Bunder Street is hot and busy in June. The narrow road is littered with paper and plastic string, crushed underfoot by a horde of parents and students searching for deals, discounts, and last-minute stationery. Stores lining the street are packed. A shopkeeper’s sweaty head pops out from behind a towering stack of notebooks, and rolls of shiny, brown wrapping paper.
Teachers are here on behalf of schools, buying stationery and craft supplies; while boxes of supplies including slates, ice cream sticks and stickers, lie scattered on the shop floor.
“Children like fancy pencil boxes, and stationery from China or Korea,” says Viji Bharat, as she shops for her school-going daughter. “But, I still like to buy the Natraj pencils of our time.” According to a large banner hanging somewhere on Bunder Street, all the stationery is on sale.
