Ajrak

I love ajracks - they are these beautiful shawls and fabrics. They're essentially colorblock prints, which I love in most any form. Mostly they're red, black and white, but I've seen a few other colors too, and sometimes there are little mirrors sewn in as decorations. They're very symbolic of Sindh - the southernmost province of Pakistan and the province that Karachi is in. They used to be handmade and generations of craftsman passed the tradition on to their children. Ajracks were a symbol of honor and pride, and a sign of friendship and hospitality. An ajrack was a gift you'd give to a special guest. These days, there are fewer and fewer people who know how to make ajracks by hand, and most of them are machine-made. They're still beautiful, though!

My husband is not Sindhi, though, but my father-in-law has done a lot of work in interior Sindh and he'd brought a lot of beautiful, authentically made ajraks back with him. They were just languishing in a closet until I found them. Little known lesson: In Pakistan, if you express some interest or fondness for anything, you might just end up taking it home with you. Pakistanis pride themselves on their hospitality and I can't count the number of times I've said "Oh your ____is so pretty!" and ended up being forced to take the blank home with me. So now I have huge stack of beautiful ajraks sitting in my closet. It's nice in the winter because I can use them as shawls and scarves, and I've even used them as decorations around the house. As tablecloths and draped across chairs or the foot of the bed. I even pinned one on a wall once. But I'm nervous about pinning them and I've never cut one up because M once told me a story: One of his elementary school teachers, who was herself Sindhi and was teaching the Sindhi language - made a big scene and sent a female student out of her classroom because the girl was wearing an outfit made from ajrak material. She said that the ajrak was such a symbol of Sindh and pride that one should never sully it by cutting it with scissors (and then turning it into a shirt & pants, I guess.) So, in my attempt to be culturally sensitive, I try to treat my ajraks with great care!

My beloved, blurry M, wearing an ajrack as a shawl, and opening the grossest cotton candy ever.