“I can take you to a market where Bapu Market owners go to shop. It’s not for tourists. It’s wholesale. Better than Bapu Market.” said the rickshaw driver. I was curious if it was indeed a market for shop owners and not for tourists. I played along. We agreed to a slightly higher fee because ‘Mughal Market’ was further away from the touristy Bapu Market, and off we went. I was looking forward to learning about a secret market that wasn’t listed in the books, that is, until we pulled up to a storefront that wasn’t at all a market and catered very much to tourists. Tourists who didn’t know any better.
I asked for prices and did a bad job hiding my disdain. “I’m sorry, this is too expensive for me. I got similar pieces for much less. These pieces aren’t even finished!” I pointed to the beaded wall hangings half the size of what I purchased in Varanasi. I bristled and signaled to Andrew it was time to go.
“I bet our driver is going to be disappointed he won’t get any commission off of this trip…” I said to Andrew on our way out.
Then I turned to our driver, “So how much commission would you have made?” I asked. He didn’t respond, and didn’t seem too pleased that I was calling him out. I declined when he asked if we wanted to go to a silver shop and requested we go to Bapu Market to try my luck there instead. He knew I knew what he was up to and that he was not going to earn a rupee of commission off of me, dropped us off at Bapu Market, and charged us only half of the original fare. To cleanse his karma, I’m sure.
So please, be warned (we later found out another couple fell for the same ruse), as always, if it’s too good to be true… It’s really a rickshaw driver getting a healthy commission out of you. Better off at Bapu Market. Besides, it’s much more fun, especially when the shop you settle down in has a could-have-been-born-in-New-Jersey salesman trying to get you to buy his entire shop.
“Sit down!” New Jersey kept pushing.
“No. I know your tricks. I’m not sitting down. I want to see your wall hangings, beaded please and I need to know how much they are.” I paced. Not necessarily in the mood for the sit down, small talk over chai tea, hour long sales pitch before I could find out what the lowest price for a wall hanging might be.
“Be comfortable! Sit down!” he said again. I looked through several wall hangings (gifts for friends or sisters back home so no, I won’t be posting pictures of them here!) and not sitting once, I haggled him down to a decent price.
“Are you happy?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m happy. Are you happy?” I asked, getting used to this exchange… Indians want you to be happy. When they aren’t too busy trying to pull the wool over your eyes.
“Yes. Now what else can I get you. You want to try on a sari? Take your picture?” He asked. Andrew was bored. I declined, eyed the scarves, and said we would be back- maybe- for a scarf or two. We walked through the market. Everyone shouted an invite into their shop. My advice? Just pick one.
After getting totally surrounded by a group of uniformed children who just got released from school, we went back to New Jersey’s shop.
“Alright, what kind of pillowcases do you have?” I sighed, playfully, and sat down in his shop. By the time we walked out, Andrew got him to be in his video, I got his picture, he asked for a picture with me, we were besties. It was way better than walking out wondering how much money you were overcharged because your rickshaw driver brought you there…
Andrew and I went further across town than we anticipated for a restaurant that had high rankings on Trip Advisor. An Indian buffet, kinda like Vips in Korea, only with unlimited amounts of curry instead of kimchi. Then we made our way back across town to the Raj Mandir; an old movie theater my Rough Guide insisted it was THE theatre to check out in all of India.
We showed up nearly an hour before the movie started and waited in a line (ladies in their own) outside of the theater. Despite the beautiful facade, waiting in the dark outside of the theatre, for a cheap seat (only 60 Rs!) to see a Bollywood film… I honestly wasn’t expecting much. And then we walked inside.
The theater lobby was beautiful! Old school. Art deco. Classy. Andrew sat, while I walked around taking pictures of the lobby and then when I joined him, all of the men surrounding us, staring at our every move, decided they wanted pictures first of just them and then with me… right up until the lobby was empty and the theater was full. We squeezed into our seats for the first half of Jab Tak Hai Jaan.
It was my first Bollywood film, and it was fabulous. The lip synced songs weren’t exactly my favorite, but the choreographed dance routines more than made up for the cheese I was certain was being sung about. Around midnight, the lights went up for intermission. With full bellies still from BBQ Nation, and an early alarm already set to catch our bus to Pushkar the next day, we snuck out with intentions of downloading the second half of the movie later to watch at home!
