Calcutta Zoom.....: The Bazzar walks by Let's Meet Up Tours.

The Bazzar walking tour....

19th century Calcutta had quite diverse sectors of retail trade. At the one extreme stood the exclusive shops of European tradesmen dealing in imported goods and fashionable bespoke orders. At the other were the 'informal' activities of itinerant hawkers and businessmen and the unorganized street bazaars which sprang up near residential areas. Between these were the privately owned market areas where individual stallholders could rent space and the streets of stalls and shops, such as Old and New China Bazaar Streets.

Only in the last quarter of the century did Calcutta build a public (municipal) market, the Stuart Hogg Market or New Market.

The bazaar life of Calcutta has always been a prosperous one. A growing population with many distinct communities having their different food needs, clothing styles and lifestyles called into being diverse and busy markets.

1830: there were some 30 food markets in Calcutta but only two were for Europeans and the wealthy Bengali babus.

One was Dharamtolla Bazaar on Dharamtolla Street, owned by a wealthy Bengali native, and the other was the Tiretta Bazaar which had been started by a Venetian. Both were very old, having been established in 1794 and 1788 respectively.

In 1871 a municipal report stated: •The Dhurrumtollah Market is situated on the corner of Chowringhee and Dhurrumtollah Streets.

This market was full of cockroaches and flies; refuse was thrown about and lay rotting in cesspools. There was no control over the quality and display of the meat and fish sold there. Charges were made that diseased cattle which had died in the fields were sold in the market. It was said that the conditions were such as to change any meat eater into a vegetarian.

The health officer of the Calcutta Corporation felt that it was impossible to enforce a clean-up. These were private markets; there was no public control. The Calcutta Corporation had established slaughterhouses for the sanitary killing of cattle, goats, pigs and fowl but could do nothing about how the produce was marketed. By the 1860s the European residents were up in arms about the spread of gastro-erteritis and intestinal disease in the city. They brought pressure on the Corporation about the markets but the private owners were reluctant to invest large sums in redesigning the markets and the Corporation lacked the power to interfere.

Thus was born the concept of a municipal market, to be built and administered by the Corporation of Calcutta.

A fruit seller

our Guest from U.K on a Bazzar walking tour

women from the suburbs travel by local trains to sell their goods in these local markets and return back home.

Every Bengali kitchen has potatoes.... and pati lebu(lime)

In Bengal people believe that chiles should never been put directly in another persons hand as you might buy a fight or quarrel with the person, rather put it in a basket or put it down for the other person to collect it.

Masala or Indian spices

Tamarind is used in fish curry.

During summers the locals prefer to eat a cucumber everyday. you will find hawkers selling cucumber on the sidewalks....especially in Dalhousie,new market,in front of schools and colleges and small street as well...."beat the heat with a Cucumber"