Next to last day

[bethlakshmi]

This is the end of my second to last day here.  It remains fun, but I'm still ready for home. 

I keep preparing myself for a nice, quiet, stay at home, boring sort of day.  Never!

Amma was sick today, my bet is that it's a cold - tired, achy, runny nose, slight cough...  For her, the weather is very chilly.  I'm still failing to see why I want a wool wrap.  We look funny on the street at night.  She's in a sweater, a headscarf and a sari.  I'm in the lightest cotton imaginable.

We stayed home most of the day, which was perfect.  I practiced, did Kannada homework, dickered on the computer, and packed.  Packing was incredibly bittersweet.  In packing, I packed all the things I've used, all the things I've bought, and the little useful things that you just acquire.  It reminds me of all the things, good and bad, that I've experienced here.  I'm incredibly short on packing space, and I'll be shipping another box home, probably for about the same price...  I don't regret that, the things I've bought here are terrific, although I'm feeling a bit sheepish today - looking at all the things I bought that I can't imagine doing without. 

Then, when Amma had some energy, we went shopping.  At an art faire - the Gandhi Shilpa Bazaar.  I'm a sucker for anything like this - and it was remarkably like a craft fair in the US.  Artists from all over India came to vend their wares, and it was everything from leather, to fabric, to jewelry, to brass goods, to paper paintings, to even a guy selling magic eye with Hindu gods.  Dear god, like I should be shopping with this big box staring at me!!!  Knowing how bad shipping will be restrained me somewhat - I managed to stick to small things and light things.  But weirdly, the things I had given up on in my shopping list fell into my lap - a set of shoes.  Nice, camel leather shoes that are plausible for SCA use, pretty enough for regular summer time use, and more comfortable than anything like that back home.  Also, I found a jewelry hair braid decoration that I was lusting over in Chennai, but too overwhelmed to inquire about.  Yes yes, there will be a fashion show. 

We then took a quick bus down the block, crammed in like sardines since it was rush hour, and got the elusive COFFEE.  I now have everything I need (besides milk and sugar that I can get in the US), to make the most perfect coffee ever for at least two months.  It's a risk, I'm not sure if customs will allow it, but it's worth a try - it's a $3 gamble.  Yeah, 2 months of the Most Perfect Coffee Ever costs me less than 1 grande Carmel Macchiato at Starbucks.  :P


Amma and the lunatic you know and love

When Preeti returned from work, we went out for Chinese/Indian - a party for all of us.  We had drinks, fabulous food, and good service.  We had the best chicken I've had in India, and then egg fried rice, and prawns and Thai Chicken with yellow curry, and roti, and vegetarin things for the vegetarians.  I liked it all, but it was way too much food, and my stomach has definitely shrunk... I was full after appetizers and half a plate of food. 

We finished up with paan and I think I got a good picture:


Paan is good but at first encounter it's like chewing Scope - first you think "mmm... minty/spicy/sweet!"  Then you think "woah that's pretty ... um... powerful" and then you think "how on earth did they figure out how to make Scope nuggets, and has it been 60 seconds yet???".  It's intense.  But fresh!  I rather like it, but it takes some getting used to.

If you think it's a leaf, you're right.  The whole thing is wrapped up in a betal leaf.  Inside are spices, seeds, and sweet stuff.  The shiny part is silver foil.  Probably actual silver.  In the restaraunt there's a paan making guy who asks if you want paan, makes it and delivers it.  He had an air of subservience that you didn't see in the other waiters.  I think this is a status thing.  He looked pretty happy when I took pictures of his work, so I'm glad for that!

This time, I got the hang of eating the paan fully, in a timely fashion, so I wasn't left with a bunch dry seeds in my mouth.  Once you get the hang of this, it's quite good. 

We came home, I showed some Babydoll video, and Preeti and I talked for a while about offices and life and stuff.

Comments

packing

[mlpolson.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the "when the hell did I buy all this stuff, and how am I going to get it home moment"

As a tip, if you carefully make sure that only one of your bags is overweight and then freely volunteer this to the person checking in bags, the are so startled by somebody not arguing with them about having to pay that they often don't charge you for the overweight bags. I have had about 70 percent success rate with this.

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who has just arrived in Mumbai and is willing to do a little shopping for me. What would you recommend to help him find some not-very-expensive jewelry for me? I like the style some of the stuff you picked up and that I could see in the photos. And do you think it's possible for the tailors to make salwar kameez from just measurements, or would it really need a fitting?

Thanks!

[lakshmi-amman.livejournal.com]

All the jewelry with the red stones in it is Bharata Natyam costume peices. The set I got was not cheap - it was a high quality, good material set. They may cheap versions, though, and the if you ask for Bharata Natyam jewelry, that's probably what they will point you to first... we had to do a lot of extra poking around to get the quality stuff.

I'd have to look at my receipts, but I think the grey and black set was in the $40 range, and the white stone set was in the $30 range.

I got to the grey set by pointing to very shiny rhinestone sets on display and saying "what else do you have like that?" The sets on display were more like $80. They actually just showed me cheaper, on their own. The cheaper sets were not as huge and not quite as industructable looking as the expensive, but good enough quality.

The white set took some chasing. After seeing everything with a faceted rhinestone in the store, they whooped that sort of set out. It turns out the definition is "antique set" - meaning it's made in an older style. In the end, I think that was my best find - it was good quality and not expensive, and made with copper and brass.

Materials a big part of the cost. You won't get gold or silver for cheap. In fact gold prices in India are quite high right now, and silver prices are on their way up.

For much less money, there's a 5-metal blend that is generally held to be decent quality and it's more in the costume jewelry price range. It's called Panchadhatu, and the metals are Gold, Iron, Zinc, Silver and Copper according to one website, although I could have sworn they were telling me brass was one of the metals, too. But then I'm shopping with someone who thinks in Kannada, and metal vocabulary translation is not something she does every day!

Also you can get jewelry in copper or brass, or copper/brass blend for not a lot of money and you know you're getting a decent metal.

The goal is to get a metal that won't turn your neck green when you wear it! Panchadhatu is supposed to be good quality, and should not irritate skin.

After that, it's mostly having a decent eye for jewelry construction. If it's faceted, how good are the facets? If the stones are set in the metal, how secure do they look. Do the chains look well put together. The workmanship won't impact the cost as much as the materials, so get fussy with contruction. There's a million shops in India, so if the first doesn't have it, try another.

With jewelry shopping, much like sari shopping, you'll be committed to going in, sitting down and having a long talk with the shop keepers. About 75% of the stock is not visible from the counter, they will end up packaging and unpackaging things - a lot of the rules of sari selling apply.

[lakshmi-amman.livejournal.com]

Oh, and one more thing - it's pretty typical to sell things as sets - an earring necklace set is a pretty common combination. Sometimes in more traditional styles, you get a tikka too (the forehead thingy). If you end up with a tikka, I'll show you the secret trick to frustration free tikka wearing when you get it.

They won't usually sell bangles as part of the set. Jewelry stores have very nice bangles, but you can also get some pretty cool, reasonable, everyday bangles from people on the street. The jewelry store will have bangles that have nice workmanship - set in stones, fancy patterns, better quality. The street sellers will have simpler bangles of metal, glass or plastic with patterns and possibly glitter on them. Caution - glitter bangles will get all over everything.

To get bangles, your friend will need your hand size. The trick is to figure out what is the smallest diameter circle you can fit your hand through. I'd say, measure a bangle you have, or make cardboard circles and test them until you find it. Send your friend the diameter (metric will be easier - India runs on metric) and he can take a ruler to measure the internal bangle diameter.

All the jewelry places we went were bargainers. Amma, goddess of shopping, got things down about 20%, maybe even more, and then got the guys to give us two jewelry bags. Being not from India, I'd say, give your friend a price range. Have him or her shop for things that are 10-20% higher. Be willing to walk out if they won't come down. If you shop in two stores and they won't come down, then you know you are asking too much, and look for slightly less expensive stuff. Bargaining has come to getting up and walking out... I've seen Amma do it, and then get what she wants when the guy literally chases her down the street!