Banana Republic

Khaliq wanted to impress his newly wedded wife by taking something home for her after work; like a true Pakistani gentleman who is the sole provider of his spouse. It was 6’O clock in the evening, day end rush hour, roads of Islamabad are crowded with uncompromising commuters. Whole scene is so chaotic that any outsider will think there was a terrible earthquake and everyone is rushing home to see what’s left.

We were on our way to Aabpara market, the oldest market in the city. Dozens of people were desperately waiting at the F-6 bus stop, while they were watching hundreds of cars passing by in a hurry. All kinds of people, students on the way to their evening tuition centers, young aspiring professionals carrying their CVs, people back from their jobs carrying lunch boxes in one hand and cell phone in the other while suggesting from their facial expressions that they don’t belong there, ladies standing at a distance from the main crowd like mannequins looking downwards with their expressionless faces. Government employees carrying files in their hands, files with plan of employment generation, files with plans of power generation, files with plans of free education, files with plans of free healthcare, files having all the knowledge in world to make it a better place to live in.

We were anxiously waiting for the green light as air conditioner was not working properly with motionless wheels. I glanced at the crowd, a crowd in which all the faces were blank and nobody was even talking or smiling. Their faces looked very mature to me. We took sigh of relief when we saw green light giving us permission to get on with it.

Despite of being the oldest, Aabpara market is a very busy place where one will find only serious shoppers, buying everyday commodities. It’s not a very pretty place, certainly not a place for window shopping but is preferred by a lot of middle class people with its wide range of cheap merchandise.

My friend wanted to buy some fruit, and it was the ideal place where one could find a huge variety. As soon as we entered the first shop we were disillusioned. I certainly was flabbergasted, it was probably after months if not years, that I was in a fruit shop. First thing Khaliq wanted to buy was bananas so he inquired the price per dozen. “120 rupees sir”, we were told. I thought I miss heard him so I asked again and he returned “120 rupees per dozen sir, 10 rupees each.” After that it happened with all the fruits, apples, pineapples, mangoes, peaches, cherries, we asked the price, salesman replied and we thought we miss heard him. Our hearing disability made the seller think that we probably did not understand his language, so he did his best to convert all prices in English. Change in language was not effective at all; the price had the same pinch as in Urdu. Our responses were not very meaningful either; only thing we could say to the salesman was “Is there an ATM nearby?” He pointed to the next block.

I saw a huge poster in a shop showing a female model, giving a taunting gaze, carrying a “Jazz” card in her hand and saying “Aur Sunao?”. I wanted to say many things but I resisted as there were a lot of families around. Khaliq knew from my looks what I was thinking, so he said ”Don’t you feel blessed in this country? Yahan sirf bara anay ki call hai”. While he entered the bank to get some money I wondered, wouldn’t it be great if in the markets we can have “happy hours” for shopping, or like “friends and family numbers” they can offer “friends & family price”, or may be you scratch an apple and can get a free banana.

Apart from bananas, Khaliq bought 4 apples which costed him 114 rupees. I wanted to show my mother that finally I'm responsible enough and can do some shopping for the family, so I purchased a single pineapple for Rs. 180. On our way back, we crossed the famous “Aabpara Chowk” where few days ago a man burned himself alive in protest of rising prices and unemployment. May be he wanted to buy some bananas for his wife but he didn’t have an ATM card. May be his visit to the market made him realize what few choices he had in life, so he chose the only thing he could.