Saturday, March 1, 2008

Pearl Shopping in Secunderabad

We had a window of a few free hours before the wedding on Saturday and it was my last chance to head into town to do the pearl shopping that I had heard so much about. I had promised my mother a few specific things, so I had to do my best to get this mission accomplished. Rohit’s brother-in-law, Major Agarwal, said he needed to go into town as well to exchange a jewelry set he had purchased for his wife – so we took off! With military personnel taking charge, I was sure that this was going to happen. For good measure, we took Rohit’s neighbor from Jaipur, “The Colonel,” with us.

We decided to take the Hyderabad Metro, the Multi Modal Transport System (MMTS), into Secunderabad, where the Major’s recommended jewelry shop was located. The MMTS is a part of the Indian Railways, which is one of the largest employers in the world.
The Metro from Miyapur to Secunderabad was very inexpensive and efficient. I was trying not to get motion sickness, as I was still recovering, so I don’t particularly remember the scenery. But what I do remember are the scents that rushed into the wide-open doors of the train cars where we stood. They ranged from fluffy hay to diesel exhaust to sun-warmed strawberries to straight-out sewage. This was playing unimaginable tricks on my stomach, but luckily I made it through the 30-minute or so ride without incident.
We finally made it to Secunderabad, which is known as The Old City, as opposed to Hyderabad, The New City. Together, they are known as the Twin Cities, much like Minneapolis and St. Paul, I guess. I’ve never been to Minneapolis or St. Paul, but I imagine the comparison ends there! One more note on The Old City – it is the home to Paradise, which I was told I needed to visit to have the best and most authentic biryani. It is my one regret during my trip that I was not able to make it to this restaurant, which has been serving biryani for over 80 years. After hearing Priya's explanation of the biryani cooking process performed at this restaurant, I was completely intrigued!

After a brief stop in a military post at the train station to pay regards to the Major’s acquaintances there, we got into a tuk-tuk to take us to the jewelry shop. Here I am in my salwar next to The Colonel holding on for dear life:
Rohit's family gave me a bindi during the ceremonies earlier that day. You can't see them in the photo -- but there are a few grains of rice stuck to it for good measure!

The pearl shop, Amarsons, was packed. I could not believe the number of people crowded into the shop looking at and buying jewelry.
Overall, it was one of the more surreal experiences I had during my trip. It was close to chaos, by my tender American standards of chaos, and while the Major and the Colonel were being served readily – they seemed to be holding out on bringing me the two very specific items I had requested. This was stressing me out because I knew out time was tight and I didn’t want my shopping to end up being the leg of the trip that delayed our return! In the end I believe that they were just keeping me on hold so that I could look at all of the beautiful items that Major and Colonel were looking at for their wives.

Eventually my items came out, and slowly all of the pieces came together. Here is the gentleman who assembled the Tahitian black pearl pendants I bought for my mother and myself:
I want to thank Major Agarwal for accompanying me to this shop. I am certain that without his presence -- I would have been a lot more anxious about being TAKEN! =) I feel like to be able to confidently manuever these waters as a non-local -- one would need to be a trained pearl and gold merchant!

If anyone will be going pearl shopping in Hyderabad in the future, please feel free to contact me and I would be more than happy to share my experience with you! And I mean “experience,” not “expertise."

While doing a tiny bit more shoppping for wedding items in the Old City, I saw this decked out department store:
We headed back to the train station to take another Metro back, but found out that it would be another hour before a train to Miyapur would arrive.
So, we got back on a tuk-tuk for a long and somewhat meandering drive back to Miyapur, arriving just in time to get ready for the wedding!

1 comment:

JulieB said...

Ahhh, I am so glad to finally see a picture of you on this blog. You've been the eye behind the camera all the time, so we didn't get the pleasure of seeing you.

You look good with a bindi -- crooked or not!