Parrys Corner

It takes some getting used to the Indian version of commerce. You don’t just walk down to a Home Depot and pick up goods and check out in an orderly fashion. It's a full day extravaganza.

Click for Video of Market

Chennai’s wholesale district is called Parrys Corner. It spans a few city blocks, and slams together a huge number of vendors selling all manor of goods produced locally. It’s a disorganized mass of humanity and vehicles and goods, all going in a thousand different directions at once.

So many cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles pass thru the district – none with catalytic converters – that staying there for any length of time is painful. We were there for several hours, and it felt like I had a two stroke lawnmower engine shoved into my mouth the whole time. The fumes were horrendous – so bad that we all ended the day with soar throats. I don’t know how the shopkeepers live past 45, as it seems like they’d all come down with black lung.

Parking and loading brings its own inconveniences and (for those of us with a bit of perspective) amusement. On our initial approach to the market, we were driving slowly in search of parking – creeping in starts and stops. All of the sudden a tow truck pulls up in front of us. Someone jumps off the back and immediately puts a boot on our car. Having lived in Washington DC for a few years while I was in college, I was quite familiar with getting a boot on my car. But I’ve never been in a moving car, in traffic, and been stopped to have a boot placed on it. 30 minutes and a 150 Rupees later (almost $4), we’re back in search of a parking spot, this time noticing all the other vehicles with boots (including several vans from Mother Theresa’s orphanages). I thought that was the high point, until the same thing happened about 5 hours later as we were loading bed mats in front of another shop. This time, the shopkeeper paid the fee.

Dollars can be stretched quite a long way in India, but you’ve got to be prepared to make a serious time commitment to get anything done.



Mike Morath