Eviction, loss and a fruit-tray shop

 

Krishnaveni narrates  experiences  of selling fruits at chennai’s busy markets amidst eviction 

Krishnaveni’s favorite fruit is papaya, which holds the mass and texture to carve and shape it like flowers, her second favorite is the apple, that can be cut into look like petals with fine edges.  She dislikes guava as it has hard seeds with a patchy texture that's hard to cut though. For this 72-year-old fruit seller; fruits are canvases. 

Krishnaveni walks along the broadway road with a plastic knitted basket of fruits, she also has a couple of fruits cut in different shapes on a  wooden plank for sale. The plank is Krishnaveni’s fruit shop.  She said she hardly makes 100 rupees by the end of the day. 

Krishnaveni narrates her work, her routine, and her experiences as a fruit seller in Chennai’s busiest markets. She lives in Guindy and in the morning starts selling fruits at Koyambedu market at 4 am every day after which she takes her fruit basket for an hour-long journey to broadway road. 

The supreme court’s declaration of making Chennai's roadsides non-hawking sites affected Krishnaveni’s  shop on pavements that went through two evictions  “ Since I walk with my basket to sell now, corporation officials snatch my fruit basket away. They say it is illegal to sell goods here but this has been our market for generations” she said. 

Krishnaveni’s mother and grandmother were also fruit sellers. Talking about men in the family she said that men do not contribute or generate income. “We have to work hard to feed our children. We fear the streets,  the streets that feed us can also cause harm, “.she said.

Krishnaveni  has a  family of three grandchildren to take care of. Her daughter Janaki passed away in an accident that happened 7 years ago. “I lost my daughter, my husband left me , I do not know the whereabouts of my son in law and I don't have any option other than to move on. for my grandchildren”. She said, Her grandchildren  go to the government school in Guindy and she takes them to the market with her on weekends .

 The pandemic affected Krishnaveni and her fellow fruit sellers financially, mentally, and physically. “ It is the relocation amidst the pandemic  that is difficult for us,”she added.

The street vendors of broadway road and nsc bose road were evicted and relocated to alternative spots by the Greater Chennai corporation . Krishnaveni explained the conditions of the newly allotted place,” It is dirty, we are near public toilets and we have concerns over medical waste dump from nearby hospitals in that area, we tried to install shops there, but it's difficult”. 

She detailed how the other alternative spots allotted at the nearby dental hospital premises and the TNPSC road are unfit and dangerous especially after 6pm. The spots at the far end of the broadway road too face a space crunch and traffic police blocked the area for vendors.

 Asking about her experience and memories as a street vendor Krishnaveni tried to remember times since childhood working as a fruit seller.  She said she was fascinated by the various colors of the streets. She remembers that every season the street follows themes and she likes to observe the transitions.. Her favorite saving is a fruit peeler that helps her make new designs on fruits. She grinned and said,”I don't scrape the fruit, I do delicate designs not wasting the fruit , mostly peeling them to new designs”. 

Krishnaveni does not have a huge amount of fruits to sell, It's only a tray of seasonal fruits  procured from the local market from her  hometown.  “ It's a small job but it is a big deal for us. Traffic police say people like us  are the reason for the space crunch in the market and do not let us sell goods. This job is all I know, I am  only asking for a squeezed in little space to work, “, she said. 

Krishnaveni expressed her concerns over the ongoing evictions happening on the street.“Our neighborhood shops are all removed, it looks different now, it's pale and you can't call this a market now”. She said, 

Her fellow fruit sellers have shifted their shops  in the lanes adjacent to NSC Bose Road like Bunder Street and Badrian Street.The GCC has marked other alternative spots at TNPSC Road and Muthuswamy Road. “I  have been here for decades, my mother and all our mothers walked in these streets to sell goods. I have a lot of experiences to talk about, but when I think I feel blank, I am worried about the kids ”. She said,  The vendors at broadway road carry  goods in small pouches and try to sell their goods adjacent to the big shops, which are also under inspection . Krishnaveni’s grandchildren bring their school texts to study and play at the broadway road during weekends when she walks around to sell fruits. 

 

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This story was supposed to be about the past, and not so much the present.