Shopping Delhi

- The rest you’ll get at Lajpat Nagar

How many times have you heard people rave about The Lajpat Nagar Market and felt either unimpressed or uninitiated? Most of us have most of the time. Yet some of us know Lajpat Nagar like back of their hand since it is undoubtedly one of the most self-sufficient, be-all and end-all, colorful and most importantly best-bargains market place. (I still belong to the former lot).

I‘m here to share my pleasant surprises with the market last week. I happened to have a baby 2 years back and she happened to have her second birthday and incidentally we happened to decide to not celebrate the first birthday so it was a first experience of celebrating a kids birthday for all of us. Not that it was a big deal because all we did in the name of celebrations was that we went to her day-care and put together a small do over there. Yet, however conventionally-challenged parents we might be, I still have some aspirations of my own when it comes to parenting.

During my numerous trips to Lajpat Nagar and amidst buying Roasted Namkeen, Bhujia, Matthi, Chips and the family, I had noticed these shops (read:shacks) in a lane opposite Sita Fabrics (the furnishing guys). This is where you get suit pieces, duppattas, export quality clothes and Pakoras. There are about 3 shops (shacks) that look extremely colorful and sell party props.

In my list, I had to buy gifts for other kids of all age groups. Challenged, as I have mentioned above, as I am, I had forgotten about other important things like ‘birthday cap’ (or a crown these days for girls) and disposable plates and ware and ended up buying from another place later.

So coming back to gifts, since I have become a little more comfortable with hyper-marts, I had checked out Big-Bazaar in EDM to Vishal Mega Mart but nothing found anything worth the buck. I decided to check out these places in Lajpat Nagar since I anyways had to buy snacks from these shacks.

I felt like a kid in a toy store!

You get great return gifts, anywhere from 2 bucks onwards. There is no upper limit since you may decide to give away Barbie Doll Houses and spend Rs. 2000 per present. (what crap am I talking!)

So you get great gifts here, really great props like disposable ware, wrapping paper, stationery, decoration pieces, bags and the works. The prices would about half, if not a third. Bargaining to a certain extent (about 15-20%) also works in most of the cases so don’t give up.

All of the above is also available at Sadar Bazaar, and probably cheaper, but unless you’re throwing a really big party with a lot of elements, or you go there every other day anyway - I would advise to stick to Lajpat Nagar. There is also a shop or two in Karol Bagh and Jhandewalan but LN still scored better - both in terms of range and prices.

Look forward to a party and BYOG (Bring Your Own Guests) - the rest you can shop for at Lajpat Nagar… and love it!