This piece is one of the 10 winners of our 2022 profile contest. You can find more here† Gauri Guptathe author, is 14 and goes to the The Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay, India.
Street Market Candy
By Gauri Gupta
In March 2020, India experienced the first wave of Covid-19 and went into a full national lockdown. This made headlines worldwide because of the particular challenges facing poorer Indians, many of whom had to travel hundreds of miles back to their villages from the cities. It was a highly controversial policy, partly because it fueled the spread of the virus in rural India, and partly because it exposed the vulnerable working and living conditions of much of India’s population. These images of chaos and human suffering were seen all over the world. What was not reported was the suffering of those left behind in the cities.
Vasudev Govind sells imartis in Chandni Chowk, a bustling street market in the Indian capital New Delhi. An imarti is a Rajasthani dessert of Persian origin that is enjoyed as a popular and ubiquitous street food.
In March 2020, he saw his customers drop to zero. A street once known for its constant bustle and chaos was now quiet and empty. Mr. Govind has a family of five children to support. He had no income for five months.
On a recent visit, I went to Chandni Chowk an unhealthy number of times with my camera in hand. With a bit of luck I had the chance to speak to the creator of my favorite imartis. The following excerpts are from conversations with Mr. Govind, translated from Hindi and edited for clarity.
Your imartis are delicious. Have you always been an imarti maker? How did you learn?
Thank you. As you know, most of the shops in Chandni Chowk are ancestral meaning my great grandfather was an imarti seller, my father and now me! We’ve been following the same recipe for hundreds of years. This is what makes it so special. So we live right above the store, and since I was a kid, I spent all my time in the store every day. I did my homework in the kitchen, between washing pans and fanning the fire in the stove. All my childhood memories are in this imarti stall.
When did you first hear about Covid? How did you feel when the lockdown was announced?
Oh, God, I remember the exact moment! Here in Chandni Chowk people used to talk and talk to each other, but suddenly everything stopped. One morning most of my neighbors disappeared. They didn’t even have time to say goodbye. It was like feeling like a war.
Stunned by the sudden change, I asked the chai wallah [tea seller] what happened. He told me about a virus and the rest is history I guess. How did I feel? I was afraid, but not so much of the virus. I am an old man and I have faith in God. But I saw my company disappear. That was really scary. I have children to support, and I don’t know how to do anything else except make imartis. Losing everything is scary, because this is life (he spread his hands), and we don’t know anything out there.
How was your household during the lockdown?
The reality of the lockdown was overwhelming at first, we were all in one room together. I have a family of seven (laughter). A week in lockdown, life as we knew it had stopped and we couldn’t handle it. Everyone was tense. We all continued to crave each other. We all had our own concerns. There were times when I had to open my shop to feed my family.
However, one good thing has happened. Throughout history, only the men in my family have made imartis and run the shop. I came up with the idea to teach my daughters the family trade. They loved it, and it gave us all a sense of purpose.
What do you hope for the future?
Business is slowly returning to normal. It’s funny because it took less than a day for everything to be destroyed, but it takes more than five or six months for everything to go back to normal at all. The buzz at Chandni Chowk is slowly returning, which is nice to see! Once tourists are back it will be even better I think!
