Work, Food and Politics in Lahore

My Friend’s Finishing Factory in Lahore, An Architectural Marvel

Earlier that day I had been picked up at my hotel by a rug supplier whom I knew but had seldom done business with. The larger than life figure wore a full beard in the style of Wahhabi Muslims with a shaved mustache, and wore the traditional shalwar kameez, a South Asian and Central Asian attire for both men and women, consisting of a long, loose shirt (kameez) and wide-legged trousers(shalwar). To be sure a cliche image of a Muslim to fear. Instead a faithful man with a gentle soul greeted me.

We chatted briefly and headed for his office in old Lahore. I had been to old Lahore before, the central part of the city, with its narrow streets and meandering alley ways and densely populated but quiet neighborhoods.

After drinking tea and sharing a slice of pound cake my friend showed me his rugs. I was amused by how he had named his collections, “mid century”, “kaleidoscope”, “natural”, etc. After two hours of going through his various collections and climbing up and down three floors of space, and having chosen some 30 rugs, I was ready to go back to my hotel where another supplier waited to pick me up.

Under The Unforgiving sun

Another friend, a major supplier of rugs in Pakistan employs over 200 workers at his manufacturing plant where they do the washing and finishing of all rugs, rugs that are mostly woven by Afghan weavers in Afghanistan. And because he employs a number of Afghan workers it is always comfortable for me to break in to my Persian, a language shared by both Persians and Afghans. Nearly the size of a small college campus, this plant has dorm rooms, eating halls and even a small mosque.

Looking At Our Finished Orders

It is September but Lahori heat is already on. The 90 degree sunny weather feels like 100 degrees when you add the humidity. “Drink lots of water Farzanji” my friend recommends,  but still my inspection of rugs can only be done in half hour increments. Then I have to rush back to an air conditioned room where I can check my emails and relax a bit.

The workers, one could assume, are used to working in such a climate. But not true. Even born and raised in a hot climate like that of  Lahore’s will not acclimate one to carry on a difficult task such as weaving, washing and clipping rugs. That is why working hours on hot summer days are shorter.

And yet paradoxically without income from making handmade rugs millions of people in Pakistan would go home hungry and thousands of women, living under the likes of the Taliban government, would have no way to feed themselves or their children.

It is this duality, this harshness of reality that can only be understood in the value of our buying power. That what passes on as a rug, a machine made, environmentally harmful petroleum by product, that is made in one hour, can not feed an individual, let alone a family.

But really, is this hard work? Going through an arduous and long journey, visiting old and abandoned streets that speak of a bygone era, listening to a language I can’t understand, tolerating the heat? No I am afraid compare to what it takes to make a rug my task is rather simple and easy. The most difficult work for me is always keeping myself away from getting dizzy looking at hundreds of rugs, or haggling over the price!

Food that Intrigues

The Punjabi cousins is legendary in the Indian sub continent . But the best Lahori food can be found in people’s home and not restaurants. The sophisticated food that is not overburden with hot spices allows one to taste every spice and every ingredient. Alas tonight my friends wanted to show me a bit of the international side of the city, where you can find good Italian cuisine in the heart of the city.

Dinner at Aylanto

Café Aylanto, offering a mostly Italian menu, seems a hang out for the affluent Lahori families. The food was not great but the atmosphere made up for it. I am often intrigued by how is a place caught between modernity and tradition, one of affluence and one of poverty living side by side. 

There was an all women table next to us. None wore the hijab. They were celebrating a friend’s birthday. A small cake with a candle appeared and the women collectively sang the customary happy birth day song, of course in English. In Lahore any educated person I have met speaks fluent English.

We watched the party, as it were, tired after a day’s work. No cold bear or a glass of Chardonnay. Alcoholic drinks are not served in restaurants. But there are plenty available in private parties and at private clubs, or in some hotels, mostly served to foreigners. I Followed my “Italian” Lemon Sole(spruced up with Punjabi spices)with an Affagoto that was not actually bad. All along thinking what life has in store for me. Forty years of rug business has brought me close to friends I never had, places never knew existed.

Our talk centered around rug business in the U.S. and Europe, gossiping about who is who, reminiscing a bygone era and hoping things would once again flourish.

Politics that Intrigues

Here I sat at a restaurant In a city that is caught in political intrigue, chaos and infighting amongst the elite on the one hand, and an emotionally charged former cricket player who has captured the hearts and minds of many Pakistanis, young and old.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan in his Rawalpindi Jail

Now in prison, Imran Khan had hardly been prime minister for two years when corruption charges were brought against him and new elections were ordered. Even from prison, his supporters claim, he won a second round of a recent election but instead his political rivals now rule the country, confirming the well established belief that Pakistan is at best a tenuous democracy. Yet you couldn’t tell all that by looking at the crowd in the European restaurant. Perhaps they seem indifferent to  Imran Khan’s condition in a Rawalpindi jail. But in Pakistan one may never know.