February 27, 2017
India is a confounding country. Everywhere you look there are disparities in every aspect of the human condition...wealth distribution, class, economics, living conditions, transportation, education. These may be head turners to visitors from abroad.
For Indians, they're the way things are, now, in the past, and for the foreseeable future. pt at large was lucky enough to be invited to the New Delhi wedding of a good friend's daughter, was part of the wedding party that geared up with four days of pre-wedding festivities and planning. The two-day wedding began with a traditional "Henna Ceremony" for the bridal party at 10:30 Friday morning March 3 (post to follow) and finished Saturday afternoon March 4...with 500 (not a typo) invited guests!
Young woman working in Atlanta meets graduate of Georgia Tech... journalist meets engineer, Connecticut meets New Delhi, proposals are accepted, a wedding is planned, New Delhi is ground zero for the wedding.
2 AM Monday: the East coast contingent lands in New Delhi, is greeted by the groom's father in as lively a greeting as you can have when the visitors deplane after nearly 24 hours at 32,000 feet. Vans drive us to our hotel.The heck with jet lag. There's clothes shopping to do.
East coasters leave their suits and black dresses and heels home. Time for saris, bangles and shoes for the women, kurtas, churidars and shoes for the men. We're all into merging cultures, a microcosm of what's happening between the groom and his bride.
When we're not shopping, we're being treated to lunches, dinners and tea. The only touring we do is what we see from the vans as we careen through the New Delhi traffic - which is another story all together.
New Delhi is building a Metro right through the bustling Lajpat Nagar Central Market, where the groom's wedding suit is being made by a store owned by a friend of his mother who runs the business. The dust and crazy parking don't seem to bother anyone.
Strolling to the store, entering Parampara Clothing store.
The groom's mother and her sister relax with the owner while the groom tries on his wedding suit. This is a small family owned business in an area jammed with brick and mortar stores and vendors peddling their wares in the street. The groom checks his outfit. Soon we'll be shopping for our own.
While waiting, I venture out the back door. The alleys are alive with the rhythmic chants of street vendors hawking their wares as they carry them around by hand or stand behind makeshift tables.
The alleys are jammed with street vendors plying their wares. Streams of shoppers bargain for goods, vendors bark out sales pitches for their products, the place is alive with commerce.
Incongruous mix of brick/mortar stores, street vendors, some legal, some not. Huge age range of shoppers, families, singles, couples, groups of young men and women, all looking for a good deal. The chanting of vendors hawking their wares is glorious nod to the practice carried on in open air markets of the world over and certainly in markets in the middle and far east.
Shoppers appear friendly as this camera toting westerner with the big smile wanders about.
All of a sudden, some street side vendors appear to be in a panic. Later I hear that the police are on the way. Vendors with no permits hustle to hide their merchandise and disappear. I'll bet they'll be back in a few hours.
The groom's father tells me the back story of the Lajpat Central Market and, in perfect script, writes this into my notebook.
"Lala Lajpat Rai was a freedom fighter of India, was later charged during freedom movement by Britishers he bled to death.”
He says that after the freedom movement, the original Indian National Army members were given shops when they retired so could make a living selling merchandise.
The groom and two other men in the wedding party couldn't find shoes that fit in the big time stores. And hit paydirt when they returned to Lajpat Nagar and found a shoe store the size of a school bus that was packed floor to ceiling with an astonishing array of shoes for the occasion.
My jaw dropped when I caught a glimpse of the next stop.
The DLF Promenade is one of the most slick, granite, marble shopping malls you'll find anywhere in the world.
If it weren't for the predominance of saris, I'd swear this mall was in suburban California.
The comparison between the two places where we shopped is jaw-dropping. I suppose there are such disparities all over the world. In India, they're over the top.
Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
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