A day in Rawalpindi's Paan Wali Gali.

Byline: Aamir Yasin

People were bargaining while hawkers navigated between them to try and make a sale and shopkeepers set up their goods on an average day in the 100-year-old Narankari Bazaar.

Commonly known as Paan Wali Gali, this market has been known for selling betel leaves, areca nuts, tobacco and associated products and accessories and supplying them northern parts of the country.

The market has been the exclusive centre for betel trader in Rawalpindi for more than a century. It housed a few such shops before partition, but as migrants arrived from various parts of India the number of shops rose to 50.

The paan market thus became the main supply point for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and all the districts in the Rawalpindi division. Even today, many traders send their consignments to the north from here.

Katha soaked in lime is applied to the betel leaves, followed by areca nuts, tobacco and other spices and flavouring.

Paan was used in religious ceremonies in the pre-Muslim period in India. It was even mentioned in Ibne Battuta's travelogue, where he talks about arriving in India during Sultan Mohammad bin Tughluq reign and finding Indians chewing paan.

The tradition of eating paan with lime and areca nuts (supari), with or without tobacco, is centuries old. In the Mughal period, presenting paan to guests was a sign of respect, while Lucknow and Banaras were known for their own unique styles of preparing paan.

Workers open up baskets of betel leaves and separate them at the market.

All of the shopkeepers in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad buy paan and areca nuts from the Paan Wali Gali, where they can find products of varying quality. Most people sell paan that comes from India and Sri Lanka, as it is not grown in Pakistan.

Although there are...