The Pakol Story
December 27, 2008
A Man wearing a Traditional Afghan Pakol.
I bought Myself a Pakol today. For those of you not familiar with Pashto, its the Hat worn by the man in the picture. Its traditional for Pathan men from Afganistan and N.W.F.P to wear a Pakol. But it was given global fame by a man who was not a pathan. Ahmad shah Masoud a.k.a ” The Lion of panjsher”. He was an Afghan war lord of great power and ingenuity, who famously wore a Pakol at all times.
Coming back to the topic. My old Pakol had become a bit shabby from being kept at the bottom of my cupboard, so i decided to buy a new one. Pakols are readily available at any bazaar in peshawar. But I prefer a maker in the old city portion. Getting there is a real pain in the ass though, you have to walk through ditches ever filled with sewerage water, jump over street merchants, selling their wares from earth mats. Dodge around rikshaas and duck whenever you come face to face with openly hanging electric wires–catastrophes just waiting to happen!
But When finally you get to the “khan Azam Pakol and Lungi house” the hurdles along the way become just minor inconveniences (which is in fact exactly what they are! ) . The sons of Mr Khan Azam greet you like a king, They fuss over you, offer you qehwa, make a few jokes at the expanse of the rival hat maker across the street. After a good 10,15 minutes when u’ve consumed at least 2 cups of qehwa, do they come to the point.
First of all one of them complements the structure of your head, in my case it was ” wah wah janaab kia sardaron wala sar hai aapka, Bara aur gol!!!” Which makes one feel like someone with Down syndrome. Then they take measurements of your head from various angles. After That they ask you to chose colour and fabric, I chose gray and synthetic wool ( As the thought of natural wool on my head was kinda nauseating to be honest! ). once thats done they roll out a Pakol made just for you! You place it on your head, pay them (an Arm and a Leg) and walk off in the glorious sun set…………
Something resembling my Pakol
Incomplete 
Nice post,I remember buying my first Pakol,an interesting fest !
oh yeah, buying your first Pakol is a memorable experiance. A transition from boyhood to manhood! 🙂
Btw Welcome to the “Zambeel” Danish! 🙂
LOL@ wah wah janaab kia sardaron wala sar hai aapka, Bara aur gol!!!” 😆
That was a fun post to read! 🙂
Kept reminding me of The Kite Runner though cause that’s the only place I’ve heard of a pakol before 😛
😀 These things seem to happen to me a lot!
Ahh the kite runner, I would re-read it today but according to insha jee ive been foolish enough to loan it to a friend, now i cant be more foolish and accept him to return it! 🙂
Enetertaining POST!
Thx sehar, welcome to the “zambeel”! 🙂
Man, I want a pakol now! 😀
It is not only one shop attitude but is very common in our country now. If one goes to a motor mechanic for his car check up. He say emphetically, “Sir, I never met a man so wise like you before. You have brought your car to me just right in time otherwise.” And he stops. Then he can charge the car owner a hefty amount and he goes home happy thinking to himself to be very wise while he had been befooled.
Coming to Pakol. This name was given to it by Afghanis. It’s original name is Gilgiti or balti topa. It used to be very popular and available every where but, perhaps due to war on terror, it is scarvely available. I have been buying every two to three year a new one donating my old one to some needy. Now my topa is over three year old and I am not getting one good quality in Islamabad.
INFO:
I write about ourselves in Urdu at http://www.theajmals.com/blog
Sorry. scarcely has got typed scarvely
@ SAWj
Come to Peshawar mate, ill get you a discount at Khan Azam’s Place! 🙂
Welcome to the “Zambeel”
@ Iftikhar Ajmal
You are quite right sir, and thanks for providing such valuable information about the back ground of the pakol. Welcome to my blog.
Your Pakol sounds nice 🙂 saw one in Karachi’s Sunday bazaar…after reading your post, I’ll probably go and buy one…
Thanks dude!
@lubna
Aha……………….So i shouldve seriously considered a career in sales than!!! 🙂 Btw welcome to the “Zambeel”.
@SAWj
You are welcome! 🙂
It’s mandatory for Pathan men to wear it. And it looks good! You forgot to mention Salman Ahmad. He too uses it (I think) 😛
Well I wont say mandatory as the elders usually preffer a Qulla lungi and of course who can forget Salman Ahmad in his stylish Pakol! Thx for reminding me of tht. And welcome to the “Zambel” 🙂
You my dear are an incredibly talented writer. DO NOT STOP! A real Mohsin Hamid in the making!
All the best,
Samosa
Wow, Thank You. I do believe that you have been too lavish in your praise but still. My day has been made, So thank you 🙂
Welcome to the Zambeel.
LOL! Maybe your friend will be foolish enough to return it! 😛
Ah Salman Ahmed and his Pakol.. i sure was crazy about him at that time! 😀
I have seen Ahmed Shah Masoud’s cap, I didn’t know it was called a Pakol. The Pathans in Hindi films wear Pagris. Another misconception cleared, I thought only Indians likes Ahmed Shah Masoud.
@ Siras
And you weren’t alone, There was a time when every Pakistani youth had a Junoon poster up in their room! 🙂
@Prerna
Most of my countrymen do not share my liking of Masood 🙂
An interesting episode of yours buying a pakol. I do wear it once in a blue moon and it doesn’t look bad either. 🙂 Infact last winters I enjoyed it a lot wearing it with the longish hair to receive comments like ‘you are looking like an afghan’ or, ‘whats a pakistani taliban doing here?’ .. I didn’t of course enjoy the second comment courtesy my displeasure over pakistani talibans activities.
Nice blog! 🙂
@Aadil
Haha nice to hear from you Aadil, Welcome to the Zambeel! 😀
Personally I would put a lovely bench so all the squirrels could use it and maybe add a mini bar and a Jacuzzi at a later date just for the wildlife though!
lolz ok tht made sense…..
You can go to http://www.zarinas.com/ to buy your own pakol hat.
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Thank you for dropping by, i don’t know if i’ll be a famous blogger or not but I certainly am an occasional blogger 🙂