18th February, 2015
7:30 AM
Dadar flower market, Mumbai
Words make you imagine,
and pictures make you visualize.
All that I wrote,
is all what I felt.
And all that touched,
is all what I clicked.
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| The smiling mother daughter team making and selling gajras, amidst all the crowd grabbed my instant attention.... |
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After travelling each morning at four from Mankhurd to Dadar, along with her husband and daughter she weaves gajra of juhi, mogra and tagar flowers to earn their living... After a day long of efforts the amount they earn is inversely proportional to the smile she and her daughter is wearing in the previous click...
These pretty tiny garlands of 'tagar' hold a religious significance and women match the woven threads with their sari... but every morning when you find them fresh near your homes do remember someone sat all night to make them so that they are ready to be reach you fresh each day...
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| And as you walk along, you see a whole spread of colours, hanging, heaped and laid scattered... |
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| Street along the flyover lined with vendors... |
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| Single space, multiple functions and over lapping activities... this market is the perfect example for that... |
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| Marigold is highest selling flower in terms of volume...10 rupees and they gave me a bag full of them... they may cost you around Rs. 40 per kg |
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| Along with the makeshift vendors, there are few florist that you will find all along the day.. |
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| And along with heaps of marigold, you will find piles of lotuses too... |
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And as I was moving around I found these two guys, selling roses and who were more than happy to pose for me... (While you are on streets clicking its rare to find such smiles voluntarily posing for you )... so why not grab the opportunity !!!
Rs. Ten for a bundle of twenty roses.... !!! Anyone's interested...
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| If you thought that the market is only for traditional flowers, let me correct you it has an amazing collection of exquisite flowers to offer... |
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| Kuruva leaves, the ones these women are selling are used for packing of other flowers... |
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As sun attains a certain inclination and is out of the horizon completely, market begins to wrap up... waste flowers and stalks in tons are sorted and filled into the municipal trucks.. and by nine in the morning the market is wrapped up as if it never existed....
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While walking along the market and observing and women engrossed in their sales, a definite pattern of allocation surfaced. All the low value activities and the ones which required making of the final product like gajra and garland involved women labour. Whereas all bulk selling and trading involved men. It is unsure though whether its intended that way or organically evolved. But the energy every individual brought to the market is worth the experience.
