Chandni Chowk

Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi was every bit as crowded, crazy and fun as I expected. We stayed in the rickshaw except for one stop to see Naughara Gali, which is the subject of the next post.

This is Dariba Kalan, the wedding street. Everything here is wedding related. I immediately noticed how skewed the ratio of men to women was. There were almost all male pedestrians here. This is a wedding street, for heavens sake! Where are the women?

There were lots of intriguing things for sale.

I really should have gotten one of these! Actually, I believe this is the equivalent of a man’s wedding tuxedo. But in the U.S., no one would know!

In the U.S., men generally don’t care for shopping, let alone wedding planning. In my country, a wedding shopping street would be dominated by women, and men would be running screaming from the place! It made me smile to see men making wedding arrangements here.

Turning onto the street where wedding saris were sold, it got even more crowded. There were a few more women here, but still not many.

Traditionally, Indian women don’t wear white wedding dresses. They like color and sparkle. Red seems to be one of the most favored colors for wedding dresses.

The streets were so crowded, Mr. Kalu had to get off and walk the rickshaw through in a few places. It was a bumpy ride which made getting good pictures challenging. Any time he stopped — like right in front of this young man’s sari shop — was when I had a chance to get unblurry shots, but I had to be quick.

Now that I’ve had a taste of Chandni Chowk by rickshaw, next time I’d like to explore it on foot so I can stop at the food stalls.

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