: Feriwala were an intrinsic part of Bengali women's life. It was their window to the world. In Bengali society, even fifty years ago, it was a way of life when the Bengali women used to stay at home and these feriwalas used to arrive in neighborhoods with all sorts of goods. Their way of initiating business was through typical singing or calling style.Their range of goods varied from many day to day goods to fine muslin. These feriwalas were necessarily not Bongs but even from distant Afghanistan. Rabindranath Tagore's famous short story 'Kabuliwala' was based on Afghani feriwalas.

@Amita Roy - Thanks for sharing the interesting info! There's a Kannada poem 'Balegaara Chennaiah' describing them as women's confidantes and messengers of sorts, ferrying messages to and from a woman and her loved ones! And who can ever forget the magic of Sarojini Naidu's 'Bangle sellers'?

Uma Bharath: Thanks!...you read my mind. : )

isn't this a moochi painting from tanjore?

***chimko movement***