The whole leaving an hour earlier really worked in our favor since we wanted to go back to the Paltan Bazaar to go to a fabric store Aunty's daughter highly recommended, and be back in time for our trusty A. Rick driver to pick us up at 3:30. We would normally have been done at the clinic at 1:30, but now we were already at home and eating lunch at that time. By the time we left we would have only just over an hour to go, shop, and come back in a comfortable amount of time to meet our time goal. Somehow we pulled it off. We walked down the alleyway to the street corner and after a few minutes were picked up by vikram 8. We traveled a ways and were dropped off at the Clocktower. We wandered into the bazaar, luckily not as swarming as on Saturday but still crowded, we looked for the shop, Mahawar, down the sea of signs. Somehow I spotted it and we ventured inside. Again only men worked here, but this time 3 or 4 came to greet us. The service was amazing and, lucky me, the prices were set. If I had to guess, I would say that this place had about 15,000 bags of fabric. Each bag contains a patterned fabric for the shirt and them a complimenting one for the pants (salwar kameez/suit), and a matching scarf (dupata), all neatly folded into a clear plastic bag of about the size and shape of a men's dress shirt box. Floor to ceiling rows and rows on every wall on at least two floors. The show rooms were neat. You have to take your shoes off before you enter, the floor is padded with a white sheet on top that they tell you to sit on, and then they bring out stacks of these bags at a time according to your color, fabric, and style specifications. Once they bring out these stacks, if you opt not to touch them, the salesman will slip it out of the bag, in one cool motion, and then spread the material wide and smooth on the sheet with another single motion. The guy repeated this process adding layer after layer of fabric until we saw things we liked. I started with the one type of suit that Mun said I absolutely needed, and which also proved to be the hardest to find in D. Dun. But Aunty's daughter said Mahawar had it, and oh - they had it. I had so much to choose from I felt slightly overwhelmed by the decision. But eventually I found one I really liked. Sonce I bought two fancy ones yesterday from another shop, they next ones I bought today were more for everyday use. I helped India's economy a lot today. At Mahawar I spent 3700 rps. on fabric for 4 suits and at Seema's, the other shop own and run by Dr. Prem Nath's wife, I spent a total of 4,365 rps. for the fabrics of 2 suits, the stitching of 6 suits and one sari blouse. And the ari, itself, which I think I way overpayed for now even though it was a fixed price, 3,100 rps. This for a grand total of: 11, 165 rps or $253.75 for 7 costom made outfits, two of which are made of silk , and the others were all had embroydered. Yup. Money well spent. Next week I have to buy accessories for all of this and still get gifts for everyone!
...
When we came back from our last clinic, Dr. Nisha Gera, we found that all the lights were off in the house. We came inside to find Aunty sitting on one of the couches next to a battery powered blue lamp, waiting for us. She told us there was a power outage, so most of the house was lit by candles. I went up to the roof while Aunty was setting up our dinner. I decided to make a few phone calls, of which nobody picked up, and that's when I saw the moon. It was a full moon. At this point Aunty called me down to dinner, and Mary and I had dinner by candle light. So romantic. After, we came back up to the roof and just basked in the powerful moonlight. I don't know why, but when ever I see a full moon, the song Dancing in the Moonlight gets into my head. The annoying part is those are only words I know, so I just repeat that over and over again. People called me back and Mary and I just laid on the roof looking up at the clouds. We saw lots of bats flying around. These ones are huge. They are about the size of crows, but they were definitely bats. After about two hours on the roof the power came back on. Even with the fan on it is cooler outside. But here we are. Good night!
No comments:
Post a Comment