No pictures of the boys in the one I am afraid. They stayed home with Greg while I joined an embassy trip to the Delhi flower market. This market is pretty far out of town so I don't expect to visit often, but it was quite an experience, and interesting to see how all of the individual flower sellers in the city start their day. Apparently up until a few years ago there were three main flower markets around Delhi, but they were all forced to close as the government decided to have them relocate to this one new location. I can't even imagine how much that must have disrupted the lives of the flower traders in the city, as most of them have to get their products daily, and they rely on bicycle carts to transport their goods.
This person with his bike cart will fill up with as many flowers as he thinks he can sell in the day, and then ride with his load to his spot somewhere in Delhi. He most likely has many miles to travel, and he will do this every day. Many of the flower vendors will sell their goods right from their carts, while more established flower sellers have tents set up to sell from. There are very few actual storefront florists here, in fact I haven't seen one yet. The closest thing to that would be a few general stores I have seen that have a small area designated for flowers. Although we got there fairly late in the morning (around 8:30) there were still many people loading up carts. I hear that the market opens at 3am each day, and the earliest hours are the busiest with larger flower vendors and hotels making large purchases. It seemed fairly crowded to me so earlier in the morning it must be crazy!
Garlands! Much of the product in the flower market is centered around the kinds of flowers that are used as offerings at temples and in homes. There are tons (literally!) of marigolds and jasmine, as these seem to be the two most popular choices for garlands.
These green leaves that are tied into little rolls are sometimes at the bottom of a garland.
I don't know if these boys had been busy earlier in the morning, but when we came by they were relaxing and chatting, and they sure got a kick out of my taking pictures of the market. The one on the left kept trying to make a serious face, and then bursting out laughing.
A little bit later they came to find me with another friends who wanted to get his picture taken too! If I ever do make my way back to this market I would love to bring some copies of these pictures to hand out, just in case I see them there again.
This was a hot morning, so I don't know how big that piece of ice must have been when it started!
Only a few shops have what would be sold at a florist in the states.
Much of the business here was the sale of flowers by the kilo. These huge bags of marigolds, roses and jasmine will be used to make garlands at temples, or the petals will be removed to be used to make intricate designs on the ground in temples, and sometimes in front of houses.
I was fascinated by these buckets and bags of ice and roses. They were beautiful in a way that was hard to capture in a picture.
This guy came running up to our group as we were leaving, selling these strange little flowers. These are usually sold just for their petals, so they aren't perfect, but for 50 Rupees for his entire arm full (less than $1) I was pretty sure I could pull out enough nice ones to make something!
My flowers at home:
Gerbera daisies, four bunches for 100 Rupees, about $1.50 total
These little guys didn't last all that well, but for less than $1 for the entire bunch they sure did brighten up my day!
Cut orchids, $2
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