Call Me Princess Katelyn
Well, with Austin’s arrival approaching and Jasdeep heading back to America- Jasdeep and I headed back to Delhi to part our ways. Since a few meetings needed to occur beforehand, we left a day early. Lucky for me, Jasdeep’s Aunt lives in Delhi and I was invited to stay with them for the night.
All the meetings were fine and dandy, it was the shopping that sparked my interested to write this blog. Jasdeep knew the area her aunt lived in (called South Ex) and explained it as the nice area where all the shopping occurred. Well whoa baby was I in for a treat! I told Jasdeep that I really wanted a sari and wanted to buy a few small gifts for friends and family.
We reached Delhi around 5 pm so we only had about 2 hours to squeeze in our shopping. We grabbed a cab from the airport and flew to her aunts house (then again, in any vehicle in India you would ‘fly’). Regardless, we said hello to her Aunt then headed back out for the shops at South Ex.
This place had everything from fancy Indian boutiques to Puma to McDonalds. Whoa. We ended up walking in a few sari shops but eventually ended up finding “my dream dress….or sari.” The whole process is quite the ordeal. As you walk in, the store people sit you down in front of a big bed looking bench. One man sits on the bed and literally throws open the saris as you try to make a selection. You say “black” and 50 dresses are strewn across the bed…you say “maybe red” and another 50 head your way. Diamond-y sari’s, embroidered sari’s, gaudy sari’s, boring sari’s….they got it all. Talk about pressure.
With the help of Jasdeep (sari queen and major aide to my indecisiveness), I eventually found the one I loved. It was black (what I was going for…elegance I suppose) with a trickle of gold at the bottom. When you fold it, the gold crosses over the front of the body. Anyway, it is SUPER cool looking. The process then continues- you have to take the sari to the tailor and start measurements, style of the top part and bargain a time for it to be completed. The man was super nice and said he could do it in a day. Awesome. He also suggested a top he thought would be best and said he could add some crystals (there are rhinestones at the bottom so he said he thought it would be neat to add them to the straps of the top as well). So yes, yes, yes. All sounded good. 24 hours later and whaboom. Beautiful, custom made, sari.
I feel like a princess.
Much Love from royal India,
Katelyn
