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perfumer event Traffic
controllers’ targets
perfumer Lord of fragrance A rare insight into how ittars are made By Adnan Adil Sharif Ahmad knows the art of extracting and preserving the essential essence of anything that exudes fragrance. He opened a small crystal bottle, dipped his finger in the oily liquid and rubbed it on the back of my hand; it gave out a soothing, cooling smell of khus – a natural perfume oil, or ittar, he manufactures from the roots of a wild plant at his small perfumery in Lahore. The intricate process of separating the minute quantity of oil perfume or ‘rooh’ or ‘absolute’ from wood or other substances is a rare skill that a few people practice in this country; the 52-year old Sharif Ahmad of Rehman Pura, Lahore is one of those who excel in manufacturing and blending ittars khus and rose in particular. A huge quantity of natural oil perfumes come from India and the synthetic ones from France. Every December, Sharif
Ahmad says, he gathers the roots of wild khus bush (Vetiver or V.
Zizanioides) from Sialkot’s remote villages, boils the wood in a
copper-made, silver-coated still or cauldron (deg), collects the steam
through a bamboo-lined pipe and condenses it into an extract – a mixture
of water and oil - in an air-tight copper pot placed in a water tub at his
home-made small distillery. “The aroma can burn or lose its peculiarity
if the steam touches any metal like copper or steel during the filtration
process.” Sharif then filters the extract to separate a thin layer of oil from the water and gets 40 ounces of khus scent (ittar) from a 40-kg load of the roots. The art of separating oil from water is the most delicate and labour-intensive part of the business. Sharif, and his trained staff, dip their fingers into water, lift the oil on finger-tips and transfer it to the other pot drip by drip. It takes around 12 hours to separate 10 grams of absolute or pure ittar from the distilled extract. “Since we separate the oil perfume on a small scale, we use traditional manual method. If we use a machine, the entire perfume (10-40 grams) will get lost by sticking to the machine’s body,” Sharif says. He says mechanical separators are used in France because they are good for perfumery at large scale. The factory is littered with the residual khus wood that now would be used to line room coolers — the water passing through the khus-screen of water-coolers is spread by a fan for a pleasant, cooling effect. The residual filtered water of khus is also stored in bottles and presented for imparting fragrance to room-coolers’ water. Hundreds of artificial, synthetic essences closely resemble natural scents and are quite popular for being less expensive, but khus could not be imitated. Sharif says: “French perfumers tried to synthesize it, but the artificial compound was not pleasant.” This fragrance is only extracted in India and Pakistan. Khus plant is not grown by farmers; it is a wildly grown shrub and found mostly in the Saidpur, Chaprar and Kathiala areas of Sialkot district on the India-Pakistan border. A civil
engineer by training, Sharif adopted the occupation of ittar-manufacturing
on the insistence of his father, Rasheed Ahmad, who practiced it for more
than 60 years before he died in 1996 and had inherited it from his
forefathers in Qanoj, UP, India. Rasheed brought the skill to Karachi and
bequeathed it to his sons. Sharif manufactures ittars and blends perfumes
to supply them to more than 200 perfume shops spread across the country.
He also runs a shop at Raiwind near Tableeghi Markaz where ittar remains
in high demand by the devout for religious reasons. Rose and Khus are found in abundance in Punjab alone, so Sharif mostly extracts their ittars. In the months of April and November, he collects Pakistani pink rose flowers from the farmers in Sahiwal and Sheikhupura and distills them to attain their essence. He says a pink rose garden in Badhu Malhi area, owned by Khushi Muhammad Arain, is centuries old. He brings tons of pink rose flowers from this garden and extracts rooh-e-gulab (rose ittar); 100 kg of rose petals yield only 10 grams of ‘absolute’ ittar, or in local measure, one tola of ittar from two and a half maund of petals. He says the older a rose bush the more the smell and the more the petals the greater the essence. The perfumer says rose ittar cannot be attained from red rose or some other variety because they lack the aroma, peculiar to Pakistani pink rose. He grew up smelling perfumes and ittars and can distinguish between the natural and the synthetic, and the new and the old. Sharif says: “My nose is what matters most in making a decision about the purity of an ittar; there is no other formula.” Ittars, unlike synthetic perfumes, have no expiry; they last long. The older an ittar, the better and expensive it gets. Connoisseurs like the old ittars. Ittars are extracted
from different parts of plants including leaves (hina), flowers (rose,
kewra), roots (khus), wood (Oud, Sandal), or soil (gil) or animal glands (mushk).
When I visited Sharif, he was distilling turmeric’s essence. “We use
scents from turmeric and some 21 other herbs to manufacture an ittar
called Shamama.” Other ingredients include scents extracted from
camphor, saffron, Amber (saliva from a certain sea fish), musk-e-naafe or
Kasturi (the extract from naval of the black deer), Eucalyptus, Oud,
Amber, Civet (a cat’s glands) etc. He says Civet’s oil perfume is used
as ‘fixative” to give durability to Shamama. The ‘absolute’ or ‘rooh’ of natural ittars are quite expensive such as 10 grams (nearly one tola or an ounce) of rose ittar costs up to Rs 10,000 and 10 grams of Kasturi is priced at Rs 60,000. This makes pure ittar out of reach of common man and they are rarely available in the market. In a standard ittar, sandal oil was mixed with ‘absolute’ perfume but as now it has also become quite expensive, perfumers mostly use Eucalyptus and Patchouli oils for mixing. Perfumers also mix natural and synthetic rose perfumes to bring the cost down. For example, Sharif says, in one kilogramme of synthetic rose perfume, only one gram of natural rose ittar is mixed. Natural Amber ittar is obtained from fish and is rare. Usually, artificial amber mixed with a minute quantity of natural Amber is available in the market that is attained from wax. The perfumer says ittars are worn according to the seasons. Khus, Motia and Jasmine are summer smells. Gil (the aroma of earth after the first raindrops) in the monsoon; Hina, Amber, Shamama, Oud and Kasturi (or Mushk-e-Nafe – an extract from the naval of the black deer), are suitable for winter. Gulab is used all year round. Kewra, Gil and Molsari are used in the rainy season. Most ittar connoisseurs are elderly people above the age of 60, while the young like imported synthetic perfumes. Sharif says more than 400 varieties of perfumes are available in the market out of which only 20 to 25 are natural ittars, or realistically speaking, blends of ittars and additives. caption Sharif holding saffron. 2 Sharif claims to be the only person who prepares perfume oil from khus. 3 Herbs and sandal wood used in ittar. — Photos by the author
Believe me, no matter if you don’t, it is true that very few people use footpaths the safest path to tread. Do they lack civic sense? I don’t know, but I know one thing that it becomes very difficult to walk on a footpath when it gives off smell of urine, or is occupied by an addict or a beggar. For me these are reasons enough not to use footpaths. There is no harm if we keep footpaths clean. Walking on a road involves huge risk of being hit by a vehicle, so let me say it is not a bad idea to have a piece of cloth to keep yourself from smelling something bad or holding the breath and pass the problematic area swiftly. It is not my fault if I
am not used to walking on a footpath because the city doesn’t have many,
to cultivate a habit among people to use them. But one thing I should keep
in mind when I don’t use a footpath and walk on a road is that the death
rate for pedestrians hit by vehicles is increasing in the country. As Shakespeare says the best safety lies in fear, so I should be familiar with footpaths and use them to save myself from being hit by a vehicle. But, in markets, we have surrendered them to encroachers. Shopkeepers claim their right over whatever space there is before their shops. That leaves me and whosoever is on his legs with no choice but to walk on road with motorbikes and cars threatening from behind. What about zebra crossing? Pedestrians rarely use zebra crossings because motorists are there to use them. They walk up to the white lines on road and then wait and wait for the green traffic signal to vanish and turn red so that the vehicles stop. I don’t know how many times motorists slowed down and let me cross the road first when I stood at a zebra crossing to get across the road — rarely, ever. Sometimes, if you go by the rules and try to cross the road from where zebra crossing is marked, you will most probably be hit by a vehicle. This traffic sign called zebra crossing is particularly marked at blind spots where roads have a distinct curve — where the drivers and pedestrians cannot see each other. No sane person can use that zebra crossing. And there are quite a few like this one in the city. Some pedestrians seem volunteers and they themselves want to dictate traffic even at the cost of their life. They don’t bother to cross a road through a zebra crossing ever. They come in the middle of a road, giving signals to motorists. “Don’t hit me. Pass before me or from behind me. You don’t know I am a pedestrian and a pedestrian has a right to ‘violate’ traffic rules when he has to reach his destination early.” Though this betrays traffic or civic sense, these people do have a sense of responsibility as they want to show up at their workplace in time even at the cost of their life. When someone asks them why they do not leave their house a bit early to reach office early, they say it too is a matter of responsibility as they have to do a lot of work at home. So, in both cases they are responsible souls, no matter if it makes them vulnerable to accident on road. While many of us do not bother to walk up to zebra crossing to get to the other side of the road, the government seems committed to building pedestrian bridges and the public too is committed not to use them. How dare I say this? You too will say this when you observe people crossing The Mall. Pray tell me who uses the only pedestrian bridge on it near the Masjid-e-Shuhada? The masses are health conscious. They do not want to tax their knees. Some fear climbing fifty stairs will be taxing on the heart. To them, averting heart ailment is better than giving life on road. Health comes first, after all. shafiqnizami@yahoo.com
The air was
brimming with fervent activity as one steped into the premise; a promising
marathon of activities in store for the youth aged 16-22, in a nutshell
LUMS Olympiad is all about repeat successes, gaining identity, display of
vigour and presence of mind. It was an utter joy to be at the 6th annual
LUMS Olympiad that spanned for four days, showcased 22 events and was
attended by over 800 delegates from all over Pakistan. “Invigorating
and intelligently executed as I would call these events,” gushed one of
the participants from IBA Karachi. The event which is happening for the
past six years now is held with the collaboration of Debating and
Recitation Society of LUMS and LUMS Media and Arts Society. The long list
of proceedings is comprised of different genres of arts including
debating, declamation, ad-making, law-moot court, dramatics, photography,
music singing workshops, music video screenings along with a host of
sports and academic events like math enigma, mind quest, photo essay
competition, the concert and performance nights exclusively meant for the
participants followed by a closing ceremony and dinner. “The theme for this year is aptly titled ‘Cultural Plurality’ which basically aims at the unification of diverse ethnicity which should be promoted amongst the youth,” says Farhan Rafi, convener of LUMS Olympiad. He also praised the massive turnout of the participants representing various institutions of the country including IBA, GIK, NUST, FAST, BNU, Aitchison, LGS, Beacon House and City School Campuses and a special mention for the students of Peshawar University, Quetta and rural Punjab; which clearly shows positive feedback of cross-cultural groups coming together for the action. In a natural expansion of the platform some improvements are made to upgrade the Olympiad for this year and include celebrity workshops conducted by renowned artists like Saeed Akhtar, Amanat Ali Khan, Maria B, Zeb and Haniya and others. The team sizes have been increased along with an addition of ‘Cherry Maze Lounge’ a place to hang out and chill and competitive awards for the visiting teams. The competition of ad-development and concept was a refreshing idea as it focused on the current hot topic ‘Vote for change.’ LGS Defence and Aitchison College stood out for their efforts in coming up with stimulating ideas on how to bring that change and that every vote counts. It was also heartening to observe the youth sharing their potential and expressing their resentment in a creative way at the current lawlessness of the country where we are fighting with innumerable issues including inflation, corruption, terrorism and poverty. The teams participating for dramatics were also a treat to watch as they exhibited their acting skills to highlight the hidden realities of life. This year’s theme was an ‘ode to diversity.’ The performance was judged on attributes ranging from originality, entertainment, value, execution, acting prowess and the interpretation of the theme. The ‘Battle of Bands’ is the biggest high of the Olympiad every year; the key is to provide a base to bands as well as individual performers to show their worth as musicians and to maintain a standard set for the quality played by students in schools and universities in the country. A fierce competition is observed every year as the final round approaches. In Thematic Art the students were required to create artwork based on a selected theme within the relevant category of art forms in categories such as nail art, face painting, poster making, temporary tattoos and collage art. An art exhibition held on day 2 was a show of an exciting emerging talent of the country that this platform continues to aspire. The music video
competition gave the budding filmmakers a chance to capture the emotions
of music on film. The ‘Parliamentary Style Debating’ was judged on the
content, individual speaking style, strategy and overall argumentation. It
was the ‘Movie Trivia’ that was a lot of fun as one got to see
students playing Dumb Charades while humming tunes so that their team
mates can guess the song. The Math Enigma and Mind Quest call out to the
young intellectuals for a showdown of intelligence and nerves. The very
interesting Law Moot Court Competition was all about legal proceedings,
reasoning, jargon and knowledge. The competition promotes an awareness and
appreciation for the rule of law and its applicability by the
participating teams on the merits of their arguments and their command
over the legal discipline. While speaking about the music and singing competition, noted singer Amanat Ali Khan said, “I believe that whatever music and singing that has been rendered was a top-class effort and the enthusiastic participation is also encouraging for it creates opportunities for the youth to display their talent on such a big platform.” The purpose of creating such presentations and endeavours is to capitalise on the youth’s maximum talent output. Haniya, of Zeb and Haniya who was the chief guest at the opening ceremony, spoke with passion about the need to realise the strength that lies in our rich cultural heritage. “One can’t be isolated while living in today’s world as we are also a part other realities. It’s the cultural pluralities that has brought people together on a single platform though they have come from diverse backgrounds and speak different languages.” Haniya also pinpointed that a majority of Pakistan’s problems have emerged because of intolerance. The show-stealer and the utter delight of the opening ceremony was a memorable performance by the instrumental group ‘Khumariyaan’ from Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Province. LUMS Olympiad is quickly becoming a national event where the societies of various institutions are involved and is an out and out a student-led programme; which aims to celebrate creativity and energy and the emphasis is on ‘how one plays the game.’
Traffic
controllers’ targets Just imagine you are traveling on a rickshaw and the driver’s eyes are focussed more on the roadside and less on the road lying in front of him. Suddenly, he spots something and abruptly stops the rickshaw to make a U-turn and mumbles something slowly. On enquiring, he uses abusive words for the flock of uniformed men standing at a safe distance from there. The dreaded people, he says, are traffic wardens who in his opinion have nothing else in the world to do than to challan innocent and poor rickshaw and wagon drivers and motorcyclists. “They always go for the easy prey and never ever dare to stop the rich and influential,” says the rickshaw driver who does not find fault with himself and other members of his community. They will find a reason to challan you anyway; they can do that on thousand pretexts, he alleges. A look at the list of
traffic violations punishable with fines shows one can be penalised for
exceeding prescribed speed limit, carrying passengers in a public service
vehicle exceeding permissible limit, violation of traffic signals, driving
a motor vehicle at night without proper lights, driving a motor vehicle on
the wrong side of the road and driving a motor vehicle with tinted/covered
glasses. Driving a motor vehicle without driving license, using pressure horn, musical horn or any other horn in a silence zone, driving an unregistered motor vehicle, use of hand-held mobile phone while driving, non-fastening of seat belt while driving on a notified road are some other common violations for which rickshaw drivers are held. The frustration of rickshaw drivers, burdened by heavy fines, found a vent in the form of violent protest at Babu Sabu where some of them had climbed a pylon and threatened to commit suicide. Some elements resorted to firing as well. Senior police officers including the Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Sarfaraz Falki came over to pacify the angry protesters but they hurled shoes at him. Following prolonged negotiations and assurances, the protestors decided to call off the protest but threatened to act again if their ‘genuine’ demands were not met. The top traffic police officials on the other hand are not ready to accept that they challan people for the sake of raising money and that the traffic wardens are given any specific targets. They say they only fine the violators irrespective of their financial or social standing. This claim is challenged by a traffic warden who says targets are given but they are verbal. The easy targets, he says, are chosen for the reason that they cannot resist or get disciplinarian action against wardens on genuine or fabricated charges. He tells TNS there is no other way to evaluate a warden’s performance than the number of challans registered by him as smooth flow of traffic is beyond their control due to the road construction going on all over the city, he adds. Therefore, they think their sole duty is to challan more and more people. Another reason for this behaviour, he insists, is that the traffic police officials want to prove their department a revenue generating unit of the government. This was essential as the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had once thought of doing away with the traffic warden system a remnant of Pervaiz Elahi government. The warden suggests
cameras should be installed all over the city to monitor the performance
of traffic wardens and ensure that they do not misbehave with the
commuters. Most of the time people react more to the undesirable behaviour
of wardens and less to their act of fining them. Lala Bashir, President Lahore Wagon Union, tells TNS the government has added insult to injury by increasing the challan fees recently. Our members are being fined Rs 500, Rs 750 and even Rs 1,000 for different violations, he says, adding earlier the amounts were less than half of these. Lala says one can imagine plight of a wagon driver who hardly earns Rs 1,000 in a day when he is fined the same amount. Sometimes, he has to face multiple challans and in that case he can go to any extent to resist this. He insists traffic wardens challan wagon drivers unnecessarily. The biggest charge against them is that they disrupt traffic by stopping at non-designated places. Lala questions this logic saying the wagons are providing service to public and have to pick and drop passengers at different places. It’s the fault of the traffic planners that proper wagon stops have not been marked along wagon routes and there are no stop boards as well. “The moment a wagon stops at a place a traffic warden emerges from nowhere and hands over a challan receipt to the driver.” He demands of the government to revise the challan fees downwards and deal leniently with poor wagon drivers. The worst traffic law violation, he says, is running a red light and suggests no-tolerance policy for such violators. On the other hand, he urges the traffic wardens to issue warnings to people first if they are guilty of minor violations. Another complaint that Lala has against traffic wardens is that they keep on challaning people even if they have already been fined during the day. “Most of the time they keep mobile phones of the drivers with them and ask them to pay the fine immediately. Mobiles are returned only once they see the bank receipts.” Saddar Division Traffic Superintendant of Police Asif Zafar Cheema confirms challan fees have been raised recently. He says there are reservations against the move and informs TNS that a committee under the leadership of CTO Sarfraz Falki is reviewing the revised fines. Cheema says fine amounts will increase anyway as they are long over due but it is quite probable that percentage increase comes down a bit. On the allegations of rickshaw and wagon drivers, he denies there are any instructions to traffic wardens to meet targets of challans every day. “In fact, the challans have come down reasonably as we are focusing more on regulation and controlling work due to the ongoing construction and repair of city roads.”
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