Lane By-Lane

Chandni Chowk, as we all know is such a humongous market. Getting lost there is very common. 
So I began with some online research and printed out maps. I got to know that the market has several by-lanes which are all dedicated to different purposes. 
Here is something about the most popular by-lanes of Chandni Chowk:

Nai Sarak. Img: Wikipedia

Nai Sarak: meaning new street is the linking road, which connects the main Chandni Chowk Road to Chawri Bazar and has a very big wholesale and retail market of mainly school and college textbooks. The street can be reached by taking a left turn after theGali Paranthe Wali and just before the Katra Nawab Gali on the main Chandni Chowk Road.

Paranthe wali gali. Img: Wikipedia

Dariba Kalan: Today, most of the shops in Dariba Kalan trade in silver, gold, kundan, polki and diamond jewellery, besides costume jewellery. Some also deal in authenticitar, a special variety of perfume and attar. These stores claim to date back to the early 19th century. Also near by is Kinari Bazaar, Gali Kazanchi, and Gali Paranthe Wali, also at both ends of the street are famous jalebi shops.
Paranthewali gali: Gali Paranthe Wali or Paranthe wali Gali (गली पराँठेवाली), is the name of a narrow street in the Chandni Chowk area of Delhi, India, noted for its series of shops selling paratha, a fried Indian bread, and now a popular culinary destination.
Thats all for now!

Process Book

Hello
I've started my work in the process book. I've decided to use water colors a lot this time, as in the last project I barely painted anything. 

It's going to get pretty colourfull this time.
Last night I began drawing a few things and I also snapchatted messy paints and brushes to my friends. They responded to this with snapchats of their process books. That made me even more motivated to work.

Img: Ruchita Sahni

I noticed some really good sketch- worthy 'chat-wallas' when we were in Chandni Chowk last time. I took their pictures and decided to draw those. Came up with quite good perspective drawings too, Here is one of the drawings that I drew adjacent to a page that describes the food scene of the market.

From the process book: Padam Chat Corner, Kinari Bazaar.
Img: Ruchita Sahni

Don't tell me that the 'chole bhatura' doesn't look mouth watering! Because as soon as I showed it to my brother, he began craving for one of those. Haha.

This is making me hungry too now. I've got to go and feed my stomach something good!

See you later! 

Interviewing shopkeepers; Strikes and Protesters

Hi there!
The research is right on track. I took the interview of the owner of the shop that I've decided as my micro area. 
It was a very funny situation. When me and my group members reached the market and began asking questions from the shopkeepers about the history of their shop, their income etc, they thought that we were some inspectors or something.
 We could hear them whispering and giggling to each other stuff like "Arrey, ye raid karaenge idhar, mat batao inhe kuch". It was pretty hillarious. Ultimately we had to show them our college IDs. That reassured them that we were just students. Or maybe not. But soon they got comfortable and answered to our questions politely.
I kept making notes as they answered.
The owner of Teena Sarees, a 6ft x 6ft shop, was Shyam Sundar, a 70 year old man. According to him, the shop opened up in 1943, by one of his family members by the name of Kherati Lal.
They sell sarees, the prices of which range from Rs.100 to Rs.5000.

Maliwara. Image: Anuja Kathuria

It was a good day to interview as half the shops were closed due to certain strikes. 

Because of this, there was hardly any crowd.

Crowd of protesters, Maliwara. Image: Ruchita Sahni

But at one point we did get stuck in the middle of a group of protesters. We stood there frozen in the middle of the lane as they went past us. 

But this is all for now.

Catch you later!

Spending a day at Chandni Chowk

Hi
My class has been divided into groups in which we are supposed to research together.
So we finally went to Chandni Chowk. And my oh my! It felt like the entire world wanted to fit into the market. It was so crowded!
We got pushed here and there as the streets were so narrow. Yet somehow, the rickshaws made their way through them. 
We reached the market via metro. As soon as we got out of the metro stations, we could see small shops and people trying to sell small goods such as table mats, and incense sticks to us. As we went further, we could see food stalls and small dhaba/ restaurants. We saw the the famous Natraj Dahi Bhalle Wala. The delicious aroma from the dahi bhalas was irresistable. But I tried to restrict myself from them as I'm trying to maintain my diet. LOL.

One of the by-lanes of Chandni Chowk
Img: Ruchita Sahni

So, we kept going further. We crossed the famous Pranthewali Gali too that my parents always mention whenever someone mentions Chandni Chowk. It was fun to see the variety of paranthas they made. One of those varieties was "nuts parantha". I'm not kidding. 

A shop on the Kinari Bazaar Road
Img: Ruchita Sahni

Finally we reached the Kinari Bazaar. It is said to be one of the biggest market when it comes to shopping for weddings and special occasions. And truly, it was so colourful. I could see saree borders, also called as 'gotas' throughout the long and narrow street.
At one point some of my group members went missing too. Haha. We found them later. It was okay.
We thought about exploring the place a little more. We came accross Maliwara. It was one lane entirely dedicated to sarees. Everything was so beautifull.
So we came to a decision. As  part of our project, we were supposed to select one macro and micro area. So we chose maliwara.
The shop that i chose is called as Teena Sarees.

Teena Sarees, Maliwara, Chandni Chowk
Img: Ruchita Sahni

We talked to the owners of the shops and came to know a little bit about the history of their shops. Some of them were even older than 1947 (independence of India).
That's all for now!
See you soon.

Journey Continues

Hi again!
Last module was so exciting. I got to know so much about the fashions of the past.
But in this module, I'm even more excited as we have a project that involves going to certain markets and doing the research there.
The market that my class decided to do the project on is Chandni Chowk.
I've never been to there and I've been told that it is one of the busiest markets of India.
So the first thing I did was google the images of the market. Everything seems to be so colorfull! I'm sure it's going to be fun once we get there!
See you soon!