Gujarati Missiles

July has been a sinful month of flying trips, hotels and culinary delights.
I had a chance to go to Ahmedabad and was generally feeling depressed at the thought of another overnighter leaving the kids behind.
But Artnavy's recommendation of shopping at Sanskruti a shop she loves (which was a powerful endorsement btw!) gave me enough reason to get super excited about the trip.
I had almost forgotten how the sun sets late in the western part of India. It was wierd that the place was all bright even at quarter to 8 and it somehow gave me a false sense of the feel that it is not late enough and I took it very slow- shopping, bargaining, snacking, eating, until I saw the time and realized with a shock that it was nearly 11 pm.
So Sanskruti was the first stop- in the sense, I barely dumped my bags in my hotel room and walked out and got into the cab straight into Sanskruti.
The shop was a treat- even though I didn't really explore beyond clothes for self. I picked up 6 kurtas at less than Rs 3000- this when the sales person was not willing to sell- he went on saying- we don't have in your size, or select fast we do not have time, stuff like that which made me want to smack him or complain to the Management. He also gave me a look of great disgust when I challenged him that the size he has given me is several sizes smaller and refused to find another piece that fitted me. Well, inspite of that, I loved the stuff. Totally my style.
I also picked up the lovely colorful bird wall hangings made of cloth and strung together using beads, with cow bells attached in the end, and similarly made wind chimes and a pair of horses for the kids. All picked up from the street vendors.
I would have bought more if I had a house large enough!
We had the most amazing Gujju thali on both days - a deviation from normal behaviour- no non veg at all.
The thalis are so cheap that I was tempted to buy in bulk!! Rs 130- Rs 150. The usual fare would be a green veggie, a potato, paneer, a lentil (moong/ chana type), 2 fried stuff- samosa, vada, patra, dhokla, 2 sweet dishes, khichri, roti, poori, buttermilk (slurp). More than paisa vasool.
My agenda of having the various Gujarati Missiles like Fafda, Dhokla, Thepla etc was accomplished.
We even did stuff like visiting the Amul parlour and seeing the automatic dosa making machine (not in action unfortunately) and having phuchka on the road.
A totally fruitful trip in terms of shopping and eating atleast!!