A Sunday walk through Indirapuram's khand markets

Malls get all the attention, but the real life of Indirapuram happens in its small khand markets. Every khand has one: a row of shops around a parking lot, a chaiwala who knows everyone's order, a tailor who has altered half the colony's kurtas, and a hardware store that somehow has exactly the screw you need. On a slow Sunday, walking through a few of them is one of the nicest ways to spend a morning here.

Start early at Shipra Sun City. Before ten, the market is quiet, the shutters are going up, and the bakeries have fresh bread and rusks on the counter. This is the time to pick up breakfast: a plate of hot aloo parathas or poha from one of the small eateries, eaten standing up with a cutting chai. Families from the nearby societies come down in track pants, and the vegetable carts start lining up by the gate.

From there, head towards Niti Khand. The market here has a more relaxed pace, with a couple of cafes where college students sit with their laptops and kulhad chai. It is a good place to try something new, and to notice how many small businesses have quietly opened in the last year: a cloud kitchen, a nail studio, a stationery shop that also does printouts at midnight during exam season.

Nyay Khand and Vaibhav Khand markets are busier and more practical. This is where people come for pharmacies, coaching centres, salons and gyms. On Sundays the salons are packed by noon, so if you need a haircut, book on WhatsApp the night before. Many coaching centres use Sunday for weekly tests, and you will see parents waiting outside with bottles of water and anxious faces.

End the walk in Abhay Khand, where the hardware and sanitary shops sit next to sweet shops and tiffin services. If you have been meaning to fix a leaking tap or buy a new extension board, this is the place, and the shopkeepers will happily explain which part you actually need.

A few tips for the walk: carry a cloth bag, keep some change for the chaiwala, and go before the afternoon heat, especially between April and September. Most importantly, talk to the shopkeepers. Many of them have been here since the first societies came up, and their stories are the real history of Indirapuram.

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