Meet tiranga vendors who wait for I-Day, R-Day and India’s cricket match in Ahmedabad

Ahead of the Independence Day, several flag vendors — most of them migrants from Rajasthan – are stationed along the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway.

Bhumika first came to Gandhinagar when she married two years ago and stays here with husband and mother-in-law during the season, selling flags along CH road in Sector 7. Arun Vaghela has been coming to the state capital during the seasons for the last nine years. The couple will return home soon after the I-Day weekend, with their savings.

Another vendor, Ganesh Barot rides a cart on the same street selling flags priced in the range of Rs 300-Rs 500 in Sector 11. On a good day, he is able to sell between two to three flags. He migrated from a small village in Rajasthan named Thapan in Siwana tehsil of Barmer district 40 years ago.  “My grandfather stayed in Rajasthan. We’ve grown up in Gandhinagar,” Barot tells The Indian Express.

An autorickshaw driver, Barot lives here with his wife and children and sells flags to supplement the family earnings on the two festive days of the year.

Most often the vendors are stationed on high traffic roads such as Sindhu Bhavan road or beneath the Sola Bridge close to the Palladium mall, charging Rs 100 for small flags and Rs 500 for bigger ones.

Matibai lives under the flyover near the Palladium Mall on SG highway, selling flags during the season. “At night we go to sleep under the bridge and sometimes the corporation officials come and throw our stuff away. If we go to take a room for rent, they ask for ID cards and we don’t have that. In any case, we don’t have money for renting a house. So we stay under the bridge,” she said. She says that the flags she sells are “Made in Delhi”.

For Mahilal, a vendor on Sindhu Bhavan Road, a posh Ahmedabad  street, being driven away is not a problem. “So what if they kick us out. We will find another place to sell,” Mahilal, who is also from Rajasthan. He sources his flags from Kalupur in Ahmedabad’s old city area.

Jilesh from Rajsamand in the Mewar region buys his flags from Lal Darwaja in old Ahmedabad. Stationed under the Sola flyover, Jilesh,  however, will change his products to rakhis soon after he returns from a short visit to his village. “I am here with my two children and wife and we will return to Rajasthan after August 15”.

When asked, Matibai says, “We sell the flags only during the Independence Day and Republic Day and when Ahmedabad hosts India’s cricket match.”

(Fiona Faustmann is an intern at The Indian Express, Ahmedabad)