Notoriously famed for being the capital’s porn hub, Palika Bazar, the underground labyrinth of shops in the heart of Delhi, is witnessing a new clientele as teenaged school and college students are giving way to labourers, rickshaw pullers and daily wage workers, who are thronging the market for cheap and easily accessible porn to satisfy their carnal urges.
I visited the market in Connaught Place, and the shopkeepers admitted that advancements in technology and the decline in the number of ‘affluent’ customers have come as a blessing in disguise for this ‘new breed’ of customers.
As people who have laptops and internet don’t come to the market anymore and it is the labour class which is driving the sales now.
With easy access to internet at homes and on mobile phones, the ‘affluent’ customers, from the middle and upper middle class have declined gradually.
The labourers are not teach-savvy nor do they have the money, so they get all the masala (porn clips) downloaded in their phones, I was informed by a shopkeeper who had a laptop in front of him that had the image of Indo-Canadian adult actress Sunny Leone in a skimpy dress as the background.
“Her clips are the most in demand,” said the man pointing to Leone who gained fame after her appearance in the fifth season of reality show Bigg Boss.
Armed with budget brand cellphones which cost anywhere between Rs. 800 to 2000 with big screens for better video playback and expandable memory, the new category of customers can have access to porn 24*7 without the fuss of owning a CD player and a TV.
Moreover, the thumbnail sized memory card, loaded with hundreds of porn clips or movies, is easy to conceal in a wallet and used when required as against stacks of CD’s and DVD’s.
The shopkeepers can download hundreds of clips on the memory card ranging from 2 GB to 10 GB for anywhere between Rs. 100 to 400 depending on the clips as well as bargaining skills.
Though the categories of the clips vary, the shopkeepers say it is the MMS clips, some real some staged, which are the most favourite. Such clips are often shot in hotel rooms, hostels or cars with or without the consent of the couples in it.
“Kand (scandals) are the most in demand,” said another shop owner with a leering smile on his face who almost snatched my mobile phone from my hand, eager to fill it up with ‘kands’at a ‘decent’ price.
According to police reports, the two men behind the brutal gangrape of a five-year-old in Delhi last week had watched porn in an inebriated state just before kidnapping the child and raping her.
The market, however has not been completely forgotten by its loyal affluent customers, who according to shopkeepers have moved beyond CD’s and are into buying sex toys, most of which are smuggled from China.
Inflatable dolls, dildos, vibrators and even sex gums which claim to work like Viagra are easily available at several shops and all you have to do is ask.
Some shops have even put the toys up on display on glass shelves to cater to the timid customers.
