January 8, 2010

Numaish

The All India Industrial Exhibition(or Numaish as it is fondly called) is in it's 69th year now. It is an integral part of Hyderabad's culture and traders from all over India sell there merchandise here. It usually gathers
momentum some two-three weeks after start(jan 1) but the there was decent crowd today.

I always make it a point to visit atleast once, and today went with my two aunts. One thing typical about this
exhibition is that it is mostly women centred. I guess I wouldn't be far off with my assumption that almost 70% shops are selling apparel, kitchenware, handicraft, appliances, accessories etc. No stalls for boy stuff like tees and jeans.

My aunts walked slowly and stopped every now and then to check out a dress or ware, bargained and moved on. It was like they bought stuff 1 out of 5 shops visited. I don't do that. I enter. I buy. and I don't bargain.

Moving on we had some chat and drinks at an Agrawala outlet. The 'Mirchis' tasted awful, the other stuff was good though. I was eagerly looking forward to the toy lane. I remember how I used to pester Mom to take me to the toy stalls years ago, and she would always seem to 'forget' where they were! I used to buy toy guns and stuff from the stalls every time I went. Last year I bought a toy G36 machine gun and a toy mauser rifle. I was planning on buying a train set today! Not that I'm a kid or anything. I usually take them apart to make my own fun DIYs(which never actually work).

We had icecream at the Kwality Walls stall. Apparently this is a family tradition, she's had ice cream everytime, for decades. We settled down on the benches for a while.

Then my aunt said 'It's getting cold, let's go...'. Maybe it was the ice cream. Maybe she was done with her
shopping and didn't care about my stuff. I sighed, it was to be expected.

We were home by 11.













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