While there are certainly more comprehensive essays on the subject, here is my example from today.
My friend and I needed white kurtas, dark blue jeans, and big green scarves that have a name I forgot, because we're singing for the Indian Independence Day celebration tomorrow.
We went out first to a market called GK1 - M Block (there are M and N block markets, N is smaller but quieter and cleaner). These markets aren't the typical Indian thing, they're more like an outdoor mall, though M block has small vendors in between shops with which you can haggle for clothes and jewelry. Here you'll find those haggling stalls between stores like Levis and Esprit, which are priced equivalent to American prices.
Yes, I did actually buy a pair of jeans from Levis, but I justified this on a few grounds: I need a pair of dark jeans for my performance tomorrow, you really have to try skinny jeans on, and I'm going to wear them for the next 5-7 years. At the same time, I bought a pair of sandals haggled from 400 to 280 rs (say 8 dollars). Okay my friend who speaks hindi helped.
Instead of getting our kurtas at a good quality indian store (fabindia), we went to Lajpat Nagar Market, which is exactly what you think of when it comes to Indian markets, filled with vendors in stalls, people walking up and down the roads selling things, as well as old people, cripples, children, and women with babies begging for money, and breaking your heart.
We went to a stall and asked for white kurtas, which were neither perfectly clean, nor our size or with the sleeves we needed. But we got them anyway. Why? because if you just walk a little bit down a sketchy alleyway, there is a man with a sewing machine who will tailor the cheap kurta perfectly to your size and specifications (well, if you can speak to him in hindi...so my friend handled that).
I'll put up pictures of all different markets and metro soon, I just haven't been around with my camera yet. They're very diverse: Select Citywalk Mall is actually three malls with three floors and at least two hotels that makes you think you've magically returned to the US, Sarojini is the typical bartering market, and great to find kurtas and anything else for 100 rs (2.50). Khan market is some of the priciest land in Delhi, with stores like the Body Shop, but still you have all the colorful features of indian public buildings, which is to say looking kinda problematic from the outside.
My friend and I needed white kurtas, dark blue jeans, and big green scarves that have a name I forgot, because we're singing for the Indian Independence Day celebration tomorrow.
We went out first to a market called GK1 - M Block (there are M and N block markets, N is smaller but quieter and cleaner). These markets aren't the typical Indian thing, they're more like an outdoor mall, though M block has small vendors in between shops with which you can haggle for clothes and jewelry. Here you'll find those haggling stalls between stores like Levis and Esprit, which are priced equivalent to American prices.
Yes, I did actually buy a pair of jeans from Levis, but I justified this on a few grounds: I need a pair of dark jeans for my performance tomorrow, you really have to try skinny jeans on, and I'm going to wear them for the next 5-7 years. At the same time, I bought a pair of sandals haggled from 400 to 280 rs (say 8 dollars). Okay my friend who speaks hindi helped.
Instead of getting our kurtas at a good quality indian store (fabindia), we went to Lajpat Nagar Market, which is exactly what you think of when it comes to Indian markets, filled with vendors in stalls, people walking up and down the roads selling things, as well as old people, cripples, children, and women with babies begging for money, and breaking your heart.
We went to a stall and asked for white kurtas, which were neither perfectly clean, nor our size or with the sleeves we needed. But we got them anyway. Why? because if you just walk a little bit down a sketchy alleyway, there is a man with a sewing machine who will tailor the cheap kurta perfectly to your size and specifications (well, if you can speak to him in hindi...so my friend handled that).
I'll put up pictures of all different markets and metro soon, I just haven't been around with my camera yet. They're very diverse: Select Citywalk Mall is actually three malls with three floors and at least two hotels that makes you think you've magically returned to the US, Sarojini is the typical bartering market, and great to find kurtas and anything else for 100 rs (2.50). Khan market is some of the priciest land in Delhi, with stores like the Body Shop, but still you have all the colorful features of indian public buildings, which is to say looking kinda problematic from the outside.
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