On this day I had the pleasure of being taken out by Laksheeta & Simran. Delightful ladies, [I never use that word but hey, it fits them LOL!] with bursting bubbly spirits, we were kin in that we love to do one of my favorite things in the entire world. Laugh. We spent the entire day laughing & hysterically I might add. Since I was still acclimating to the accents & rolling ‘Rs’ of Indian English, I can’t say for certain if we were laughing at the same things but at least it was at the same time. An introduction to Janpath Market in C.P. [Connaught Place & a not miss if you like to shop & bargain], Sunday is NOT the day to go as most of it is closed but show up there we did, loud & cackling away.
Now I love haggling & can roll with the best of ‘em so I hate having someone else do it for me ‘cause t’aint no fun in that! Used to the customary ‘you should let me do it because you’re American & they will try to rip you off’ I find that once I query the natives as to what a thing costs, then I’m off & running. Matter of fact, the last day I was there, I was so fierce that my companion had to give me my props, sayin’ his MAMA would be proud ‘cause she’s a bargaining diva & my technique was reminiscent. Well, he didn’t put it exactly that way but you get the drift. Gees, just jumped to my last day there when this is only day 5! Ahh, that’s an Aquarian for ya! Here, there, everywhere including the far & distant future. Ok, I digress again & not for the 110th time! Anywho, this day, I was in the company of HAGGLERS EXTRAORDINAIRE, man these 2 sunbursts were haggling giants at it fiercest & brightest! And comical, so I stepped back to experience tag-team bargaining at its best! They pounced, I mean they POUNCED upon any merchant who had stuff I even looked like I thought I may want to check out! I don’t know what was funnier, them or the faces of the poor men trying to hold their own with TWO women, [not advisable for anyone considering themselves sane] working hard to justify their prices. Most of the time, they had to succumb to typhoon Laksheeta-Simran. In times when it wasn’t going well, I’d throw my 2 cents in & the men didn’t stand a chance lololololollllllllllllllllllll! Boy that was fun!
The worst to receive the typhoon was a very nice guy who was just trying to earn a living & here we come. It was the last shop we descended upon so we were waaaaaaayyyyy geeked up which is so so so soooooo much worse than just geeked up. It’s like a hyper kid with sugar. You do NOT want to deal with ‘em.
One of the things I wanted to find in this trip was Frangipani incense. I’d only been searching for the past 6 years, first discovering it in Tokyo. Unsure I’d like it, I only bought one box. Silly me. It immediately became one of my all time favorites so of course I couldn’t find the friggin’ thing. Teased from a find in Bangkok, it fell well short of expectations, so I had high hopes for finding it here ‘cause I think India produces some of the best incense in the world. It doesn’t smell like it’s burning smoke instead of the fragrance you think you bought. Ya know what I mean? Have you ever bought incense [if you’re into that kinda thing] & instead of the fragrance it smelled like the final embers of a building on fire? Ugh! That has happened more times than I’d like to remember LOL! So as an incense aficionado [if there is such a thing] I am very fiznickidy when it comes to what & where I buy.
Bingo! the last shop had my Frangipani & the bidding war began. The poor guy was the next to be beset upon by the Tag-Teaming Tasmanian Devils of Haggling [so many ways to describe them in action!]. So happy was I with my purchase because of course The Girls got a great deal on the already ubër ubër cheap stuff, [this time I bought more than one box] I looked around to see what else he had & spied some bea-U-tee-ful shawls, making the cut for my special gift list. In addition, I learned some trivia about the incense which is also called Temple Tree. When I was in Kauai, Hawaii, I was introduced to a flower called Plumeria. I say introduced because I was familiar with the perfume fragrance which makes me wanna puke when I smell it, but the flower in its natural state is a whole notha olfactory sensation! They make leis with the beautiful petals & I couldn’t get enough of the scent. So I was & am too delighted [ooh that word again that I never ok, rarely use] to see that Frangipani is a common name for that flower. In Sanskrit [one of India’s classical languages & is the language of many chants used in yoga] it is known as Kshira Champa, & commonly planted near temples because of its sweet scent. Priceless.
And of course all this shopping makes one hungry, so we hightail it over to a Starbucks-like [nah, actually it’s a lot nicer] funky coffee shop called Café Coffee Day. For some reason, that name wouldn’t stcik in my head to save my life so don’t quote me on this, I may be making it up! Anywho, this one was in G.K. Market [the Greater Kailish area] & is surrounded by trendy shops. They have tables & chairs but also couches for an intimate hang out atmosphere to suit the yuppie crowd. Always up for an adventure, I chose a Chicken Tikka sandwich [small boneless chicken pieces made in the Tandoori oven] —eeeee-yummee! Toasted, it melted right in my mouth. Seasoned to perfection, spicy but not to the point of making my upper lip sweat, and for once, not too salty which was very much the case with most of the cuisine I was to eat here. Curious as to how Indian milk shakes taste, I took a risk with Black Current, especially since I am such the strawberry girl. MAN!!! Way good, WAY GOOD! The total for my lunch? A splendiferous $4.20 US.