I was given a Reality Check ... It's about Eid-ul-Adhaa

firenze · December 12, 2008, 8:56pm

Nostalgia or Pakistan is one thing… but coming back to prices of bakras, I have a different experience actually.

We did qurbani here in the US once, but due to a multitude of factors, I have reverted to having it done in Pakistan at my parents house where they do several qurbanis together (parents, siblings etc). I was seeing the pics of bakras and they looked fairly healthy and big. Not sure if the credit goes to the awesome bargaining skills of my brother, the fact that he buys on the last day before eid (where bakray-walas also want to make the sale and go back home to celebrate eid), or that he buys so many together that he gets volume discount (I think they bought, like, 13 bakras all told). Anyway, the average price of each backra, I am told that for this year is Rs 6,500. Last year it was close to Rs 7,000.

I am sure there are people who spend Rs 30,000 for some shaandaar (and what I assume must be) horsey-size bakras, but not all bakras are that astronomically expensive. Now, I have never bought a cow in Pakistan, nor do I suspect I am as old as AQ bhai jaan to see a Rs 3,000 cow anyway, but even in my bachpann, I remember, bakras used to cost Rs 600 to Rs 1,000.

how “bachpan” you are talking ? 50’s ?