KARACHI: Who says paper flowers are less beautiful than real ones because they are not fragrant? Come to Paper Market on Hasan Ali Effendi Road with a bunch of real flowers and see which flowers are more beautiful.

Paper bags of all shapes and sizes. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star

The market has strands of all kinds of pretty flowers that will never dry out or lose their cheerful colour. “And if you are really looking for fragrant flowers, we can also arrange that for you by spraying some scent on them,” says Owais Adil, who runs a shop there.

Strands of decorative material. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star

Along the paper flower strands there is also so much other stuff used for decorating — confetti, bunting, paper lanterns, colourful glittery foil, thermostat or packing material cut out into different shapes and painted and sprinkled with glitter, crepe paper for making paper chains, etc. For wedding occasions there are decorated clay pots, too, placed in paper and foil baskets for carrying henna and candles in. “We only sell, the items are prepared by people at home. It is more of a cottage industry, really,” says the shop owner.

Paper flowers./ Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star

“Earlier, Bohri Bazaar was more famous for such decorations but now this is the place for this kind of stuff though if you bring a car to be decorated here for a wedding we won’t be able to do it here. For that you’ll still have to go to Bohri Bazaar,” says Mohammad Naseem, another shopkeeper, who deals in decorations.

Lunch boxes. / Computer paper. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi/White Star

After the decorating items shops on the same road there are the shops that sell paper plates, glasses, lunch boxes, birthday hats, gift boxes, wrapping paper, etc. And then you have notebooks, envelopes, paper bags followed by cardboard sheets, paper sheets and computer paper.

Colourful envelopes.

The computer paper sold at Paper Market is also known as off-set paper, which comes in rolls and again has many varieties. “Cut into standard sizes, they may cost around Rs80 for 100 sheets while the fancy colour paper made from cotton fibre may cost around Rs200 for 100 sheets. They are more popular for printing stationary for offices,” says Sohail Azhar, who deals in computer paper. “We are wholesalers so we sell in bulk to printers, offices, etc.”

Maybe not made of paper, but also available here.

“The market may be called Paper Market but under ‘paper’ you have a vast variety,” says Noman Ahmed, a young man at a shop that deals solely in paper sheets. “The great thing about all this is that not everything is made of paper like the plastic disposable boxes for packing foodstuffs, and the nylon or plastic bags.”

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2015

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