ABSTRACT
Places are experienced—materially, associatively, imaginatively, and affectively—in different ways in different situations. Hence they are significant as objects of study in themselves rather than being mere sites, fields, or contexts. This chapter moves between the making of two kinds of places, the weekly bazaar and the neighbourhood—both how the two shape each other’s making and how this making is entangled with other places in the city and beyond. The chapter, in particular, looks at the multiple ways in which Nizamuddin Basti, a densely populated, low-income neighbourhood in Delhi, is constructed, arguing that these are not just different representations of or discourses on the Basti but enactments of materials, artefacts, affects, movements, and people coming together. One ordinary locus through which place-making happens in the Basti is the bazaar held there every Monday. Focusing on the routines and practices of the Basti’s women in the bazaar, this chapter unravels how the weekly bazaar and the neighbourhood shape each other’s making. It underlines that a place is made through relationships, just as relationships are created in and through places.
