Grade 5
Market Visit
Grade 5
Grade 5 spent a morning walking Ooty's market with their teacher, Karuna, stall by stall — a butcher's turkeys loose on the road, a 60-year-old egg seller who "looked very young," a garlic seller who told them the market has 1,500 shops, a hardware seller with a Master's degree who came home to Ooty anyway, and a fruit seller who called his shop "a mini India." Eleven stops in all. Scroll down and the photo holds while each stop's write-up, in the class's own words, comes into view.
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Stop 01
Meat & poultry
“There were some turkeys roaming around. I wonder why they weren’t roaming out of the meat section… There were many stray dogs roaming around searching for remaining meat on the floor. I enjoyed the meat section a lot.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
Stop 02
The egg stall
“The shopkeeper’s name was Leena. She was 60 years old, which surprised me because she looked very young… She had millions of eggs which made me very hungry. The egg shop was really fantastic.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
Stop 03
Flower section
“The shopkeeper’s name was Babu, from Coimbatore… He should’ve had more than 10 varieties of flowers, which was an outstanding job. This shop was particularly awesome.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
Stop 04
Vegetables, with Jayanthi
“Jayanthi the shop owner was very pleasant to us and answered all our questions. English vegetables such as potato, cabbage, cauliflower, tomato, carrots, bell peppers and lettuce were introduced by the British. All the Indian vegetables come from Mysore, Mettupalayam and Coimbatore. Nearby, a seller named Ramaswami showed us a weird-shaped potato he kept just as a showpiece — we never knew potatoes could grow like that.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
Stop 05
National Bakery
“The owner’s name was Devdas. He showed us the different varieties of cakes he had, plus coconut balls, chocolate fudge and biscuits. The cake the British baked is still being baked in his shop. We tasted some of his cakes — we were fascinated by the information he gave us.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
Stop 06
The garlic seller
“His name was Anand, and he told us that there were 1,500 shops in the whole market — we all went “WOW!” He had different varieties of garlic, sold at different rates: Rs 50, 60, 70 and 80 per kilogram.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
Stop 07
Rat catchers & hardware
“The owner’s son was Karthik, born in Ooty. He’d finished his Masters in International Business but came back to run his family's 30-year-old shop. We need more people like Karthik, who aren’t attracted to the big city life.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
Stop 08
Adimulam Quetta Stores
“The name came from a long story the owner, Shekar, shared with us: it started with an Afghan trader selling dry fruits, and when he left Ooty, Shekar's father took over the shop and named it Adimulam Quetta. Nearby, a vendor known to our teacher gave us free puffed rice and sev to try.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
Stop 09
Grains & seeds
“So many different colours, shapes and sizes of grains, chips, soya chunks and pasta shells! Mr. Krishnamurthy patiently answered all our curious queries — we found out about so many new seeds and grains we’d never known.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
Stop 10
Rex Stores
“A whole lot of aluminum vessels greeted us at this shop. The shopkeeper’s name was Ragavendhran, and his family had been running the shop for four generations, since 1940. They buy things from Bangalore, Chennai and Coimbatore — you name it and they had it. There was a huge magnet to keep their tools together. I thought that was a real cool idea.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
Stop 11
The fruit stall
“Ramaswamy and his wife welcomed us with a beaming smile. He shared some interesting facts with us — did you know that apples come all the way from Kashmir and oranges from Nagpur, pineapples from Kerala, papayas from Mettupalayam and bananas from Coimbatore? We discovered a mini India in his shop! We enjoyed this interaction a lot.”
— Grade 5, on the market visit
What the class remembered most
“I really enjoyed going to the Ooty market with my friends and my class teacher (Karuna). I wanted to try everything in the shops. I really enjoyed going to the National Bakery and tasting the cakes and sweets. My favorite shop was the flower shop and the bakery. I hope to come back again to explore more shops.”
— Anaya“It was not a new experience for me because I had visited the market many times, but not soooooooo much inside! An uncle told me there were 1500 shops in the market — I was shocked! I enjoyed interviewing people from different backgrounds. We saw many shops which were more than 50 years old.”
— Chavi“My favorite shopkeeper was Devdas. Most of the shopkeepers gave us free items like bananas and fried gram. I enjoyed going to the market.”
— Mithul“When we left the market I hoped we could come back another day and have the same experiences.”
— Yathi“I really liked going to the market with my favorite class teacher Karuna (mam). I really did not like the meat market because it was a bit dirty, but I liked the flower market because it smelt really good. We got free stuff in two shops — bananas and puffed rice. Karuna mam also got us coconut balls, which were really good. I was also really surprised to see a weirdly shaped potato.”
— ZarahInteresting features of the Ooty Municipal Market
- Started by the British, and one of its kind in entire South India.
- 1,500 shops in total.
- Varieties of shops: vegetables, fruits, medicines, cutlery, bakeries, groceries, clothes, stationery, books, utensils, snacks, meat, poultry, tea, essential oils, brooms and baskets, electronics, milk and milk products, fashion items, garden equipment, mud pots and lamps — and more.
More from the market
A few more stalls the class photographed along the way — click any photo to see it full-size.
