Week #1 Around Naraina in 7 days [Kanupreet Kapani]

Kanupreet Kapani 

The purpose of this blog is to reflect on my experience and skills gained during this one-week field visit to the Pvr Market, Naraina. I thought it would be good for me to write about the first week of our module to look back on and remember.  The market and its surroundings can be compared to any usual market in Delhi.

The experience, however, was incomparable. Even though I’ve been there several times before but this time it was different. This time we were supposed to gain an understanding of the whole ambience, the people and the cultures in and around the market. 

The place first looked to be ordinary with the roadside eateries, peddlers, the chai walas and the boiled eggs that I always wanted to gorge on. And, of course, the loading trucks, tempos and parked cars.  It was early morning when we hit the place and some street dogs welcomed us. Unbitten, we walked ahead to find something we could study, understand and write about. Initially we thought of working on two very famous Pan shops heard of by many, however, we thought that there was a limited scope to get into a topic like that.  In the meanwhile a hoarding that said, 

“Find the Perfect Wedding Invitation Card” gained our attention and it was then when we decided to walk in for more information.As we entered the place, we came across a small, colorful showroom that was attractive and we were told that it was a printing press that dealt not only in wedding cards but also in customized wedding material like: boxes, cushions, mugs etc. The ambience outside was of course calm and colorful however as we walked further towards their factory, the sound of machines barely let us hear anything. There was chaos and the place was in mess because of paper cuttings spread all over the floor. 

Overall it was a really nice experience and I’m looking forward to get to know more interesting stuff about the press in the coming weeks. That’s all from me for this week. It shall be followed by more in depth information and observations due for next week.