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Most street businesses are modest. Can Dilip’s enterprise claim that label? All right, it is a rickety cart on the roadside. True, it is one of the many carts parked near the town’s railway station. But the variety of things piled up on it is too immodest, compared to neighbouring carts.
The cart has been doing business on this spot for almost a decade. Hence, it is reassuring to return after a long while, and discover that it is successfully surviving the ravages of time, including the worst periods of the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a dizzying range of stuff waiting for its customers: shirts, towels, mufflers, caps, shawls, mobile phone covers, Chhota Bheem watches (waterproof!), phone chargers, friendship bands, Hanumanji’s gadas, scratchpads, handkerchiefs, lock and chain, socks, men’s underwear, combs, talcum powder, eye liners, key rings, belts, helmets, gloves, Dara Singh posters, and even plastic roses.
Dilip wants to enable his customers to conduct most of their shopping in one go. He, however, gamely admits his cart isn’t unique. Such establishments abound in the Millennium City, he reveals, especially in areas where construction activities tends to be hectic. Most customers of such carts tend to be labourers employed in building sites. The labourers, he adds, do not have spare time to go to the bazar for shopping, so they like to do all their buying at a single establishment. Dilip’s patrons, though, are not limited to labourers. There are train passengers too, he had told this reporter in another encounter, while gesturing towards the railway station.
A cart like this is also a must-see because it gives a glimpse into the aspirations of people. There are plastic watches designed after comic characters, heart-shaped necklaces, I-love-you pendants, and scarves printed with odd inexplicable taglines such as “You smoke, I wait.”
Additionally, this cart has the extensive detailing of a museum-grade painting. That is, the longer you gaze at it, the more things you are likely to spot, such as ear-cleaning buds, plastic clips to fasten clothes to wash lines, and adult diapers. Now a customer approaches, and asks for a juice-maker. Dilip doesn’t have that, sorry.