Shopping for clothes - The Pakistani way !

Day before yesterday,it was Sunday.A day my family mostly spends in one of the following four ways, 1 - Having friends or relatives over at our place for tea, dinner or lunch 2- Going to meet our friends and relatives 3 - Shopping or 4- Recreational activities. Since my grandma who lives with us will be leaving Pakistan to visit my uncles and her sister in a few days , she had to buy presents for all of them.And what better present can there be from Pakistan for Pakistanis living abroad besides Clothes and fabric.


If only I could have them all

Pakistan has a huge textile industry and as a result the markets are flooded with clothes.A special attraction is unstitched fabric.All the possible types of fabrics imaginable are available with varieties in colour and design. This is really fun for people like my neighbour 'Sara' who mix and match different kind of fabrics and then stitch or stick different embellishments or sequins on it to make their own trends and style. Lawn (a kind of fabric) is a favourite in the subcontinent beacuse its really comfortable in the hot and humid summers of this region.And then ofcourse there are different qualities and prices,ranging all the way from Rs 20 per yard to Rs 500 per yard.And did I mention that clothes can be purchased all the way from the roadside and bonets of parked cars to elaborately furnished boutiques !




But the problem that accompanies all this charm and variety is the undecisiveness faced by shoppers like my mom and grandma who take hours to decide.Questions like "Will the green chiffon look better with white lawn ? " or "Will the purple cotton look better than the red one?" are just a few of the random questions fired at me while I am pretending to be really interested, lost in some other thoughts !. It may sound like a lot of effort but it really is fun to be sitting with a rack full of fabric in front of you trying to imagine the way you'd look in that fabric once its stitched.
My mom - just can't decide !
So that was what I did this Sunday.A hectic and yet funfilled day dedicated to my ammi (mom) and naani (grandma) !