KYC- Know your city

*Daily footfalls: Between 1,500 to 2,000

Junk jewellery,wrist bands,mobile accessories,designer bindis,wrist watches,sunglasses,key chains,clips,trinkets,bags,shoes,Victoria’s Secret perfumes,Lakme cosmetics and much more squashed together in this two feet-wide alley make Hong Kong lane a wonderland for fashionistas. This is the place to begin when one is out to get an update on the latest trends in the city.

Old timers,very few of whom remain in the market,share that in 1964 the Pune Municipal Corporation allotted the space to some businessmen whose stores were washed off when the Panshet dam collapsed earlier. It was christened Hong Kong lane because most of the goods sold were imported – a rare find back then.

A walk through the 50-odd shops in the alley is now like a treasure hunt with something to lay hands on at literally every step and somebody to jostle with for space. Opening up at around 10 am,it bustles with activity till around 10 at night.

College students,making for more than 90 per cent of the customer base,swear they can spend entire days soaking in the riot of colours and patterns,fingering through the textures,and putting on their best bargain skills before stuffing their bags with goodies. Nestling in the middle of all the fashion accessories and looking invitingly-odd is an old dusty bookstore offering a range of books from both national and international authors. Hard as it is to engage the shopkeepers in any conversation aside of how much a thing costs,chatting up with them digs out trivia about the market. One says the lane used to earlier have eateries,which have all been now taken over by racks of shoes and bags; another offers an observation that most shop owners are Gujaratis,Marwadis or Sindhis; still another shares that many of the original owners have now given the shops out on rent though there are still a handful where the third generation is doing business. Though the market is closed on,not all stick to the rule.