Kate Taylor's Yoga Site

Tuesday after a breakfast at Tina's of homemade bagels with hummus (??!!) I intended to go to the bank and then check out a shop I had heard about which was supposed to have pretty eye pillows made from saris. My quick, laser-focused trip, however, turned into quite the shopping extravaganza.

I hired a rickshaw to drive me first to the bank and then to Rashinkar’s. When we got to the only bank in Mysore that accepts my debit card, the "24 hour" ATM was closed. When I asked the security guard when it would be open, he gave me the sideways head bob and said it would open in 30 minutes. I figured 30 minutes India time might turn out to be longer and got back into the rickshaw to head downtown. Hopefully Rashinkar’s would take credit cards.

When we found Rashinkar’s, it was 10:15 and the sign said it would open at 10:30. I asked the driver to take me to Badsha’s, a textile place around the corner that I had heard great things about. I went in and was immediately approached by four sales people, then asked to sit down at the counter. They proceeded to pull out lots of saris, which they told me were made from special Mysore silk. Every time I tried to stand up to get a better look at the shelves full of thousands of saris they asked me to sit down. After about 15 minutes I picked out a few of the 6 meter long pieces of fabric, which I plan to use for covering pillows and decorating. When I showed the saris to Leena later in the day she told me they were probably 50/50 poly/silk. Oh well.

At about 10:45 we headed back to Rashinkar’s, all the while my rickshaw driver telling me something in Karnada that I could not understand. He seemed to be telling me he knew a better place to buy saris. I insisted that we got to Rashinkar’s but once we got there at 10:45, it was still closed. After sitting there for a few minutes wondering what time 10:30 was in Indian terms, I agreed to let the driver take me to the place he was talking about.

I ended up at the Government Silk Factory. I must have been the first customer of the day, because when I walked into the dimly lit showroom, about 20 people stood up and went to their stations in front of the rows and rows of fabric.  The salesperson that won the race to serve me took me to a shelf of beautiful double-sided silk saris. I debated for quite a while on about what color to buy and ended up choosing two. As I was about to pay, they asked if I wanted some scarves and I agreed to look at them. The silk scarves were gorgeous and reasonably priced by US standards so I bought a handful. Again I went to pay and was accosted by another salesperson who showed me some even more beautiful scarves. These were much more expensive, but quite beautiful. I got sucked into buying a few of them as well. At that point I put my head down and refused to listen to the sales pitches from all of the other salespeople hawking their particular wares. I paid and we headed back to Rashinkar’s.

When we got there I was ushered upstairs where there was a little boutique catering to Yoga students. They had books, yoga bags, hippie clothes made from Indian fabric, and the eye pillows I had come for.  I picked up a good number of them and two more pieces of brightly colored cotton fabric.

At that point I headed back into town for a going away lunch for Lars and Sylvie. We had booked lunch with a woman named Janaki, who cooks and serves meals out of her house.  After a leisurely two hour thali lunch, which included the best chapatis I have ever had, the girls wanted to go to shopping for gifts.

We had heard that the Cottage Industries Emporium (CIE) has great stuff, but that it was pretty pricey. When we got there (after arriving at the wrong destination first) I was kind of tired of shopping and was pretty rude to the aggressive sales guy that followed me around the showroom asking me to look at every item I passed.  Jennifer could tell I was feeling foul and intercepted him.  After a few minutes she called me back into the main room to take her picture – they had dressed her up in a beautiful cotton sari. She asked me to try one on and I was still feeling annoyed at the salespeople and told her no. Then June tried a beautiful silk one on and she also looked great.

After some more coaxing I decided I was being a jerk and should get over it. I picked out a bright orange one, which I knew I would never be tempted to buy, and they started tucking and pleating and wrapping me into it. It tuned out to be fun, and even though I looked like a giant carrot, I was intrigued.

Jennifer found a beautiful silk one that she decided to buy. She then pulled out a black and orange one that was really stunning. I agreed to try it on. Once I had it on, I decided I had to have it. I have no idea where I will wear it, but it was really elegant and so Indian.

We found a few gifts but ended up buying stuff mostly for ourselves.  So we went back to the Kauvery Arts and Crafts Emporium that the driver had taken us to by mistake.  This place was gigantic. They sold every Indian artifact you could possibly think of. I found the gift I was looking for plus a few more things that I hadn’t planned on (what a surprise).

By the end of the day I had spent a good amount of money, but had fund gifts for most of the folks on my list (not to mention the stuff I bought for myself). Argh…not doing very well on my path to letting go of attachment….