Shopping

Today I had a taste of shopping in India. We went to a large store with a variety of items.  The prices were fixed so I did not yet have the true experience of haggling in the market. I did, however, have some other adventures. The first challenge was learning how to pay for things. You take the items to the counter in the appropriate department to pay for them and then receive a receipt (but not the items purchased). When you are finished shopping, you take your receipt (or receipts if you shopped in several departments) outside where you will collect your products wrapped up in newspaper with a ribbon. There is a law against plastic bags in India so stores must recycle newspapers to package items. Way to go green India! We checked out but soon realized that there were 2 things in our basket that we did not want. We asked them at the register where we paid if we could return it and they sent us downstairs to the package retrieval section. I can't even remember now the exact details of how many people we saw and how many times we ran up and down the stairs in order to exchange the items for store credit, but it was quite a process. Despite this run around and inconvenience, there were some parts of the shopping experience that were quite comfortable. I first bought a top that was too big in the armholes. I was able to take it to a seamstress right in the store to be fixed in 20 minutes at no charge....AMAZING! I also decided to buy a lehenga suit which is the traditional dress of the state of Rajasthan (where I am now). The women's dress section of the store consist of shelves of clothes and mattresses. Women sit on the mattress ready to help customers. The customer has a nice low and cozy couch to sit on while the saleswoman will find out about the tastes of the customer and present sample items. You are not permitted to go through the shelves on your own, but it was quite relaxing to sit back and have the clothes brought to me to pick out. I decided on a blue/purple color and took it to the dressing room to try on. When I looked in the mirror, I could hardly believe that it was me in the clothes. I couldn't resist buying it and look forward to the opportunity to showcase my new colorful attire.