Don't Panic

Saturday was the first Saturday I think I’ve really had since I’ve been in India. I woke up late and headed straight for the pool. Every day when I head outside, I think it gets about 5 degrees hotter. I haven’t really been checking the weather (no reason to, since it’s hot and sunny every day), but I would guess it’s in the high 90s here daily. After 2 hours of laying in the sun and dipping in the pool, Kathryn and I showered up and got ready to go to Charminar to meet two other women from our office there.

Charminar is in old Hyderabad with the biggest mosque in the area. However Charminar is also known for its bangle shopping and other shopping. I had heard only that the area was extremely crowded with people harassing you everywhere, so I was a bit nervous. As we got closer to the area, the traffic and crowds increased. There was at most, an inch of room between our car and the cars next to us. Our car was continually hit from behind because of how crowded it was. “In Charminar, medam, there is quarreling,” Neelakanta told us. “Be careful, medam.” Great, I thought. Getting in a street fight in India sounds awesome. We pulled up near an area where we would get out, but there were motorcycles, cars, bicycles and people EVERYWHERE. Imagine the most crowded place you have ever been – an el car, a concert, the start of the Shamrock shuffle – then add another 50 people. That might give you an idea of just how crowded it was and why all of the sudden, I felt like I was about to have a panic attack. “Just wait,” Neelakanta told us as he looked cautiously out the window. Then – “get out medam!” and we bolted from the car and down the street. Immediately, five young guys appeared with jewelry. “Necklace mam?” “No thank you.” “Fifty rupees madam, it’s very nice.” “No thank you.” “Just look, twenty five rupees.” “No, that’s ok.” “Mam it’s very fine.” “NO!” “Just look mam.” The only way to stop this is to either buy something which is not nice at all, or duck into one of the stalls, which we did when we spotted Jill and Judy. “It’s a different world, isn’t it girls?” Jill asked us. That summed it up quite well. There were bangle shops as far as the eye could see down the right side of the road. Down the left side, saree shops as far as we could see. And everywhere in the middle, people.

“See this color,” a man said to me as he began to put some bangles on my wrist. Bangle shopping is actually very fun because they load your arms up with bracelets – honestly, I felt a bit like a princess trying on so much jewelry at once. I began to relax a little, but it was also unbearably hot in the stall with lights burning above us and a weak little fan blowing hot air all around. I ended up with three sets on my arm for Rs 600. I asked for 300; he countered with 450. “okay,” I said, a little too quickly. Hey, I’m not used to bargaining. Somehow after purchasing the bangles, I felt a bit better. Seems shopping is therapeautic in any country!

I did better as I went on and actually nearly walked out on one purchase, so they finally agreed to my price. “Take it mam!!” All in all I probably spent a little more than I would have liked to, but not terribly bad. Suddenly, you realize you’re arguing over a dollar or two and it doesn’t seem like such a big deal anymore! As we passed shops, the salesmen would yell to us or make some kind of chh-chh noises, like one you would use to call your pet! to try and convince us to come inside. Four American women are about as obvious targets for shopping as you can get! Once we finished (for now) with the bangles, we followed Jill and Judy to a store called Fancy Cloth. When we got to Fancy Cloth, we slipped off our flip flops outside the door and climbed three flights of narrow marble stairs to the third floor loft, where the floor was covered in mattresses. Later we realized why, as we ended up sitting up there for nearly two hours. Several men were helping to bring up fabric after fabric while one man was showing them all to us. “See this one, see this one,” he said as he unrolled one after another. The fabrics were so delicate, hand embroidered or painted, in bold colors and patterns. They unrolled fabrics for probably an hour while we oohed and aahed over every one (I realize this blog is incredibly boring for any man reading it, so I apologize, but for a woman it was really something to see!!). I settled on two fabrics. Then, what to do? The possibilities were infinite. Traditional Indian dress, tunic, skirt, tank top, skirt, full skirt, jacket, western dress, anything!!! Fortunately the owner was quite good, and Judy happens to be a seamstress and was able to explain what we would want in tailoring terms. We figured out how to make a skirt, two tanks and a jacket for me from one of my fabrics. Once you purchase the fabric, the price includes any of the alterations, so it is actually extremely reasonable. Thursday we head back to see how everything turned out.

At this point it was 10 o clock and we were on the way home to quickly change and then head to the Taj Krishna for dinner. We went to a Chinese restaurant there which was probably 3 times as expensive as anywhere else in Hyderabad, but worth it. We tried some fried lotus root (delicious!) dim sum and also more mainstream items like sesame chicken and kung pao. No Peking Duck due to the bird flu, but that’s a good reason to be out of duck. It was a perfect ending to one of the most expensive days I’ve had in India!