In Chennai, a market that has stood on sturdier legs
The Hindu
With the market getting crowded and the competition coming not only from other patches of the metro, but also the Internet, these shopkeepers are forced to plan their spends judiciously; furniture shops on Royapettah High Road would love to set the clock back
The furniture market at Royapettah High Road has stood on sturdier legs. Without a word being uttered by shopkeepers, one could sense desperation in the air. One shop wears a “closed” sign. Fortunately, it is not the end of the road for this enterprise, just a shift from one address to another on the same road.
With the market getting crowded and the competition coming not only from other patches of the metro, but also the Internet, these shopkeepers are forced to plan their spends judiciously. This cautiousness invariably translates into a regular quest for purse-friendly rental options.
Manivarnan of Foam and Furniture points to a two-storey building opposite his outlet and volunteers inside information: “A person had set up shop there on rent, which was about ₹1.5 lakh a month. But, the business was dull and he had to initially vacate the first floor to save cost. When that did not help too, he shut shop and relocated to Tambaram. There are many such stories…”
This is bound to happen when you hardly see five customers a day in comparison to over 50 a day only a decade ago, says D. Jagannathan, proprietor, Jayanthi Furniture. Besides, given the competitive environment, the profit to be made on each product has also dwindled, contributing to the overall slump in business, Jagannathan continues.
Accounting for a kilometre of Royapettah High Road, the furniture market is now around 50-shops strong, a striking drop in the figure that marked its halcyon days.
With relocation being seen as a lifebuoy to stay afloat, shopkeepers fear the market would shrink and eventually lose its character, a character that contributed in no small measure to what we know as Madras.
Before relocation, there are usually many other signs of distress. Many shops have resorted to laying off their employees or shutting down pattarais (workshops). What is worse, they pull in their horns and refrain from trying out anything new.
“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.