What is it with Indians and tinsel?

I am constantly amazed by the Indian fondness for kitschy, shiny stuff. There is not a single part of India where your senses are not overwhelmed by colour and tinsel.

Take this shop in Kinari Bazaar, for example. They sell garlands for weddings, festivals and other assorted uses. Whoever their supplier is, obviously they've achieved the happy bliss that only shiny plastic can deliver!

The shops do brisk business. This is obviously the right place for traditional stuff, so most of middle-class Delhi comes here for all those special things you need just for weddings - gift bags, gift envelopes, little give-aways, jewellery boxes. In most of the shops, you can order in bulk, depending on the number of guests you have planned for the event. Payment is, by and large, in cash.

But it's not just wedding shoppers who come to Kinari Bazaar. Most of Delhi's female population comes here as well. Housewives and teenagers, designers and bargain shoppers, they walk through these lanes looking for sequins and buttons and little bits of fancy embroidery to make their own fashion statement.

If you go on the Delhi Magic Old Delhi Walk, ask the guide to show you these shops. And check if the tinsel tempts you!

Season of Passion

It is winter in Delhi. Children shiver as they dress for morning school. Women bring out their embroidered shawls. In the markets, men huddle together sipping hot tea. The bonfires of the Lohri festival burn brightly, and the heat is very welcome. The city waits in longing for warmer days.

But I guess it takes a poet like Kalidasa to see winter in a different light. To Kalidasa, winter isn't something to grit your teeth against - it is the season of passion. It is the season of long nights in warm scented beds, of beautiful curvaceous women and amorous husbands.

In the 5th Century, Kalidasa wrote Ritusamhara (The Gathering of Seasons), a richly descriptive, evocative and sensuous description of each season in the year. Here's the section from the Ritusamhara on Winter:

Stacks of ripe rice and sugarcane cover the earth
the air rings with the hidden call of curlews
love grows exuberant: Dear to lovely women,
winter is here now; listen my love

Cold, cold, with heavy dews falling thick,
and colder yet with the moonbeams' icy glitter,
lit with ethereal beauty by wan stars
these nights give no comfort.

Wives eager for love, their lotus-faces
fragrant with flower-wine, enter their bedchambers
aromatic with the incense of black aloes
taking betel rolls and garlands and hot perfumes

With breasts held tight by pretty bodices
thighs alluringly veiled by richly dyed silks
and flowers nestling in their hair; Women are
the adornment of this wintry season.

Young women in gay abandonment drink at night
with their fond husbands, the choicest wine
most delicious, exhilarating
heightening passion to its pitch:
the lilies floating in the wine deliciously
tremble under their fragrant breath

At dawn when the rush of passion is spent
one young woman whose breast-tips are tight
from her husband's embrace, carefully views
her body fully enjoyed by him
and laughing, she goes from the bed-chamber
to the living apartments of the house.

Another loving wife leaves her bed at dawn
elegant and graceful, slender waisted,
With deep navel and curved hips;
the splendid mane of hair with curling ends
flows loose; the wreath of flowers slips down.

With faces radiant as golden lotuses
and long liquid eyes; with lustrous red lips
and hair playing enamoured around their shoulders
women shine in their homes these frosty mornings,
resembling the Goddess of Beauty.

This wintry season that abounds with sugarcane
and sweet rice and palm sweet dainties
when Love waxes proud
when love's sport is at fever pitch;
when the anguish of parted lovers is intense;
May this season be to you ever auspicious.

Ritusamharam is not simply a description of Nature. As Chandra Rajan says, "it is an interweaving of the beauty of nature and woman, with the emotional response to both". Kalidasa sees nature, not as a backdrop, but as an active participant. Breezes consort with lotuses, the moonlight and stars kindle passion in men, the sight of green fields and the call of the winter birds awaken love.

If you'd like to read Ritusamharam, try Kalidasa, the Loom of Time from Penguin Classics. It is a selection of his plays and poems, including Meghadutam and Abhignyanasakuntalam.

Kada Seller at Sees Ganj

Outside the Sees Ganj Gurudwara, I saw this woman selling iron bracelets. The bracelets are kadas, worn by the Sikh community as a symbol of strength and self-restraint. All Sikh men wear them, and I've seen women wear them too.

Sikhism is among the world's most progressive religions, with respect to women's rights. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, stated quite clearly that all men and women are equal. Sikh women are expected to participate in daily and religious life in the same way as men. All occupations are open to a Sikh woman, including participation in congregation, academics, healthcare and military.

But what fascinates me about Sikhs, actually, is that they have gender-neutral first names. Sikh women use the same first names as men. Further, Sikh women dont have to take their fathers' or husbands' name. In 1699, the Sikh Guru Gobind Singh gave all Sikh women the last name 'Kaur' which means Prince. So Sikh men and women have similar first names, and Sikh women add Kaur to signify that they are female (men add Singh', which means Lion).

Since traditional Indian surnames reveal a person's caste as well as community, the common surnames were Guru Gobind Singh's attempt to end the social stratification and caste apparatus of Hinduism. The Kaur was also an attempt to give women an identity independent of their fathers and husbands.

And while there's a difference between intent and reality, you gotta hand it to the Sikhs for standing up and making the effort!

Model, Chandni Chowk

I bet none of the Mughal queens were this skinny.

When I was growing up, it was women like these who set the standard, thank god :)

Why are foreigners charged more?

A lot of people ask me why there are different entrance ticket prices for foreigners and Indians at many Indian monuments and sites, specially the Taj. Here are my thoughts:

If you are not an Indian passport holder, and you buy the combined ticket of EUR 12.5 for Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, it works out to EUR 6 or so per attraction.

Here's a comparison with other sites, from a mix of developing as well as developed economies:

• Tickets to Machu Pichu in Peru are EUR 18.
• Tickets to Angkor Wat in Cambodia are EUR 10.
• The entrance ticket to the Colosseum in Rome is EUR 16 for non-EU nationals, and there is a discounted price offered to EU Nationals of EUR 11.
• Tickets to the Leaning Tower of Pisa are also EUR 16 at the moment
• Tickets to the Giza Plateau and at least one pyramid - say Khufu - cost EUR 18.
• Entrances to the Forbidden City in China are only EUR 4 (but that may be because the exchange rate is artificially held by the Chinese goverment).

So - after looking at these prices, my conclusion is - I don't think the Government is significantly overcharging tourists for the Taj / Agra Fort experience.

As far as the differential pricing for Indians is concerned - The Government of India subsidises tickets for Indians to promote our heritage and create more interest / awareness / national pride. Additionally, in a poor country, there is no way the man on the street can afford the kind of the prices that these monuments deserve. This is a dent in the Government coffers, but it is a decision in the national interest which the Tourism department has the right to make.

There is obviously a case to be made for levying flat fees for everyone - Indian or foreign - and I've heard that they're considering flat fees of INR 250 or so. But honestly, if you've been to Taj and seen the number of poor people that come there - none of them could afford this.

In any case, until we hear any decisions, all that I think you should ask yourself as a tourist is - am I paying a fair price i.e. did I get my money's worth at these two monuments for EUR 6 per monument?

I think the answer is likely to be a yes.

Shopping in India is a frame of mind

Many overseas visitors to India are taken aback at the kind of street shopping experience they have.

The touristy parts of the country - Delhi, Agra, Rajasthan - are full of pushy vendors trying to sell them things at downright outrageous prices.

I met an American lady recently who said to me, "Deepa, I feel so much at a loss...I'm the outsider, and I feel like I have to constantly watch out so I'm not cheated."

I thought about what she said - and here's my advice: If you're visiting India, and someone quotes you a silly price at the market, my recommendation is - Just smile and say no.

The thing is, if you look prosperous, vendors will always quote you a higher price. That applies even to Indian buyers. Sometimes when someone quotes me a totally wacky price, I just grin widely and say the Hindi equivalent of "Yeah right, go pull the other one". Then we haggle back and forth a bit, and when the price gets to the point where I think he's making a good margin, then I give in.

It's all part of the game.

To treat this overcharging-bargaining game as a personal insult, or worse, to think of yourself as a victim because this doesn't happen in your country, is just totally missing the point. You have to apply a different yardstick when you are in a totally different land. You have to tell yourself that this is how India's shopping culture works. No one is singling you out for extra-harassment...this is just a bunch of fairly poor people trying to get a few extra dollars off anyone who looks like they can afford it. In my MBA school they had a term for it - it was called "what the market will bear" pricing!

India is a both a destination and a journey. It has woven its magic for millenia now, on travellers from all parts of the world. It is a complex and rich culture, with so much to offer - but the rules are different.

To explore this sort of complexity, you have to step out from the comfort zone of neatly labelled racks and polite checkout greeters. You have to embrace the street shopping and bargaining spirit. It can be fun, actually. There's the crafty assessment of what something is really worth, the starting position, the bantering conversation and the give-and-take, the testing of each other's mettle, and the final agreement on how one particular shawl fits into the overall cosmic scene of things!

Travel wouldn't be half as interesting if the world was one big Walmart, right?

So what's a tandoor anyway?

"Ninety nine per cent of Indians do not have a tandoor", says Camellia Panjabi, author of several Indian recipe books. This may be true of Indian homes, but the tandoor - the Indian clay oven - certainly has pride of place in restaurants all over Delhi.

In a small nondescript eatery, I saw this man making tandoori naans on a quiet afternoon. On his left, you can see the dough rolled out flat and ready for the oven. On his other side is his basket of finished naans.

In the middle is the tandoor, a large curved clay urn. Inside, it's exactly the sort of shape that you imagine from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (remember how the thieves hid in urns and died a grisly death in boiling oil?). Charcoal is traditionally used to fire the tandoor, but dry sticks and dried cowdung are also used. The curved shape of the tandoor makes it blisteringly hot in the middle section of the urn, whereas the top portions are cool.

Traditional Indian tandoors are usually sunk into the ground. In small eateries such as this one, one section of the cooking area contains a raised platform, into which the tandoor is sunk.

The tandoor handler climbs up on the platform, from where he masterminds the entire affair. From below, a couple of assistants roll out the dough into evenly shaped naans. These are then quickly stuck to the inside wall of the tandoor.

The real trick is to quickly slap the naan on the tandoor wall, make sure it's stuck firmly, and pull your hand out before the skin blisters. Temperatures inside a tandoor typically go up to 480°C (900°F). See how thick the rolled naans are? That's what helps to stick it easier. One side of the naan is cooked by the heat of the tandoor wall, the other side is browned by the coal fire. And when it comes to the table, it still carries the wonderful earthy smell of the claypot.

Meats, of course, can't stick to the tandoor walls, so they're placed on skewers. Because there is no braising, sautéing or broiling in this style of cooking, only tender meats can be cooked in a tandoor. Typical marinades used to tenderize the meat are yoghurt and lemon. Here's a really good step-by-step tandoori chicken recipe, if you want to try your hand at it.

They say tandoors evolved somewhere in Syria, although I'm not sure. Among the earliest tandoors that archaeologists have discovered are those from the Indus Valley Civilization, dated around 2600 BC. From the New Kingdom period in Egypt (1539 - 1069 BC), here's an interesting painting showing how bread was baked in tandoors.

In the last 5000 years or so, this style of cooking has spread all over the world and is now among the most popular things going. Delhi is a great place to eat some of the best tandoori food in India. Check out Burrp for Delhi restaurant recommendations.

The Future is Here

Palmist and Astrologer, at Hanuman Mandir. The board advertises that he reads palms and foreheads. "Full information" will be provided, for a fee.

The blessings of the Gods are with him. In fact, in one little board, the man acknowledges the entire gamut of Hindu Gods - there is a "Ram Ram" and a "Hari" to mollify Vaishnavites, a "Nama Shivaya" for the Shaivaites, and a "Jai Maa Kali" for those who are partial to Shakti. Very neat. All Gods included, in a religious democracy of sorts.

At the bottom there is "Shri Guru Dev Ji", an acknowledgment of the blessings of his Guru. I wonder who he was, the man who passed on his knowledge and craft to this guy.

Hanuman Mandir is not far from Connaught Place, you can get there easily in an autorickshaw. It is an interesting place, with multiple temples, and lots of little shops and stalls.

If you do go there, check out this guy. And let me know if he's just a clever little fox, or someone who really knows his craft!