Shopping Day

We had a long list of errands to run that we have been putting off forever, so we decided to rent a car and driver for eight hours—a $25 event, but the only way to get to a number of places around the city all in one day. We started out doing something a bit fun—that we needed a car for--at the gardens at the residence of India’s President Patel—a woman, just for the record. They are only opened for about a month once a year, as the security must be very tight. You cannot take anything in, no camera, no bag, not even a memory stick in your pocket—as Norbert learned. It’s too bad about the camera as these gardens are exquisitely maintained…flower gardens, herb gardens (each marked with the herb name in English and the illness it will remedy), and fountains—some even timed to music. The place was teaming with visitors—although there were few foreigners. We walked behind a dressed up family with three little ones who ran onto the grass to pick up the huge red flowers off a tree I’ve begun to notice on campus. It has no leaves but millions of these enormous thick leaved red flowers. The mother noticed us smiling, as the kids were not supposed to be running on the grass, and she walked back to us and handed us a flower. A kind gesture, but it also reminds me how much we stick out here.

Whereas these guys totally belong.


From there we went up to Panchkuian Road, where we’d been told we could find a lamp. I am missing not having decent lighting beside my bed to read at night. This is a huge furniture market--here are a few pics of the furniture being built-- and we found a few shops that sold lamps. But the selection was small and we ended up getting a new invention—the shop keeper told us. He put a flexible light (with a light bulb in it—I am getting pretty tired of the fluorescent lights we’ve got in our place) on a tall pole, so that the light would reach over the bed. It looks sort of silly, but we thought it would work.




Then we headed to Sarojini Nagar, where we’d heard one could buy a good salwar kameez. I figure I should at least try wearing what all women here wear. It’s supposed to be very cool and comfortable. But shopping for these turned out to be a serious challenge to my way of shopping. One cannot just browse, since you are immediately accosted by a salesperson as you walk past the tiny entrance to each shop. You tell them what you are looking for—in my case very light cotton (many are made of polyester or very heavy cotton) and plain colors and in seconds you are escorted to a bench that sits parallel to a raised platform where many salwar kameez are pulled out of packages and strewn in front of you. I am a very picky shopper and almost never like the first 100 things I see. So I walked out of many shops having put a lot of people to work and not bought anything. Another problem is that I am apparently a giant here—as the few things that I saw that I liked were way too small. I was ready to give up, but N urged me on. I did end up finding something, but one does not get to try them on. It was only $8, so I decided to take a risk. Also, the sleeves are optional—so since I wanted them, I was escorted into the parking lot after purchasing… to a guy sitting at a sewing machine. For 25 cents he sewed on my sleeves. Then the salesperson waved me in another direction where I could buy the string to hold the pants up. This cost another $1.20, which I think was probably evidence of the “white tax” that we often notice we are being charged. So here's me in my first salwar kameez--with the sleeves sewed on by this busy guy.




From there we headed to Nehru Place, where all manner of computer hardware and software are sold. It’s quite an adventure too, since there are a massive tangle of little stalls in a two story strip mall all selling laptops, or webcams or memory sticks or some combination of computer things. But we made our way upstairs, where we were told we could find a hard drive. (We’ve taken so many pictures that we have a bit of a back-up dilemma). Eventually we found a shop where the salesperson spoke enough English to inspire confidence, and his price seemed competitive with the others we’d seen. For $80 we go at 80GB harddrive.

This day was quite exhausting, as shopping here requires a lot of calm. Horns are honking, people are often packed into tight spaces, vendors are shouting, and occasionally you are accosted by someone selling handkerchiefs or strings of beads. Our driver did not know his way around the city and stopped at least 15 times throughout the day to ask directions. We were stuck in traffic several times too. So we were pretty worn out—with about 40 minutes left of our 8 hour deal. So we were thrilled to see a sign for MacDonalds, where we knew we could get some familiar food—we are still a bit leary of street food, as our stomachs are still touchy. MacDonalds has adapted to the Indian ways and there is no chance of getting a beef burger. I’m still trying to accept this. But this branch did have a south Indian favorite of mine—cold coffee, which is just a sweet, milky coffee—somehow better then an iced latte. We sat in the luxury of air-conditioning and happily wolfed down a bunch of food that I would not be nearly so thrilled with in the US.

When we got home we realized that there was no switch to turn the new lamp on,and there’s no plug at all near the bed. So the whole thing is likely not going to work. Ugh. How can you sell a lamp without a switch on it! How can we be so dumb not to notice!

Luckily, I was distracted by an invitation from Indeever to show me the liquour store near JNU. I have not had any red wine for what seems like an eternity, and apparently buying liquour is quite frowned upon here. Indeever picked me up and we drove about 10 minutes to another market I didn’t know about near us—C Block. When we got near the sign for the store, another store owner directed us to walk around the back. Apparently, they keep the place a bit hidden. It’s a small warehouse with about 10 varieties of liquour and another 10 of wine and a couple brands of Indian beer. I got what he thought was the best of the Indian (Sula) for $11—the only non-Indian was an Italian for $25. Where’s 2 Buck Chuck when you need it!! Turns out the Cabernet Sauvignon I bought is drinkable.