vustudents
06-22-2011, 06:20 PM
It was the opening day off All-Pakistan Industrial Exhibition. The Central park was brightly lit. men laughed at the top of their voice, women giggled with joy, and children yelled at each other Loudspeakers blared out popular film songs. An old and sick lion in the cricus-tent tried to roar now and then. The Exhibition had been widely advertise. Thousands of people had come to see it. They must have been disappointed. There was not much to see. Industrial exhibitions are held to advertise the progress of industry. They prove very useful and popular as a means of education and recreation. But this exhibition had nothing new or remarkable to show the visitors. Most of the things on show could be seen in any shopping center of the town. Even these things were not exhibited in an attractive way. Almost all of the stalls were ugly. They seemed more suitable for storing rather than exhibiting things. The first thing that attracted me was a huge map of Pakistan. It was a really beautiful thing. On the right of this map, there was a tube-well engine. A number of children stood there. They wanted to know how it worked. But there was no one at hand to answer their questions. Next to it, a tin-shed exhibited a dozen bicycles. Their paint had chipped off. No one was interested in them. A few young man stood there and advised the passersby not to buy those cycles. They said that they had bought cycles of that make but, within a year or so, had to sell them to the junk dealer. Then there was some two dozen cloth shops. Their show-cases exhibited the same varieties of cloth as one sees in the Anarkali. Their prices were as exorbitant as ever. The stall of the lrrigation Department was very well designed. Large models of new projects were on show. Two well-informed experts were there to explain the details of those models. P.W.R. stall had a number of train models run by electricity. The taxidermist, s stall was the most attractive one. A large number of children and grown-ups stood there looking at the stuffed birds and animals. Now and then a small boy prevailed upon his father to buy him some bird. The women crowded before the bangle sellers shops. It appeared that they had come to the exhibition only to buy bangles. Almost all the big firms manufacturing soaps, creams and cigarettes had their stalls in the exhibition. They offered big prizes including cars, scooters, radios, to their customers on lucky coupons. People were buying these things in large quantities. There were many other shops and stales but they did not have anything of interest.