Journalism of Courage
Intermittent areas of light and shade,a raw,bustling,electric atmosphere,and rows of stalls,each offering goods more exciting than the other! This could be a scene from a market in any of the bustling cities of the world Pataya,Kuala Lumpur,Hong Kong. Yet this market is very much part of Pune. Welcome to the flea market at Ishanya Mall. Organised every Sunday,this market is slowly becoming a popular zone,a weekend get-away. The advantage it has over other market-places is the easy availability of a variety of goods. The stalls offer goods ranging from clothes and food,to games and decorative items.
Rizwana Yusuf,who runs a stall here,says,The clientèle has really swelled over the past few weeks. News of this flea market has travelled by word-of-mouth,and since it is organised only on Sundays,when everyone wants to unwind from work,we have seen quite a few visitors. Mohsin Khureshi,another stall-owner,agrees. Since one can come here and enjoy shopping as well as eat and make the most of other amenities,it is really catching on, he says. Jayesh Anand,a student at Symbiosis,says that this flea market is a perfect way to cool off on weekends. It’s slightly out of the way,but once one gets here,the market is a great place to chill. Plus the goods here are very affordable,so we don’t have to spend a bomb while shopping.
And the best part of this market is that most of these stall-owners are not regular shop-keepers. Yusuf,whose stall has hand-printed clothes and lampshades,makes all the goods herself,along with her partner Salika Virji. But she doesn’t sell her goods at a regular shop. This is the first time that we have actually set up a stall, says Yusuf.
Even Electricwala has a different persona the rest of the week he works in corporate gifting. But perhaps the strangest is Khureshi’s tale the stall is his way into the family business. I have two brothers,and both run garment shops one in Pune and one in Mumbai. The rest of the week,I constantly shuffle between the two cities,but on Sundays,when I don’t have college to attend,I sit here at this stall, he smiles.
