This Little Piggy Went To The Market

As I rode the bus down the road the market seemed to go on forever! Stall after stall after stall covered with blue tarpaulin for roofing, sheltering brightly coloured goods.

I got off at the Madiwala bus stop about half way down the road, and walked to one end of the market, excitement brimming. I love local markets! In many ways they are a microcosm of the city’s food culture.

Rows of stalls on either side of a narrow walkway extended for almost a kilometer along the road! Though the market was abuzz, there was something peaceful about the place, which it owed to the lush canopy of trees that shaded it.

Some of the stalls were just sheets of tarpaulin on the ground, on which small piles of vegetables had been neatly arranged for customers to pick up. Other stalls were big, with mountains of scarlet tomatoes or sacks of potatoes piled high behind the vendor, who called out the prices of his wares. At the top of his lungs, “Hath rupayi kayjee, hath rupayi kayjee, HATH RUPAYI KAYJEE!!”

Even now I can hear his advertisement echo in my ear.

By now if you have begun to think that this market is limited only to vegetables, let me clarify. The 30-year-old Madiwala market sells almost everything you could expect from a traditional South Indian market. There was soppu (green leafies), fruits, meat (live goats and chickens), fish (dried and fresh), spices, pickle, peanuts, flowers, puja items, and steel patre (kitchen utensils). There were even a few knife sharpeners, puffed rice carts and salesmen on foot offering colourful windmills for children!

Dried Fish 

Fresh fish brought in from Mangalore, Chennai and Andhra Pradesh

Man selling homemade pickle on a bicycle

Puffed rice and mixture

I walked through the market, stopping to make conversation with a few stall owners here and there. And as I did, I habitually took photographs, and made sound recordings. But one application I am still waiting for today’s technology to create is an app that can capture smell. Because wow, the smells! Each step brought a new one to my nose.

Even though I hardly bought anything, I spent over an hour just strolling though the lanes. Shopping at local markets is quite an experience – worlds apart from a grocery run to the chain general store around the corner, and in my opinion, much more fulfilling!