WITH cold breeze coming from Quetta and the northern areas, it is winter time in Karachi. Till a few years ago, winter was more of a formality in the metropolis, but has now become a proper season with its own dynamics.

Regardless of this change in weather extremity, winters have always been harsh for the poor. As such, the months of December and January witness a serious spike in the sale of second-hand warm clothes [as seen in the picture above by Mohammad Hassan], especially sweaters, jackets and gloves that are in great demand directly proportionate to the number of the motorcycles in the city.

Passing through downtown Saddar last week, the sight of such imported yet second-hand stuff brought to mind the great poet Himayat Ali Shair who crafted the genre of triplet — salasee, as he named them — in Urdu poetry and said some remarkable ones.

Talking of poverty and the need to make do with such “Lunda Market” stuff, he said:

Though I kept moving on my way, I was not sure if the availability of these second-hand clothes is a curse or a luxury in our context.

Shair captured the irony well enough, but the buyers would surely disagree with him, for life has a poetry of its own. And what about the sellers and the importers? They — and, indeed, their souls — actually get enriched by these very second-hand clothes!

Dr Syed Shah Talha Iqbal
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2020