Shopping Is A Stressful Thing

We have a few interesting tales to tell. A funny one, first.

We were walking out of the Taj Mahal site and like all typical tourist sites, a string of enterprising young men tried to get us to buy souvenirs – key chains, postcards etc. After ignoring quite a few of them, Charlotte’s attention was caught by an offer of Taj Mahal keychains at 2 for ten dollars. She happily asked for 4 of them. We were reaching for 20 rupees, when the young man said 20 USD…. We got alarmed … and walked away as fast as we can :).

Later our nonchalant guide mentioned that it was only 5 rupees per key chain. How kind of him to mention the fact to us after we had already paid about 50 rupees per keychain.

Then there were those shops we never asked to visit – be it by the auto guy who wanted to earn additional revenue or the tour guide who is part a network of businesses.

Speaking of network, I have a whole new interpretation or definition of the term ‘network’. More about that when I share the New Delhi experience with conmen.

There were lots of pressure to buy something. It was a real test of one’s boundaries and a psychological battle – the buyer cannot cave in to a sense of obligation. Unfortunately, I did.

One such example was the visit to one of the 700 families whose ancestors were involved in the construction of the Taj, so we were told.

The chieftain of the shop took us through the steps  involved in the carving of the marble and the setting of coloured stones into intricate designs. His team of craftsmen, whom he said are trainees, quietly executing the step-by-step skills in the background. They looked up occasionally with their sad eyes and I wondered if they were indeed enjoying the skill or were being enslaved. He explained and stressed the exquisiteness of the design and had us touch the fingers of two of the craftsmen and I did. Indeed, the fingers were heavily calloused.

Then, we were brought into the shop and interestingly they started us in the more expensive section – exquisite tables, garden statues, and items that were way out of our ability to pay [SGD 400 and up] – they must have thought very highly of us. I politely showed some interests, asked some questions, exclaimed at the great work but did not at any time misled.

When they knew we were not biting the bait, we got moved into another section with lower prices [most of which are SGD 75]. Finally, in order to expedite the completion of the visit, I decided to buy an owl and that too, was after I stressed I could only afford the cheapest item they had. After we left the shop, we realised that we only bargained off SGD 3 – what a poor bargain!!!

Back to Bangalore, shopping in Commercial Street, which we did during the final 2 hours we had before heading to the airport to fly back to Singapore, was one of the highlights for Charlotte. We did not do any major shopping in the week-long visit to India and the few shops we did stop in along Indiranagar had prices similar to Singapore. Charlotte was wondering why she was not shopping in Commercial Street earlier. Hahaha, the hook was timed perfectly. She has reasons to visit Bangalore again!!!