Day 21 & 22-India Pt 1

JAN 20 & 21 2009

THIS is the 1st picture I took in India . It was my 3rd day in this incredible country and I was on my train ride to Agra. I have nothing from my 1st 2 days apart from the things I bought in Delhi which I will show later, The Indian Express (from the hotel in Gurgaon and in the picture) and remnants of some body lotion from the same hotel.

That is India in a nutshell. It is either totally forgettable or entirely mesmorising. There are aspects you either absolutely love or just simply loathe. No middle ground and very little balance.

Starting from the Indira Ghandi Airport. Everyone says expect to be stuck in there for up till 3 hours. Guess what? We were out of there in less than 25 minutes from the time the plane landed. We were delayed slightly only because we stopped to browse at the duty free store.

As you may have read in my earlier post, we were expected in Gurgaon on the 1st 2 days. Sadly, although not surprising, there is almost no reason why anyone will want to spend time in this "Mall Capital" unless you have a fashion fair you MUST attend AND they not only sponsor your hotel rooms for the 1st 2 nights, they ALSO feed you once a day and then chauffeur you to and from the Fair everyday for as many time as you wish.

Thanks to the great hospitality from Sangeetha and Surinder, the husband and wife team my sis works with, we manage everyday for the 2 days we were in Gurgaon to travel to Delhi . The rides were long and the roads dusty, but the weather was so cool, nothing seemed to matter, not even the terrible traffic and the constant honking from every vehicle at every obstacle.

1st Day-After a trip to Delhi's textile centre where we met a cow right outside our shop, we returned to the hotel just in time for Obama's Inauguration. Like 80% of the world, I am a big big fan so my 1st night in Gurgoan could not have ended more perfectly, sleeping right after Obama's awe-inspiring speech and waking up to him and his mrs dancing through the 10 inauguration balls.

2nd Day- This was a more hectic day as we had to rush to the New Delhi train station to book our tickets to Agra. By the time we finished the Fair, rushed through traffic, bought our tickets , rushed through traffic again after getting quite lost, we finally reached my die-die must go lace and ribbon shop at 5.30pm. I was given only 10 minutes to get whatever I want at the shop so that we could get back to Gurgaon by 7pm!! (Oh, the other thing about India, if you want to shop , do set aside at least 30 minutes to bargain, pretend to walk away, come back, bargain some more, have tea etc etc with the vendors. Otherwise, be prepared to be fleeced baaaad.)

I shall not tell you how badly I was fleeced at the lace shop but no, no, no regrets for it is the most incredible tiny 3 level lace shop I have ever seen. Can you imagine 3 levels of lifesized room boxes filled with nothing but ribbons, laces and tassels of all shapes and sizes and every colour ever conceived or not? Yes, I swear I met a few new colours at the shop! Regrettably, I don't know where the place is now as we were brought there by Sangeetha's driver but these are some of the ribbons I managed to grab in my 10 minutes:



I am going to have a field day making beautiful furnishings out of these gorgeous ribbons.

I also bought these thingalingding which I will convert into Indian chandeliers:

And then to add the ultimate icing to a most fruitful day, I found out that night that the model maker replied to my email!! This is his very short reply (with slight edit):

Respected Sir,

I am Raju M from Ahmedabad Gujarat. I have professional studio for making models. What you want to make model I have no idea but please give me details. I can make any type of model. Then I will give offer please.

Regards and Thanks

I slept like a baby for the second time on my second night in India.