Delhi: The Palika Bazaar

In Delhi, I had a few hours to kill so I decided to go to Palika Bazaar. I love that place, it's a great shopping complex. Completely underground. Also as it turned out, great bargains for those smart enough to bargain.

I walked around in a daze for a little while, stunned by the crowd and the variety of stores. The hottest stuff seemed to be "Chinese Mobiles" - good mobiles dumped from China. The various stores in the complex also sell clothes, other electronics, CDs/DVDs, handicrafts, and some books, snacks etc. As I was walking by one of the stores this one guy sidled up to me and said in a low voice, "Sir, would you like to buy some triple-X DVDs? Good quality sir". I was surprised but not too shocked. I said I didn't want any and walked away. After that point, atleast five other guys at various locations asked me if I wanted to buy porn! I had to ask myself what I looked like to these people that they felt I was the porn-buying type. Then again, maybe "porn-buying type" is just synonymous with "guy".

I don't think this applies to all of Palika Bazaar but at atleast a couple of stores, I had trouble moving around people. Now, normally if I am walking in a crowded corridor and I end up right in front of another person, and if the other person doesn't give me way, I just walk around that person. Even if the person is being a jackass and deliberately not giving me way, I wouldn't be too bothered. (After my *ahem* incident a few months ago, I've been very gun-shy, so to speak.) But when I'm trying to leave a store, and the other person is standing the doorway, facing me, but not giving me way, I find that very puzzling. The two times this happened there, the guy wasn't trying to pick a fight or something - he was just standing there, looking at something even as I walked up to him and was standing a couple of inches from his face. The first time after waiting for a couple of seconds, I put both my hands on him and very gently pushed him to get his attention. The guy just stepped back like he didn't even realize I was there! The next time the same thing happened I didn't even hesitate to push the guy to the side as I was leaving. It's kinda weird, almost like they describe it in the movie "Crash" - that people are so lonely that they'll do anything for some human contact, even crashing!

At this one store I saw a gun, which I knew was a butane lighter. Now I've always been fascinated by toy guns. Real guns scare me but I always enjoy playing with toy guns. So I couldn't resist this. I figured I'd just buy one and gift it to someone. I asked about the price of a small one and the guy said, "Rs. 900". I felt that it was way above my budget, particularly if I was giving it away to someone else. I told the shopkeeper I wasn't interested and started walking away. He kept pushing talking about the finish of the piece etc. I told him that indeed it was a very beautiful piece and probably even worth the price tag but it was way above my budget. How much were you planning to spend, he asked me. Not more than Rs. 400. OK, it's yours. I was shocked! Just like that? And later in Hyd when I started telling my dad this story and came to the point where he quoted Rs. 900, my dad immediately said that I should have asked him for Rs. 150. I felt like a fool for thinking I had bargained him down from Rs. 900 when instead I had probably paid Rs. 200 more than it was worth. Oh well, it still is a cool item and it got me material for my next post!