Trip to Baroda and Bombay

I had a business trip to Baroda which is in Gujarat.

I travelled with my friend Charu (she also works at GM and she is from the US....).

We got there Sunday, somewhat early with grand plans to do lots of shopping.... But much to our disappointment, most of the stores are closed on Sunday!!! We did a little wandering around and bought a few things from the few stores that were open so it was not a complete waste... The best part, I was able to bust out my Gujarati and impress Charu!!! It was nice to be able to bargain and converse with the store owners... In Bangalore is it my fumbled, jumbled Hindi which is a clear give away that 'I am not from around here'.

I bought a few things for Mira.... Guess what... too small!! Thank goodness my friend Jignasha is going to Baroda in a few weeks so she will get a small assignment of exchanging them for me.

Monday was a full day at work (yes, this was a business trip after all!). I did not get home from the plant until 7:15. I quickly headed back out to do more shopping....

Tuesday, back to the plant for a few hours and then off to Bombay. I had a layover and decided to use the time to do some shopping in Bombay... why not, right????

Now mind you, I was on my own in Bombay b/c Charu headed back on Monday. I had my friend Hiran arrange for me to use her driver. So off I went. I have not been back to Bombay since 1996 when I went to do my wedding shopping. I had a great time. There is a great buzz in the city. I would have enjoyed having some company though... shopping in Bombay alone is not so fun.... As part of my adventure, I went to some of the stores where I did my wedding shopping. I went to a store called Friendship. I had bought almost all of my wedding saris and stuff from this store. I wanted to go back and buy something... much to my surprise this store that was once a small shop with reasonable prices has become this mega store with 3 floors... to go with it were prices that were jacked up!! I was tempted to buy something but it was overpriced, and they would not negotiate... so a little disappointed, I walked out... I think that this experience severed my friendship with Friendship!

Another trip to Bombay is definately needed.... I can really go crazy with the shopping here...