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  1. Bustling Bazaar

    Thursday, August 4, 2011

    Bustling means “Move in an energetic or noisy manner” a word which I felt could definitely be apt to describe our own ‘Burma bazaar’. It has History, Mobiles, Video games, CD’s,Electronic items and what not ? I recall my child hood days, Whenever I want a CD or any electronic items the first word or place that strikes my mind is Burma bazaar.
    It’s been a repository of all the above from over a long period of time. Whenever I think about it, I get lot of questions in my mind. One of them is Why It’s called ‘Burma’ Bazaar. I tried to encapsulate its hidden history.
    So, here’s how the story apparently goes. Back in olden days, around the time when we had just got our independence, there were quite a few people from Burma, who were working in plantations. There was a sizeable working population that was from India, and life went on. When a new emperor/king took over Burma, as a means of doing what Srilanka started off to do as well, the government wanted to increase the chances of locals getting employed, so kicked out all the non-Burmese population out of the country. Quite a few countries interfered and so did India, especially TamilNadu. As we are known for and as the proverb says “vantharai vazha veikum thamiz nadu” we stood by our name and we justified the saying.
    Out of humanitarian concern, the government of tamilnadu setup a strip of land, where the refugees could sell whatever possessions they had – most of them were plantation equipment, so that with that money they could start a living. This was around 1962. The agile selling still goes on, and the place stays ever energetic and ever lively throughout the day.
    The bazaar is run by Burma Tamizhar Marumalarchi Sangam, an association that has been set up to look after the interests of the traders since 1966.Tamil nadu government laid the foundation for their life, but they worked hard and developed Burma bazaar into a big archive of electronic goods. From place for refugees to a big archive of electronic goods, these people have really been a example for hard work. Appreciation for these people is the least we could do. These people’s hard work will ensure Burma buzaar will always be a Busy Buzaar

  2. 2 comments:

    1. Vidhya said...

      Interesting! I have never given a thought about why it is named so :P :)

    2. Unknown said...

      Change the font colour!