Midnight Madness @ Chor Bazaar…

Here I come back with the most exciting city, Bombay. After the dark lanes of Kamathipura, I now take you back to the seductive metropolis with its perpetual jammed roads and lanes and in one of this busy lanes resides the famous bazzar called as Chor Bazzar. It is one of the largest flea markets in India. Though officially it is known as Mohamed Ali Road it is popularly known as “Chor Bazaar”. It is of great interest to many tourists as well as localities as it offers a host of things and is a visual treat to the travel junkies like me.

 One can find Chor bazzar full of bargain-hungry tourists rummage the market for Ming vases and Muranos, which are available at throwaway prices. The main avenue of Chor bazzar is Mutton Street, which is flanked by rows of little antique shops that look like musty attics and sell just about anything at bargain prices from old ship parts, grandfather clocks, gramophones, to crystal chandeliers and old English tea sets antiques at throwaway prices, including colonial-era lamps, Art Deco clocks and trinkets of every kind. A store called Mini Market also offers old Bollywood posters for sale; the shop has old and rare posters of many bollywood movies, which again is a visual treat to movie lovers like me.

 The other shops of this lane offers authentic Victorian furniture, wonderful for browsers, antiquarians and restorers and also filmmakers, one can find many set designers scouting Chor bazaar in and out for artifacts to beautify the film sets. Apparently lots of artifacts seen in Devdas were actually taken in from this bazaar as suggested by the shop owners. Although bargains are sometimes staggering, most of the shop owners are pretty street smart and haggling is considered mandatory otherwise the shopkeepers could easily take the unsavvy art collector for a ride, so brush up on your art before you go!.

Talking about the midnight madness of this place, the bazaar 'opens' every Friday and the 'timings' are from 4am to 7 am. Anything anyone that has ever lost in India can be found there. The most expensive watches, and even the cheapest ones are displayed together, CDs, games, electronic stuff, and clothes anything at all. The bazaar is basically a series of 'galli's' intertwined and with several openings onto the main roads. One of the interesting aspects of these lanes is “Red Galli”, which is a shoe lover’s paradise. All shoes that have ever sinned are sent here. One can find branded to really expensive looking shoes being taken out from old gunny bags and rucksacks the twist to the story is you can’t really differentiate if they are real or fake. This midnight bazaar has practically all the things you would want to buy or you dream to buy at throwaway prices. And this fanfare closes by 8.30 am in the morning for the obvious reasons. Such is the mad and chaotic world of Chor Bazaar.

I would like to conclude by a popular saying about this area,

 “If you lose anything in Mumbai you can buy it back from the "chor bazaar". So next time if you are in Mumbai Go explore this mad world of Chor bazaar but be cautious about your own pockets while you are in the market. After all it Chor Bazaar…