Sarojini Nagar Market

This guide to Sarojini Nagar Market in Delhi follows a shirt from a factory filling an order for an international brand, deliberately overproduced beyond what the buyer will accept, through intermediaries and a pre-dawn van to the wardrobe-sized stalls here. It traces Ram Mohan Gupta, running his stall since 1992, and the market's path from a 1950s neighbourhood shopping street to a hub for export surplus after India's early-1990s economic liberalisation. Listen for how a vendor learns, at a glance, which racks are worth grabbing before breakfast.