After over a decade of hard work, hard water and loads of dishes done sometimes even twice a day, the Electrolux dishwasher recently died on us.

The missus and I debated some, and in line with the lower foot print (both from an energy as well as a financial point of view), decided to switch to hand-washed dishwashing. The need for a tap and sink in the utility area quickly made itself on to the to-do list on the fridge.

Do you even know how much a steel kitchen sink costs!? Could set you back 3500/- quite easily. Plus, did we really need a shining new one for this most mundane of tasks? I remembered a gentleman called G.V.Dasarathi who’s been living a green life mentioning options to buy used! He’s built a whole house around the idea!
So we called up Ahmed (at 9886733132) who assured us he’d be able to satisfy our requirements 100% the following Sunday (its a once-a-week bazaar), and that we should turn up early in the day for the best choice.

We got to BVK Iyengar Road at 7am on a Sunday morning!

We did manage to get to the wrong end of it – the used market is at the Mysore Flyover end. But that early in the morning, the place was not at all a pain to walk around.

A large collection of used kitchen sinks greeted us. Sinks of various thickness, some pristine, some with a few dents, and of all sizes, with drain boards and without, they were all there – awaiting their turn at getting reused, and finding their place in a new home.

We struck a deal at a mere 700/- for a nice big, deep one that looked to be in ok shape. The prices ranged from 350/- to a 1000/- and came with the assurance of the guy promising to take it back if we had any trouble with it.

As we walked back to where we had parked, we took a good look at the market that had sprung to life by then. Used washing machines (at a flat rate of 5.5k, with a 8 day cash back promise in case of issues), refrigerators, gas burners, electronics bits and pieces, tools, implements, drills – everything is up for grabs at a fraction of what you might pay for a new one. Of course, for some categories there may be questions of durability and reliability, but for many others, this form of reuse is a really great option both for your wallet, as well as the environment.

Take a bus to City Market and walk into this area one Sunday, and you’ll experience a side of the Bangalore economy you might have not imagined at all.⊕