A Busy Street

In India, nearly every street is a busy street. Some are interesting, like narrow market streets overflowing with artifacts, garments, bags, bangles and a whole lot of other temptations. Other streets, with houses on either side, peddlers selling vegetables, traffic of cycles, scooters, rickshaws and even an occasional car.

While I am averse to narrow streets as a rule, I do make an exception to the crowded street of General Bazaar in Secunderabad. It is a street where you can find anything under the sun. It is narrow and overcrowded beyond imagination. Vendors with different kinds of Mango Bars (Aam Pappad) and homemade confections sit at the very entrance of the street. This is followed by an infinite number of shops on either side, mostly filled with garments and bags but also a reasonable number of shoe shops, antique shops, jewellery shops, furnishing stores, dry fruit shops, gift shops, cosmetic shops and crockery shops. General Bazaar is a shopper’s paradise for the ordinary man. The shops, some double storied, give an appearance of match boxes lined up in a row. There are by lanes as well which open out to many more shops. The shop keepers have youngsters placed outside the shop to catch your eye and lure you in with their glib talk. General Bazaar is a wholesale market and so you could get good bargains if you bought in bulk. Right inthe centre of the lane is a softy and juice corner, flourishing because of its monopoly!

General Bazaar is at once the liveliest and irritatingly claustrophobic street I have ever seen. Malls are definitely a treat but a busy street like this lends you a unique experience as well.

Questions

• Give five synonyms for market.
• What is the difference between a wholesale and retail shop?