Monday November 17, 2008
THE MANCHESTER OF THE EAST
Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Today our focus was exclusively textiles. We spent the morning with a lovely shopkeeper who specializes in antique Gujarati and Rajasthani textiles. He also designs some pieces of his own using scraps on old and unsalvageable garments. He gave us quite an education about techniques and by the end of the talk we could identify the difference between Gujarati and Pakistani stitching and design and had fallen in love with many antique pieces that were far too expensive for us to buy.
Then we moved on to a very small but interesting shop that sells works make via a textile cooperative rather like the ones we saw in Calcutta and Bhuj. The name of the shop is SHRUJAN and is *** worth a detour.
After Shrujan we walked along the madness that is the streets of India and suddenly turned and walked through a door and down some steps. I thought we were entering a subway station, but no, a world of lovely shops appeared in an underground shopping arcade. I don’t know the name of the shop but it was glorious – filled with very high quality Kurtas in every color and fabric. The women shopping there were equally elegant. Several of us decided to stay after the group left and we had fun trying on different designs and working out color combinations. A kurta consists of a pant, a long tunic top and a scarf which is worn hanging down the back. It is an amazingly comfortable outfit and I now see why Indian women love them so much.
We went to the bookstore next door in search of Indian CDs and other fun items. Finally we took auto-rickshaws back to the hotel (a tuk-tuk by any other name).
Since several of us had gone through the agony of getting a liquor permit and had wine, we all met in Jill's room for little farewell to Gujarat party. Then a quiet dinner in the hotel before packing yet again.
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