The Puppet Lady in Khan Market

The other day, standing in the parking lot in Khan Market I saw a poor old Rajasthani-attired lady trying to quietly sell puppets to foreigners and the top 0.1 % of the affluent. She had a slight smile as she displayed her wares, routinely seen at every Indian handicrafts exhibition and tourist trap.

My girlfriend was waiting, but I was watching the puppet salesman fixedly, a hack/voyeur, to see what would happen next. No one stopped to evince interest in her puppets. The puppets were so run-of-the-mill, I shook my head condescendingly, almost wanting to tell her to sell something less stereotypical that people around here weren't ambushed with all the time.

Needless to say she had no success at all. She was selling something everyone had seen a billion times. She wasn't an exponent of the pushy-urchin/beggar-at-the-red-light style of salesmanship. She was mild and had a softly pleasant smile.

And then three men, perhaps minions at some shop or perhaps at the market association there told her to leave. She stayed a heartbeat and then, giving a heartwarmingly embarrassed smile
and walked away towards the parking lot.

And I wondered about the socio-economic dynamic at play here. She wasn't bothering anyone. Often one can be chased by people trying to force their wares on you. But not she. She was no competition to the shops that employed the three men who shooed her off. She wasn't a hindrance to anyone, not the obscenely rich shoppers nor the shops. She wasn't even standing in front of a shop.

But she did stick out didn't she. Her clothes were the sort worn by poor women in rural Rajasthan. Not the sort of clothes often seen in Khan Market. If she'd been wearing an ordinary salwar kameez would they have bothered her? Perhaps, but as an equal. As it happened, they hushed her away in loud voices as if she were an embarrassing truth.

Again, if she'd been a Delhi lady? She'd have fought back some, probably.

But here she was out of place and station. Poor. Differently and rurally clothed. Out-of-towner. Unsophisticated. Unaggressive.

Her last smile was heartwarming.