Wednesday was a holiday! It was much needed after the short break over the weekend (only Sunday off). A few days back, Ashish (Rucha's husband, who runs the B&B where I am staying) had told me about Koyambedu Market, the flower/fruit/vegetable market of Chennai. Ashish has a travel agency here in the city and proposed a guided tour of the market. 4 of us took him up on it on Wednesday, meeting at 4am to get to the market when it was still in full throttle. Apart from having my wallet stolen, it was a fabulous morning! (Re: the wallet theft, it was a quick pick pocketing move that luckily only took a little cash and two easily replaceable credit cards - phew!)
The warehouses of the flower market from a distance.
Matt, Ashish, Inga, Anjuli and I (behind the camera) getting a little introduction before the walk.
Koyambedu was built in 1996 after the traffic caused by wholesale flower/fruit/veggie sellers in the center of town became too much for the city to handle. The complex consists of 3 enormous warehouses, each one organized in sections of corridors and "store fronts". We started out with the flower market, with it's electric energy and colors! It's hard to describe the delicious smell of jasmine and the movement of the flowers while they were being fluffed in their baskets and bags. Here are some pictures to give you a feeling of the place...
It was 5a by the time we got there, and it was crazy busy!
"Who will buy my sweet red roses?"
People sleeping and resting in the large open courtyard in the middle of the warehouse.
We were told it takes only 10 minutes to make one of these garlands!
A feeling for the size of the garlands...
This woman is sitting in delicious basil used for pujas (prayers.) It was so fragrant!
This is about when I realized my wallet was missing. But there were so many other things to pay attention to!
Most of the floors are covered in all sort of plant and packaging detritus, but it's not bothersome.
Sellers use tinted lightbulbs or cellophane stretched across the lamps to enhance the color of their flowers. A cheap trick, and a pretty detectable one. Makes for some crazy lighting. Vegetable sellers do the same but with green!
As far as I can remember, all of the sellers we saw were men. Yet most of the buyers were women! It was fun to see so many women doing business in the market.
Flowers are purposefully displayed pouring out of baskets to give a feeling of abundance. This was a cornucopia of marigolds!
The exterior of the flower market. Here a man is mounting the scale on which to weigh the baskets of marigolds.
Piling into the auto with the morning's purchases.
Walking into the fruit market.
Banana garage.
The fruits on the left are custard apples. I was tempted to buy one buy at the beginning of the walk was told that merchants are very superstitious about their first sales at the market and they will actually get offended if their first customer only wants to make a small purchase (not a great sign for the day's transactions!) I think I took this a little too seriously - I didn't buy anything all morning long.
Sweet lime, free form.
Desk job at the market.
"Er baretto". (The little bar, Roman style. Bar for coffee and tea, not for whiskey and rum).
General store within the market.
Those boxes are FULL of apples.
Sweet limes, geometric formation.
Pomegranates - specialized store.
Young man in green room with pineapples.
Posters of various deities. At the center, Lakshmi - a goddess that is also known for brining prosperity and most loved by merchants.
She was beautiful. One of the first smiles to greet us in the vegetable market.
Green lights for the greens!
Handling curry leaves.
Performing for the camera. So many people at the market smiled and talked with us.
Green lights II.
Painted pumpkins...
Root vegetables like beets, carrots and turnips are only grown at higher altitudes, in places like Ooty. Hence they are known as Ooty Vegetables.
First light.
A stack of Tamarind! I had never seen it like this.
Bags of herbs right outside the market.
Here we are: B, Ashish, Inga, Anjuli, Matt and happy participants in the photo.
It was a wonderful morning, I hope to post a link to Ashish's travel agency soon. He was a great guide: informative, helpful, patient and fun, I enjoyed hearing him talk about the history of the market and it was a pleasure to have his enthusiastic energy to accompany us - he loves going to the market!
I will update the blog again soon with some lovely images from the Ganesh Festival that happened on the same day.
With good wishes from Chennai,
B
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