Street Shopping in Mumbai

This Friday when I went to Crawford market, I roamed the streets and bye-lanes opposite the market for over two hours. This is an amazing street where you can find everything at reasonable prices. There are lanes assigned for every article, be it gadgets, clothes, stationary or artificial jewelry. There are rows and rows of shops selling the same items at competitative prices.  Even the side walks are full of hawkers selling knick-knacks. If you were lucky to be able to find a parking space in this lane (which is mostly impossible) then don’t be surprised if your car is being used by hawkers to spread their wares.

This is a very crowded street where you dodge the traffic, hand carts, people and hawkers. I have walked into these streets many times, sometimes non-stop for more than five hours. It never stops to amuse me. Many times I have lost my way into the bye-lanes and discover newer lanes with even more interesting stuff and sometimes rare things which I would not find anywhere else.

In good ole days, I used to stop every half hour and try the road-side cuisine. There are hundreds of food stalls on these roads, and I had no problem eating those unhygienic food and drinks. But gradually I became food-conscious and started looking for more decent place to sit and eat. That was the time when I had discovered ‘Rajdhani’ on Sheikh Memon Street. I used to enjoy the Gujarati and Rajasthani delicacies there.

“Recently, the outlet has been revamped to make way for Revival Indian Thali - a healthier, variety-filled thali. With food cooked in trans-fat-free oil and using organic and healthy ingredients, Revival aims to please the new wave of foodies. In my head, a thali can never be healthy and always stands for the occasional over-indulgence.” Says Shakti Salgoakar during her recent visit to this place

Read Ms Shakti's food review here “De Thali: A healthier thali featuring cuisine from all over India”  

At the end of the day, my feet ached and I desperately looked for a place to sit. Envied the man resting in his basket, or the person sitting on the road, but me? Couldn’t do that, could I?

I just stood there at the corner of the street, balancing on one foot, munching on fresh Litchis until my driver drove the red car from the parking lot and stopped in front of me.