Shopping in India is an expedition
on its own! All over India makeshift markets line streets. Paan-sellers
dot market corners, villages have busy market-days, deserted mountain
trails boast lone tea-stalls that count as a whole settlement, and city
roads all lead to snazzy malls! While shopping has always been big for
Indians, as current trends go, ‘Indian’ is now big in shopping.
Ethnic
chic, glitz and kitsch, whether it’s clothes, carpets or clutter, if
it’s Indian, it’s in! To name a little that could fill your bags:
Kashmiri carpets that rival Persian rugs or rugged durries of natural
fibre in vibrant colours and rural motifs. Perfumes extracted from the
sweetest of flowers, opulent silks and block-printed cotton. Beads and
trinkets, silver and gold, mirror-work Rajasthani skirts, tie-and-dye,
inexpensive leather ware, and statues in metal or stone - there is no
dearth of places to shop in India!
Look
out for the bright red, yellow, green and blue handloom from the ‘seven
sisters’ in the Northeast; Karnataka Bidriware (silver inlay on
blackened white metal); Kanjeevaram and Benaras saris with gold woven
into multihued silks; beads, bangles and other ornaments everywhere;
shell craft, pretty sandals, kurta and pyjamas at Delhi’s designer
shops, brass from UP, bronze in the south; Darjeeling tea, and Coorg
coffee.
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