Charminar and shilparam

We were bang in the middle of ganesh immersion festival in Hyderabad recently;did some frantic shopping in Charminer just before the shops were closing for the function.But for my colleagues who were quite definite they wanted to shop for pearls and bangles at that place,I would have given it a good miss. I am going to Charminar I think after two decades. I liked the place and the ambience much better now.I remember it was fascinating and forbidding when i went there last.
There are atleast a zillion shops there selling pearls and bangles.We were looking for a particular satyanarayana pearls, and spotted three of them with that name!We were a group of 20, with 5 of them staying away from the shops. There was hardly enough space in the shop for the fifteen of us; but that did not stop us nor faze the shopwallah one bit.
The shopping experience was unique; each of us picked up some item after elaborate shifting and selecting and wanted to catch the attention of the shopkeeper to finalise the purchase. It was like the song 'row row row a boat' sung in kindergarden with each group singing a sentence out of sync with the other groups.The owner was an elderly man and he had naturally more elan and easy manner of dealing with us; we had one of his sons and he was forever wanting to put the pearls aside, lest we pocket it unobtrusively!When he puts one particular strand aside, somebody in the group will develop a fascination for that piece only.So it was good fun and i was enjoying the whole show. Some of my male colleagues from Delhi/Jaipur were keen on purchasing good number of pearls and they wanted assurance from the ladies that their selection is okay.The ladies had to juggle various roles; to pick up some for themselves, to pick up some for their colleagues who stayed away from the melee and for those of them who were showing them stuff that they had selected for their final stamp of approval.
There was a massive bargaining taking place as we were told a bargain for a reduction of 40% is in order.There is definitely tremendous satisfaction in seeing the shopkeeper, weighing the pearls and arrving at a value of 1500 and then slashing it and giving it for 1120.There is pleasure in haggling!
The entire drama was enacted in a marketplace, which did not lack in colour and confusion; vehicles of all sizes and shapes, people in unbelievable number, merchandise of a million stuff in the shop, on the verandah and on the streets, pitter patter of rain and high decibel noise all around.
Hence it was a total change the next day, when we were escorted to the crafts village, shilparam near the hi- tech city.This was the only place unaffected by the festival spirit which swollowed the entire city on that day.
This place was in a vast expanse and each shop was selling something different and were well spaced out.We had lots of place to stroll around leisurely, look and savour the amazing range of stuff that our artisans can churn out.No jostling crowd and no vehicles were allowed inside the complex.I definitely found very interesting and beautiful pieces in there ; i plan to come here again and shop for the terracota range of pottery with tribal motifs. This place is similar to the 'dilli haat' i was told; but as i have not seen dilli haat, i was fascinated by this place.
Charminar and Shilparam gave me totally different shopping experiences.