Trip to Kanchipuram

Hi All,

I am back and i have a good reason for not posting for such a long interval. The waiting period for a posting location just seems to get loooonger and looonger every passing day and it seems like my training got completed ages back. Its not just the depression from the waiting but also a rather excruciating throat condition that has prevented me from doing what i want do.

Anyways, i paid a visit to my sister’s place during the extended Good Friday weekend and we went to Kanchipuram to buy some silk sarees for the women folk. As you would have guessed, i tried to sneak away by providing some lame reason but as fate would have it i was not even given a choice.

So off we went…. me, my mother, my sis her two kids and my bro-in-law. It was quite a journey taking almost an hour and half and the bad roads not making the situation any better. Once we had reached there it was hospitality at its best. Greetings flew thick and fast and within minutes we had a salesman allocated to us and the onerous task of choosing the best sarees started.(That was approximately the time i opened the HINDU which i had brought along anticipating a long session)

As my mother and sister (terror duo )started sifting through the seemingly endless collection, i was deeply engrossed in the political happenings which were extensively covered in the news paper. I occasionally sighed a heave of relief when the duo finalised a saree.

The sales man, i must admit, was an epitome of patience. He displayed every saree that was requested by the terror duo and gave some additional “tid bit” information about each saree. When the duo rejected a saree after examining it for what seemed like an eternity, he folded it back and displayed a new one. WOW! Hats off to this man and thousands like him who suffer at the hands of women every day.

After two complete readings of the HINDU and fetching my nephew to the toilet a number of times, it was all over. It had taken just over 3 hours to choose 7 sarees and the bill read close to 30K. When i had lamented to my mother about the delay, she chided me and added that she was much better comparatively!