Paan-Beedi Shop
As often when working spaces take place in different parts of the city and after a point of time it seems as if the whole city works at their own particular times of a day. City only functions if someone works, and to facilitate this operation a quick pause for a short period of time helps at its best for eg. at a tea-stall or a quick snack vendor (it is some ones work to allow for some one else to pause). A distinct kind of urbanity emerges at nodes, streets or in punctures of low purpose infrastructure that lies between the built environments.
The idea of a break makes the other fold of the vertically embedded building active and allows for a space to happen that is neutral and available for everyone at any given time of a day, which is in between two built envelopes. The act of undergoing work or living under the pressure of performing duties which may take place for a very short period of time but at a higher intensity of making a body undergo laborious task and exhaustion allows for a space to respite. An excuse for a break is the reason why spaces like tea-stalls or a quick snack vendor takes place outside the boundary of living or work space.
This story explores several conditions where a tea-stall occurs and how the context around it supports this space when they coexist with different user groups, work forms and living conditions.
Rajesh in his mid 20’s works as a delivery boy for a food delivery app called Swiggy. Since his teenage years, he has this idea of loitering and hanging out throughout the day with his friends at nodes or alleys of the slum where he lives. Because of not getting a formal education due to several factors, he had always imagined his life with his friends doing time-pass together as he grew up. Sitting on vehicles or occupying a plinth at street corners, pan shops or tea-stalls with a bunch of friends who lived a life similar like him, was enjoyed by them. Often they had their credit accounts at these shops, which were paid at the end of every month. People passing by or coming to these places everyday got familiar with them and some identified them as a potential source of labor. This space helped all of these unemployed boys to while away their time and yet get few of them into some kind of work like working as an office boy, salesmen, dance teacher or as a mechanic in a garage. The routine of Rajesh was nearly the same everyday but he got to know a lot of people by just sitting there with his friends. This is how he managed to get a job, which allows him to continue a similar routine yet not to be called as unemployed.
A lot of these new food delivery boys who have this similar work pattern, which is to wait until they get an order to deliver, find these nodes or street corners where they park their bikes and pass their time. These boys do not have specific places to wait, thus they decide to wait near a tea stall or a pan shop that does not restrict them of using the space around.
A small 6 feet by 3 feet shop which has all the apparatus to make tea. It is just adjacent to the sidewalk where there are other shops around, an estate agent, junk dealer, a vegetable vendor and a Chinese restaurant ahead of it. Right besides the tea-stall, there is a pan-shop with a buffer space with trees that surround it. The sitting space created opposite to the tea-stall is on a short plinth, behind which is a transmission substation. People walking on the sidewalk have to dodge these users who protect the tea from falling outside the cup and also who change as the day ends gradually. Number of rickshaws, bikes and cycles keeps on changing as they get parked along the sidewalk. Some rickshaw drivers halt at this space to only drink water, which is stored in a large drum with a tumbler. This is when they talk for a while, pack their tobacco and get back to riding their rickshaws. Office workers dressed in formal attire do not hesitate to sit on a stacked pavement block tile, construction laborers who work in electric and plumbing shops gather here after they provide their service to the buildings nearby, young men and women and other passers which include dogs, have an approximate fixed time to visit this space everyday.
