of course there was more shopping

saturday i went shopping with sunil and his family again. we headed to janpath, which was full of tourists and local shoppers alike. this was pretty much my first experience with haggling, and thankfully sunil did most of it for me. he had the slight advantage of hindi and local price knowledge, whereas i must have had the tourist target painted on my shirt (they’re thinking “this lady has no idea how much this costs, so i think i’ll mark it up 10 times”). there actually was an embroidery stitcher that the guy told me was 400 rupees, and after sunil’s haggling, i ended up paying 50. 50! (that’s one dollar for those of you who are wondering what the latest exchange rate is.) we also had the handkerchief guy try to dupe as, but luckily sunil’s brother had had this trick recently played on him. the handkerchief hawker haggles, gets his price down to around 10 rupee per cloth, let’s you look and touch, but doesn’t let you take them out of the package. sunil asked him what size they were, and he said they were regular size, but he wouldn’t give sunil the package. after a little argument, he finally gave up and let sunil pull out the handkerchief. after unfolding it, we saw that i was only a miniature handkerchief. after a reproachful look from sunil, the guy unbuttoned the bottom of his shirt and pulled out a package of the real size handkerchiefs. deceptive little jerk! oh well, i was entertained by the argument and the fact that he hides the real size handkerchiefs in his waistband. as my carrying bag became heavier and heavier, i kept thinking of more gifts i should buy. i was hoping the entire time that i’d be able to fit these things in my suitcase!

we had lunch at nerula’s, a place that my friend had said she’d heard of as famous in delhi. turned out it was more of an ice cream and fast food place, but it was still tasty. i guess it’s hard to do lentils and naan badly. we invited the driver, naresh, to have lunch with us. in fact, i’ve been struck by how sunil treats him like a regular person, whereas some of the others i’ve met here definitely treat the drivers like they are a lower part of society. (and i guess in the indian social strata, they are considered lower.) i think it’s great that sunil treats him like he’s just hanging out with us for the day, engaging him in conversation etc. i wish i spoke hindi so that i could engage him in more conversation!

we then went to another temple (i’ll have to update later with the name). as with several temples, i was not allowed to take in my camera. and even if i had been able to take in my camera, photos of the idols is not allowed. i wish it were though – all of the idols of Krishna, Ganesh, Shiva, etc. are beautifully done and quite fascinating. binni gave me the blessing of one of the gods – the red powder on my forehead. i don’t entirely understand the purpose, but it’s the thing to do at the temples. i’m pretty much there to admire the architecture. at this point, i was starting to get used to walking around barefoot, from marble temples to the dirty sidewalk outside.

after traveling around delhi for the day, sunil invited us in for a tea. again, he invited naresh in as well, which i thought was great. after sitting around for an hour or so talking (with sunil usually translating half of the conversation between groups), we relieved naresh of his duty. i stayed at sunil’s for a delicious dinner made by binni – dal, potatoes, two types of rice and roti. i watched her make the roti (AKA chapatti) – she rolled out the dough into rounds, cooked each side of it in a pan for a minute or so, then put it directly in the stove flame, flipping it quickly. the roti puffs up and gets its airy texture this way, i’m guessing. she then rubbed two roti together with a bit of butter, making a whole stack of them. i gotta figure out how to make these at home.