Badrian Street

Badrian Street in Parry's is like any other street in the area. Crowded, cacophonous, narrow... Walking along NSC Bose Road towards the Flower Bazaar police station, it is quite easy to miss Badrian Street. It is almost bang opposite the Flower Bazaar telephone exchange. In this narrow and crowded street, business thrives and life goes on as usual for hundreds. It is the home for the retail flower trade in the city. The wholesale trade has shifted to Koyambedu, on the outskirts of Madras, but there are still some shops on Badrian Street selling different variety of flowers -- malli, kanakambaram and the like -- for the street-corner flower sellers to buy and thread them together.
Amidst this mix of people and smaller vehicles, a conservancy lorry crawls to the end of the street for the conservancy workers to clear putrefied flowers and leaves. And, amazingly the conservancy lorry driver backs out of the narrow street on to NSC Bose Road with barely an inch on either side -- all without hitting a pedestrian or knocking down parked cycles and other two-wheelers. That the same drivers turn out to be monsters on an open road is another story.
And, in this constant throng of people this woman carries on her work -- selling colourful tie-bags. This medley of Badrian Street is yet another in the series of pictures on Parry's.