I had too much of extra time and energy to sit at home and get bored one weekend, so I decided to make use of the fact that I live in one of the most vibrant cities of the world !
I called up my friend who lives right across the street and we decided to go exploring.
We headed down south to the town, a short train ride away from the suburbs where we live, to get the taste of the 'town'. The first expedition- we decided has to be about shopping and fashion! To indulge in a little gal pleasure of discovering fun accessories, hand crafted interior designs and who knows what all stuff the streets have to offer ! Yes - my ladies and gentlemen, we were street shopping . How exciting !!
Hence we made the Colaba Causeway our foremost and primary destination.
We exited out of the VT station and took a cab to Colaba Causeway. If it'd not been SO hot we'd have loved walking to it. So, in case whenever you go, walk in the area in daylight... splendid it is. Surrounded by ancient , uniform 3 story-ed buildings, which have seen so much of time and people, wide roads in neat right angles, and patches of clean blue sky above, its a treat to the eyes of anyone who's actually seeing all of this.Some places have just so much history in them.
I can understand why many people miss out on the history and the sky and all other things .. that's because they are blinded by all the cool stuff that street vendors were selling! When we saw that, our faces were that like the pirates as if we'd discovered the Gold of Aztec! ...or like we'd time traveled into the Arabian Nights! Such amazing creative earrings, bangles, kurtas, bags, durries. So many colours and so many different designs. It was liberating to see all of that. We were simply not prepared for that.
Street shopping is supposed to be fun.. but not this cool!
My guidelines for people venturing on Colaba causeway/Bandra Hill road are:
1. Keep a budget in mind. You're never going to keep it, but its good to have some lines drawn when entering so much temptation.
2. Keep at least a vague view of what you want to buy. It shouldn't be that you went to buy a clutch and came back with bag full of mugs, bedsheets, kurtas, big tote having totally forgotten about the innocent red clutch. These are tricky places for the mind.
3. ALWAYS and always bargain. Firmly but discreetly. If a shopkeeper senses that your bargain may be affecting other customers too, there goes your price!
What I bought -
A table runner, a small lipstick holder that'll actually hold my earphones, a beautiful turquoise kurta, a yellow oxidized metal belt for my dresses or even saris and a bright pink T-shirt with an agenda to make crows more popular (as if!).
Having satiated our hunger of culture and accessories, we stepped into the legendary "Leopold Cafe" to have their legendary cheesecake and sandwiches. Absolutely...yummy. That place deserves a standing ovation. Truly does. Any maybe that's why its so popular, specially after having gone through so much!
We can still see some of the bullet marks on the walls from the terrorist attacks in 2008.
After feeling pleasantly full, half sleepy, done with our day of a little newness, tired as little kids back from the fete, we took a train back home to home and our regular lives.
Next expedition will be to create a picture scrapbook with history from all over the city!
We also found a delightful french place, will post details of that in the next post.
Until then -
Life is either a great adventure or nothing -Hellen Keller
2 comments:
So that's where we are going now. shopping experiences. Not bad :). May be u can become a shopping show host.
Thank u Vin !! You're a good friend.. but I dont think theres anything like a shopping show host who just writes and has no show to host and has my fashion sense :P
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