At his eponymous opticals shop in Broadway, Palani is compelled to practise minimalism. A glass casing to display eyepieces and a lone chair behind it. A sliding door opens to a poky workshop that hoards a panoply of equipment and spares with which Palani plies his trade. Palani might be cooped up in a space that is barely three feet wide and a tad deeper than that, but he has a sense of expansiveness that comes from having captured his regulars’ “mind space”. It brings an invisible but undeniable dimension to his workspace and business. Palani is currently entertaining a customer from Thoothukudi, Mohammed Ali, who remarks that “my uncle referred me to this shop. He is a regular customer here.”
This picture of minimalism and enterprise repeats itself through Prakasham Salai, Bakker Street (the spelling as per the Greater Chennai Corporation’s nameboard) and Francis Joseph Street which together account for around 400 opticals shops. These shops make up the opticals hub in Broadway. In almost every shop, eyepieces are sold at the front end, and lens are ground and chiselled to fit frames, at the back end. This versatility ensures this hub’s relevance in a crowded market.
