Shop Til You Drop

Okay, lets talk a little about shopping in India. Everything, I mean, everything is available for purchase. If you can’t find it, someone will make it. If it is just a thought in your head, someone can produce it, and produce it cheaply, and produce it yesterday. Cottage shops give way to full-fledged industrial complexes all producing, producing, producing for our consumption, consumption, consumption.

The breadth of antiques and architectural treasures is unfathomable. Treasures are collected from all peripheral states gradually finding their way to street side Jodhpur. It is almost impossible to define ages of antiques, as the Indian craftsmen are extremely gifted in recreating almost any period piece. Fine antiques are recreated out of age-old wood and sold as authentic. Buyer beware. There are many stories of highly reputable dealers being bilked out of large sums of money for phony goods. For even a keen trained eye, it is almost impossible to tell the difference. Good thing our purchasing is based on – “wow, that’s really cool”, or “wow, that’s really cheap”.

Jodhpur is the place where for about twenty thousand dollars you could get enough merchandise to open your own Bombay Company and stay in business for years. It is also the place to find exceptional architectural accents and the occasional fantastic antique India artifact. British colonial treasures abound, the left over remnants from a proud, but torrid past. The street markets are bustling, the hawkers are hawking, the beggars are begging, and we, the tourists, are shopping.