shopping babylon

As I'm planning to attend this wedding up in the Himalayas I've spent the day looking for saris. Varanasi is known for it's silk, so if you need a sari - this is the place to get it. Which basically means that now I've got not one sari, but THREE. Don't ask what the hell I'm going to do with three saris, but I just couldn't choose! Funnily, I wanted a red sari but instead I ended up with a simple lavender colour with some gold embroidery, the other a deep sad green with peacock blue and silver borders, and the last one a bright turquoise and purple with heavy silver embroidery. A sari consists of 6 meters of fabric, and you put it on in a very intricate way. I asked the salesman if the price included a small Indian man who will put the sari on for me, but he didn't really get the joke.


I even got so carried away with the shopping that I called my sister in the United States to ask if she wanted a bedspread. Apparently the time in Boston was 5 am, my sister informed me dryly, and no, she didn't need a bedspread, with two kids she needed sleep. The time-difference thingy had completely slipped my mind together with my disappearing dollars. Oops.


Outside of the old alleyways near the ghats, Varanasi is a gridlock of noisy motorcycles, blinging rickshaws and the odd automobile who get's special permission to drive in the centre by the means of a small baksheesh to the traffic police. I strolled around the local fabric market, in the muslim area, getting curious looks from women in burkhas and proud men with kaftans. It was impossibly crowded and busy, one tout shouting louder than the other, hoping that he would be the lucky one. I didn't see any other foreigners there, but for some reason I didn't feel afraid, despite all the chaos. I think it is because I'm currently reading Robert Ludlum's spy stories, and I'm therefore imagining myself to be a beautiful, but lethal, undercover spy, ready to spring a killing blow at any given moment. Nevermind that I'm really as graceful as a cow on a bicycle, and the last time I tried to glide elegantly through a set of doors I managed to get stuck in the frame.