I wrote this one last thursday (1st march), will post about my bday weekend soon......
I’m writing from a coffee shop in a neighbourhood called Lajpat Nagar. This neighbourhood is quite far from where I stay (in India, stay = live) but for whatever reason it is my third time here in a week, and I only started coming here last Saturday. The coffee shop I’m sitting in is a chain called Cafe Coffee Day, whose tagline is “a lot can happen over a cup of coffee.” For whatever reason, I find that amusing. They seem to serve more fancy drinks (milkshakes, their version of a frappachino, etc) than regular coffee. I ordered a hot chocolate. There is no Hindi word for hot chocolate (or at least not that I know of) but I had to repeat myself like 5 times and the guy taking my order just stared at me and told me that wasn’t an Indian word. Which is ironic because I had ordered a hot chocolate in this same cafe earlier this week with no problem. Luckily the guy standing next to him knew what I was talking about and I now have an extremely fancy looking hot chocolate next to me.
Lajpat Nagar is a really crowded neighbourhood famous for its central market where you can buy all sorts of cheap things, but what most people come for are cheap women’s Indian clothes. When I came to India the only Indian clothes I had were fancy ones for parties and weddings, and with summer approaching it is time to stock up on light weight kurtas (longer shirts) and salvaar kamiz (Indian women’s clothes—leggings, long shirt, duptata). I should add that the weather is already highs in the 80s, lows in the 50s and this is spring weather. I am dreading summer, where it can reach up to 115, and lows are 80s/90s. Anyways, I digress.
So I need Indian clothes because in Delhi you have to cover up (no one shows legs) and for office appropriate clothing you have to have sleeves, so the obvious solution is Indian clothes as the summer versions are made from extremely thin material and very comfortable and also considered professional. So last Saturday my co-worker Sunanda, her Aunt and I went to the Lajpat Nagar central market. It was so crowded and crazy and super fun to buy Indian clothes (and they were cheap)!
There were basically two kinds of stores. First are the fixed price stores (no bargaining allowed). I actually bought most of my stuff in these kinds of stores because the quality is better and you get what you pay for. The way it works is that you go into a shop, you tell them what you’re looking for and your size, and they proceed to show you lots of options. In some stores you try them on and take them if they fit (normal shopping). In other stores, they measure you and then a tailor who is right there adjusts the kurta (top) so that it is custom made to fit you. Once you have picked your kurta they will match it to leggings. Tight ones are called ‘churidar’, loose ones (think hammer pants) people just refer to as normal. As in ‘you want churidar or normal?’ Then you can also pick out a matching dupata. Most people probably don’t have to do this for all kurta tops they get, but as I don’t have a drawer full of leggings and dupatas at home, everyone I got came with matching churidar and dupata. Some kurta can go with jeans, particularly ones that are shorter. I still have no idea how to decide if something goes with jeans or leggings, but fortunately I have an office full of female co-workers who are more than happy to share their opinions.
The second kind of store that was in the market wasn’t really a store but more a man with a pile (or a table) of kurtas and you dig through the pile, find your size and then the bargaining begins! There were also a bunch of guys standing around yelling “say-lay” (sale). Super fun! I didn’t actually end up getting any from these because Sunanda wouldn’t let me (not nice enough for the office). They actually did look quite cheap so I wasn’t too disappointed. Sunanda just came from LA (she spends half the year there and half in Delhi) and she helps me a lot with navigating Indian life and office. So with Sunanda in hand I also now have a few Indian style cotton and linen shirts and several Indian outfits, perfect for summer and office and meet her approval.
There are also some stores that just sell fabric and you can then take the fabric to a tailor to custom make you an outfit. I prefer to get ‘ready-made’ (basically, Indian clothes that are already sewn like everything I have described above), but Sunanda was picking up some fabric she had had dyed. Basically she had been there the week before, saw some pattern she liked, but had a colour in mind she wanted that they didn’t have on hand so they just dyed it to match! We were in that store quite a while, and I ended up emerging with some fabric of my own. The latest fashion is to get fabric with people on them (prints of women’s faces, Indian gods, etc, all usually looking like they’re from Indian paintings). Not quite what I feel like wearing so I ended up with one that had flowers and fruit that looked like pomegranates. I haven’t taken it to a tailor yet, but will probably take it to the tailor in Pitampura that my Bhuas go to because I am always looking for activities to do with them that don’t involve feeding me.
Beyond that it was fun shopping I have been trying to figure out what it is about Lajpat Nagar I like so much, and I have decided it is both the vibe (much more energetic with lots of young people) and that no one stares at me here. In my cousin’s neighbourhood where I live right now, it is more families, I get stared at everywhere I go (how can they tell I’m not from there?) and I don’t feel particularly safe walking by myself at night. There seem to be a lot more foreigners that live here and in the next neighbourhood over (Defence Colony) so that might also be it, plus the central market is a tourist hotspot. If you come visit (not so subtle hint) I will take you here on a Saturday for all the craziness.
Pictures of the market coming soon!
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