A day at Juna Bazaar
In a world that’s becoming increasingly smaller and flatter, retaining our identity and uniqueness is becoming increasingly harder. And at the same time, more important. Not a day goes by when another designer talks about “Indian Design”, and “Designed for the Indian Market”. To those designers I have but one request: get off your computers, and head out into the real world. Into the Juna Bazaars, and Bori Vali’s of the world. The real “India” resides not in some kitschy artwork featuring Turbans and Ambassador Cars, but out there, in the real markets, and streets of the country.
After spending most of my life in Chennai, the last two years, here in Pune, have come as a small culture shock. Especially when I see designers talk about India. Most of what they use to define “Indian” (as a kitsch visual style), has no relevance to me, and the place I’m from. On the flipside, the culture and traditions we have developed over thousands of years, are largely unknown to these designers, making me feel like I’m in a foreign land. However, when I visit the roadside markets and bazaars of any town, village or city in the country, I feel at home. Juna bazaar is no different. Hundreds of hawkers, selling hundreds, if not thousands of goods right on the footpath. The products range from electronics to plastic novelties, to vintage products. Car parts, machine tools, small sculptures of deities, it’s all here.
Which makes it all the more important for designers to visit, if they want to feel India. Vintage Braun shavers, and Philips record players (some of which occupy the permanent collection at MOMA), sit alongside products which are uniquely Indian, designed to fill very specific needs. Be it a stand to roll chappati’s, to improvised phone chargers, to small plastic toys for kids. It’s all here, by the bucket-load. And then we get to the parts and tools sections.
Hundreds of spare parts for bikes and cars, and every part for every machine tool imaginable. The list is endless. We stumbled upon a bike repair shop where one man was trying to build a chopper, like the ones he saw on TV. The results were a lot more technically sophisticated, and a lot more real, than anything I see on peers’ sketchpads. Every era is represented here, and every style of design. German sophistication from the Bauhaus era. Mid-century Modern era wood panelled enclosures, to the Japanese’s obsession with miniaturisation. A day spent here is like a walk through the history of industrial design. It proves that real industrial design is not meant to sit in an exhibition hall, or exist as a render on the internet, but inhabit the world, and continue to affect those who use it for decades to come.
In the words of John C. Jay, of Wieden + Kennedy, “Travel as much as you can. It is a humbling and inspiring experience to learn just how much you don’t know”. This brings me back to my request to the prospective designers of India. Head out to your local market, to the “Juna Bazaar” in your city, and experience the real India. In a world populated by Walmarts and Ebays, the humble roadside Indian market remains defiantly India.