Chor Bazaar (Thieves Market) has a notorious ring to it thanks to its name which is a result of the British mispronunciation of Shor Bazaar (Noisy Market). While it may have been the market for stolen goods in the past, currently, it is the place to raid if you are looking at buying second-hand antique goods.
When I first visited Chor Bazaar it was like taking an industrial tour of a ‘nostalgia factory’. Tape-recorders, film rangefinders, vintage Bollywood posters, old grandfather clocks, gramophones – things that I had seen as a child in the 1980s – were all around.
Since most of the things available here are second-hand, purchasing an article from this place feels like giving life to something that was deemed to be of no use to someone in the distant past.
That Russian film camera inviting a digital camera photographer to give analogue techniques a try…or that 70’s Bullet Enfield in ruins just waiting for that budget biking enthusiast to remodel her. For someone afflicted with the golden-age syndrome this place can easily become an addiction.
Text & Photos By Nimish Sawant
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