Of Rainy Mondays and Saree Sales

I took yesterday off from this blog for no reason in particular. Today, I feel like blogging and I'm sure it has to do with the fact that I have pending work from SMT (like dot being motivated to clean his house when he has has a paper to write)....but, who cares what the motivation is...here are Monday's chronicles.

Yesterday began with the great dilemma that we suburb-dwellers face when we have to go to town (mumbaiyya for anyplace after Mumbai Central on the Western Railway line) - bus or train. We had to go to a place called New Marine Lines, which is very close to Churchgate (for the sake of dot's orientation). They have a string of very high-profile saree shops which are having their monsoon clearance sales. So Mum and me started going through one shop at a time.

What hadn't counted on was that save for a couple of shops, all the others had just begun the sales yesterday. So every shop was an adventure in getting to the counter selling your type of saree braving hordes of loud, impolite, sweaty G women (yes, I'm racist) - it was so not funny to be poked in the back when you were in the way, to be told "aa drayse che, saadi nathi" when you didn't ask, and to be left holding the door open while a flock of them chattily made their way into the shop when you first opened the door for yourself to get out! Ugh!

Anyways, that said, looking for the saree was fun. This is a very very rough image (the best representation I could find online) of the saree I have in mind - though i'm looking for one in ivory/gold with very delicate and spaced-out "work" (the beads, embroidery, crystals, zardosi, etc.). We saw lots of pretty ones with not-so-pretty prices. Yet, I want to be sure I have seen them all before I buy the one I like best; so this adventure is going to be continued the coming Saturday, with the godmother and her daughter in tow, in the Dadar saree district - wish us all luck again.

Oh and before the saree shops, I did make a wee trip to Alliance Francaise de Bombay to check about the French courses - there doesn't seem to be a short one to fit my schedule, but I was asked to check next month for their new time-tables. Fingers crossed.

After getting back home I called Glenn Dodd's office. Glenn's a very very very handsome-looking man (and he has two daughters my age!) and a friend of mum's from her Kodak days. He's a professional photographer/videographer and I am trying to get him to do our wedding pictures. Unfortunately, he's already got two other committments for the same day and can send an apprentice to ours if we would like. I told him I wasn't so sure because I live with the who's-who of photography and it would remain a cherished breakfast/lunch/tea/dinner conversation topic if I didn't try hard enough to find the "best" photographer (if such an entity exists). So there. Nevertheless, I'm meeting him this evening at six to see what my options are.

I also checked out and compared fares for flights and trains and think the latter might be a more reasonable bet. Three-tier AC - Kanyakumari Express - takes about 14 hours from VT (I know it is Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, but so what) to Kochi (or Ernakulam Town) - have to check with everybody else if that's okay. Anyways, reservations can only be done three months in advance; so we're good.

For today, I'm going to work (boohoo!) and going to try to go back to the gym (sigh). More on everything else later.