Saris, Cooking, Dancing and a Trip to Mysore

One thing that women definitely have to do when they visit India is go sari shopping – even if they don’t buy one. Shawna and I have been thinking about buying one since we got here and finally two of our friends, Syama and Anu, decided to take us to a couple of shops so we could choose one. A sari shop has to be chosen wisely – it should have a great selection, good prices and fantastic service. And the staff should be willing to show you as many saris as you wish and shouldn’t try to push you into buying something. The first shop we went into was not interested in us once we said we were only looking, in fact they got quite aggressive so we didn’t stay there for very long. The second shop, Angodi Silks, was lovely. It had four or five floors of shelves with every colour of silk or cotton imaginable and when we walked in, it was like being immersed in colour – I didn’t know where to look first! Luckily Syama told us how it worked. First you have to decide what price range to look in first and then what colour family you want to start with as well as whether you want silk or silk cotton or chiffon etc. Then you go to the section of the counter behind which your choice will be. We decided to start out with the first price level but quickly decided to move up one to the second. Both of us were interested in having a silk sari – something soft and not too stiff as the stiff saris don’t drape well. Once we were seated in front of the correct section of counter, the parade of fabrics began. It was somewhat overwhelming! With the help and wonderful patience of our friends, we finally were able to make a choice: I chose a dark pink one with an orange-pink blouse and palu (the scarf-like part that goes over your shoulder at the front) and Shawna chose a Rajistani style one which is blue and green with a beautiful gold border and a little bit of tie-dyeing they call bandini. It will be so exciting when they are ready to wear – our tailor is stitching the sari blouses and petticoats which should be ready within the week. That shop was quite an experience – plush chairs and carpet and wonderful staff. The atmosphere was hushed and everywhere there were ladies pouring over gorgeous silks. Fantastic!

Another wonderful thing to do in India is learn how to cook Indian food. We went to our third cooking class the other day and learned how to make various South Indian dishes – lemon rice, dosas, chicken biriyani, fish curry, coconut chutney and gulab jamun. As we had booked a custom class, we had the teacher all to ourselves this time. It was great – we were able to ask her so many questions; we came away with lots of great tips and ideas for cooking Indian food at home. One thing I will find somewhat sad is that, although there are lots of great Indian restaurants at home, they are mainly North Indian so I won’t be able to eat very much South Indian food unless I make it at home – though a friend of ours in the office who used to live in Toronto has now told us of a very good South Indian restaurant in Mississauga so you can bet I’ll be going there!

When in India, you have to dance – Bollywood style! One of the nights this week we gathered together about fifteen Hippocampus ladies and went to a great rooftop bar called Zero G. The DJ that night was playing Bollywood music and one of our group teaches Bollywood dancing – we learned some great moves from her! It was a fantastic night!!! Great music and dancing with amazing company, a couple of drinks and some food made for a really, really great time!! Indian women know how to laugh and have lots and lots of fun – Shawna and I sure had an awesome time.

Mysore is a historic city about three hours outside of Bangalore. It is a must-see in this area so we decided to take a bus tour there for a day. We met a couple of other women on the tour to team up with while viewing the amazing temples and palaces – one of them was from the Netherlands and the other from Bulgaria; they were here on business with Shell. We had quite an interesting experience in the Chamundi Hill Temple. Somehow we got guided around by a random temple worker who showed what to do in each part of the temple. So we learned how to get a blessing from the Hindu priest and how to give an offering to the temple Gods. The whole day was steeped in Indian culture and history and I feel like I gained more insight into India.

We are now into our final week in Bangalore before we go off gallivanting to North India so we will be wrapping up our internship project. We’ll let you know how that goes next week.

Amy