Head here for your ‘trunk’ call

Gurugram’s Trunk Market is slowing losing its charm as the needs of people change

So many landmarks have been washed away by the coronavirus pandemic, but many continue to stay. A few of them at least ought to be cherished, especially when they themselves are part of something that is increasingly becoming less visible.

Gurugram’s Trunk Market — a place that has been in slow decline for long owing to the era of wheeled suitcases. Once this bazaar had 25 trunk shops, and now there are just three, informs Suresh Kumar of Suresh Trunk Factory, a showroom as well as workshop for iron trunks.

This afternoon he is glued to his mobile phone. His two labourers are hammering down sheets of iron to be made into trunks. One of the younger men has a huge wooden mallet that looks like Hanumanji’s gada. The other sombre-faced man is armed with an ordinary hathoda (hammer). The gleaming metal trunks piled up by the wall beside them are diffused with the reflection of the first man’s pink shirt.

“Our iron supply comes from Delhi, Faridabad and Rewari,” tells the busy owner, without averting his gaze from the mobile phone screen. Founded in 1960 by his late father Lakshman Das, the establishment appears less like a shop and more like a museum of metal trunks.

It might even get rave reviews in an art biennale themed on outdated modes of living. Responding to a query, the owner confesses matter-of-factly that the steel trunks are no longer as widely used by people as they were in the distant past.

By now, one of the labourers has reached the highest point of his enthusiasm. He is hammering the iron with great untiring vigour. The air in the shop is throbbing with the clatter of the most splitting sound you could hear. But the cacophony is barely audible on the busy street outside, which is marinating in the various sounds one may find in any bustling bazaar.

Despite the market’s many distractions, this landmark stands out in its distinctness. An average sized trunk here cost ₹1,100. The shop opens daily from 9 am to 7 pm. “Nothing much has changed in our place since the pandemic, except for the workmen who keep coming and going,” the owner reluctantly states.

The other two surviving trunk shops, too, are in the vicinity — Azad Trunk Factory and Anand Manufacturing Company.