Sunday, 16 November 2014

Market of Stolen Goods (Chor Bazar) of Mumbai

Mumbai has got various Markets of Attractions for purchasing wide varieties of goods at cheap rates. ‘Chor Bazar’ or ‘Market of Stolen Goods’ is one of the Markets of Attractions of Mumbai.

The word ‘chor’ in Hindi means thief and the word ‘bazar’ connotes market. Hence the expression ‘Chor Bazar’ mean ‘The Thieves Market’. But since thieves are not selling out any goods in this market you can’t call it a ‘Market of Thieves’ or ‘Chor Bazazr’. As stolen goods procured from thieves are sold out in this market you can call this market as a ‘Market of Stolen Goods’.
If you go into the histories of names of landmarks of the world you often come across fascinating stories behind them. Histories or stories behind the name of Chor Bazar is no exception to this.

The present day Chor Bazar was called originally ‘Shor Bazar’ which meant ‘Noisy Market’ or ‘Market of Noises’. But ‘shor’ was called ‘chor’ by the British, the then rulers of India, thanks to their inabilities to cope up with the pronunciation of the word ‘shor’ or due to their unwillingness to pronounce it rightly, ‘Shor Bazar’ became ‘Chor Bazar’!

Shrewd and profit-minded Indian businessmen of the British era made use of the expression ‘Chor Bazar’ to their advantages by filling up their shops with stolen goods procured from thieves at marginal prices and because of this people started calling it ‘Chor Bazar’ wrongly..

Location
Chor Bazzar is located at Mutton Street in the crowded areas between Shaukat Ali Road and S.V.Patel Road near Mohammed Ali Road. The nearest Railway Stations to this market are Grant Road Station in Western Railway and Masjid and Sandhurst Road Railway Stations in Central Railway. You can also reach here by bus and taxi.
Chor Bazar is famous market of Stolen Goods of Mumbai. Shops here offer a wide variety of goods right from Ming Dynasty vases of China, antique items of ship parts, great grand-father clocks, grand old gramophones, crystal chandeliers, old English tea sets, old fashioned and outdated manual typewriters, colonial lamps, authentic Victorian furniture, old Bollywood posters, etc.

There is a saying in Mumbai that if you lose anything or if thieves could get away with your goods you don’t have to worry at all as you can buy them back from Chor Bazar at throw-away prices.

Market of Bargainers
Chor Bazar is essentially a Market for Bargainers as no price-control mechanism is in place here. Shopkeepers would quote you astronomical prices as per their whims and fancies. So it is incumbent upon you to carry your own price control device with you if you wish not to get fallen into the illogical and irrational price traps of shop owners.

Timings
Shops in this market operate from 11 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. every day except Friday. Friday is observed as Day of Prayer as most of the shop-keepers of this market are Muslims and as such they keep their shops closed on Friday.
Nonetheless this market would shine on Fridays also when the ‘Juma Market’ is in session. During this period right from sun-rise vendors cram the lanes and bye-lanes to sell all kinds of goods. You would have to reach early in the morning if you wish to settle upon the best at the best prices.

Memorable experience

It is you and you alone would have to decide upon whether to buy or not from this market. However your moving about up and down in the market, bargains with shop keepers, exposure to stolen goods, etc, would provide you with a different type of experience. And that would be a memorable one for you to carry along with you. To ruminate it. Day after day. Year after year. Throughout your life.

No comments:

Post a Comment