From blue chip shares to bhel puri and from books to bullion, Manek Chowk is the answer to any shopping that an Ahmedabadi does! Shopping in Manek Chowk can be quite a thrill and should be on the agenda of any tourist to Ahmedabad.
Locates on the axis connecting the royal buildings of medieval Ahmedabad - The queen's tomb, The King's tomb and the Jumma Masjid, Manek Chowk is the most dynamic shopping areas of Ahmedabad. Surviving through ages, it still maintains its importance in present day commercial activities of Ahmedabad. The virility and tenacity of the traders of Manek Chowk may have earned the name "Manchester of India" for Ahmedabad. Legend has it that a saint by the name of Maneknath had his ashram hereabouts and the agora may have been named after him. A temple by his name still exists at the southern edge of Manek Chowk.
The commercial activity in Manek Chowk is as old as the city of Ahmedabad. Its central location and easy accessibility are the main reasons for the commercial activity to flourish. This activity grew so intense that the royal buildings were gradually encroached.Totally blocking of the view to the royal buildings, the encroachments provided space for the growth of commercial activity more intensely. Because of this one gets a feeling of moving in a department store with medieval tombs peeking through the gaps as if reminding their presence amidst the fervent pleas of the hawkers. Being spread over a large area, a market for jewelry merges into the foodstuff market into books and so on.
The northern edge of the chowk opens onto the busy Gandhi road. The shops here are of a mixed nature selling a variety of items ranging from junk jewelry to hosiery products. The southern edge is mainly taken up by the gold and silver merchants. These shops are a part of the family heirlooms and are systematically passed from father to son. Hardly exceeding six by six feet at times, the location and the family name of the jeweler attract customers from far and wide. I met an owner of one such shop who said," I have been sitting at this shop since I was five years old." Being an octogenarian, I asked him since when was the shop in the family. he said," For at least a one hundred and fifty years. My grandfather migrated from Kutch in the early nineteenth century and bought this shop soon thereafter." I was truly amazed when he told me that the value of the shop had gone up by a thousand times after that. Asked if he ever thought of selling the shop for a bigger showroom elsewhere, he said," the customers do not come here because they like the architecture but they trust me totally." I had nothing further to ask. My questions regarding the marketplace were answered. I realised a market was made by the traders and customers- people who trusted each other and not by the massive departmental stores where the contact between people was reduced. This probably explains the spontaneity so much found in most of the Indian marketplaces.
The small pocket of space between the two edges is taken up by hawkers who sell steel utensils and cheap music cassettes from their laris. The inevitable chaiwallah does brisk business and so does the few panipuriwallahs and sandwichwallahs who satisfy the Ahmedabad's taste of something hot and spicy. The most fascinating character of this chowk is the changeover that happens as the night approaches. With almost clockwork precision the lariwallahs execute the changeover as if the shift were changing in a factory. The new shift now busies itself by serving the customers with tasty paubhaji, kulfi and the like. This batch continues its roaring business amidst blaring music till the wee hours of the morning. What was a busy commercial street during the daytime now acquires a festive character. Quite similar to the Ahmedabadi who slogs during the daytime and relaxes with his family as the evening approaches. The chowk apparently never sleeps. This then constitutes the main centre of Manek Chowk. The Stock Exchange accounts for the dense traffic and a multitude of haphazardly parked vehicles. Movement on foot and by vehicles is reduced to a snail's pace.
Some of the associated commercial activities are the Dhalgarwad- the cloth market, the fruit and vegetable markets, the spices market, the seconds book market. Perhaps one of the only markets selling exclusive ethnic cloth material of Gujarat is situated in the tomb of the queen popularly known as " Rani No Hajiro". The Dhalgarwad market sells dress material and ready made clothes. The market gives a feeling of a single tent where displayed dresses and eager shopkeepers vie for the attentions of the shoppers.
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| Old Stock market, Manek chowk |
This market is so crowded that I had to stand up on the stool to take the photographs! The market for secondhand books is located under a " Fernandes Bridge" and has been the mainstay for poor and middle class Ahmedabadis. The market provides textbooks for school and college going students as well as books for competitive exams. All books bought from here can be returned at the end of the year for a small rent. Trust the economical Ahmedabadi to come up with a solution for books too!
Though shopping in Manek Chowk can be delightful experience for the occasional shopper, it can be a nightmare for the everyday visitor. Endless and undisciplined traffic, lack of parking space make the chowk choke for breath. The problems are many and solutions hard to come by. The long awaited transfer of the stock exchange to the Ashram road may partially solve the problem. Manek Chowk badly needs a break after a long and arduous tenure as the prime commercial area of a commercial city like Ahmedabad.
