Riches

I've been telling you that Mumbai is a city full of hidden treasures.  Over the past few weeks, I have been lucky enough to stumble upon a number of them.  I spent Monday morning making my first rangoli - check out the video on Facebook.  I spent the afternoon in the small dress shop that made my sari.  My housekeeper came along because she will wind the sari around my body when I wear it to the Marine Ball next week.  I love entering this shop.  The walls are lined with folded dresses which they'll whip out and lay across the counter in gorgeous piles at any expression of interest.

My sari fit perfectly, my housekeeper schooled both myself and the staff in the shop on best sari practice, and the entire afternoon was loads of fun.  As they ran my credit card through the machine, I chatted with the shop owner about the Mumbai Film Festival, which she loves.  She explained that she is particularly excited about this year's  festival because she designed and created the costumes for one of the entries.  She went on to say that the film would premiere the following day and invited me along.  One simply can not refuse  such an invitation, and so I screened Mango Dreams with the Costume Designer at the Mumbai Film Festival.  The entire afternoon was amazing and surprising, from the company I kept to the Q&A with the actors and director after the film. 

The week grew less glamorous but no less exciting.  There was more shopping, this time for simple black cloth to decorate our car for the Halloween Trunk or Treat at the consulate this evening.  Anything that would be a quick trip to Michael's in America tends to be an exciting excursion when in another country, and the search for black cloth in Mumbai was no different.

I had been advised to check the market stalls across from Marks and Spencer for my simple black cloth, and told specifically to wander inside this market for the cheapest fabric.  Here's my journey in photos:

After navigating a hallway too thin for both myself and my purse, I found myself at a little stand with bolts of fabric lining the side and full, blue plastic bags lining the back wall.  When I asked for cheap black fabric, he grabbed something rather thick but fairly sparkly.  Nt bad for masking a white car, but the price was not right.  At 150 rupees per meter, I asked if he had anything cheaper.

This is when he pulled himself up through a hole in the ceiling.  I had to include the picture, even though I snapped it far too quickly.  He had climbed on top of the desk, stepped up a few shelves, and then hoisted himself into the crawl space before I had the chance to grab my camera.  He rummaged through the attic to find black material which draped easily and eventually fell to $0.75 per meter.

My week full of riches began with rangoli and finished with Halloween, although as I write I am listening to Diwali fireworks out my windows.  It is a richly multi-cultural life we lead here, and our Halloween party was no different.  My trunk was masked neatly in black cloth and covered with orange and black streamers.  Loads of kids came by with varying levels of trick or treating proficiency.  Many needed lessons on how to get candy on Halloween - not by saying please, but by hollering Trick or Treat!  One child simply could not understand my demand, and his mother began prompting him - She is saying take a treat!