KARACHI: “Everything is so expensive. I inquired about the price of just one or two things before coming out here. Then I needed to sit down and breathe,” Farida, middle-aged shopper, who was sitting on one of the entrance steps of the Gold Mark II shopping Centre on main Korangi Road in DHA Phase I, told Dawn.

“My children are inside doing their shopping. But not me. The joy of Eid is for the young after all,” she added as a vendor selling waistband bundles and elastic rolls walked up to her. And she got busy bargaining with him though not finding much success there as well.

“True, things are expensive, but we are also coping with the situation. Where we used to buy many pairs of earrings or sets of bangles to go with different dresses, looking at the prices, we now look for something which would go with different outfits, Eid clothes and others in the cupboard,” said another shopper checking out the earrings, rings and lockets.

“You cannot run from the rising costs. Inflation follows you everywhere,” a decked up transgender person, who introduced herself as Gulabo, observed.

After clothes, time comes for buying footwear, jewellery and, lastly, make-up

The jewellery she wore, she said she had shopped from Tariq Road. “It’s slightly more reasonably priced there with more variety too,” she added.

The shoppers were found crowding the footpaths on Tariq Road with so many vendors selling bangles, jewellery, bags, footwear and clothes off their carts or racks. Most brands with huge clear glass windows offering a look inside their outlets looked quite empty. Still, a young shopper, Safina, coming out of a mall with bags that had some label or the other printed on them, said that they went to the high-end shops because they didn’t want to venture into the crowds though the stuff there looked interesting.

As the young shopper got into her car, a mother and daughter busy selecting un-stitched voile suits from a cart, who had heard her were seen shaking their heads. “But she should have made an effort to come to this side and explore. This city teaches us to make an effort, to dare,” said the mother. “See, we found such good bargain deals,” she showed off her purchases. Asked if she was worried about finding a tailor for her purchases with Eid so close, she shook her head and smiled. “I can stitch clothes. It saves me and my daughter the tailoring bills.”

Tariq Road also had more of something else … lots and lots of police, both regular police and traffic police. There were police mobiles, fork-lifters and tow trucks keeping a watch over. Any traffic violation would meet with a warning or action.

Police camps were also present to help the public. A little daughter was found roaming around on a footpath looking for her mother and brought to a camp to be promptly reunited with her frantic mother after several announcements on the public address system, someone double parked to give way to a lot of inconvenience for others. Quite deservedly he also faced inconvenience after his vehicle was towed away.

At the Gulf Shopping Mall in Clifton, most shoppers were found selecting jewellery. There was no shortage of shops selling their preferred items, too. Many ladies said that their Eid clothes were already sorted. Farhan Ali, shopkeeper selling cosmetics, and longingly looking at the rush around the jewellery shops, shared some wisdom with Dawn. “In my 16 years’ experience I have seen people shopping for clothes after the 20th fast, then comes time for footwear shopping, then jewellery and then cosmetics. It’s okay. I, too, will get my sweet fruit of patience,” he said.

At Jama Cloth Market, all shopkeepers were already getting their fruits of patience. There were shoppers in every shop and stall. The police had cordoned off the lane between the markets to keep cars from entering. Lines of rickshaws awaited passengers to shuttle them from here to there. So there was more walking involved, not that anyone minded that. Some footwear was slightly more expensive than in DHA’s Gold Mark so someone inquired the reason for it. “Those must be third or fourth copies of the original. We have here the first and second copies,” explained one footwear shopkeeper.

All these markets had shoppers from all segments of society unlike in the big air-conditioned malls where the rich shopped without worrying about their finances and the middle-class only window-shopped.

Out of all the busy markets in the city, Hyderi Market had to be the busiest by far. In fact, the hordes of people there were so closely pressed against each other that it was even difficult to move. Another thing seen here were the men. The other markets had very few men and mostly women shoppers. But here the women were with their husbands who helped build space for them in the crowds, carried the dozing babies on their shoulders or helped in carrying the many shopping bags. Still, the market was the most congested.

“Oh, I can’t breathe,” exclaimed one woman in the crowd. She was ushered by her husband to a quieter corner for a breather. Then after taking in several gulps of air, she looked around to decide where she wanted to go next. Then she dived back into the crowds for more Eid shopping.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2024