KARACHI: The sun was out again after another nightlong raining. Still the weather looked ominous and the shops near Denso Hall on M.A. Jinnah Road, which sell umbrellas, had many customers on Saturday afternoon.

The umbrellas were all ‘made in China’. There were plain black, brown, and printed umbrellas and small ones for little ones displayed inside boxes right on top of the counter of the oldest shop opened there by Islamuddin Fariduddin in 1947. His great grandson Mohammed Faisal told Dawn that earlier they used to sell umbrellas which were manufactured in Pakistan and India, but now all of their stock was imported from China. “Chinese umbrellas are proving to be cost effective for us. Other ones, even locally made, prove too expensive when compared with them,” he said.

The small umbrellas, for kids, range between Rs200 and Rs300 while the bigger ones start from Rs400 and go up to Rs2,000.

Right next door is Mohammed Faisal’s cousin Mohammad Fahad’s shop. A customer there was buying many umbrellas of all colours and sizes. He said he was buying in bulk to take to Sindh. “I’m taking these to sell in my own shop in Kashmore,” he said.

Asked what were the most selling or popular colours for umbrellas, the shopkeeper said it would have to be black. When asked if lightening strikes more on black, he smiled and shrugged. “Yes, true most probably. But we get so many customers here when it is raining and when they are buying so many black umbrellas, I am, honestly, not even thinking about this fact. I’m only thinking of doing good business,” he smiled.

The shops sell caps, too, besides umbrellas. “The umbrellas sell when it rains and the caps sell when the sun is out,” the shopkeeper informed.

A customer there, Quraish Mohammad, was more interested in trying out caps than umbrellas. “But I’m here for the regular P-caps or baseball caps. I’m looking at woolen golf hats as the chilly weather also warrants their use,” he smiled.

Thereafter, a debate started between the customer and the shopkeeper about the name given to each type of cap. There was some confusion about the golf hat, the beret, the Chitral cap, the Bhutto cap or the Chinese cap. Leaving them at it, one went looking for other rain necessities such as raincoats.

The raincoats were available two streets ahead off the main road. There they had both locally-made and Chinese raincoats. “The Pakistani variety were selling for Rs400. “They are made from parachute material. But because they are stitched, you can get soaked through the stitching,” said Mohammad Habib, the shopkeeper.

“As for the Chinese raincoats, they are made from plastic and are machine punched, not stitched,” he said, adding that the Chinese raincoats that were made of plastic material were priced at Rs350 only and available in different colours such as yellow, gray, white, blue and pink.

There were also Chinese raincoats that were slightly more expensive at Rs950 each as they were made of PVC material that felt like rubber. It was also explained that these raincoats are also used in construction work or industrial jobs as they are also used as safety gear against chemicals, etc.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2022