“Last Sunday, I didn’t do good business. God willing, I should have a better day today,” says 52-year-old Gurcharan Singh, who has been selling shirt materials for over three decades in Chaura Bazaar, Ludhiana’s oldest textile market.
From the crack of dawn, scores of men, women and children start thronging the streets of Chaura Bazaar. Located opposite the Victorian era clock tower, the market, which derives its name from its ‘wide’ streets, has been the nerve centre of the town’s primary industry — textiles — for over two centuries. The bazaar is filled with thousands of sellers like Singh who deal