I often accompany my mother to a marketplace in my city called Ichra Bazaar, which we visit frequently whenever we are in need of any household items or objects that can be bargained upon. It is often a lukewarm experience for me as it is hot and crowded, but it is also clearly fascinating.

When visiting such a marketplace in Lahore, one witnesses several anomalies of a distinctive and colourful culture, originating from Punjabi communities such as mine. The number of people flocking to purchase a pair of chappals or to haggle on the price of cloth for a dress is overwhelming, and one could feel claustrophobic in such close proximity to so many dozens of people. Looking around at the open-air bazaar with its makeshift stalls and its lack of order, it seems almost primitive. Goods and products are transported on crude donkey carts and three-wheeled vehicles known as “rickshaws” that serve as taxis, which move between swarms of people; I often have to swerve out of the way to avoid getting hit. Little can be heard over the shouts of people promoting their stores. A man calls out to me screaming “Baji, khubsoorat kapray khareedain,” which could roughly be translated to “Sister, come buy beautiful clothes.”

The crude and unsophisticated setting depicts a community that is based on simplicity, as does the absence of any form of technology or development. Shopkeepers note their accounts with paper and pen instead of computers, and there are no glass and concrete structures to connote a quintessential cosmopolitan atmosphere. Instead, shops exist merely as kiosks upon which people set up their businesses.

However, a community so rich in culture has its share of intricacy, and this I can see walking around Ichra Bazaar on a sunny afternoon with my mother. I witness a spread of color and delectable aromas. Bright, vivid colours and patterns flash before my eyes as shop keepers fling open rolls of cloth to display, the cloth that makes up our vibrant traditional dresses and garments. Tangy and sharp smells of saffron waft into my nose as we buy groceries from stalls upon which piles of bright and colourful spices lie, the bold and intense ingredients that flavour our distinct and complex Pakistani cuisine. Beautiful shiny bangles are sold by vendors, and a woman on the sidewalk with a henna stick paints artistic and elaborate designs on people’s skin.

The boldness and creativity of my community’s culture is reflected in forms of art such as the traditional cuisine, dress, and pottery that is celebrated and valued. The simple, rudimentary structures and the basic lifestyle present in Ichraa Bazaar are in stark contrast to the intricate designs of the Multani pottery that is sold and is clear evidence of how simplicity and complexity are both equally prevalent in my community.