“I look much older than I am from the hard labour I need to do to support my family. I left Layyah 14 years ago for Rawalpindi because someone told me Rawalpindi was the city of opportunity. I used to work as a farmer for some landowner, and life was hard then – they never paid me on time and I always had to beg for my salary. But it’s not like that anymore.

Selling balloons isn’t the ideal job, but my life is much better now. With this job I don’t have to answer anybody. I like my own business, I earn enough. As a businessman or a salesman you have to be attentive; you can’t just abandon your stall and rest. I used to sell kulfi in Layyah as well, and whenever I left my stall people would pick up kulfi without paying for it. Sometimes my relatives would do it, and I couldn’t argue with them. But now I know how to sell things.”

Published in Dawn, October 10th , 2015

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