In past entries to this blog we have discussed the upper end of the
shopping experience in New Delhi – modern shopping malls. This tip of the
shopping experience is not the common one for most Indians, day to day. First,
as huge as cities like New Delhi and Mumbai are, most Indians still live in smaller towns, or even a rural existence. For them, there is nothing like a mall. For
these Indians and even for most who live in the cities shopping most often
occurs in small shops, sometimes clustered in shopping areas or markets. We
often do our grocery shopping in such a market and occasionally we will shop
there for more significant purchases.
Rae is getting ready to head back to the US for a month of Nana duty
and we wanted to pick up a few things, Indianish things, before she leaves. We
thought we would have better luck finding them at the more traditional shopping
area than at the mall, so we headed to Lajpat Nagar central market.
Many shopping areas consist of a few stalls or storefronts clustered
around a central plaza or square. There are usually a variety of shops and “eating
joints” (as the locals call them). That is a more accurate term than “restaurant”.
Lajpat Nagar central market is such a shopping area, writ large.
Lajpat Nagar was originally a swamp area without much to recommend it.
For that reason, no one seemed to mind when refugees from Punjab, relocated to
Delhi after the partition of Indian and Pakistan in 1947. Well, what started as
a refugee camp, then neighborhood, south of New Delhi continued to grow and
expand. It is now in the heart of South Delhi and expanded from one area to
four. The central market is in Lajpat Nagar III; my campus and the Church are
in Lajpat Nagar IV. I don’t know for sure how many hundreds of thousands people
live in this area that is probably no more than a couple of square miles, it is
very densely populated area and the central market has expanded along with it
to a core area of a few blocks, with new shops radiating out from along the
access roads.
Shopping at Lajpat Nagar central market gives a more traditional
experience than at the mall but there are a couple of downsides. A) The shops
are rarely cooled and of course it’s not covered so it is much hotter; and 2)
There are no beggars at the mall and there are always a few at the market. I
really have a hard time with beggars, particularly the little kids or mothers
with little kids. No matter how often I interact with them, this just does not get
any easier. Not all beggars are women and children. In this picture, if you
look closely in the center frame, you will see a man lying on a low trolley, scooting
through the crowd.
Well, having laid the overall foundation, I will leave it to Rae to
build the rest of the house. Here’s Rae….
Hi all,
I’ve been wanting to go spend some time at Lajpat Nagar market, as we
drive by it all the time on our way to Phil’s work or our Branch. We’ve been there very briefly a couple of times,
I think I talked about going to the paint store; that was in this market
area. The previous visits were not that
pleasant because it was so hot and humid and AC is not all that common [Phil –
even fans are not all that common]. Some
of the stores are enclosed with actual doors and so they might be the ones with
AC, but a lot of them are open stalls and so whatever the outside temperature
is that’s the temperature you get.
If you picture shopping, I’m sure you picture going into the store and
wondering around looking at things you might be interested in. That is not how you shop at these
markets. While most of the stores are
little more than formalized stalls, the larger stores are very narrow, fairly
deep and usually 2 or three stories. Stairs to the additional floors are usually
located at the back of the store. Items are not normally out for you to look
at, but rather they are folded and stored on shelves that usually go from floor
to ceiling. The ceilings are probably 12 to 15 feet high. There are usually counters that run the length
of the store and are probably about 18-24 out from the shelves with a narrow
corridor down the middle for the customer to move.
There are usually a lot of clerks behind the counters and the space for
them to move past each other is limited so they work as a team to get things
from the shelves. Sometimes there are
stools, benches, or chairs to sit at so that you can be shown the
merchandise. They will ask you what you
are wanting, and assuming they understand what it is you are saying, they begin
to remove items from the shelves, then from their wrappings and then begin
displaying them, ( they also do this with items that aren’t what you’ve asked
for). There is always someone whose job
it is to refold and repackage the items, so displaying MANY items never seems
to be an issue. We happened to be
shopping for some clothing items, and I know if I’d had access to the shelves I
could have ruled out a lot of items before they bothered to unwrap and display
them. I guess if I streamlined the
process there wouldn’t be a need for so much cheap labor. It was interesting to see the clerks sit on
the counter, swing their legs over and repeat the process in reverse to get
items from the other side of the store. It was either that or have clerks from the other
side throw items over to them. It took
going to a few different stores to find the items we were wanting. In almost every store there seemed to be a
tailor to make immediate alterations to an item. We in fact had a tailor add sleeves to an
item, and shorten sleeves on another. An
interesting thing about tops that come with no sleeves, there are sleeves
included so they can be added if wanted. I don’t want to say much more about what we
purchased, because I want them to be a bit of a surprise for the family. Later I hope to have pictures to post.
Shopping was still pretty warm and I found myself pretty sweaty, but
overall, it was a fun adventure and I’m glad it was a bit cooler so we could go. While we were in one of the stores having a
mountain of merchandise displayed, there was a big rain storm going on outside
and so that’s why it looks dark and rainy in the pictures. A lot of the open air stalls seem to be
prepared for such things, and almost magically items are somehow protected from
the downpour and business continues.
There may be a few tables or displays that don’t get covered, but it
seemed to me to be very few. Here are a few more pictures.
Here’s a funny thing that may give you an idea of how different our perception about the weather is from those native to Delhi. I’ve become
friends on Facebook with one of the young women I met at camp. (Her father was
our District President for quite a few years prior to our current one.) She just posted on Facebook how much she was
enjoying the “chilly” weather now, huh?
I worry a bit about her, because she is going to BYU in January. If 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity is "chilly" what is she going to do in a Provo winter? Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny.
Namaste.
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