Find Out Why The Foreigners & Locals Are In Love With This Age Old Market

Just opp the New Delhi Railway Station (NDRS) lies the Main Bazaar of Paharganj. In its heydays in the 90s, the street drew thousands of foreign travellers but it has now become a shadow of its former glory. Some old timers rue the fact that the massive drive to give the Main Bazaar a face lift before the Commonwealth Games has robbed it of its unique character. Now the Main Bazaar remains not so “main” after all.

What Drew Travellers to the Main Bazaar

Nobody can point out what exactly drove people to this Bazaar earlier on & still does to some extent. Travelogues & memoirs, blogs & brochures on Delhi still go gaga over this strip of shopping paradise. 

Maybe the plastic-like organized & predictable shopping streets & malls of the Western world with their quiet efficiency & almost perfect environ became so boring that Paharganj was like an adventure in comparison. The chaos, filth & grime, unruly vehicles & crowds, unhygienic eateries & stray animals were so amusing, delightful & unpredictable that the Main Bazaar acquired a cult status with the travellers.

Hustlers, peddlers, deal makers & seedy hotels soon followed & the area earned its place in the itinerary of almost anyone who landed in Delhi. Be it a backpacker, budget traveller or hippie, they all wanted to be where all the action was.

The Main Bazaar as is Today

Trust Indian inefficiencies, corruption, lethargy & government machinery to undo all the cosmetic changes made for the Commonwealth Games. Encroachments have once again eaten into the street, hawkers occupy precious space, badmouthed drivers honk & yell through the street and street urchins pick garbage & pockets with equal élan. The buildings in the street had seen better days decades ago & look fatigued, scarred & sad for lack of attention.

What to Shop For

The world has changed in the past decade & India more so with the liberalization in full swing. There is nothing in the Main Street, Paharganj that you can’t buy elsewhere in Delhi or in the bylanes of Paharganj itself. 

Yet, for budget travellers, it still holds a special charm because of its proximity to the New Delhi Railway Station, budget hotels & cheap food to cater to all tastes.

Get surprised to find phonograms with music from the 70s & 80s for a few dollars & collect them as memorabilia. You can buy Indian classical music, Western classical CDs & books in languages like German, Hebrew, French & Russian in the shops lining the street.

There are shops towards the end of the street which look straight out of Arabian Nights. There are Hookahs or smoking pipes ranging from the Mughal era to the modern stacked outside near the shop fronts to entice the curious to come & try them.

Handicrafts in antique silver, wood, brass & leather fill shops which overflow with the stuff. Artificial jewellery such as bangles, earrings, necklaces & beads are stacked from wall-to-wall in amazing displays of colours & variety. Motif T-shirts & hippie clothing for just a couple of hundreds of rupees a piece can tempt you to shop till you drop.

Though the Main Bazaar is facing some tough competition from other shopping areas of the city, it still deserves at least one visit.