Shopping with Perveen

Who you, who perveen?
You thinking this poetry, you wrong.
rolling eyes icon.

This is a great piece, Chris, and I just love the style - simple, spontaneous.

You have a nice sense of social obseravtion. The piece is hilarious for it`s style and content - the pointed references you make to the haggling despite `fixed price` labels on items; how goods of low quality are passed on as expensive, good quality stuff; how the local shopkeepers - the `bloodys` - love to overcharge an unsuspecting foreigner or even the locals if they can get away with it; how status-conscious we generally are despite being a poor nation constantly battling to access even basic necessaties of life.

This piece brings out spontaneous laughter while, at the same time, holds up a mirror too. :) Humph!

Re: # 1...no not poetry. Speech. Without the narrative connections. Who me? Read the profile or just Google me.

I am not liking this... no no... not this.

Chris,

U write `normal ` stuff in Pak newspapers (and that includes some swipes on India, perhaps to spice-up their interest in ur bull-crap). Why u chose 2 write a non-sequitur here?

Chowk Staff:

Just becoz this gentleman has the western name and his stuff bcomes `important`? It`s obvious that u didnt bother 2 see what he wrote. There`s no head or tail of the article!!

I know a lawyer from Frontier sent u an article that`s well written and u`re sitting on it for more than a month but u show alacrity in publishing this crap of Chris? Shame on u guyz/gaalz!

Possibly one of the most awful pieces I`ve read on chowk.

Hallo... funny and different. Different is good, but I would have liked to see it come together better.

-zensufi-

Re: # 5 So far as I can recall have never mentioned India in any piece for Pakistan newspapers...let alone taken a swipe at India. Perhaps you could point me to where I have done this - in case my memory is failing me.

Chris,

I read a couple of ur articles in the The News, Pakistan, 2/3 yrs ago (may be 4/5). Then ur pix is published with ur Stetson and u are loking lanky and young. U didnt have ur bushy, swirling moustache then........clean shaven, I guess.

I didnt read ur stuff after that.

Re: # 9 LOL!!! Oh boy have you got that wrong! The person you are referring to is Ethan Casey, an American, who no longer writes in the Pakistani press - at least not so far as I am aware. The moustache has been with me since my teens and I have never, ever, in my entire life owned or worn a stetson nor would I ever want to. I write a weekly column in the News on Mondays, plus other roughly fortnightly pieces which are longer and look at the Pakistani domestic political scene.

I first started writing in The News in February 2005...so taking your timeframe it is possible that you have not read any of my pieces at all!

Re: # 2 Cheers Tahera...from the looks of things so far `experimental writing` seems not to be popular hereabouts.

Re: # 7 Thanks...how do you mean `come together better?`

Chris,

OK, I mistook u 4 Casey. :-(

Chris:
Nice! I like!

Hey, there is some serious sociowhatever commentary here. I really think that many Pakistani folks need to learn the lesson that small-scale retailers are people too. The rich drop a couple of thousands for a meal at Pizza Hut without blinking an eye, and the next morning their begums will be seen at the local cloth market haggling the seller to knock his price down 50 percent, or else.

(Okay, the cloth retailer might not have been the best example, but you get the drift)

Chris, I`ve been meaning to write you at manticore, but I guess I`ll just take the op here: I find your columns refreshingly balanced, rigorous in analysis, and rooted in a realism hard to find in too many others. For that, thanks.

What is the nature of your `social work`, by the way? Feel free not to answer in this public forum, if you (don`t) wish to.

rgds,

Re: # 14 Mostly I deal with project monitoring for Pakistani NGOs and some internationals. Work mostly in health and education sectors. Journalism is something I have only come to in the last couple of years...all my stuff that was published prior to that was very academic...dry as dust really. Got into journalism very much by accident, and also very much at the encouragement of another Chowker - Beena Sarwar, who has pieces here regularly.

Loved it. Short, simple, funny and yet so relatable. Well done, Chris. Let`s have more of you on chowk. :)