Self sketched scenes from Chandni Chowk market

Understanding Chandni Chowk. Part I

"When you're not sure an answer exists, finding it can be hard. When you know there are many answers, finding one or two is easy"

                                                                                    -Jack Foster

Balloon seller outside the Bhagirath Place.

Every place is different from the other in many ways. These ways too are based on the nature of the place.

Chandni Chowk for example is a very vast part of Old Delhi; hence, the kind of people that live and go there are different from those who go to Citywalk, the items sold there and their prices are also very different.

On my third visit to Chandni Chowk, I was to explore the Bhagirath Palace in depth. I had to carefully observe the kind of people that walked in those lanes, the ambience of that place, all the different products that were sold there, the way the cash flow happened and so on and so forth.

How To Be An Entrepreneur In Chandni Chowk

All we humans evolve with time. With each passing day, we all want to move to higher level of independence. Not to forget the fact that today’s dynamic environment and high standard of living prompts most of us to try things differently and off the edge.

Entrepreneurship is one such way of achieving that independence along with the freedom of taking own decisions and risks.  But the story doesn't end here. Entrepreneurship is nothing less than an art which should be strategic at the same time because convincing a complex customer to buy is nothing less than a daunting task. Also the risk increases depending upon the market one is planning to operate in.

Being A Someone Somewhere

Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.

-William Shakespeare 

Lanes of Mediocrity

I walked into the lanes of mediocrity wishing to be someone great. I wasn't so at the moment. But I wished to. As I walked ahead, observing and exploring I gave my senses an opportunity to capture every characteristic of the many persons around me. The way they talked, the way they dealt with people and just the way they managed to survive there, so that I could do the same.

Meeting the merchants

After one field trip full of fun,excitement,laughs, lots of joy,yummy food and disgust too at the same time for the stinky place it was, here came yet another opportunity to go to the streets of Chandini Chowk once again. Though this time it was not for fun but for the purpose of research. 

We were given five different options related to 'observations' and each member of the group was supposed to chose one out of the given five. I happened to chose 'object and material'. I was supposed to barge in the congested yet interesting streets of Bhagirath Palace to grab knowledge about what commodities and materials the merchants out there sold. The best part was I literally had to nudge and push people to make my way a midst the hustle bustle all around. It provided me with a lifelong experience to know the daily lives of the people there. 

We wanted everything to go on smoothly. All we wanted was some polite answers  to our questions filled with curiosity but we all know, things just don't work in our favor every time, isn't it? While some shooed us away, some welcomed us into their small shops offering us to sit making it easy for us all to pen down the important things told by them. This gesture of them was much appreciated by each one of us. To our surprise, we came to know that some of these merchants had their own locally registered  brands which were making really good business. We also came across some shopkeepers who were a bit obnoxious as they were reluctant to even let us enter their shops nor did they let us click any picture for our projects and only revealed a very little information which proved out to be of no help at all. On the contrary we had a few who offered us tea,cold drinks and water while answering our questions. Not only the merchants were keen to answer our questions but also the near by workers came up with a spark in their eyes. 

Some of them even took keen interest in answering our questions. Out of all the people I met there, I won't and can't forget one of the merchants who was the sweetest person out there. Not only did he offer us seats and tea while helping us with our survey questions but he even allowed us to click pictures of his shop and even him. The name of the merchant was Mr. Surinder Verma

How to become a successful entrepreneur in Chandni Chowk?

Since being asked to write a blog on how to become a successful entrepreneur in Chandni Chowk came as a shock, it took me a lot of time to come up with some basic tricks. Now this definitely is not the be all and end all of ways to become a winner in business, but some of the points I made will help you to firmly establish yourself in the world of entrepreneurship, and should hopefully distinguish you from the huge crowd of money-making hopefuls.

Main street view of  Chandni Chowk

wanderlust for chowk

The name itself is enough to ignite the taste buds of the foodies as we all know about the different delicacies Chandini Chowk is well known for. And being one such foodie, it was irresistable for me to  barge in. I have always heard about the busy streets brimming with people specifically the reputed "paranthe waali gali" but it was always hearing out people's experiences and not having one of my own. After hearing an amalgamation of experiences, i got exuberant to venture out every nook and corner of this place.

All of a sudden, my college gave me a tawny opportunity to go to this place in groups as a field trip. I could not contain my excitement and curiosity but on reaching the place I could not keep back from saying,"ew,this place stinks!" But ignoring that we went on to explore the narrow lanes to bring back with us a sack full of memorable moments we could treasure for life.