A Trip to The Itwar Bazaar
Itwar Bazzar , also known as bachat bazaar, is a place where our daily use items are available on a discounted rate. But in reality vegetables, fruits, and un branded items like Iron Grill Stands, books, towels are sold here on slightly higher rates and one can get discounts on the company stalls only. But this is not what people actually come for in an Itwar bazaar as these sections are often not very crowded, so let us move to a crowded spot.
Used Shoe section is the most crowded of all, here you will find old used shoes ranging from Rs.60/- to Rs.250/- and you can still bargain over the said price and you might get a shoe or sandal at half the price quoted but it will never drop cheaper then Rs.60/-. You can find excellent foot wear at this spot at a very low rate, but beware, don’t go for the worn out ones, if the pair of your choice is repaired or if its outer sole has been replaced with a new one, don’t buy it, if you feel a pair is glued or there are glue marks on a joint leave it out, in short you will have to look at each pair carefully before you decide which one to buy. And just for the record I have seen income tax officers, several artists, a surgeon, and even a prominent fashion designer on a similar shop.
Now we move to a considerably less crowded spot, This is where you will find User sweaters and ladies under garments, yes a something that was once a taboo is now a routine for every bachat bazaar, I don’t know if it is a prove that our cultural values are quickly disappearing or not and yes, the topic indeed is debatable but I have no intentions to go in any further details, it’s there so I am writing about it.
The sweaters sold here are often in excellent condition, just look for the wool mark and search your selected piece for holes, don’t go for the worn out ones and you can get an excellent sweater in no more then Rs.250/- For children the price ranges from Rs.50 to Rs.80 and for grown ups the price is from Rs.150/- to Rs. 300/- and you can still bargain.
Moving further to the even less crowded spot you will find used shirts, trousers, track suits and leather/fabric jackets stacked on different small tables. Shirts with price ranging from Rs.35 to Rs.50 per piece, in tempting colors and designs are ready for you to buy but you have to be careful while chousing one of these, look out for replaced collars, worn out shirts and holes in the fabric, actually you will be lucky to find a good shirt if you ever will but your chances for being lucky are brighter then winning a HERO Lottery.
The jackets here range from Rs.35/- to Rs.120/- a piece, and while purchasing one you have to lookout for holes, worn out fabric and broken zipper, if none of these signs appear on your selected jacket then you can happily go home with one and believe me you will rarely find a defected piece here if you are considering the fabric ones.
In a bachat Bazaar, used purses and hand bags are also a popular pick, you can get a ladies leather hand bag or a good carry bag for your laptop for no more than Rs.100/- .Suit cases, and duffle bags range from Rs.150/- to Rs.500/-, you will often find branded bags at this spot at literally throwaway rates.
The rest of the Itwar Bazar is clustered with stalls of kitchen items, books and stationary, decoration, flowers, posters, clothes, imitation jewelry and toys, and on your way out of the Itwar bazaar you will find beggars some old an’ deserving ones and some eunuchs who will annoyingly tail you for more if you hand them a 5 rupee coin or even two, they will hang to your car, will touch your chin and will ask for more, more and more. Also you will spot some people with birds in cages, they will be asking you money to set these birds free, and if you look closely in these cages you will surely spot a few dead birds as will, I never give these people a dime for being cruel to God’s creatures.
So that’s about it, a Trip to the Itwar Barzaar here in Karachi, and I may have missed out a thing or two, which you can always fill in with your comments.
Why put the undergarments picture online? aur kuch nazar nahi aaya itwaar bazar main?
well I personally have no issue with that pic. The only thing which looks offensive is that an aged lady is visible in picture which could be a mother of some reader here. Jamash was it very painful for you to blur that lady or was it necessary to take her pic as well?
apni ammi ko us aurat ki jagah rakh kar dekho shayed tumhe phir ghairat aye.
What does the sale of undergarments have to do with “disappearing” cultural values? And, how is this a “debateable” topic.
It takes a distorted mind to turn something as innocuous as a bra into something dirty. Kashif, how can you possibly have an issue with putting the picture of the bras online?
Jamash: .. & so it is :D
It’s not polite in our culture to post such pics.
fetishm galore
I do not see any thing wrong in the pics. If the lady is someone’s Ammi then we have praise for her that she at this age is not reliant at some one’s assistance in her shopping. A courageous and gracious lady and I do not feel embarrassed in calling this lady as my mother too. I think she is holding a kind of trolley as is evident from the handle of it and is asking for a way forward which is very much clear to my imagination.
Guys be positive and encourage people like Jamash who is providing pictorial information of the city, free of cost. Seeing these types of photos brings us the long missed smell of the city and provides us the opportunity to be part of that crowd figuratively while sitting thousand miles away from the land I originally belong.
So what is exactly wrong with showing a picture of women’s under garments? Pakistani men are perverts in all the wrong ways. For Godness’s sake it wasn’t a picture of a nude woman!!!!
As for the lady. If there is a picture of a lady here why are people offended by it? If she wanted not to be photogrpahed she would have said no or covered her face. Or maybe I didn’t get the reasons right for being offended by an old lady’s pic. Does anyone care to explain??
Excellant Post Jamash.By the way, the old woman is a beggar, read the caption.Itwar bazar came a long way i dont remember all those colourfull banners in my memory lane.Yes, the prices gave me heart attack , everything seems so discounted(dont wana use the word *cheap* here).
Dee.
i dont know what to say you kashif.. But if it was a picture of man undergamrnets .. you probably had no issues with it but because its women so you raise the voice.. It reflects your thinking abt that stuff.. and thats all becasue here except you no one have issue with it.. and i can bet you are not that bad in analyzing things.. Cheers
Those itwaar bazars were good to look stuff at, but somehow i always doubted the materials to be from landa.. :!!!:
:D heheh, anyone had that doubt??
THat lady is a beggar, and She always come to our house for some moNEy , its really tRUe, I can’t believe she have a PIc on KMB, lolz, I recognize NOW, woW, Anyway…..!!!!!!:D
RAZA can u elaborate abit what did you find wrong in that pic of old lady? is the pic degrading her in anyway? NO then i guess there is nothing wrong with that pic, just grow up!
good informative psot JAMASH…
@Original-Faisal:
[6]
*duck walks around the screen*
@sa’ad,
I have no idea what you are trying to say.
Please enlighten me.
lol jamash. u did put it up finally.
gud write up
as i said na tht lady is not ammi of any of u.
to all who are being anti-Raza:
how wud u feel if one takes a pic of ur sister and mom while they r bz in buying undergarments? wud u allow some guy to take pic? i bet if u have balls then u wud not like a guy to take snap. u bunch of arseholes keep ur women safe and use others to preach friggin things. y dont u guyz take pic of ur ammis and behans while buying undergarments and upload somewhere on internet? do it if you are not hypocrites
Raza: If she’s not your mum I don’t see why you’re having such a big problem. It’s not like she was trying bras and panties on when her picture was taken, which is what you make it sound like.
I think your skin crawls a little bit because you automatically associate bras etc with something dirty and disrespectful, as opposed to something with utilitarian, hygeneic benefits for women.
I suppose you’d completely freak out if you ever came across tampons at a store and a woman was buying them in front of you.
You’d probably think “HAWWWWWWWWW BAY-SHARAM” and run home with your tail between your legs wondering how a woman could be so “disrespectful”.
Allow me to quote you:
Quote: “i bet if u have balls then u wud not like a guy to take snap. u bunch of arseholes keep ur women safe and use others to preach friggin things.”
Now THAT’s disrespectful. Not undergarments.
I really wish I was the one taking the picture and you had tried to stop me from doing so, but I don’t see that happening.
You’d probably take one look at a bra and your filthy mind would make you want to run home to relieve yourself.
Moron.