The other place I’d go to shop with Nani Mummy was Saddar, which had been the city centre before partition. Many of the long-standing shops, like Singer sewing machines and family-run jewellers, as well as the wholesale markets, were found in this area. This was where we’d go if we needed a new washing machine or an obscure herbal remedy. It was chaotic; the roads were filled with reckless drivers and triple-parked cars.
Bohri Bazaar, one of the oldest open-air marketplaces in the city, was here too. Nani Mummy was set in her ways of shopping in the older parts of Karachi, and she loved going to the same market she’d gone to with my grandfather. Since only dire emergencies would persuade my mother to go to Saddar, it was me who always got dragged along to keep Nani Mummy company.
