Many customers arrive at the market - event decorators, florists, and the small-time flower vendors. By 8 am, the best of the lot is sold out.
Flowers from farms are transported at night to Koyambedu, avoiding sunlight. Most flower vendors at Koyambedu stay in the complex all night. After unloading the flowers, the vendors take their respective cargo to their stalls, and sprinkle some water on them to revive them.
Days of accumulated waste litter the floors, forming a bed of flowers
Many customers arrive at the market - event decorators, florists, and the small-time flower vendors. By 8 am, the best of the lot is sold out.
Follow the fragrance
Ordered chaos defines the flower market at the Koyambedu Wholesale Market Complex. Over the years, the market has accumulated a large number of patrons, as it has layers of discarded flowers on its floor. Vendors rush past with sackfuls of blooms, shoppers haggle, and flowers once fallen to the ground wither away. It’s an unforgiving everyday life here at the largest market complex in Asia.
(This essay was published in
The New Indian Express
on 24. 03.2018)