Shopping

I love shopping in India. It is a very personal and long process and sometimes very confusing. For our performance, Alex and I met our teacher to go sari shopping. Alex and I both needed saris. His will be cut into the men’s costume.

After finding Mala Ji, which was a challenge in and of itself, we wound through the gullies until we reached a little sari shop. From there, one of the workers took us to a warehouse in other gullies. The warehouse was probably a 20ft by 20 ft square room with walls lined with fabric, saris and dotis.

Mala Ji explained that we needed cotton/synthetic saris that are solid color, and with a South Indian style contrast border. A boy, probably no older than 10, went to work pulling out sari after sari. Mala Ji made remarks like if the colors were not bright enough, the pattern too ugly, or the colors wrong or non-traditional. I ended up getting a navy, dark red and gold sari. I will bring it to a tailor with Mala Ji and it will be made into a costume. It was pretty inexpensive as far as saris go. I had to restrain myself from buying one extra for me. I was so close to it, but decided instead to save the money for a vacation to South India, where I will buy my sari.

I will still have to go and buy bells and bangles for my costume. I also will need to practice in all of my ornaments and flowers. I have had those for a while. Mala Ji bought them in South India when visiting her daughter. They are so sparkly, and even though I have no idea how to wear any of them, I have still played dress up a few times.