Having lived in The United States, Jaishri Rao and her cousin Vandana Murli missed the weekend yard and garage sales when they returned to Chennai 10 years ago.
In the West, yard and garage sales are not just about getting rid of old, used items, but also about bonding with the neighbours.
It was this aspect of the activity they missed the most.
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And recently, the two decided to stop longing wistfully for the past and, instead, go about recreating it here.
Out of this resolve was born Mandaveli Market. “One day, my cousin Vandana got talking about it and we thought, ‘Why not?’ We started making calls and that’s how it started,” says Jaishri.
Information was posted on Facebook. Interested parties started calling and made inquiries and soon a buzz was created around what would be the first such market in Mandaveli.
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Jaishri’s front yard was the venue. “It took me days to prepare the place. My team ensured that it was aptly decorated to evoke the atmosphere of a fare. We also played loud Tamil music,” she says. “It was a ‘mela’ for people to come and have fun, interact with each other, and sell their products.”
Twenty-seven stalls were put up. A variety of items, including clothes, jewellery, food and handicraft items, were sold. The majority of the sellers were women.
“These are women who conduct their businesses from home, some of them having a strong online presence,” says Jaishri
There were innovative ideas at the market, some of which were engineered to take people back to their childhood.
“One lady sold orange-flavoured ice-cream inside an orange. It was innovative and yummy. Somebody sold cola in plastic packs, as was the case decades ago, and many of us remembered having cola in this manner when we were kids,” says Jaishri, who runs a parlour in the area.
“We kept the stall prices low so that we could accommodate more people. The spots filled quickly and on the final day, more than 200 people walked in,” she says.
However, Jaishri knows the gains cannot be quantified.
She and Vandana value the fact that now they know their neighbours better.