Exploring the Royal Market from British Raj

I was born and brought up in Karachi. However, I considered myself unfortunate for not being able to explore the majestic building from British Era-Empress Market. The market from outside always gave me a fancy gaze and I always tempted to go inside. I thought that after all these 24 years without a single tour of this 127 years old marketplace; it was the high time for me to pay this place a visit. And I did!

The majestic building.

It is situated in the heart of Saddar, and is easily recognized by the looming clock tower that can be viewed from a long distance.Quite a stunning building with hidden beauty behind the sandstone walls. It is a fine example of British/Gothic architecture.

It is no wonder Empress Market is perhaps one of the most sought after markets of Karachi. Many people from all over the city come to this bazaar for shopping, despite its locality in one of the most crowded areas of the city where commodities sold here everything from fruits, vegetables, dry fruits, condiments and meat to stationery materials, pet shops and textiles. Fruits and vegetables available there were one of the freshest products of the country and were sold at the most nominal prices as compared to the rest of the markets in Karachi, other several difficult to find items such as mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli, fennel or avocados were easily available at reasonable prices too.

All the spices were available here.

While walking by the different shops, I encountered a place which was quite packed as I went near to see what was happening; it was a small vendor for oils. The seller had a wooden handmade oil press and he was taking out the Almond oil. It was a pure oil and was not too pricey. I got coconut oil for myself with a number of essential oils including Lavender oil, Tea-tree oil, Rosemary oil, Pumpkin oil, Peppermint oil, and Jojoba oil.

Handmade oil press

In addition, it has a different section for butchers where one can get meat at reasonable prices and all the organs were available too. However, it was too stinky and very low hygienic for us to survive barely after few minutes and we had to rush outside to breathe some fresh air.

Butchers busy with their business.
Image by https://thekarachiwalla.com/

It’s a fact that no matter how modern the world becomes, these old places have their own charm and they add beauty to our city. From royalty to ruins…the journey of the place was spectacular and there is no debate in the fact that Empress Market will always remain the Empress of its kind in the heart of Karachi and will continue to impress its visitors.

Best Social Media Platforms for Business

As an individual who indulges in social media herself, I can quite confidently state that Instagram has become one of the best social media platforms for businesses to promote themselves and grow their clientele. The idea behind Instagram started out as a simple website where an individual could upload their pictures and based on those pictures (assuming that you were not a private account) would then gain followers, this led to themed accounts where your followers came to your account if you were able to provide them with a certain aesthetic.

Soon enough businesses started to follow the trend of uploading aesthetically pleasing images of their products. Even if it was a small business and it was providing something unique to the viewers such as knit animals/creatures, ceramic crockery, or even crystallized dead animals/insects (yes, the man crystallizes them himself), or even art; chances are you would gain followers and through word of mouth your popularity on Instagram would grow leading you to potential buyers and collaborators.

In this regard Instagram has also begun to take charge of this growing epidemic. Earlier this year it changed its algorithm so that only the content that you wanted to see, based on your likes, would be placed on the top of your homepage. According to one article, posts on social media which include videos or photos are more likely to draw a bigger crowd than link based posts. Furthermore, Instagram has now gone one to create profiles that are only for businesses, which allows you an extra tab on your profile which allows interested parties to contact you. The contact button offers a number of options such as your email, contact number, or your business address. Lest an individual desire to travel to you business address Instagram shows the client your address on a map making it easier for people to locate you/your business. Moreover, Instagram provides the business owner with analytics about which post was popular and the demographic of its followers. the business can easily convert a famous post into an advert on mobile devices as well.

Instagram has made it easier for businesses to provide their customers with a new outlet where they can be contacted. Especially for home based businesses this step towards catering to businesses has led to individuals favoring the use of social media as a method of promoting their businesses rather than Facebook or any other site.