Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Day 1: Indore, first impressions










Indore is supremely chaotic, but beautifully Indian. I'm not here to have an antiseptic experience of a city that mows its lawns to specification.

We climbed the back of trusty beast Spacio to have a look at the Rajwada, and the old fruit bazaar around it. The Rajwada turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, quite unlike the glorious structure that Wikipedia claims it to be. It's basically a large open quadrangle bounded by reinforced walls that are way past their magnificence. You pay 10 bucks to photo shoot, and then you ask yourself, "Now what?"

So you get out and explore the crumbling phul bazaar, with dedicated lanes for lac choodis. I need to say it again - this place is colourful and chaotic. I have been close to being run over in quick succession by vehicles of all sizes, as I do my openly touristy thing of standing in the middle of the road and clicking away.

The ladies in our gang stick their necks into choodi shops, and my boy wants to buy a toy. Fair. We haven't yet really thought about his source of entertainment.




Later, I engage a mithaiwala in conversation over the most awesome steaming plate of gajar ka halwa. Truly, an Andrew Zimmern 'Oh!' moment.

I break protocol at the mithai shop by not purchasing a token, and then circulating them around counters. I just pay the first guy I meet, and that's OK because I'm from Bombay.
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