LAHORE: It’s 7.30am on Sunday, a day before Eidul Fitr. Traffic is scant at this time of the day on the otherwise busy Ravi Road. Muhammad Akram has just arranged his ‘paraphernalia’ comprising half a dozen brushes, a couple of putty knives and an empty paint bucket along the road outside Bhati Gate. He is going through some pages of an old Urdu newspaper he has ‘saved’ to kill time while waiting for his likely clients.

“Hotel and restaurant owners who keep their eateries closed during Eid days usually opt for repainting and minor repairs around this time of the year,” says Akram when asked about his potential clientele just hours before start of Eid festivities. “Some households planning weddings, etc. immediately after Eid due to some reasons also find it an appropriate opportunity to get a new look for their abodes during these holidays.”

“Eid may fall on Tuesday after completing 30 days of Ramazan,” he hopes, unaware of the fact that Eid announcement has been made is Gulf and some other countries. “Oh, if Eid is being celebrated in Saudi Arabia today then the festival will definitely fall in our country on Monday.”

However, he is not ready to give up his hopes for getting a chance to earn a couple of more bucks before leaving for his hometown to celebrate Eid with his near and dear ones.

“I belong to Farooqabad on Sargodha Road. And it’s just an hour’s travel from Lahore. I may reach there before Eid prayers early on Monday morning after completing my painting contract, if there is one, by taking a bus.”

Asked what he would feel if could not find the chance to earn he is hoping for. “Hope sustains the world,” he smiles.

By this time some more “wage hunters” have appeared on the scene and started arranging their tools. Abdul Hai, one of them, belongs to Sahiwal. He works as a fruit vendor on Brandreth Road during week days and finds painting job on weekends or during holidays when the market is closed. In the evening, he serves as a ‘watchman’ for a godown on Ram Talai Road and in return gets free lodging for night stay there.

Hai says he prefers having his Eid in Lahore to earn extra money for his family which lives a couple of hundreds of miles away from here on Multan Road. He claims that he finds painting job on each Eidul Fitr without fail and that on the occasion clients would pay better than on ordinary days.

Pointing to some wage hunters standing nearby in Bhatti Chowk, he says most of these belong to far-off places and many of these poor souls spend their nights in the open on footpaths while benefiting from availability of free meals from the langar at the shrine of Hazrat Ali Hajveri located across the road.

On Eidul Azha, he says, some of them would become ‘butchers’ overnight when the professional animal slaughterers are hardly available.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2017