The curious world of a city bazar.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Consider these 4pm scenes from a Wednesday afternoon. Mounds of gravel are spilling onto the footpath. Long metal sariyas are lying along the ground, as sweating labourers bend over them under a rainless monsoon afternoon. Yellow cement sacks and stacks of bricks occupy space meant for pedestrians. A bench sits marooned among bricks and rubble. And no passer-by appears surprised.

Over the years, almost every visit to Central Delhi’s Meharchand Market feels as though it is undergoing some or the other sort of renovation, and no one knows when it will end. Here this shutter has come down forever; there that shutter has risen with a fresh façade. Blue tin sheets conceal one building, another building stands behind scaffolding. For all the clutter, most parts of the market are unmistakably super-upscale with designer boutiques and stylish cafés. Through the glass walls, you glimpse people fussing over their shepherd pie and Korean salt bread. Ben’s Cookies of England opened its first Indian outlet recently in this market. A bookstore specialising in coffee table volumes has lately come up with three floors. Another shop, closed this afternoon, promises luxury products for pets.

It is easy to imagine Meharchand Market becoming another Khan Market. Maybe it already has for some. The place has the swagger, the prices, and the clientele in expensive summer-friendly linen. That said, bits of an older Meharchand survive. Once a sleepy neighbourhood bazar, some earlier establishments continue. This muggy hour, inside the non-AC Super Tailor Wonder, a man in baniyan is quietly cooling himself with a haath ka punkha. A tea stall beneath a roadside tree has the stove perched atop a cracked platform, beside biskut jars.

Most posh markets with humble origins complete their gentrification by settling into a reasonably polished perfection. Meharchand’s uniquely eclectic character comes from high-end landmarks co-existing beside a smattering of modest businesses. Additionally, the dust, bricks, cement and scaffolding have formed the market landscape for so long that they no longer seem temporary. Indeed, these continual construction scenes are now as much a part of Meharchand’s identity as the endless cycle of new hangouts briefly becoming favoured spots for the capital’s fashionable set.

And now, another swirl of construction dust drifts across the market lane.