Just another mother: Selling tripe to feed her children

Chanesar Goth is known more for its violence than its female breadwinners like Maasi Peerani.

KARACHI: This rugged woman is well into her 80s. Pakistan appeared on the world map just as she was giving birth to her fifth child. Half of her life has been spent cooking and selling 'Ojhri Jo Borr' [a traditional curry made out of tripe]. It seems Maasi Peerani is destined to do this till her last breath.

To those living outside the neighbourhood, Chanesar Goth is seen as a 'mini Lyari' of Karachi due to frequent incidents of violence. But one of the untold stories about the area is that a number of women there are the breadwinners of their families. The 200-year-old goth has many women like Peerani, who cook fresh meals and sell them in the neighbourhood or sit outside their houses vending biscuits and soft drinks.



Peerani's borr is quite popular in the community; she prepares the dish all night and takes it outside her house at 6am to serve it hot for breakfast. One bowl is served for Rs20. Cleaning tripe is not an easy task, especially in a water-starved neighborhood like Chanesar Goth. But Peerani manages quite well.

With a monopoly over this specific dish, the old woman does not let any other woman make the same dish in the community.

As the matriarchal head of the family and the main breadearner, Peerani's five sons and four daughters still rely on her for naming the grandchildren.

"I was brought up by my father and aunt as my mother died when I was only five," recalled Peerani. "My father was a race horse trainer but I was married to a man who was not well-off." She was trained by her mother-in-law to make and sell this dish. Decades earlier, her own mother-in-law had learnt the art from her in-laws. And so the tradition was passed on.

As her daughters, daughters-in-law, granddaughters and great granddaughters gathered round her, she looked at them and said, "All of them know how to cook but I trust only myself; people come to have Maasi Peerani's cooked Borr, not theirs."

"All her sons are settled in Dubai, and now that they all earn and give her Rs2,000 each, they tell her she does not need to do it anymore," said her second daughter-in-law. The feisty Peerani interrupted and said, "Their wives get Rs20,000! I don't want to be dependent on anyone. What good is Rs2,000 these days?" This mother did what only a mother can, and spent Rs40,000 from her hard-earned savings on her grandson's wedding and set up his room. "I named him Ghulam Sarwar after my husband; he is still dependent on me since he teaches at a madrassa and does not believe in taking money from his students for that," she said, adding she gives him Rs50 daily.

She was a bride at the age of 16. By her 30th birthday she found herself a widow. Throughout her married life she raised her children single-handedly as her welder husband was always 'out-of-town'. "I go to Jinnah hospital for my checkups. My faith gets stronger by the day as I work hard every single day despite my bad health," she said with a smile, sharing that she has diabetes, blood pressure and an ulcer.

"If I can manage to pay for my khat [bed], dawa [medicine], kheer [milk] and chai [tea], is this business a bad thing?" she said.

Sources within the neighbourhood say that she makes as much as Rs2,000 every day, even on days when there is violence or indiscriminate firing. "When I hear gunshots, I call all the children inside and tell them to stay put until it stops," she said, adding that the small wars in the area have severely affected her business.

Known for her anger in the neighbourhood and her domineering nature, this woman is a soft-hearted mother on the inside. With tears in her eyes, she said, "I lost four daughters to ill-health, lost one son to poisonous alcohol and my two daughters cannot speak, but my children and work is all I have. This is my happiness."

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2014.