City girl and shutter bug Anjali Gopan has still not got over her discovery of Chala bazaar in the company of German photographer Nora Bibel. “I have been going to this market since I was a kid and I never knew it was such a treasure trove of people, homes and images. I went there as a customer to buy vegetables and other things. One never thought of the families there or their stories. It was such an exciting treasure hunt when I re-discovered my city,” says the youngster.
Nora was in the city as artist-in-residence in a project supported by the Goethe-Institut. Syed Ibrahim, the director of Goethe-Zentrum Trivandrum had told her about the quaint, centuries-old Chala bazaar and she was intrigued by its fascinating mosaic of mercantile traditions and communities.
Anjali, a graduate of the National Institute of Design, assisted Nora in her project by acting as guide, translator and assistant. She also snapped some eye-catching pictures of Nora at work in Chala. In the process, it became a golden opportunity for her to explore a fascinating world that lay behind the glittering stores and crumbling facade of old buildings. “It was amazing. We have never looked beyond the shops and have seen Chala as a bazaar period. I never knew there were homes, some of them more than 50 to 60 years old or that so many communities were living there. We came across Maharashtrians, Gujaratis, Konkanis and Tamilians who had been living there for years,” she says, her wide-eyed exploration evident in her words. Over the three weeks that the two spent there, they caught glimpses of the past when they explored through the huge godowns that still exist in the bylanes of the market and the space that used to be earmarked for bullock carts. “We walked and explored all the bylanes there. Each took us to new spaces and sights,” she says.
Anjali talks animatedly about the ancient Karupattikada Juma Masjid inside the bazaar that still has not gone for a concrete makeover and the destruction of a century-old house that was located opposite the mosque and how the family, believed to have built the mosque, now lives in a 50-plus-year-old house inside the market. “Once you are inside the house, it is hard to believe that there is a bustling market outside,” she says.
Anjali does not hide her disappointment when she talks about the forgotten and dilapidated buildings, some of which they could not enter. “We saw a heritage structures inside Chala. In one, there was a joint family while an elderly husband and wife were the only occupants in another. We also interacted with some of the old merchants, craftsmen and tradespeople in the market.”
Nora, says Anjali, focussed on how the market was disappearing right in front of our eyes and how its character as a market place was changing into something else.
Nora’s and Anjali’s photographs of life in its various manifestations inside the Chala bazaar will be exhibited in a day-long street exhibition at the entrance of the market (from the East Fort side) on September 27.
