Shopping in the Bazaars of Delhi
What do you sell , O Ye Merchants?
Richly your wares are displayed.
Turbans of Crimson and silver,
Tunics of purple brocade,
Mirrors with panels of amber,
Daggers with handles of jade.
Naidu, Sarojini. The Sceptred Flute. New York , 1928
Last summer, on a balmy morning, I was meandering aimlessly around the noisy lanes of Old Delhi’s Gandhi boulevard, famed for its narrow winding alleys and its Saturday morning flea bazaar. It was a typical market scene, perhaps from a medieval town in Central Asia. The bazaar was teeming with the commercial cacophony of confusing voices, horns, whistles, shouts, clangs, and the jingle-jangle of coins and numerous other unidentifiable noises. Bicycles were whizzing past pedestrians at feverish speeds, rickshaws were lugging the affluent around their daily chores, and carts filled to the brim were transporting fresh supplies to eager merchants.
The vendors were yelling “Fresh Nagpur oranges, two for the price of one,” “Hand woven shawls from Kashmir, that can pass through the eye of a needle,” “Silk saris from Mysore, fit for a princess.” I was ambling along, when something in the inappropriately named and garishly decorated display window of the “Istanbul Rug Emporium” caught my eye. It was a green colored, nine-by-nine feet wool rug with a medallion motif, beige borders, delicately ornamented with tassels. Inappropriately named indeed, for the putative emporium was a marginally augmented shack, with rickety shelves, a solitary wooden bench and a tarpaulin sheet for a roof. The entire inventory of rugs amounted to less than the bridal trousseau of a wealthy merchant’s daughter.
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...e I ran a few errands in the market. This was it ! The ultimate temptation - even Moses would have yielded to this.
It was not long. I was at a nearby shoe shop trying to outdo Imelda Marcos with my own private collection, when Ali, the artful boy, from the Istanbul Emporium rode up on a five-speed bicycle. He handed me the rug, neatly rolled up and tightly packed and said, “Baba sends his regards with his card .” I saw the business card and I knew I had been fooled – I had been outwitted, out classed and out haggled by the seller. The card listed numerous such Istanbul Emporiums all over Pakistan and India. Apparently the rickety exterior, the false modesty was just a facade to lure unsuspecting shoppers like me, who thought they could outwit these shrewd merchants.
Bibliography:
Naidu, Sarojini. The Sceptred Flute. New York , 1928
While it may be easier to persuade yourself that Boo’s published stories are works of fiction, her writings of the slums that surround the luxury hotels of Mumbai’s airport are very, very real. Katherine Boo’s book “Behind the Beautiful Forevers – Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity” does not attempt to solve problems or be an expert on social policy; instead, Boo provides the reader with an objective window into the battles between extremities of wealth and poverty. “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” then, exposes the paucity and corruption prevalent within India.
perspective. The room is austerely decorated in period style with heavy cypress-green curtains on the back and side walls. The gold of the curtain tresses is revisited...
By the late sixteenth century the British East India Company had established trade posts in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, dominating vast areas in India and southeast Asia . Although traders saw the potential for cheap labor and raw materials India held, they were...
In Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo tells the stories and struggles of families living in a slum adjacent to the Sahar Airport in Mumbai, India. Boo details the ways in which the residents of this slum, Annawadi, attempt to escape their poverty, but fail to do so. Despite numerous initiatives sponsored by the Central Government of India to improve the lives of the many individuals living in Annawadi, these programs are ultimately unable to do so due to deep-rooted corruption in the city of Mumbai. Regardless of this, the residents of Annawadi seem to accept corruption as a fact of life, and do little to fight it. As illustrated over the course of Boo’s narrative, this results from the fact that many Annawadians recognize the ways in which the laws of their society allow for the unfair treatment of certain groups of people, especially the poor and religious minorities, and are also cognizant of the fact that they have no real power to change a system that
In order to understand why Whitty’s argument is effectively communicated it must be noted that this article was published in the politically progressive magazine, Mother Jones. The audience of Mother Jones mostly consists of young adults, mostly women, who want to be informed on the corruptness of the media, the government and the corporate world. In order to be fully effective in presenting her points, Whitty starts her article by creating a gloomy imagery through her story of the city of Calcutta and the hard lives which its citizens live. Through her use of words such as “broken down…. Smoky streets” to describe the scene at Calcutta, she is able to create this gloomy image. She ties this gloomy story to how the population of Calcutta is the reason for the harsh living environment and how immense its population density is when compared to cities like New York. Additionally, she discusses how the increase in population has caused harsh lives for individuals in the Himalayas, the rest of India and the rest of the world. Through these examples she ties the notion that the root causes of such hard lives are because of the “dwindling of resources and escalating pollution,” which are caused by the exponential growth of humankind. She goes on to
Rossetti uses her protagonist maidens, Lizzie and Laura, as metaphors for women through out the poem; while the antagonist goblin men become metaphors for Britain with their fruit representing the British colonies. Rossetti creates a moral that aims “to serve the social function of warning against any illicit desire or action outside the boundaries accepted by society” (Watson 66). “Goblin Market” succeeds in presenting this moral in a light where a reader can not only find the moral and gain hope from it, but can learn how to better the society in which they are living
After tracking down the origins of his blue jeans, Timmerman meets Nari, a factory worker in Cambodia. Timmerman describes Nari’s living conditions as poor and crowded. Nari, and seven other girls, live in an 8’x12’ room with no air conditioning, and a squat toilet walled off in the corner. To gain a semblance of privacy, the girls use a sheet hanging from a sagging cord in the back corner as a changing room. Four of the girls sleep on a bamboo bed and the other four girls sleep on the floor. (Where Am I Wearing? pp.99-103) Timmerman, then, writes of his meeting with Nari and her roommates.
People everywhere are yelling in a distinct accent that I have come to recognize in my week here in Italy. As I walk down one of Florence’s many markets with my father, men and women alike are shouting out descriptive adjectives for their products in butchered English. They were just a part of the medley of noises around me. Tourists are laughing and clicking away at their cameras; drivers are slamming doors to their vans after dropping off the merchandise to the vendors. There is an energy in the air. Carts are inches away from each other, packed in one after another as far as my eighth grade eye can see. Looking around I see other American tourists looking annoyed by the enthusiastic salesmen, but I am in my place, shopping. I can’t wait to start buying presents for my family and myself. We had just stopped at a bank that morning and I am eager to spend my new euros. Unbeknownst to me though are the unspoken rules of the market place: bartering.
The short story “Clothes” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is about a young Indian woman, Sumita, and her cultural transition to America that is symbolized by her clothes and the color of her clothes. The traditional Indian attire for a woman is a sari and each one has its own purpose. Her clothes also indicate her progression from daughter, to wife, to woman.
...lled me to submit to that supervisor. Jesus empowered his disciples to perform tasks and go out and fulfill their calling.
Upon arrival into the jungle of vast buildings, the first thing noticed is the mobbed streets filled with taxi cabs and cars going to and fro in numerous directions, with the scent of exhaust surfing through the air. As you progress deeper into the inner city and exit your vehicle, the aroma of the many restaurants passes through your nostrils and gives you a craving for a ?NY Hot Dog? sold by the street venders on the corner calling out your name. As you continue your journey you are passed by the ongoing flow of pedestrians talking on their cell phones and drinking a Starbucks while enjoying the city. The constant commotion of conversing voices rage up and down the streets as someone calls for a fast taxi. A mixed sound of various music styles all band together to form one wild tune.
Hamid’s fiction deals with varied issues: from infidelity to drug trade in the subcontinent and, in the light of contemporary developments, about Islamic identity in a globalised world. His first novel, Moth Smoke (2000) won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award in 2000. His other novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Decibel Award and the South Bank Award for Literature. This book serves as a testament to his elegant style as he deftly captures the straining relationship between America and Pakistan.
Sahak, Abdul Latif. "Afghan Fuel Traders Complain of Turkic "Mafia"." Institute for war and peace reporting [Kabul] 14 4 2012, ARRI Issue 427 n. pag. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
...oday Turkey leads the world in a return to traditional kilim rug production. Because every rug is hand-woven according to age-old traditions, each is a unique work of ethnic art.
...traditions. I brought Agra rugs, Agra Marble. As the world famous Taj Mahal is made purely of Marble, it is natural that the markets must be flooded with the replicas of the Taj in marble, little stone elephants, and lovely marble coasters. Agra is also famous for leather industry, The leather workers of Agra offer shoes, slippers, sandals, purses, wallets, bags, belts, clothing, lampshades, furniture, beanbags and many more items made of leather. We can purchase for affordable prices with wide choices.