Eating-Out
| Burma Bazaar |
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This market is famous for one more reason – the pirated VCDs and DVDs. At a public meeting at the Burma bazaar, there was a plea to the government which bans the sale of pirated VCDs and DVDs of films within weeks of their release. The producers can recover the cost of the film just by selling five lakh copies of the VCD or DVDs of the three week old film. They wanted the sale of these to be allowed by the government. Anti-piracy agencies press for the need for evolving more effective ways to curtail piracy. The film prints from the laboratories must be sealed and sent to the film distributors. This procedure must be followed by the theater owners also to ensure accountability at each and every stage of the print’s journey. The operators in this gray market usually operate under cover as bona-fide companies making cassettes or CDs. The CDS and cassettes are distributed fast across the country by air and train. The racket sometimes involves the police also. The CDs are stored in godowns and not stored in one place in bulk.
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Burma Bazaar got its name from the fact that the refugees and traders from Burma used to sell their wares in this location in Chennai. It is near the Chennai harbor and is close to the Beach railway station. During the eighties there were tiny crowded shops lining the road e opposite to the Reserve Bank of India. These shops sold the gray market goods mostly imported or smuggled. The high customs tariff on imported goods and the strict limits on the quantity that one can bring them has been a major reason behind such goods being smuggled into this country and sold. The market for such imported items was always good and the traders could make easy and fast money selling these goods. The Casio calculator or Yamaha keyboard or any music system and other electronic items are always in demand. There are no warranty or guarantee for these goods and no receipts either. The purchases are made after a long drawn bargain. They show the catalog and once the deal is finalized, the shop keeper takes the prospective buyer to some place away from the bazaar. Somewhere in Kasi Chetty Street, a dark alley, a small room where these items are stocked. This is the godown for such items. From stationery to plastic and readymade garments and household items are available here at affordable prices.
Nowadays Burma bazaar is spread in many places of the city. A whole gamut of foreign goods is sold here in big numbers. The expensive stereo music systems or watches and clocks are sold at reasonable prices. Attractively designed household items like table wear, curtains and decorative pieces are sold at throw away prices. They also sell toys of various kinds that are battery operated. Dress materials and apparels in different types of materials and fabrics are sold. Likewise materials for shirts and pants and suiting can be bought here. Toys, utility items and even radios, umbrellas, shoes, ties etc are displayed. There are various types of bags, shopping bags and travel bags, including luggages for international travel. You can also find a wonderful collection of species, Soap, Perfumes, Indian Tea, Musical Instruments etc here with a wide choice. The latest craze is for cell phones of all leading brands. Shopkeepers smuggle huge loads of illegal iPods and MacBooks from Singapore, Dubai and Malaysia. The street salesman wearing a doti usually takes the prospective customer to a cramped lane leading to his shop. The lane is full of such shops with piles of music systems, play stations, cameras watches and computers and accessories, MP3 players and DVDs and iPods. Exotic perfumes and lotions and shampoos of all varieties can be bought here. The imported varieties are much sought after by people. These are flaunted as status symbols by some people.
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