India offers sensational handicrafts at affordable prices. To watch an Indian craftsman at work is to begin to understand the years of patient practice needed to become master of his craft. The range of quality craftsmanship is vast, from sweet-smelling carved sandalwood and exotic silk weaves to pricey jewelry and intricately inlaid marble using precious and semi-precious stones. Delhi is the place for top-quality shopping for all India’s crafts; Agra and Jaipur have the best range of their own specialties, with craftsmen to watch so you can really appreciate the skill.
There are three ways of shopping: in government-run emporia, in private shops including hotel arcades, and in the bazars.
In the government-run emporia, particularly in Delhi, the prices are fixed, the goods specially commissioned for the shop by good buyer s who know their subject, and the payment and shipping systems work. These are the best places for big buys that need shipping, for speedy. mass present buying, and for browsing to get an idea of the standard of craftsmanship, the range and the prices before taking the plunge into the smaller shops or the bazars.
In the private shops fixed prices are rarely fixed and a more sophisticated loin’ of bargaining takes place especially for pricier goods. If your buy includes precious metals or stones, it is essential to have a fully detailed receipt. It is always best to check up comparative prices in competitive shops. It is never wise to be led to a shop which has a title remarkably like a government-run emporium, or which boasts ‘government approved’ on the façade.
In the colorful, bustling bazars bartering is the game. This is the fun way to buy small items, especially in the evenings when locals come to shop. Fairy lights brighten the twilight and men at little stalls fry up delicious-smelling snacks to compete with the sweet perfumes of the piles of garlands on the flower stalls. There is no clear yardstick for price reduction—everyone acquires a triumphant tale of bashing a trader down from Rs 100 to Rs 5—but it is worth remembering that the trader is never going to sell below the price he paid, never.
When you are availing Golden Triangle Travel Package in India , covering Agra , Jaipur and Delhi or extensions such as Golden Triangle with Shimla Tour , following shopping tips should be useful :
AGRA
Agra is rip-off-ville. Unless you are very, very careful, the euphoria of a special buy can dissolve into the realization that good money was spent on rubbish. Quantities of rip-off shops slip words such as ‘government’, `official’, ’emporium’ and ‘cottage industry’ into their titles but bear no relation to the reliable, government-run emporia in Delhi. Trust no one for advice, least of all those who lurk in hotel lobbies.
Here are a handful of safe shops. First, inlaid marble, perhaps the most tempting buy (but not to be confused with soapstone, a cheap soft stone that resembles marble but will scratch and stain unlike marble and has, none of its luminosity). Prettily inlaid soapstone boxes sold outside the Taj and Fort should cost only a few rupees. To buy the real thing, it is safest to shop at the best marble inlay store, Subhash, at 18/1 Gwalior Road, where you get top-quality materials and craftsmanship.
Next, dhurries and pile carpets. One reliable shop with fair prices is Radhey Emporium, 4/13 Gopal Nagar, Taj Ganj, where the owner employs craftsmen in and around the city.
Of the Jewelers, Koh-i-Noor is a reliable large jeweler in town, with plenty of award-winning creations on show. Lall, in the Mughal Sheraton, is also good. At both, pieces can be altered or even made to order. A less expensive buy is the Agra embroidery and bead work done on velvet and made up into belts and evening handbags.
For cheap and cheerful dhurries, wedding tinsel and saris go to the market behind Jama Masjid in Old Agra, or forage through narrower streets to find Sando and his fellow patang wallahs (kite makers) in Mal-ka-Bazar.
JAIPUR
Shopping in the old bazars at twilight, in the shadows of the City Palace, can be magical in this most romantic city. But shopping in private shops can be another story. Suffice to recount that when Delhi’s Central Cottage Industries Emporium set up a branch here, the local guides and drivers ensured it received no publicity, got no trade and finally had to close down. There is a Rajasthan Government Handicrafts Emporium on M.I. Road but its stock is disappointing.
Best buys are the local crafts. Jaipur and nearby Sanganer’s best-known export to the world is block-printing. There are several good shops. Anokhi on Tilak Marg, south of the Pink City, uses some of the best printers available to produce fine Western garments (they also have shops in Delhi at Santushti and Khan Market, Delhi ); Kin Fabrics is on Station Road; Saadh Textiles and J K Arts arc both on Sanganer’s main road; and Maharaja Textile Printer is now conveniently at Gangapol, near Samode Haveli and beside Jaipur’s gateway north to Amber. For the offshoot of Sanganer printing, coloured or gold-speckled handmade paper, go to Khadi Ghar on M.I. Road.
Still on fabric, this is the moment to buy the brightly colored Rajasthan cotton, often difficult to buy elsewhere. The best is sold at the Clothe Bazar which is a network of tiny lanes entered from the south-west corner of Badi Chauper crossroads or opposite Haldion-ka-Rasta on Johari Bazar—where there are plenty of other cloth shops too.
Here also is the bandhani (tie-dye) work, often sold still crinkled up and unironed. Some is worked in Jaipur, some in western Rajasthan, in and around Jodhpur. This cloth of intricate patterns of many thousand dots, tied by nimble fingers and then dyed in great vats, can be made to order, the customer choosing colours and design. To see the craft, seek out Neel Garo ka Mohla, off Ramganj Bazar, where young Mohammed Ramzan is already an award-winning craftsman; to buy his work, go to Rana Sari Emporium or Rajasthan Sari Emporium, both in Johari Bazar. Still off Ramganj Bazar, Marudhara Enterprise at 1677 Khawasji ka Rasta is piled ceiling-high with pieces of applique and embroidery including white kanas (shawls) made in Barmer.
Jaipur blue pottery is undergoing a revival. Kripal Singh sells his beautiful pots from his Jaipur studio, B-18a Siva Marg, Bani Park, by prior appointment (and in Delhi at The Shop and the Rajasthan Government Emporium). Anokhi too stocks pots, doorknobs, Jewellery and other ceramics.
Another Jaipur craft is the tricky art of lacquering and engraving brass ware. Too see some of the skill and possibly invest in a piece, go to P M Allah Buksh & Son on M.I. Road (closed on Friday). The dish, bowl or tray is made first. Then the craftsman applies the delicate pattern by repousse (raising parts), embossing (indenting parts) and engraving fine arabesques, finally coloring some areas and then polishing the whole piece to show off a glittering and complex design.
- Lacquering
As in Agra, Jewellery is a tempting but dangerous buy. For semi-precious stones, bargain hard in Gopalji-ka-Rasta which runs west off Johari Bazar (Shakti Gems at shop no. 79 is very reliable); here live Jewellers skilled in JatPur’s traditional meenakari work (combinations of gold, stones and delicate floral enamel designs). For precious stones, bargain equally hard in Haldion-ka-Rasta, on the opposite side of Johari Bazar. Not far along, Bhuramal Rajmal Surana is at Lal Katra, found upstairs through a painted archway. One of the finest (and one of the few reliable) Jewellers in town, Surana stocks both the traditional meenakari pieces and regular Indian and European designs. It is here that old Jaipur families come, not to the clutch of Jewellers on M.I. Road who should be approached with the greatest caution. That said, Gem Palace on M I Road is reliable for loose stones and Jewellery; their craftsmen will make up clients’ designs and can be observed working on site together with meenakari artisans. Both shops have fine old pieces on display.
The most enjoyable Jaipur shopping is in the bazars. In addition to the fabric, bandhani work and stones, you can find splendid puppets opposite the Hawa Mahal, near the Famous Nagra Shoe Store which stocks local leather shoes from all over Rajasthan. There are more shoe shops in Ramganj where Mr Nizamuddin’s Fancy Nagra Shoe Store has camel-skin shoes and the Jaipur black and silver embroidered slippers. Back at the Badi Chaupar crossroads, local girls giggle as they select yet more treats from walls of colored glass bangles, while old silver Jewellery is sold diagonally opposite, in kiosks behind the flower carts. At the bottom of JoharBazar kites by Sal-loaner Gate and cheap ‘n’ cheerful costume meenakari Jewellery in Bapu Bazar at shops such as Beauty Palace. Outside Jaipur, it is worth visiting Brigitte Singh’s beautiful shop at Amber.
Delhi
New Delhi is the political nerve-center of India. Purpose-built as the Eastern capital for the British Empire, it now operates under different management as the capital of independent India. Corridors and leafy gardens buzz with political gossip and intrigue. Bungalows, hotels and public buildings are settings for an endless flow of news-exchange and contact-making by diplomats, politicians, international traders, entrepreneurs and journalists, whose public socializing is glamorized by silk sari-clad beauties and turbaned servants and oiled with an astounding consumption of whisky and tray upon tray of chicken tikka.
The wide avenues lined with blossoming trees clog up with an assortment of traffic including the Indian-built Maruti (it is said that 500 new cars hit the capital’s tarmac every month). Painted and overloaded lorries, lolloping old Ambassador cars and nippy auto-rickshaws belch fumes into the air. In the midst of the hubbub, locals calmly stroll, chat and take naps in the lush parks and on the many roundabouts ablaze with competitive municipal planting—a Delhi gardener’s dream is to win an annual award and adorn his mound of flowerbeds with, perhaps, the sign `First Prize Middle-sized Roundabout’.
The flat plains have encouraged many past Delhi rulers to indulge in large-scale rebuilding. But even by their standards, where to abandon a conquered city and start entirely afresh was normal, the twisting tentacles of the modern capital have a rampant appetite for infinite expansion. Hungrily they gobble up acre after acre, sometimes bending with good grace to include an old building from an older Delhi, sometimes bulldozing the past in favor of concrete and, of course, high-rises. To the north, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s Old Delhi presents a barrier; but to the south, smart New Delhi estates known as colonies have eased themselves around Delhi’s old cities; and to the east and west more colonies sprawl over the plains into the distance.
Getting to know any big capital is bewildering, and Delhi is no exception. To cope with its size and complexity, the most rewarding way to begin exploring is to take one area at a time. For transport, an auto-rickshaw is ideal for the center, and the driver will wait if you want to hop down for a few minutes; walking is best for Old Delhi lanes; but take a taxi for the old British area to the north and for southern New Delhi’s old cities. The vital accessory is a map, available free from the tourist office or for a few rupees at a bookshop.
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