Kamila Sabzwari describes a day in
the life of those who live in havelis.
One arrives and departs in Sindh invariably
in the middle of a smoke screen of dust.
Only the rich, or rather the head of the
community, have havelis where they hold
their court in the otaak. Sayyids and Pirs,
the religious leaders, are known for their
hospitality, drawing many to their deras,
courts.
As one arrives in a little goth, village,
some 15km from Shikarpur one is overwhelmed
by the dramatic appearance of an enclosing
wall, about twenty feet high, with a
capacity to house at least thirty people.
This is called the kot, inner citadel, as
called by Peter Mayne in his book Saints
of Sindh. It appears like a mini town
but in actuality is a network of houses and
courtyards separated by high walls; all the
houses in the compound belong to the same
family and all are closely related. The
author was granted permission by the Pir to
visit on the condition that no names and
locations would be printed.
Outside the main haveli are the otaaks where
the chief or head of the family spends most
of his time eating, sleeping, entertaining
guests, solving land disputes and holding
important political meetings. He holds the
sole authority in settling all disputes and
is the political figure of the region and
sometimes runs for the local council
election.
The head of the family welcomes the male
guests in the otaak while the female guests
are totally ignored by him and by other men
of the house. In fact, it is a serious
breach of etiquette for men to either refer
to or speak about the female guests.
However, this author was treated a little
differently and granted an interview with
the Pir. Throughout the interview he did not
make eye contact with me and continuously
stared at the floor making me very
uncomfortable.
Upon entering the main haveli, the view to
the court is blocked by dehdi, a wall used
for reasons of purdah. The court is divided
into two parts, the upper and the lower
court. The upper court is kept much cleaner
and is built with more care and intricacy.
In the daytime the verandah takes precedence
over the court and its shade is used for
daily chores and activities. While the
children use it for playing cricket and
running around, the women sit on charpoys,
string cots, busy with their sewing and
embroidery. One rarely uses chairs here.
In some cases as described by Shireen Nana,
the haveli is divided into two courtyards by
rooms standing back to back, "The front yard
is for the exclusive use of the Pir Sahib,
where he can hold court, if he is too lazy
to go to the otaak. The backyard is the
living quarter for the women."
In this case both the courtyards are
connected by means of a narrow passage on
either side. The rooms in this Sindhi haveli
are lined up in a row, a common feature in
Sindh, allowing the westerly wind to refresh
them. Each room is given a name, depending
on its occupants and is thus varied
according to the status of the occupant. The
ceilings of havelis are usually decorated
either in tile, stucco or woodwork and are
prominent in bright colours. In this
particular haveli the emphasis was on
woodwork.
The backyard designed to hold a few toilets
and washrooms is normally used in winters,
when the main toilets are too far off in the
court. The traditional toilet called
sandaas is basically a cement hole. The
storage room is called bhando and is
of two types. One which is an independent
room in the court, storing larger items from
foodgrains to beds while the other is for
more personal storage, becoming part of a
bedroom, meant for smaller items like bed
linen, jewellery, etc. In this haveli there
were two main stores in the courtyard and
the private accessory is kept in kothris,
smaller stores within the bedrooms.
Winter or summer, the house comes to life at
Fajr, dawn time. The Pir's sister is
the first to rise. It is her speciality to
make lassi, and buttermilk, no easy task.
The household uses what it needs during the
day, and what is left is collected for two
or three days and is then clarified into
ghee.
The wife is the next one up. Hers is the
unenviable task of ordering several servants
into action. Breakfast is usually early and
informal in the ladies section, but for men
it starts later around ten o'clock in the
otaak, with all varieties of food
imaginable. The Mem Sahib spends her entire
day in the kitchen, and has all her meals
there. Generally it is expected that having
a horde of servants would leave the lady of
the house with time to rest. But with an
abundant and never ending number of visitors
in the otaak, who no matter what their
purpose of visit, are always asked to stay
back for a meal. Rest seems a rare
commodity. On each and every visit the
author made, she had to drink water at every
haveli, or rather every house. It is a
custom of every Sindhi house to serve at
least water, if not eatables. They consider
it an insult if the guest does not accept
water.
The women of the haveli do not step outside
the house, except for an urgent task (such
as needing to see a doctor) and all the food
items are brought in by male servants.
Whatever is brought to them, it is cooked
without any fuss. Due to the excessive
visitors, each meal usually becomes a
ceremony and cooking a major activity for
the women.
By late afternoon the whole house is fast
asleep - the afternoon break being an
essential routine. Female servants either
sleep in the verandah or the kitchen and the
ladies of the house in their rooms. By Asr
time the haveli is full of life again. This
is when female socializing starts and
neighbouring women stop by for gossip
sessions. Dinner is usually served between
eight and nine and the house again retreats
into deep silence by ten in the night.
Earlier people use to retire for the night
by 8:30 p.m. Now, however, with time and
technology things have changed and cable, TV
and dish antennas have overtaken people's
routines.
The women do not have large amounts of cash
and their account is limited to charity
gifts and goods. However, gifts arriving in
the form of humans becomes a problem. In one
such incident a large destitute peasant
family, decided to give one of their
children as a present to the haveli. This
traditional gift serves the dual purpose of
lightening the burden on the destitute
family's income as well as gaining a little
additional merit.
The visit to the haveli was an eye opener,
that revealed to the author a claustrophobic
lifestyle that can never be imagined.
"Who kills the
body, he must die,
Who kills the spirit, he goes free"- Kahlil
Gibran
Kamila Sabzwari is an architect who
graduated from the Indus Valley School for
Art and Architecture, Karachi. She worked
for two years on several projects with
Arshad Shahid Abdullah and now lives in New
York.
This book is a study of the historical
evolution of the haveli in Sindh. It reveals
the development of a style of domestic
dwelling that is resplendent of a vanishing
culture. |
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