Whether it is India or abroad, consumers prefer sasta bazaar

KANPUR: As we are tending to shift towards the air-conditioned well-furnished malls, there is still no dearth of the cheaper popular markets in almost every city of the country where a customer visits with an eye to purchase a particular item or various things on comparatively far more lesser price than the usual market price. But this does not indicate the existence of reasonably low priced makeshift bazaars only in our country. We do find such kind of the markets in the dazzling richer Gulf countries even. In every country, a consumer remains inclined by his very nature to save money and avoids frittering away needlessly in the fashionable costly marketplaces.

Returning from thrice-a-week Parade Bazaar here, a considerate mother of two sons, who had previously lived in Dubai several years ago, revealed that all those people belonging to Indian sub-continent have a preference for such kind of the souk in those far-off Arabian countries. Though she adds, Dubai does not be called a fit destination for such trend but people living in Sharjah come upon an inexpensive market. As the city’s decades-old cloth market on Parade Ground here helps consumers available various kinds of merchandise at affordable prices, there also exists low-priced marketplace in that emirate. However, Dubai does not have such distinction in a true sense of the practicality because of its distinct way of life, as she points out.

As we usually find veiled women flocking to the city’s Parade Bazaar for buying varieties of fabric clothes on every turn in the week, they feel free in selecting and bargaining at the impromptu shops which are set up in the afternoon. Like in India, women in Dubai are too modern enough to visit shops. Some maintain that they enjoy more freedom than the Indian women. Everything depends on the spending capacity.

It is said that there does not look much distinction between the rich class and the poor class in the Arabian society what we generally come across in our own traditional society due to a wider gap between these two distinct classes. Our country is a big country and its population is also too much. But Dubai and Sharjah are neither bigger nor more populated. Nonetheless, these two factors have nothing to do with prevailing mindset there. What is worth seeing is the tradition and lifestyle of the people.

Why do we, Indians, have recourse to the parsimonious bent of mind? That instinct goads us to move out in an economical marketplace where consumers should be spending and saving simultaneously. There may be some economic reason behind this notion too. Contrary to this approach we are often told that foreigners do not give enough importance to such type of tendency in their worldly lives. They spend more because they are moneyed but we are not able to cross over the line of the abject poverty. It is this drawback that compels us to live a simpler life but higher thinking.