Sociology Field Notes

The field trip was conducted on 21st January, 2020. The localities visited and assessed
included Indore’s famous eating spot ‘Chappan Dukaan’, and Treasure Island Mall. The visit
was conducted on a Sunday and was scheduled between 4.00 pm and 8.00 pm.

Objectives:

1) To observe the Social Climate of these localities.

Overview:

The field trip was scheduled to begin at 3.15. There were 2 buses arranged for the
transportation from the campus to the destinations. We reached the destination at
approximately 4.30 pm given the slight delay in departure and mild traffic. The buses
dropped all the participants approximately 1 km away from the first destination, Chappan
Dukaan. It took us 12-15 minutes to get there on foot. We were present in Chappan till
around 6.30, and then we walked over to Treasure Island mall. It took us around 15 minutes
to reach Treasure Island which was a kilometre away from Chappan. We spent around 1 hour
in Treasure Island mall. After the completion of our agenda, we spent some time in the mall
before returning to the bus. We returned back to the bus at around 8 pm.

I . Chappan Dukaan

The first destination visited was Chappan. It is located in New Palasia. It is one of the more
busy locations of Indore. ‘Chappan Dukaan’ translates into 56 shops, which is the origin of
its name. It is one of the most famous places of Indore for having food. It is one of the most
consequential factors that has led Indore to being called the Street Food Capital of India. It
comprises of a wide range of eating joints ranging from Indian food to continental food to
even Chinese food. Now it is even home to food items like Ice cream rolls and other desserts.
In the past few years even non-food shops like florists, clothing shops and various other
enterprises have set up their business there. One of the main reasons which has motivated
other business to set up shop there is the massive crowd.

Stakeholders associated:

1. General Public: Consumers and passers-by

Observations:

i) General: The locality and the consumers

The first and foremost observation was the extensive construction work being carried out.
The entire road was obstructed with all kinds of construction materials like cement, pipes,
gravel etcetera. There were multitudes of workers present, all busy in various activities. The
entire environment was chaotic, there was dust flying around all over the place, constant
construction noise and extreme crowding, even with the presence of lesser number of people
than usual, due to the lack of walking space. Many of the shops were closed during the period
of time we were present there. The Johnny Hot dog outlet situated at the beginning of
Chappan was shut due to extremely close proximity to the construction work. Usually there is
a massive crowd present at that portion of Chappan. Although, due to closure of that shop,
that part was relatively empty. The construction, overall had a significant impact on the
extent of the crowd present in Chappan. A trend noticed was that a majority of the crowd
belonged to the young demographic. Most of the people looked under the age of 30, with a
concentration of people who were college students hence must be between the ages of 18 to
25. There was also a significant number of school students that were present there, who had
probably come to Chappan directly from their tuitions or coaching classes since they had Bag
on their backs. Another trend observed was that older people seemed to prefer places that
provided seating arrangements as compared to the younger crowd which were present at
shops at which one had to stand and eat. The young crowd was interspersed throughout
Chappan, present at all kinds of shops.

Given the on-going construction and chaos caused by it, most people were in a hurry to get
their food fast so that they could eat and leave as soon as possible. Many of them were
agitated and annoyed. There was one person observed who picked a fight with the shop
keeper because he hadn’t received his food for a long time.

A significant trend seen was that most of the young people as well as some of the older
people eating at Chappan paid using mobile payment applications as well as Point of Sales
cards. Observing this, one college going student was interviewed by me on his views on
electronic methods of payment. He was a big fan of Paytm and Google pay. He said he
readily uses these methods of payment. According to him, he used Paytm almost twice every
day. He said the main reason for using it is that it makes payments convenient at the same
time, he does not have to carry his wallet at all times. Additionally, he mentioned that he
could never run out of money, and in an emergency situation, he always had access to money.

On observing the clothing, the vehicles owned and the spending behaviour of people, it could
be observed and concluded that people belonging to all kinds of socio-economic backgrounds
were present there. There was no kind of discrimination or differential behaviour observed. In
addition to this, there was positive discrimination towards women. Even in all the chaos, it
was made sure women didn’t get roughly handled and were taken care of very well.

Additionally, it was obsered was that a majority of the people if not all came to Chappan in
groups. There were almost next to none individual visitors at Chappan. Everyone comes with
their friends/family or tuition mates. It was almost like a norm to roam at Chappan in groups.

Before leaving, we had visited this shop called Ramesh Masala Dosa, which is an eatery that
sells authentic South-Indian food. It was observed that more than 90% of the people dining
there belonged to an ethnic South-Indian background. This was identified by listening to their
language of communication. It portrayed the cultural connection people have with their
native place is strong. Even after coming to Indore, people found food joints that served food
of their ethnicity.

ii) Shopkeepers and Shop owners

The shopkeepers in Chappan, in general are well mannered and polite. Although, on the day
of the field visit, most of the shop keepers were agitated and rude. We visited 4 shops, 2 out
of the 4 were rude in their dealings. We started with the Sam’s momos shop, the person at the
counter was very rude. It seemed like he was not interested in conducting business. We also
visited a sweet shop to interview the owner about details regarding the construction. The
owner was very cold in his interaction. He was not friendly, and wanted us to leave as soon as
possible. The third place we visited was a ‘Paani Puri’ stall, where the server was very
friendly. He also gave us his take on the construction work that was going on. The last stall
we visited was the South Indian restaurant called Ramesh Masala Dosa. The owner was
sitting at the counter, we was warm and friendly in his dealings. One dish ordered by us was
‘Medhu Vada’ which turned out to be cold. We reported the same to him. He was very
understanding can without any hesitation took it back and replaced it.

Most of the shop owners had a progressive mindset, and wanted to go digital. Most of them
were accepting e-payments like Paytm and Google Pay. In fact, most them were inclined
towards getting paid by electronic methods, and they asked the customers if they could use
those payment options.

A trend observed was that at almost all of the sweet shops, majority of the crowd belonged to
older age categories, over the age of 35. A very sparse number of young people were
observed at these shops, and even those who were present were there with the purpose of
having snacks like ‘Chaat’.

Additionally, all the shopkeepers were conscious about keeping their surroundings clean, and
hence took various steps to ensure the same like providing dustbins, ensuring no one is
littering on the street and trying to avoid paper plates.

iii) Cleanliness and Hygiene

In general, Chappan is a relatively clean street and is in alignment with Indore being India’s
cleanest city. There are dustbins located throughout the place to ensure waste is not thrown
on the street. Even the shopkeepers are vigilant about this and themselves kept dustbins
outside their shops to ensure that customers throw their waste in the dustbins and not on the
street. Additionally, many shops were not providing tissues or paper plates at all to reduce
waste creation.

One major observation and problem was hygiene of the kitchens and cooks. At Sam’s
momos, the kitchen is visible as it is located right behind the counter. It was observed that no
gloves were used by the chef, the chopping was done on the table where everything was kept
and there were flies constantly hovering around the raw materials. Even at other shops, the
hygiene of the food was not that great. When the Pani Puri stall owner was asked about the
source of water utilised, he stated that it was aqua guard water. Although, we saw one of his
assistants get a container of water which did not look clean. This made me doubt the quality
of water used by him.

II . Treasure Island Mall

The second destination we visited was Treasure Island Mall. Our visit to the mall was
comparatively brief since we had spent majority of our time visiting Chappan. Treasure
Island is one of the more famous malls of Indore. It houses most of the big brands like Allen
Solly, Raymonds, Hamleys, Big Bazaar etcetera. It also has some food joints in it like
McDonalds. Additionally, it also houses a cinema hall. The presence of retail shops, food
outlets and a cinema hall makes it a very popular place to visit and attracts large crowds on
the weekends.

Stakeholders associated:

1. General Public: Consumers

Observations:

The behaviour of majority of the people in the mall is sophisticated. All the individuals in the
mall behave in a socially acceptable manner. In general, the people present in the mall were
well dressed. On analysing the purpose of visit, it can be concluded that roughly a majority of
the people go to the mall to shop in the supermarket: Big Bazaar . A significant part visits the
mall to watch movies at the multiplex. Additionally, a significant number of people also visit
the McDonalds outlet in the mall. It was observed that even though it was the weekend, the
mall wasn’t as crowded as Chappan usually is. The shops are relatively empty. Another
observation made was that a great portion of the people in the mall converse in English rather
than Hindi. Even most of the sales persons in shops attempt to converse with customers in
English.

On observing behaviour of sales people in shops, it was observed that they their attitude
towards window shoppers is not very welcoming. They seem to get annoyed when people
extensively look at a product and then don’t purchase it. This behaviour makes some people
conscious and they avoid window shopping.

The mall is always kept clean. There are several employees that are responsible for the
cleanliness and hygiene in the mall. Since most of the food outlets happen to be food chains,
hygiene of the food did not seem to be an issue.

Finally, our field trip ended at around 7.30 at which point we ate in the mall. After that we
headed back towards the bus stop.

Reflections

The field trip, in my opinion was a great learning experience. As students, although we go
out to such places a lot, we often focus on eating and enjoyment. We very rarely actually
observe the social setting we are present in and even more rarely analyse it. Hence, it was a
wonderful experience and we learnt a lot.

My main objective was to observe peculiar phenomenon in the field that would give insights
into the functioning of such a social setting. Furthermore, I aimed at analysing the behaviour
patterns to formulate trends on the basis of observations made. To ensure that people did not
realise that we were taking notes which would make them conscious, we took mental notes,
and soon acted as if we were texting on the phone, at which point we typed our observations
down.

A candid environment like Chappan made a really good source for data collection. The
diversity of people and food joints present made it an even better source. The observations
made and inferences procured could not be confirmed as our time on the field was extremely
short. The observations noted were based on dominant trends that were cross-confirmed with
my batchmates present on the field trip along side me.
The understanding and inferences were made mainly by observing people and talking to a
few of them. The data collection can be extended by creating a full-fledged interview
schedule or survey and gathering more participants.

An interesting study can that could be produced from this field trip would be to conduct a
research on how people are reacting to changing trends of payment methods and how it
impacts the social environment and interaction dynamics of that place.
Appendix

The sweet shop observed, inference made on the age category of visitors.
Some famous shops like New Johnny hot dog staying closed.

Pipes and gravel lying in the middle of the road due to construction, as
mentioned in the notes.