Shopping with John (August 16-17, 2023)
Today was the day for our first TukTuk ride. Suki arranged for the TukTuk to come to our house. Suki helped with the communication because our driver did not speak English. He drove us to the Divine grocery store. John and I went into the store and he waited out front for us. We held our bag in our lap and the water bottles and Pepsi bottle were on the floor between our feet so they wouldn't fall out.
Our TukTuk was soccer themed. The lining of the seats and the roof were covered in soccer or footballs. The back is quite small. John hit his head getting in the first time and then hit his knee getting in the second time. No A/C but a little bit of a breeze.
After the grocery, he took us to the local beer store. I had never been there before. There were 4 guys in line ahead of us. You pay a man in line and then he moves to another window to get your beer. The last time Marshall went he could only get cans. This time I only saw bottles and they were large bottles. We bought 4 Kingfisher beers - the local favorite.
The Tailor was supposed to open at 2:00 and we arrived at 2:01. The TukTuk driver called her and she said she would come. She opened her shop for me. She was very friendly and asked where I was from. She spoke English and mentioned that she lived in England for a few months. Later I found out that she is married to an older British man.
She pulled out her purple thread and stitched my blouse right then. John and the TukTuk driver were in the small shop with me and we just all waited together. It didn't take very long at all. She charged me 50 rupees which is about 60 cents. I didn't have a 50 so I gave her 100 rupees and thanked her. I gave her $1.20 for stitching the sleeves on my blouse. The Indians wear fitted sleeves. You will see my blouse and saree when I am at GenPro's Onam celebration at the Technopark on Thursday, August 24.
Marshall had many evening calls so John and I went out to eat on Thursday at Molly's Restaurant. Molly's is also a boutique hotel and sometimes has Westerners so the menu had some other options than just Keralan food. We were the only people in the restaurant. One other girl came in and ate a bowl of soup and left. I had planned to order take-out for Marshall but I felt guilty asking them to cook another meal so he got our leftovers. We learned about "packing" this week. Restaurants will pack your leftover food to go but we had not seen anyone or didn't know that they did that until this week. John and I had a few meals packed and we ate them the following day.
In fact, John had fried rice or biryani for breakfast a couple of days!
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| Ganesh statue at Molly's |
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| Beautiful flowers at Molly's |
After our dinner, John and I walked to Asif's shop and John bought a shirt and a Dhoti. He really wanted black and gold so he could wear it at Wake Forest. They didn't have exactly what he wanted but a black dhoti will work. He has many Indian friends at school and he talked about wearing it to a cultural party on campus.
Marshall has bought 2 dhoti's and decided that it is the equivalent of shorts for men. We don't see men in shorts over here but most of the men over age 40 are wearing dhoti's everyday. It can also be called mundu.
Men leave them long but when they get hot, they tie them up like Marshall.
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