When they get a gift from me, my friends can be absolutely sure of one thing. They can bet their bottom dollar, or rupee, that I meticulously planned the gift for them, taking the time to visit many shops and search many racks to look for the best, the best prices, I mean. For me, giving is easy, sometimes joyful too, when I know I have not given too much. So, every time, I am invited to a wedding, a birthday party or a housewarming ceremony, I head to George Town, which has made giving possible for me.
In the warren of shops on every narrow street here, you can be certain you are paying less than the market price. It could be 10 per cent, 15, 20 or 30 per cent less, depending on what you buy, who you buy it from and also how you buy it. Now, for anyone who has just landed from Mars, George Town and the areas surrounding it, including sections of Park Town and Sowcarpet, constitute a mammoth wholesale market, which is often loosely and inappropriately called Parrys. This market offers almost anything worth selling and buying. What warms the hearts of people like me, who want to have the good things of life for close to little, is that these traders retail their goods too.
Whenever dark clouds gather and another social gathering looms large on the horizon, I take shelter in Kasi Chetty Street, which seems to have been made just for me. A raft of matchbox-sized shops lining the street sell gift items. As on most other streets, traders operate here as both wholesalers and retailers. There is an art to shopping in these streets. Giving the air of someone planning a bulk order and inquiring about the prices before asking for just one piece of that item you want, helps. The ploy does not work all the time. But, what matters is, it does sometimes.
Besides bailing me out of crisis situations, such as social invites I cannot ignore, George Town has helped me at each step of my life’s journey. You cannot place a price on love, but when it costs too much, it hurts. For my wedding, I went to check out cards at shops on NSC Bose Road and Anderson Street, for the same reason that I have always gone to George Town. As expected, the prices were attractive and some cards promised to give the invite an endearingly personal touch. But, at the last minute, I realised I could impart an even more personal touch to the invitation. I just called and informed my friends.
But I did not return empty-handed from that outing. If I remember right, I bought a nice-looking mirror from Devaraja Mudali Street and a cartload of dry fruits from Govindappa Naicken Street, primarily a stretch where light fittings and electrical products are sold. (I learnt recently that Stortten Muthiah Mudali Street is associated more with dry fruits.)
The point is, there is no telling what you’ll end up buying at George Town-Park Town. It is dissected by a network of streets, neatly connected to one another. One turn from Devaraja Mudali street and you’ll end up in Rasappa Chetty Street, where you can buy locks, garden equipment and artfully designed hangers for your swings and, if you are a do-it-yourself hobbyist, drilling machines. Vinod Punmia, who has his business in this region, explains how Mint Street cuts through three areas: “Four km long, it has three pincodes — Park Town, George Town and Sowcarpet.”
Given this, you can shop just one day and fill up your house with essentials. In fact, you can buy things from this market that can build a part of your house. Mine is a piece of George Town in Sholinganallur. The light and bathroom fittings, electrical wires and switches and a range of hardware materials for my house were provided by shops in this locality and those around it.
When our house became a home, and we started living in it, George Town made me a generous father. Kasi Chetty Street, also known for the sale of toys, including battery-run cars and bikes where children can park themselves in, has considerably helped my ratings as a father.
Today, as I am in George Town as a writer, I want to know what its traders feel about it. One of them, Jainendra Chouraria says after the moffussil bus terminus was moved out of the region, business took a beating. “Earlier, many people from various parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh came to the wholesale market, because of the easy connectivity provided by the terminus. After the shift, their numbers have dwindled,” he explains.
But, with people like me, who depend on George Town to pull off every life event, these traders still have something going for them.
