If you visit Parika stelling on any Friday afternoon and if you are able to spend the entire weekend there, it is not just the range of commercial activity that will hold your attention but the manner in which a host of influences converge and the people that come from the far-flung communities to gather there, their livelihoods dependent on participating in the activities.
What is now sometimes called Parika Market is a fenced off, concreted area at Hydronie, a few hundred yards from the Parika Stelling. It is the successor to the controversial trading arrangement that had obtained at the Parika Stelling itself. Outside the fenced area there is a sign marked Hydronie Market and inside the fence there are probably about two hundred stalls.
Hydronie is a typical market as far as the hustle and bustle is concerned. To find its essence, however, you have to rise above the ruckus of the trading. That will afford you insightful access to a vigorous socio-cultural undercurrent comprising the myriad influences that converge and the hectic hustle by various people from different, far-flung communities to seize the economic opportunity that it offers.
