Thursday, December 10, 2009

Indian Adventure

"That looks fun!"
This was the phrase I kept hearing again and again last week. Why? My clients from abroad had come down for a week long visit.Lucky gal that I am :-P ! I got to take them shopping and site seeing (which consisted of the kapaleeswarar temple and a sweet shop next door)
Everything looked fun for them.

One person had come down to Mumbai some 10 years back and had got some silk pajamas and kurtha then. He wanted me to get him just the same thing now... wellll!!! When browsing around the shops he asked me why the men here wear these big clunky shoes, that they generally wear back home during peak winter when temperature was down to -40, when this was a sandal wearing weather. (I couldn't really answer, except its the price we pay for fashion...:-D)

The two things that quitefascinated them was the tuk tuk (auto rickshaw) and the traffic.
They really really wanted to go on a drive in the tuk tuk but weren't ready for such a big
adventure. So what they did do was take photos of themselves sitting in the auto.They just could not understand how so many vehicles could drive around, following absolutely no
rules whatsoever and still not have an accident at every road corner.

Took them to spencer plaza for shopping and all chennaites know that it is a place to go only
for window shopping or if money is no limit. But hey! thats the one place where they could get
all they were looking for, at one shot.

( I didn't even know there was something called a pashmina shawl until I went along with them..
But I believe its something very famous and exotically indian.)

When I took one of the gentleman gold shopping he was quite awed to see a little todler
dripping gold from her hands, ears and neck and even wearing anklets. They all got churidhar
kurtha for their wives and daughters and these big danglers and stuff we would generally not buy ourselves as they are very traditional :-)

Since we were running short of time, I gave them a short overview of the hindu trinities and
stuff on the way to the temple (and the driver of our cab said I was better than a guide *preen* ..hehehe).

They hated having to leave their footwear outside the temple, they were even willing to bring it in their handbags rather than leave it out :-) . The jasmine strands , the holy ash, the aarthi, and more importantly the beautiful statues and buildings quite impressed them.

Thankfully the time was up and I could end my speel before the end of my repertoire .

I got a whole new perspective of India through the eyes of these foreigners. Not all good, definitely not all bad, but very dear! :-)

4 comments:

Hazel said...

:)... charming... btw where did they come from... traffic is like the package deal with most big cities ...is it not ? .. n most importantly which sweet shop..:P

Sanjana said...

Canada. Yes it definitely is a package deal.. but our big city traffic and their big city traffic cannot be compared :-).. took them to vasantha bhavan, since that was the nearest one to the temple and they did not have much time.

RS said...

Oh! Chennai tour? I think it was the right weather to take them around - else what a difference of weather it would be for them - cant imagine!! - Cannada to Chennai! Phew!
And you didnt know Pashmina shawl?!!! Duh!

Sanjana said...

@RS: Yeah they were finding even this weather too hot to suit them :-)
Nope.. I didn't know pashmina shawls.. what would I do with a shawl in chennai?