To the market

In preparation for our upcoming weekend trip, Teresa and I decided it was time to invest in some new “suits”.  Suits are an Indian outfit that comprise of a long tunic top that can be either sleeveless, cap sleeves, ¾ sleeves, or full sleeves.  It can be made out of any type of material also.  The most breathable ones are the cotton ones.  They are worn with either leggings or patialas which are poofy pants (think MC Hammer).  The interesting thing about Indian clothing is so far they only come in one length.  Um, I’m a bit of a giant out here. 

Anyway, Sunil drove us out to Sarojini Nagar because he knows where all the best prices in town are.  One of the perks of having a driver is that their jobs have so much more to them than just driving.  Sunil serves as a bodyguard while I’m out at the markets alone or with just females.  He also negotiates rates with the shop owners in Hindi.  Oh, and he’s teaching me Hindi too!  He does carry the shopping bags which I’m not okay with but, at this point, I can’t argue against it.  We’ll have a chat after October.  We went to the first booth/hut/place.  The suits were all very pretty.  Teresa and I each picked out two, and Sunil started negotiating the rates for us.  I could tell that Sunil wasn’t happy about something but, of course, I couldn’t understand him! He turned to us and said that the shop owner was trying to cheat us and we wouldn’t be buying the suits there.  The guy was trying to charge us twice the price he told Sunil in the beginning.  We went to the next place and found two suits there.  Remember the whole height thing?  The tops stop right below my butt while they go all the way to Teresa’s knees!  Maybe I’ll have Sunil make some longer ones for me (yes, he’s a tailor too!).  I got one suit with leggings and one with patiala. 

We also stopped at a house wares place so that I could buy a new colander (even though we have four on the way!), and Teresa could get a mortar and pestle.  We had a colander in our welcome kit but at some point in the move, it got lost.  I found one just like the one we had and told Sunil I wanted to buy that one.  He told us that in this shop, he would negotiate the price, then tell us, and we would give him the money.  He said that if he did all the interactions with the shop owner and made it look like he was the one buying everything that he would be able to get a much better price.  Nice, another perk J

I ended up spending a whopping $23.90 on two suits and a colander.  Wow.