Silk Dresses


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Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Chennai
July 30th 2010
Published: August 12th 2010
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This man can shop. He’s never more than two feet away from me and I feel he prefers to hover in a six inch radius around me. No one can have “personal space” here. This is a city of seven million people. It feels like I’m in a litter of puppies and each of us are crawling over each other trying to see over the edge of the box. Occasionally one puppy falls out but is immediately put back in the box with the others. That’s how it feels to me anyway.

So Kumar and I shop all day long and all day long he’s right by my side quick to open a door, hold my bags, model shawls, and find restrooms. It was really sweet to see him take such an interest in finding a dress for my daughter India. I wasn’t really intent on finding one but I could see how excited he was about the prospect so I went with it. He took me to a store called Chennai Silks and as I’m sure you’ve guessed, they sell beautiful silk dresses. He heads straight for the little girls’ department and immediately makes eye contact with a gorgeous blue and gold silk dress covered in embroidery (which was only $15 by the way). “I really like this one. You should get this one. What size is she? Seven? Ok, I find.” I’ve never seen a grown man hunt through racks of girls dresses with such interest. “I like this one but not as much as this one. I like this color. This pattern is good. This one I don’t like so much,” and so it went. I chose two dresses and he carries them flung over his shoulder onto the next department. That was the gist of the day. I think I’ve done my part to stimulate the economy here. We bought soapstone carvings, tablecloths, napkins, silver, scarves, shawls and silks. He pointed out the different smells of sandalwood and rosewood in the furniture shop, explained to me the gods he worships and taught me how to tear a tortilla in half with one hand.

For lunch we went to another local hotel that had a vegetarian-only menu. Once again, I said I would eat anything as long as it wasn’t spicy. I’ve learned I can’t say “not too spicy” because everything here is spicy to begin with. So I just say “not spicy” and it usually comes just spicy enough to swallow. I am in love with the food. That is something I wasn’t expecting. I’ve just heard horror stories of people getting sick in India from problems with the food so I’d anticipated eating as little as possible. The truth of the matter is this is the best food I’ve ever had. First I thought the French had it figured out, then I crossed over to the Irish, but now I know the Indians know how to eat! The spices and flavors and smells and textures are enough to keep me sitting for an hour with my lunch. My mouth is watering just sitting here at my computer thinking about my $2 lunch today! I can also see the practicality of eating with my hands (just my right hand). You can really mix the flavors together and scoop up the perfect blend of deliciousness every time! And its much faster than messing with a fork. Usually you end up using one hand to push the food onto the fork and then half the rice falls off before it even reaches your mouth. I say we should skip the middle man and just dig in.

Alright, unfortunately I took a two day break between that last sentence and this very moment and I’ve forgotten my train of thought…. That wasn’t the end of the day though. I’ll get to that in a moment.



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