told Arab News.
“People call and ask us to bring some specific fish, so we provide them with the fish they want.”
Selling fish isn’t an easy task, especially when one is also a student and a vlogger.
Khan says he wakes up every day at the crack of dawn, offers his prayers, attends school and then joins his father in the afternoon to sell fish. On the weekends, when there’s no school, he accompanies his father and elder brother Talha Ubaid on early morning runs to the fish market 14 kilometers away from their home to make purchases.
In the evenings, he also helps his father and brother run a cart selling French fries.
Khan’s journey to social media success began in October 2023 after the family arrived in the southern port city of Karachi from a remote village in the northwestern city of Swat.
His first video, called “Chhoti Si Dukan,” or small shop, was posted in February 2024.
Since then, he has posted hundreds of videos on different social media platforms.
