Tekka Market is the Indian culture pulse and the icon marking the start of Little India in Singapore. It’s also where Amma used to go every day when she visited me when I lived there. Every single day. I’d ask her her plan for the day; She would deflect here and there, but eventually, Tekka Market would be mentioned.
Tekka Market has two floors. The first floor is divided into the wet market and Hawker Center (Singaporean-style food court). Indian food dominates the market’s hawker centre, with Abdullah biryani being one of the legends among the many Indian stalls. This is the biryani that my uncle always brought back for us when he visited the market.
Tekka Market is also the home and the direct neighbour of the Indian groceries stores in Little India, where the most colourful vegetables are sold side by side with Indian beauty products (including whitening cream, yes, I have used them myself, no it didn’t work), fake jewellery, Bindhi, snacks, incense scones, masala and latest movies.
The second floor of the market is an open-air market with more than 60 stalls selling Indian clothes. You can get almost any type of Indian clothing here from wedding saree to sleeping nighty. And you can also get Indian clothes stitched here for a reasonable price and within a reasonable time. The only minor issue is that most stalls lack customer service unless you have an established connection with them.
Adjoining the market are the train station; also gold jewellery shops, a bird fortune-telling stall and multi-stories HDB. If I ever buy an HDB flat in Singapore, I’d buy it here so that my Amma can do her daily Tekka Market visit to her heart’s content. Actually, I used to live in the HDB flat right behind Tekka Market years ago for the same reason, but I eventually moved closer to my then-office.
Sometimes I wish I had appreciated Tekka Market as much as Amma did. I wish I had visited it and eat in there more often. But, alas, let this post be a way of showing my appreciation for it.
Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.
