ப‌ஜார் தெருவும் ப‌ராக்கு பார்த்த‌லும்

First , take the black seat of  ” Mas­ter mind “..

–  What’s the rea­son behind the name “Pondy Bazaar” in Chen­nai ?
– Why does the Majes­tic bus stand [ Ban­ga­lore ] lie below the ground level ? [ என‌க்கு கேக்க‌தான் தெரியும் ;) ].

I am not a fan of wan­der­ing in the pricy malls for shop­ping. Remem­ber the mild shock we get, when we glance the price tag for a kid’s t-shirt in Lil­liput !! They always remind me the gap, they have with the com­mon man. Even, I avoid roam­ing in Brigade road which exhibits the swish life style — but our friends still jazz around there [ with jerkin  :) ].  On the con­trary, I enjoy shop­ping or just brows­ing in the old areas of a city. NSC Bose road, Pura­sawakkam, Avenue road (BLR), JNR 4th Block(BLR), Sun­day bazaar in Puduch­ery [ Pondicherry or Pondy ] con­vince me that any com­mon man can still go out for shopping.

Win­dow shop­ping is always more inter­est­ing than the orig­i­nal shop­ping. I still enjoy see­ing the great­est plasma/LED screens in the shops, which we can’t own at home. Brows­ing the book/movie titles is more inter­est­ing than read­ing them or watch­ing them — Book exhi­bi­tions and DVD shops never make me tired. [ per­ma­nent book fair is avail­able inside Egmore Museum cam­pus]. I used to visit an old record­ing shop, to just browse the LP records [ Nandu, Kallukkul eeram, Ura­vai kaatha kili, Kali, 47 Naatkall ].

My father used to take me to Par­rys cor­ner dur­ing my school days — Par­rys used to be a great hub, those days.  Venkateswara empo­rium, Kuralagam, Agarwal/Ramakrishna Bha­van, Durable, Giri sta­tion­ary, Shankar bha­van, Ganesh cof­fee — ice creams, Bun­der street [ Sathya Cal­en­dar vaanga povom :) ]  are the few that comes to my mind.[ Old Rajini movie ‘Pol­lad­ha­van’ title sequence shows the Venkateswara empo­rium :) ]. Sim­i­lary, in Ban­ga­lore, my Sun­day noons start with board­ing a bus to Majes­tic [ Mysore bank ondhu ! ] and alight at “Avenue road” — again a won­der­ful stroll for a Sun­day after­noon. My friends ask me what do I buy there — Noth­ing remark­able.. May be some toys, dresses for kids, some house­hold items [ hanger, clip :) ], footwear [ 2 spl teas in between :) ]. Finally, I take up the bus from KR mar­ket.  ” Gaadi 4th block mel hogath­haa Sir”  -  ” First, hathree mele ” :) ].

Out of all these shop­ping areas, I enjoy the most in Sun­day mar­kets that hap­pen in Pondy. I have seen in Man­hat­tan ;  they block the 2nd and 3rd streets to have shops in the street, dur­ing some Sun­days. Also, the Indian street in Jour­nal Square — New Jercy [ அட்றா.. அட்றா.. :) ] . It’s more fun to take a walk there. Com­ing back.. Pondy —  Rain or shine every Sun­day, the entire stretch of MG road  is blocked for traf­fic and used by road side ven­dors. It’s wrong to call them as road side ven­dors because they own shops in the nearby areas or come directly come from Chen­nai too! Some shops, crop up only on Sundays. [ ராய‌ல் எதிர்ல‌தாங்க‌ இருப்பேன்.. என் பேர் ஜ‌லால் ஸார். ! ]

What do we browse n buy  there ?  It’s the place, a mid­dle class fam­ily can freely shop with­out the fear of insult like this.. What range are you look­ing for, Sir ? :(. Dresses/ gad­gets for kids, old books, toys, CDs, DVDs, bags, footwear, mixie cover [ அடச்‌ சே ! ].. along with some masala tea or fruit juices. Once Bal­aku­maran wrote [ சுந்த‌ரி க‌ண்ணால் ஒரு சேதி — நாவ‌ல் ] the inter­est­ing thing for a girl is gift [ அவ‌ரு வெவ‌ர‌ம‌ப்பா !  ] — the male char­ac­ter explains the psy­chol­ogy of a girl — the dif­fer­ence between get­ting a sin­gle orna­ment for 100Rs and get­ting 5 dif­fer­ent items for 20 Rs each. The sec­ond one is more pow­er­ful, he says [ any­way, it’s not applic­a­ble for a fam­ily man  :) ].  Thus, we amble through the eni­tre MG road for buy­ing cal­cu­la­tors, pen­cil boxes, old books, wall papers [ 3D wall paper is the lat­est advance­ment ! ], sharp­ener [ அட‌டே! ], umbrella,  fancy items [ disco rub­ber band :) ].

The other good thing is bar­gain­ing. Bar­gain­ing gives a cheap sat­is­fac­tion [ Like chang­ing 1000 Rs in to 10 Rs denom­i­na­tions :) ] and kind of revenge, which we can’t take for a popcorn’s price in mul­ti­plex or the ticket’s price in PVR. I feel it’s easy shop­ping in Pondy rather than in Chen­nai. The shop own­ers never nag the cus­tomers — Peo­ple from Chen­nai can under­stand, what I mean..  The nag­ging starts with adan____________  [  அதே தான்:) ].

 Com­ing to the black seat.. Every Sun­day, small ven­dors from Chen­nai and Pondy travel to the other towns for sell­ing. Pondy ven­dors end­ing up in T Nagar on Sun­days and hence the name “Pondy Bazaar”.  The majes­tic bus stand once was a big sized tank and hence it’s located below the ground level . [ You can still see Tank Bund road, Gandhi nagar ]. [ என்ன‌மா திங்க் ப‌ண்றான்யா :) ].

ப‌ஜார் தெருவோ
க‌டை வீதியோ
பெரிய க‌டைத் தெருவோ
ஒப்ப‌ண‌க்கார‌ வீதியோ
பூக்க‌டையோ
ஏதோ ஒரு பெய‌ரில்
ஊருக்கு ஒன்று
க‌ட்டாய‌ம் உண்டு,
ப‌ஜாரும்.. ப‌ராக்கு பார்ப்ப‌வ‌னும் !  [ inspired from Na. Mu. ]

–Toto.

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