KARACHI: It must have been minutes after breaking the last fast this Ramazan on Tuesday evening when the bazaars of the city experienced a sudden but expected mad rush for which the shopkeepers returned quickly after a very brief Maghrib break as neither did they want to disappoint the customers nor lose business.

But let’s rewind a little to start from the very start of the hustle bustle. There were ladies waiting inside their cars for the tailor shops to open even earlier in the day, before noon. And as soon as the shutters were raised they were inside to have a word with the tailor master. “What did you do Master sahib! My left sleeve is longer than the right one. Did you lose your inch tape?” a customer demanded to know as the poor tailor focused on some hook or hanger on the wall behind her to avoid eye contact.

Then he took off his measuring tape from around his thin neck to measure the sleeves in question as the lady menacingly glared back at him. “Ok sorry madam. I’ll get it fixed in no time,” he said apologetically.

‘Eid is really for the ladies and children’

And just when he thought he was out of trouble as the customer turned around to leave after telling him she would be back in about one hour, there was another very disappointed customer in the shop looking at her ready shirt hanging among the other shirts behind the poor tailor and asking how come her round-neck kurta grew collars!

If you think that this must be the worst tailor in town, you should have peeped inside the other tailor shops on chand raat where World War III was just about to begin.

And as soon as the Eid jora (outfit) was done there was another mad rush to complete the ensembles. The matching dupatta resulted in many frantic trips to dupatta shops and dyers. The hunt for matching bangles had the ladies with daughters, sisters, cousins and friends make a beeline for the bangle shops. Glass bangles are always popular but most mothers of little girls were opting for metal and plastic ones so that the children don’t scratch or hurt themselves on breaking a glass bangle.

Outside the big shopping centres the henna artists got busy as they created pretty designs on palms and hands and even wrists, arms and feet. The ones outside the shopping centres were still reasonable. The ones in beauty parlours were charging far more for the designs. Here patience was virtue. Those clients who claimed to be in a rush and making too much noise were also dealt with hurriedly and their designs were nothing like the intricately done designs done with care.

Some shoe shops opened rather late. “We thought of coming here well-rested as we know we will have to stay open till the early hours of Eid itself. Some of us are also prepared to spend the night at the shop and go for Eid prayers directly from here,” said one salesman at a shoe shop.

The sweetmeat shops were also thronged. While the women took care of what everyone was going to wear on Eid the poor husbands were sent to get mithai and Eid cakes along with buying vermicelli, sugar and milk for the sweet dish to be prepared at home. “After listening to the wife’s complaints and driving all over town in this crazy traffic every year, I have accepted that Eid is really for the ladies and children. We men are just like slaves being driven around,” said one harassed husband in Bahadurabad. “I am only looking forward to the three days of rest and recreation that I am going to get after the Eid prayers tomorrow,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2019