India: Shopping, Shipping and Receiving

I've decided to write and post vignettes about my Indian experiences using lots of pictures. This is the first one, inspired by my parcel mailed from Jaipur via SAL Mail (meaning "Surface Air Lifted" and is the least expensive) on Wednesday February 24 and arrived in Vernon the same day as me, Friday March 12. What great service! Double-click on an image to enlarge it.

These men were in Gamthiwala Fabrics in Ahmedabad. The man on the right is the fellow who served me, and the man on the left is the owner--he wrote up the bill and took my money. The man in the centre is a block printer from Kutch, visiting for a few days. Both Anokhi and Maiwa are strong supporters of his work.

On the way to Jaipur, we stopped at "Shri Govind Arts" in Bagru and were treated to an array of block printed, mud resist and indigo dyed fabrics. Once again, we seemed to be following Charlotte Kwan's footsteps--Maiwa buys a lot of its natural dyed fabrics here, and Charlotte was just there the week before. We learned that this workshop also uses chemical dyes for their brighter saturated colours which Indians prefer.

By Wednesday it was apparent that I would not be able to carry all that I was buying, so we went to the post office. Here's the customer service man sewing up my parcel.
It arrived intact, if a little dirty, 2 1/2 weeks later. I left it on my table for several hours, savouring the delights it held.

I finally undid the stitching and released the contents, spreading everything out to enjoy.

And the last phase was to wash and hang up the fabric. I am in the midst of ironing it all.

Indian postal services...

Yesterday we made a visit to a paper making factory in Sanganer just south of Jaipur--had a great tour of the process from start to finish. They use fabric to make their paper--this is where Anokhi sends all its scraps. And at the end of the tour were two great big tables around which women were attaching handles to the Anokhi shopping bags which seemed very fitting for us. These are not just any old paper bag; the paper is sturdy and attractive. I'll be bringing a couple home with me.
We then went to the main post office in Jaipur to mail home some of our purchases. I decided to lighten my load considerably by sending everything I don't need from now on...first we had to line up at a wicket to get it all weighed and costed. Then we took our various bags to "customer service" which was a man standing behind a table in the lobby. It was utterly fascinating to watch him at work. He started by stacking my shopping bags to create a fairly uniform cube (I had tried to do it in advance on a corner of the table, and he stopped me, "No madam, I'll handle that", and sure enough he managed to create a uniform shape with newspaper and string. Next came the custom made bag. He was using old sheeting, and he measured and ripped a piece of cloth that he sewed with a very quick running stitch into a bag. Then my goods were slipped into this bag and he stitched it shut. I asked if I could take his photo, and he said "sure, why not?" He's probably been a source of entertainment for tourists for years. I then had to line up at yet another wicket to send it. This package weighed over 11 Kg and cost me about 3200 Rs (around $80) to send via SAL post.
We spent the rest of the day shopping! Can you imagine...
Today we move onward to Ramthambore national park and hope to see a tiger early tomorrow morning. That'll be a nice change from the shops!