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Published: April 12th 2008
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mailing the silk
the pillowcase of silk after sandeep of "baba's silk shop" finished putting it in there, before he sewed it shut and sealed it with wax to mail it to hedya in philly. june 27
random thoughts by mbaade:
the best lassis in all of india truly are fantastic. thick and cold, the curd having been laid on ice, topped off with rose water, and the whole lovely dairy product cupped in a clay pot that can be smashed against the wall when finished.
we came to go to the bank, which is quite in the opposite direction from our latest silk shop. it's pouring now. like whitewater and thunder. so we ducked into an interweb place, but it's ghetto and the computers are wicked slow. still, it's only 15 RS per hour, which is half the price of everywhere else.
i think i might have a cavity. i have a toothache. that is not a good thing to have while traipsing about india.
cows are holy, apparently, because when you stop breastfeeding then you give the milk of the cow; thus, the cow is like your mother and you should not kill your mother, let alone eat her.
i want steak.
*********
june 29
varanasi by the numbers
6 -- number of silk bed sets purchased
3 -- number of silk shops
trying on silk
arielle tries on silk at a silk shop in varanasi from which we purchased said bed sets
2 -- number of sets mbaade purchased
4 -- number of sets aabeyta purchased
20,090 -- number of rupees spent all together on 6 sets
2 -- number of self designed, tailor made dresses aabeyta has purchased
2 -- number of self designed, tailor made purses aabeyta has purchased
1 -- number of the the same for mbaade
806 -- number of pages of tolstoy's "anna kerenina" which i am making my way through
4 -- number of books aabeyta has read in the amount of time it's taking me to read my book (harry potter 1, 2, 3, and bridget jones diary)
12 -- number of nights spent in varanasi thus far
483 -- approximate number of times asked "boat madame?" while walking down the ghats
120 -- approximate number of times the electricity has gone off in the past 12 days (average of 10 times a day -- seriously)
8 -- number of times listened to michael jackson's folder of music in this interweb cafe where there are only 2 computers and where they indulge us and let us wall out with the speakers blaring
we visit ajit, the local
millionare who owns the hotel where we use the interweb and ganeshwar silks where i bought my parent's bed set and where arielle's tailor lives and works who has made her two dresses and two purses and me one purse -- we visit them about every day. we think ajit is gay, by the way. will have to take photos of the crew and post them.
speaking of which, it's about time to go see him about our purses.
**********
june 30
today we went around the corner to see sandeep at baba silk factory where arielle purchased 3 bedsets. he said he would help us package all of our silk, even those not bought at his shop, so we could mail them home.
we showed up with our six bundles. he inspected with a shrewd eye those not made by him and then proceeded to re-wrap all of them in individual plastic bags. then an old man took all of them and wrapped them in newspaper and tied them over and over with ribbon. each entire set was about the size of two large textbooks - two very solid textbooks.
after all
hahaha!
so we were walking down the street after arielle had bought her green sari... and we found this woman who lived near the hotel and arielle showed her the sari and was like, ummm??? the woman promptly grabbed her and started dressing her! indian women are the bomb. of them had been wrapped in the plastic and newspaper, then sandeep went and got a gunny sack of sorts and packed, and i mean PACKED all of them in there into a massive solid block of fabric. he then deftly wrapped that sack in silk thread (the same color as my purse from ajit's!). it was amazing to see how much material could be condensed so compactly - if any of us could pack like that, we'd need about 4 boxes each for all of our crap at bryn mawr.
then they came in and measured some think cloth and one of the guys went and made a pillow case of sorts for the gunny sack that has now been wrapped in silk thread. the pillow case was sewn and the sack was placed inside, and then they sewd the pillow case shut. by hand. and then they sealed all of the stiches with wax that they melted with a candle. this entire process took like 45 minutes to an hour.
in the end we had one massive package worth 20,090 RS ready to be mailed. we took a rickshaw to the post office where we met with the guy that sandeep told us to find, dilip, and he helped us address it correctly and have it weighed and mailed and told us how to get around paying a customs fine. weighed 14.2 KG and cost us 5,635 RS to send by air mail, which they assured was was safest.
so hedya, watch out for the heavy pillowcase from india.
-molly
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