Shopping and contracted autos

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Eventually there will be a day when nothing really out of the ordinary happens and I'll have to resort to summarizing little things that I've noticed here and there but haven't really been able to fit into any other post.

Today is not that day.

The first half of the day was pretty normal. Exact same breakfast buffet as described earlier (except I tried watermelon juice). Lectures weren't excessively noteworthy except for the fact that our second lecturer ran 40 minutes over because he had gotten the wrong stopping time. I got to unicycle during lunch, yay! My hand pump to inflate Tweaker broke while I was trying to inflate the tire--not surprising since I paid only $2 for it plus shipping--but Keshav's friend had an air compressor in his car so I was soon tooling around near the courtyard. I think I'll be able to work on some flatland there, which is good since I can't do any flatland tricks (yet).

What made the day awesome, however, was that our last lecture of the day was cancelled. Not only did this mean that we were freed of a 90-minute lecture, but that Fae, Sam, Naveet, Sumedha and myself were able to go shopping for saris. So off we headed to Commercial Street, via auto of course, to see what fun stuff we could buy.

We wandered into a jewlelry shop first, allured by the sparkles and shinies. I tried on a cool pair of turquoise earrings that loop over the shell over your ear and dangle down the back, and Fae tried on a jewled headpiece. I was surprised that we could just take the earrings off the wall of the shop and try them on and put them back, since that would be considered unsanitary in the states and the stores wouldn't allow that. We then remembered that we needed the saris before we could accessorize, so we wandered down the street until we found a shop that looked promising.

The shop was full of women, so you know that it is a popular place to buy clothes. There were bright red signs everywhere "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" and "50% Off," but also ones that blared "Beware of pickpocketers." I kept my purse on my hip, where I could see it, and laid a hand on top to be doubly-sure. I was carrying enough to money to buy a sari (about 5000 Rs) and the last thing I wanted was to lose that. Especially since I had borrowed 2000 of them from Sam since I didn't have enough cash on me.

We looked at saris there, but nothing really caught Fae's or Sam's attention and I had no clue what I was doing, since my head was in the clouds. Both literally and metaphorically. I am taller than all the women in India, at least all that I've seen, and a large majority of the men. But I guess that's true in America too. But I digress. Saris are long rectangles of cloth that you wrap around you in such a way that you feel like a princess or a goddess come down to grace the poor earthlings with your presence. They were folded and stacked on shelves behind a large counter. You walk up to the counter and skim, looking for one you like, then point and ask an employee to lay it out on the counter. You can then examine it and see if you like the pattern. In that first shop we went to they catered more to the everyday people, so you didn't get to try on the sari. We wandered to the back of the shop to look at kurtis, which are Indian tunics that can be worn over leggings or jeans. I found two that I liked for 324 Rs each (under $6) and bought those. I wanted to buy a pair of leggings there to go with, but they didn't have a good color.

Once we finally got out of that shop (we all kept looking at kurtis) we wandered down the street again until we saw another sari shop. This one obviously was not just for everyday saris as it was completely empty when we came up. In this place the saris were hung on hangars instead of folded on shelves. One sari immediately caught my eye, a turquoise with silver dots and maroon trim. The shop owner told us we could only try on a sari if we were likely to buy it, so after dithering for a bit I asked him to try it on. First he wrapped a loop around my waist and then pinned it to itself to keep it up. Then a large length of it is accordian-folded to make extra fabric in front that swishes and flicks while you walk and makes you feel glorious. Finally, the length that is left is brought up over the left shoulder to round off the goddess look. I can't wait to wear mine for reals.

The sari itself set me back 1690 Rs (~$30) but I still needed to buy an underskirt (called a petticoat) and a blouse. It turns out that the sari fabric came with extra fabric that they use to make a blouse, assuming you find a tailor. At the time I figured it'd be easier to just buy a blouse ready-made, so once I'd purchased my lovely new sari we continued down the road to find Sam and Fae something, since they hadn't found anything yet. Fae was looking for something very similar to a sari she'd tried on the day before the program started, but with a smaller pricetag, and Sam just hadn't seen anything she liked.

The next shop we wandered into because they sold petticoats, which I needed for my sari. Since the sari is sheer the petticoat is supposed to match exactly, but they didn't have a shade that matched so I just went for a sort of forest green that would work under the fabric (cost: 195 Rs = $3.50). They sold leggings, too, and I found a pair that would work with my kurtis but when they named a price of 350 Rs I laughed and walked out. I know nothing about shopping, especialy in India, and even I knew that was ridiculous!

Our next shop ended up being out last sari shop. Called WoW!, which stood for World of Women, it sat on a neon-lit street packed with nicer shops. The saris were folded and on shelves, like the first shop, except that they were stored in plastic packets to keep them neat. The overall feeling of the shop was more high-end than that of the second, and way more high-end than that of the first. After viewing several saris, Sam decided to try on a golden yellow one that ended up looking GORGEOUS on her. Fae was still comparing everything to the one she had tried on a couple days ago, but she pulled out a red one and a magenta one to try. I was interested to see that in this shop the lady helping Fae with her saris offered her opinion on the choice of fabric color, and I was happy that my opinions coincided with hers in terms of color choice. Fae ended up buying the red one, but both looked wonderful, and hers and Sam's saris ended up both costing around 3000 Rs each (~$53). The shop had a tailor who worked nearby come over to arranged making the blouses out of the extra sari fabric, so I ended up just adding my sari to their order, which is how I'm getting a tailored blouse.

After Naveet and Sumedha haggled with the tailor to get us a better deal, the tailor led us to his shop about two blocks away that was tucked into a sketchy back alley that made us a bit nervous when he first led us down. The shop was about 10" deep and 6" wide, with four men crammed in over sewing machines. The tailor and another man talked to us over the counter in the front, took our measurements, and asked whether we wanted hooks in the front or zippers under the arm. Sam and Fae chose the zippers, but I thought that might get scratchy if your arm rubs it so I went for the hooks instead. They also offered to hem my sari properly for 75 Rs so I threw that into the bargain. Then we realized we wanted to wear these to the banquet tomorrow night so Naveet and Sumedha had to heckle to get him to finish them on time. When he finally acceeded I was surprised--wouldn't it cost extra to get a rush job? Sure enough, when the bill came he had added extra charges and the two Indian girls had to heckle (again) to get him to drop the price a bit.

With that business completed we decided to find some grub. We quickly stopped in a last shop to buy leggings for me, and Sam tried on some wickedly ridiculous harem pants that looked like they were made for the circus. When we found an auto he told us he'd take us anywhere close for free, as long as we'd go to a shop afterwards for only 5 minutes. Apparently the shop had a deal with the auto driver that if he got people to go to the shop for 5 minutes they'd give him a coupon for 100 Rs and a t-shirt. Well, who's to turn down a free ride to dinner? Especially when he'll wait while we eat then drive us back to the hotel after we visit the shop.

So we went to a super-tasty, super-cheap restaurant in the Kamat Hotel (I think. I didn't write the name down, which is a pity.). We ordered three curry dishes--paneer tikka masal, abu gobi, and malai kopta--for around 100 Rs each ($2), a plain rice dish for 20 Rs ($0.40), and roti (which is basically pita) for less than 100 Rs ($2). I ate first with a spoon, then with roti, and finally fingers. As it turns out, you're allowed to mix your curry and rice together with your fingers and scoop it into your mouth with your hands. When I saw Sumedha eating like that I immediately wanted to try. It's like finger painting, but with food! We also had sauf at the end of the meal, which is a collection of seeds that you and eat as a breath freshener. Tasted a bit like licorice.

Before we could head back we had to head to the auto driver's contract shop. Turns out it sold a variety of Indian goods, like scarves, sandalwood, incense, jewellry, knickknacks and trinkets. I didn't buy anything, since I was shopped out and also hadn't figured out what souveniers I wanted to get for what people, but Fae bought a cool scarf and Naveet and Sumedha bought gems for themselves and their fiancees. Something really funny happened in the shop: I kept looking at a variety of trinkets as possible souveniers for people but with no intention to buy. One of the workers was shadowing me and anytime I expressed interest in something he'd rattle off words about how good it was, etc. And then I'd ask for the price, he'd tell me, and I'd say "thanks" and walk away. When we were in the jewellry room he showed me a box of bracelets and said 300-400 Rs. Of course I wasn't interested, but what was funny happened later. As we were just trying to leave the jewellry seller roped Fae into trying on a bracelet from the same box. His price to her for the bracelet? 600 Rs! So I guess it's worthwhile to not be interested in anything for a bit, then take them by surprise. :D

We had a scare on our auto ride home. Just after we had left the curio shop I thought our auto driver was acting strangely, driving slowly and waiting for the other auto with Sumedha, Fae, and Sam to catch up, then following slowly. A bit later both autos turn down a side street, then down a steep ramp into the parking garage of some building, where they parked and turned off their motors. I was a bit nervous because Naveet was a bit nervous and she was asking the driver to "just take us to our hotel." I ducked my head to see out the auto better and saw two men nearby standing next to an elevator. So that made four men, vs. us five girls. I was figuring if I should get ready to bolt when one of the men went to the first auto, handed a business card, then came to our auto and gave me a business card. Turns out these guys just worked for a silk seller and their method of getting business was for shopping foreigners (and perhaps Indians as well) to make an unscheduled stop. After we vehemently expressed a lack of interest, our auto drivers took us back to our hotel like good little boys.

We tried on our clothes in Naveet and Sumedha's room; turns out one of the kurtis I bought was too small and one of Fae's was too big, so we switched. My other was also too small, but we're taking it to the tailor tomorrow when we get our saris back and I'm getting strips put in the side to make it a bit wider. I'm also going to have him make the armholes in the other kurti bigger. My biceps are just too buff, you know? All that iron I pump all the time. ;D

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