bengaluru the story of ramachandrapura is quite literally one of rags to riches bengalurus lessknown batte cloth market where export surplus and rejects are sold wholesale started out as a chindi rags bazaar over half a century ago the market stretching over 1st main and 2nd main of ramachandrapura srirampura close to dr rajkumar road is a virtual blaze of colours and a revelation for the unfamiliar visitor the street is lined by piles of bedsheets towels floor mats and blankets there is fabric everywhere bales and bales in shops which look more like godowns hanging from the entrance overflowing on to the footpaths in cotton linen polyester organza net lace sold by the kilogram or metre the shops hark back to another era small rooms cheekbyjowl where customers jostle for space and the best material available and whittle down prices to the best deal where possibilities open up as you walk along there are fabrics for all seasons purposes and fashions ramachandrapura can claim to be the original recycling market the bazaar was born when a handful of entrepreneurs discovered an opportunity in the truckloads of waste produced by garment factories on the suburbs these early settlers in the lowlands behind the city railway station would send the rags to factories in the textile towns of tiruppur vimalanagar in wayanad and madurai to be processed into doormats buffing rolls yarn waste and other products some of which would return back to the stores of ramachandrapura to be sold the small startups by thangaraj chettiar kanakaraj chettiar karupaiah k g govindan and jagannath laid the foundation for the bazaarthe main apparel factories were gokuldas exports and ashoka they would burn their waste bits as there were no takerssays selvam whose store mahalakshmi enterprises sells anything from cut pieces to hosiery to jackets the oldest stores here are ayyan enterprises akk enterprises and a few others many of them are managed by the women of the house like the matronly j thilakavathi who knows her business well she has seen the genesis of the market from the time her husband jagannath and the other pioneers moved into the area there were four or five houses here the rest was wilderness she says for a long time the chindi bazaar thrived on waste cut pieces and excess material bought in bulk and retailed dirtcheap textile waste is put to many uses in paper mills to make bandages the automobile and other industries says selvams friend bhaskar as fame grew export surplus came in from as far as panipat delhi and agra and from mills in tiruppur salem erode and parts of kerala and other textile hubs closer home selvam and bhaskar talk about the time when the area had only a few shops and when the merchants lived in houses above their stores business was steady and rents were low around the millennium change arrived in ramachandrapura as it did in other parts of bengaluru their quiet area suddenly developed into a