Christmas Decorations

Click here for the most recent post Christmas Decorations

Went shopping for Christmas decorations today. Heard through the OWC grapevine that Safina Plaza, near Commercial Street, is the place to go. Apparently we were too early - "next month." We found one shop selling a few Kashmir baubles, bells and balls to hang from the tree.

Next we went one street down from Commercial Street where we came upon tiny stores that had transformed into Christmas stores. Most of which were piled high with garlands of every bright color, plastic Santa decorations and boxes of Christmas balls and stars. We perused and bought a few tree decorations.

Most of these little stores are Muslim owned and usually sell plastic flowers or party favours. The store in this photo: "Dealers in Ayurvedic Drugs, Chemicals Decorative Disposable Houskeeping Items." Well, not for the next month I guess.

A lady in a sari came into one asking for a Santa suit. She explained it was for the Children's Christmas party at her church. As we walked on we noticed more and more shops taking down their usual stock and putting up Christmas decorations. Nothing fancy here though.

Stopped at a store called Eka on the way home. Highly recommended. A lovely store with tasteful decorations, candles, and angels as well as a few quality pieces of furniture, art and jewellery.

Picked up a few things and between all three stops I'd have to say I have enough to decorate a small tree. Hmm, yes there's still the tree to think about isn't there? Well, it's a start.

A Week with the T's (Part 3)

Just a quick note to say I probably won't have internet access for the next week or so. Have a look back at the archives. Happy Thanksgiving to all in Canada!

Back to Bangalore on the train. This time we arrived with only 15 min. to spare and it was on time. Sat in second class sleeper so had lots of room and the kids liked the bunks.

At home Lynn has taken to making fresh papaya/yogurt smoothies and I add a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds to make them look as spectacular as they taste. Taras is eating his way through town and is determined to be the only person to come to India and gain weight.

The auto rickshaws are a big hit, especially when all six of us try to cram in. Or when we decide to splurge and take two, we race each other down the street – the drivers think it’s pretty funny too.

Lynn and I had to get the top for our sarees and the petticoat made and we found a tailor in the Commercial area to make them – inexpensive.

Two restaurants we tried out on Commercial – Woody’s, where Taras felt he should order two meals: a dosa and the “mini meal,” which turned out to be huge. The food was excellent. Next we tried Shiv Sagar which has cool murals on the walls of camels and Indian people. The food wasn’t as good but it was ok.

Now Lynn and Taras are off to Darjeeling and to tour the north for a couple weeks. We are “back to normal” and catching up on life.

Feast of St. Mary

If you want to experience the cultural mosaic of India, head down to Russell Market near Commercial Street. You'll find Muslims, Hindus and Christians living and worshipping all within a block of each other...peacefully.

Yesterday, I went down to Commercial Street to exchange some curtains (fourth trip),and yes they are the right size this time, and the color is ok too. Luckily I love this area for shopping and people watching. Within two blocks there are at least two mosques, multiple hindu temples and St. Mary's Basillica.

It's such an exotic area - the muslim women wear the full burka and everyone else wears sarees (the ladies that is). Yesterday I could sense something exciting was going on - the streets were packed and the area around Russell Market was blocked off from vehicles.

Families wore their best clothes, women wore flower garlands in their hair, loud Indian music was blaring from loudspeakers and streetsellers sold balloons, shiny pinwheels and flutes. As it turned out this was the final day of the Feast of St. Mary.

It's been quite the month for religious celebrations. The Hindus had 11 days of Ganesh Chaturthi, the Muslims are in the midst of ramzan (ramadan), and this was the tenth day of the Feast of St. Mary celebrations.

Statues of St. Mary were erected all around the area, some adorned with flowers, others standing admidst waterfalls. People gave offerings and said individual prayers. It was chaotic, noisy, festive and crowded. Just another day in India.

Apparently the real festivities started that evening when 2 lakh, or 200,000 people descended on the area. A chariot with the image of Mother Mary was taken in a procession around the downtown streets and everyone followed, ending up at St. Mary's Basillica.

Bargaining on Commercial Street

Had some fun bargaining down on Commercial Street today. OK, I'm sure I got ripped off. I kind of screwed up on the exchange rate. $1Can=40Rp. I paid 800Rp for an Indian wall hanging for Alanna's room but messed up thinking I was getting a good price at $10. Of course it was really $20. Easy math but in the midst of bargaining I wasn't thinking. Still, he was asking 1,600Rp so for me 800Rp seemed a good price. For him, probably a fortune.

Commercial Street is narrow with many, many little shops selling clothing (Indian and Western), handicrafts, carpets, jewellery and all sorts of interesting things. It's a bustling street, littered with billboards on the tops of buildings and hawkers on the sidewalks selling everything from books to popcorn to maps of India.

The woman selling maps of India followed us for quite some time trying to get me to buy one. I had no desire to buy one but I offered her 10Rp (25cents) - she called me cheap. I laughed. She said 400Rp. I said 10Rp. She came down to 100Rp, I went up to 20Rp. And that was it, she finally left us alone.

The original reason for going to Commercial Street was to get the children measured for their school uniforms at Neha Uniforms. Addresses can be a little confusing:

Neha Uniforms,
#323, 1st Floor, Narayana Pillai Street,
Opp. City Centre, 3rd Cross,
Commercial Street,

Turned out to be on Narayana Pillai Street which is the "3rd cross street" to Commercial Street. And the 1st Floor is one up from the ground floor. In this case we saw the sign for Neha Uniforms from the street but had to follow a narrow path between the buildings to the back where there were a number of tailor shops, up two flights of garbage strewn stairs to - voila! - the shop we were looking for.

This shop, no more than 300 sq. ft, housed the reception area where the children were measured within minutes, six tailors busily sewing uniform after uniform and three people sitting on the floor packing them all up. Quite the little place, I hope they are paid well (probably not), but at least it wasn't a sweat shop. The sewing machines were basic but in good condition and each sewer had a fan blasting in their faces and looked relatively well dressed.

We spent close to two hours on Commercial Street and covered merely half of it, not to mention all the side streets that await our next visit. Bartering is fun when you have time for it. Which is why for the big furniture items we will stick to the fixed price stores. But for accessories - the things we don't need right away - it's fun to chat with the people in the shops, have every bedcover or wall hanging strewn over the floor for viewing, and leave (with or without goods) having enjoyed each others company.