Hawkers keep passengers at ease

At the Khanna bus stop, several vehicles were parked on a hot summer day. The passengers in the vehicles were not cheery. They seemed incensed. Suddenly, a teenage hawker is heard calling, ‘Quench your thirst’, ‘Drink an icy glass of water on the hot summer day.’ Passengers felt pleased.

A cluster of vehicles at prolonged traffic signals is the norm. On such occasions, hawkers become a blessing. Persons marooned in traffic are often at an advantage when hawkers stop in. Water, snacks, and other goods come straight to a customer as he/she sits in the comfort of a personal car or congested public transport.

When someone approaches with a snack of coconuts and water as passengers sit sweltering in the public transport, they look glad. From eatables to flowers, small towels, handkerchiefs, there is no limit to what is available for sale in the traffic.

Nineteen-year-old Nasir Hussain sells confectionaries and chips in the traffic along the Islamabad Expressway route, especially between Khanna and Dhoke Kala Khan. For Nasir, business is good as he makes reasonable sales on the days he is on the road.

He says, “When people spend hours on roads, they want to eat or drink water, naturally. For us, on such a day, sales can start from 9 am and will last until 4-5 pm. One day, my sister and I sold a good number of packs of chips and people were still asking for more. We got tired and went home to rest.”

Another hawker, 21-year old Hasan Mahmood sells fruits in the traffic. “Hawking in the traffic is a risk, there is the possibility of being hit by a vehicle,” he says. “Anything from biscuits, juices to roasted corn, sells like a hot cake whenever people are hungry in the traffic,” he tells.

Mohsin Naqvi says that he sometimes sells between Rs. 400 to Rs. 5oo worth of snacks. “In the morning, there are days when the traffic will be good enough till 12noon; by 4 pm or 5 pm, we are back on the other side of the road again for the evening business,” he adds.

A young boy, Talaat Zaidi, who once was an auto mechanic at a nearby workshop, ( had to quit auto workshop because of low wages and hard work) and now happily sells snacks along with his brother, Akhtar, who handles the sale of drinking water drums, notes that on very hot days, motorists and commuters hardly have enough drinkable water.

In addition, our main targets are wagon/bus/flying coach passengers, broken down cars. They usually break down due to engine overheating,” he says. “If the drivers do not carry water along with them, they have to buy water from us for their radiator or the car will not move,” he adds.