Text: Cecil Pinto
Photos: Edson Dias
Chaotic Patterns: The Evolution of a Bazaar
By Cecil Pinto
After being away from Mumbai for more than ten years the three things that strike me as being visibly different, as our bus approaches the centre of the city, are:
- Aluminum cladded buildings
- Flyovers
- Paver blocks used to surface roads
How much each of these have helped to improve life in Mumbai is questionable but what interests me is that the gloss of aluminum cladding camouflages and makes anonymous what are probably very interesting built structures. Conversely we have paver blocks that give an interesting texture, and sometimes even shape, to otherwise flat boring road surfaces.
Smooth versus rough. Textured versus bland. Order versus random. Patterns in chaos. Chaotic patterns in weekly markets. Chor Bazaar. That’s where we’re headed.
First we look at a busy commercial street that leads down to a temple road and a conventional market area. Our guided tour through Bhuleshwar took us past an organized commercial place like the Swadeshi Market with its hundreds of well ordered stalls to the chaotic Panjrapul area with its Ram Temple. What at first glance appears to be a street market in progress is actually a very organized market area. One row of shops sells steel kitchen items, another row sells religious idols. The chaotic appearance is caused by (a) sheer volume of people passing through, (b) a few street vendors and (d) shops intruding into streets through extensions.
Is this organized chaos typical to all markets? Are weekly markets vastly dissimilar to daily markets? How do weekly markets evolve and what makes them special? Are elements of pattern and chaos common to all markets? What makes Chor Bazaar unique – or similar to other weekly markets?
There are three weekly markets in Goa from which we can draw parallels.
The Friday Market in Mapusa is where local produce from the surrounding villages is sold on the streets and pavements. There is a direct interaction between the producer and the buyer. There is no intermediary. Regular street vendors also exist but it is the availability of local produce that makes the Friday Market in Mapusa unique.
Shop owners actually promote the Friday Market by encouraging vendors to use the pavements and streets in front of their shop. In most cases the aim is to get clients into their shops too, but in some few cases they are motivated by a premium they charge the vendors to use this area – which they consider themselves the owners of.
The market town of Mapusa has evolved over the decades thanks to the Friday Bazaar and hence the town is a creation of the weekly market and not vice versa. Over time an order to has evolved which means vendors of a particular type of produce occupy certain areas. Pork sausages in this section, cereals in this section and vegetables in this section. A nominal market tax is collected by the Mapusa Municipality from each vendor.
The Saturday Night Market in Arpora is an artificially created market every year since 1999 only during peak tourist season from November to March. A German entrepreneur leased a large area in Arpora, an undistinguished village whose only claim to fame was its proximity to the high density beach tourist destinations of Calangute, Baga and Anjuna. Market lanes were created containing separate stalls for vendors, all surrounding a central entertainment hub that consists of a small stage with performances going on with a small seating area and a much larger standing area for the audience. What appear to be impromptu performances and jam sessions is actually well choreographed and sequenced entertainment. German efficiency and planning ensures that everything functions like clockwork.
In one row of stalls are the ‘lamanis’ selling their wares. In another row are the mehendi, tattoo and piercing stalls. A huge Food Court has individually managed stalls providing cuisine from all over the world. Two central bars serve as watering holes. Parking is well planned and organized. Each vendor pays a fee to the organizer every Saturday but has to commit for the entire season – about twenty Saturdays.
Visitors to the market consist of foreigners, Indians and Goans in equal measures and the market commences at 5 pm and mostly extends till 1 am. Despite its very fairground like atmosphere the Saturday Night Market is a well planned, organized and controlled market. Bouncers ensure that acts of unwelcome soliciting or physical aggression are curtailed. It is more an avenue for socialization, drinking, dining and entertainment than the buying and selling of goods. The vendors complain but are actually quite happy to establish contact with clients who then visit them at their regular shops later.
The Wednesday Flea Market though is the closest in form to Chor Bazaar. Every Wednesday, during tourist season, a makeshift market is formed in a coconut plantation close to the seafront. Right now what is sold in this market is touristy souvenirs and artifacts. Consumption of narcotics does occur but is not looked as being particularly unwanted. But a look at how the Anjuna Market evolved may give us insights into Chor Bazaar.
In the early 1970s the flower power hippie generation from the West discovered Goa and came there mostly to get stoned on marijuana and LSD. Once they came crashing down to reality, after a few weeks or months of Nirvana, very often they were totally broke. To collect money for airfare home, or for more drugs, they resorted to selling their used clothes, cameras, players and what-have-you. The Anjuna Flea Market came into being. At a time when foreign goods were seen as desirable, and not easily available, this became a good venue for Goans and Indians to buy such items at relatively cheap prices.
As the world became a smaller place, and access to foreign goods became easier, the dynamic of the Flea market took on a curious turn. Legitimately imported, or sometimes smuggled, foreign goods were sold by local entrepreneurs using impoverished foreigners as dummy vendors. Consumers were mostly domestic tourists who believed they were buying genuine and ‘original’ foreign goods because of the nature and venue of the market – and the appearance of the vendors.
This directly connects with Chor Bazaar. When you buy something here there is an underlying assumption that the object is stolen. This adds to the intrigue behind the entire transaction. Add to that the seemingly chaotic atmosphere and the leeway for bargaining and you have the perfect formula for a weekly market.
A sub-section of Bhendi Bazaar off Mohammad Ali road on Fridays becomes Chor Bazaar. This is a dominantly Muslim area and the shopkeepers are quite happy to take a weekly off on Friday instead of Sunday and attend to prayers and other family activities. The areas in front of the closed, and open, shops are taken over on Friday by vendors of pre-owned goods. These goods are sourced from junkyards and rag pickers and all such service providers who deal with pre-owned goods – which does not necessarily have to but could include thieves.
In some rare cases the shop owner closes shop on Fridays but himself is selling some of his wares on the street in front of his shop. This act itself legitimizes the concept of a weekly street market being able to push merchandise sometimes more efficiently than a conventional shop.
The street vendors themselves appear to be occupying random places but a regular visitor understands that each vendor has a very specific site and in fact deals with a particular type of goods. There is much less randomness than appears to be.
Chor Bazaar probably evolved, like the Anjuna Flea Market, from proximity to a certain area and to fulfill a particular business community need. In this case the proximity to the docks. Foreign goods were possibly initially offered for inspection and wholesale purchase here. As large businesses established themselves, and efficient transportation and communication evolved, the merchants moved to ‘better’ areas leaving the weekly entrepreneurs to fill in the vacuum and allow similar goods to be traded – but of the pre-owned variety.
A proper historical study of how Chor Bazaar evolved to its present form will allow us to see the rationale behind each pattern in the chaos. Perhaps such a study will provide insights not only into how Chor Bazaar will evolve if allowed to grow organically, but also how it will change if its physical nature is disturbed.
