Famous markets in Hyderabad (Jummerat Bazaar, Bangladesh Market, Jagdish Market, Abids Sunday book Market)

1. Dhoolpet is one of the old suburbs in Hyderabad, India. It is part of the old city of Hyderabad. This place is inhabited by people who migrated from Uttar Pradesh during the Nizam rule.

This is popular for its Ganesh idols which are made for the festival Ganesh Chaturthi. People from all over the state come here to buy from this market. People of the suburb are famous and indulge in many other seasonal businesses like idol making even for Durgashtami, kite making for Pongal, rakhis etc.

The historic Jummerat Bazaar i.e. 'Thursday Market' is held every Thursday in Dhoolpet. This market is a kind of flea market where most of the stuff is supposedly stolen stuff. Jummerat Bazaar comes alive every Thursday morning. People begin gathering Wednesday night with their wares. Things are very cheap and for example one can expect to get a full cricket gear for less than 10USD.

2. Bangladesh Market: There is a Bangladesh market in Hyderabad. This is nothing but a shopping area in Bholakpur, Musheerabad. Formed in the late 1960s, this area is famous for low rate Cloth Market every day.

Small and petty vendors on their push cart, daily arrive here and sell their cloth items at throw away prices. Come any festivals, the area will have a festival look with lots of purchasers making a bee line to buy something here apart from cloths. Since the Market place is little interior, one has to alight at Musheerabad Raja Deluxe theatre and then proceed by walk to reach this spot.

3 Jagdish Market: The best place to pick up a mobile phone is Jagdish Market at Chirag Ali Lane, Abids, Hyderabad. The market is crammed with stores selling cell phones and everything related to it.

‘Fixed Rate- one price’- screams out a board from one of the stores in the area. But bargaining hard for a mobile phone of Chinese make or any mobile is very much on and it is part of the shopping experience.  Also known as Abids Shopping Centre, the place is filled with all kinds of mobile phones- branded and fakes.

There is something for every kind of buyers ranging from second-hand cell phones to ‘box pieces’ (new ones) and Chinese phones. One can pick up accessories like scratch proof screens, tags and fancy pouches for nominal prices.

The market also has a few ‘mobile phone servicing centers’ where one can get their phones repaired. There is no fixed rate for servicing mobile phones as it depends on the phone’s model and the type of problem.

One can also sell their old mobile phones here. Most store keepers buy them depending on the phone’s condition. Used phones are checked for glitches and undergo a servicing before being sold again and prices depend on brand and condition of the phone.

4. Abids Sunday book market: the range of the books available is insurmountable. Fiction, nonfiction, classics, best sellers, self help books, text books, and magazines you name the category of books and that category books would be available in Abids. What one needs is a full stomach, strong abs (one needs to crouch down and get up many times), lots of time, a sense of adventure and a knack of bargaining. Should we call it a second hand market? Definitely but along with second hand books one can get pirated books and low-priced original duplicates.  

But of late the air of bustling activity is missing from the bookshops that at one point of time used to define the beginning of vacation for generations of Hyderabadis. Part of the change is the business of books, part of the story is the change in reading habits and part of it is the impact of globalised village. People prefer television, Internet and social networking to the old habit of reading.  People mostly want to read only self-help books. The number of readers has gone down drastically.  

The number of booksellers has also declined as the books have changed from a few fiction novels and history books to non-selling fictions dumped from the US, old magazines, old self-help books and travel guides. The Bata showroom corner and F.D. Khan showroom that used to be the nerve centre of the trade on Sundays are now selling mostly factory-seconds shirts and trousers.

Another factor for the change is the availability of used books 24 x 7 by three or four big businesses have grabbed a lion's share of the books coming into the market and have set up year-round book sale in the city. And Abids is no longer the same on Sunday afternoons.