Delhi Shopping Notes
Shopping Etiquette in India
Bargaining is de rigeur in India, and whilst they are tough bargainers, it is quite proper to courteously enter the "fray".
Hotel shops are expensive, usually fixed price, but generally have very tasteful selections: - gorgeous, well made jewellery, shawls, clothing etc. Even here it is oftentimes possible to bargain a better deal than the listed price.
Delhi and Agra are the best places for serious carpets (though this will only be of interest to people spending extra time in Delhi or visiting Agra). Agra is also renowned for its marble inlay.
Be very cautious about shipping goods home, making sure that you are buying from a reputable and licensed emporium. Retain all documentation and get a photocopy also that you can leave with your Indian agents, who on your behalf, in the event that goods need to be tracked at a later stage, can follow up.
Agents in India can provide very competitive rates with Fed Ex. But, I suggest you confine such shipments to non-dutiable and non-quarantine items (such as wood) meaning that clothes, fabrics, books, metal things would all be fine sent this way. It will however be best to get expensive breakable items shipped by the shop.
Art of Living enjoys the following precincts for shopping:
The “Villages”
Chandni Chowk. Despite the pressures of traffic and population, its historic landmarks survive to tell the story of the last three centuries. Many of the shops here are more than 100 years, old and the mesh of lanes and bylanes is full of surprises. Leading off Chandni Chowk are Dariba, the silver market, Khari Baoli, the spice market and Kinari Bazaar for trimmings and tinsel. These bazaars offer the visitor a glimpse of life in Old Delhi. You can also buy lovely attars, oil based distillations of flowers and herbs.
Khan Market, much favoured by the expat community and wealthy Delhi citizens for the wonderful Neemrana shop that stocks lovely homewares, bath products and unguents, reproduction silver, well-designed clothing, as well as interesting sari and shoe shops.
Some shops with contemporary clothing such as Anokhi, their only store with a collection of “Special Edition” pieces upstairs, as well as a new salon of Shahnaz Husain ayurvedic beauty treatments. Also Biotique with its superb range of Ayurvedic-based natural beauty products, good tailors, exotic fruits, olive oil, imported wines.
Go early in the day, around 10, soon after the shops open rather than mid to late afternoon when it becomes very congested.
Sunder Naga, not far from the Oberoi Hotel and Delhi Zoo, this genteel enclave specialises in jewellery, fine pashminas, gold, silver and “antiquey” things, Indian and Nepali handicrafts. There are two outstanding teashops here: Regalia Tea House and Mittal Tea House– see further notes below.
Lajphut Naga (not far from Sunder) - a typical bazaar meandering through several streets, good for haberdashery and textiles, spices, local colour and flavour.
Connaught Place, New Delhi's original shopping arcade was planned as part of the Imperial capital in 1911. On Baba Kharak Singh Marg, are the numerous government State Emporia which afford a glimpse of the handicrafts of each state including Central Cottage Industries Emporium on Janpath.
Khadi Bhavan on Connaught Circus - good for khadi materials and kurtas.
Also the relatively new emporium for Soma, handblocked cotton apparel, clothing and home linens. Really great for tablecoths and nappery!
Haus Khas, a village developed around the medieval college and the tomb of Firoz Shah Tughlaq that is now a sort of Indian "Covent Garden" with cobblestone streets, renovated cottages with lots of fashion shops etc. You will find a plethora of boutiques, galleries and restaurants which coexist with the buffalos, cow pats and men smoking hookahs on charpoys.
Santushti (opp. Hotel Samrat), chic, swank, quiet, calm, peaceful and decidedly upmarket. Developed by the Air Force Wives Association, it has a select number of boutiques where apparel, furnishings and accessories are available in a garden setting with cottages selling the most elegant of wares from homewares, to books to exquisite clothing, shawls etc. For men's shirts you can't go past the finest pintucked seaisland cottons at Pratap.
Books
Book shops in India are wonderful, not only for Indian titles you will have difficulty finding at home, but also for international authors' titles printed in India at a fraction of the cost of what we usually pay.
Timeless Art Bookstudio located at 46, Housing Society, South Extension Part I New Delhi, is a treasure trove of art, design, fashion, photography books with a lovely selection of books on all things Indian.
Pashminas
For those with a passion for pashminas, the following merchant proved popular with guests a couple of years ago, with an excellent variety and range, though it is recommended you ring ahead as I have not yet sampled his wares -:
Mehraj D. Naqash, NAQASH HANDICRAFS EXPOSITION
C-8 ( Basement ), Lajpat Nagar - 1st New Delhi 110 024
Tl.+91 11 683 8533 Fx.+91 11 692 4571 Mb.+91 (0) 98110 16404
Beauty
Shahnaz Husain is the Helena Rubinstein of India and has developed the reputation for developing an excellent range of ayurvedic, natural skin products. Treatment salons are scattered through the city including Connaught Place, Khan Market, Santushti and Greater Kailash. Specially recommended is a henna hot pack for the hair and a Gold facial. Do not expect the hushed pampering or luxuriously appointed booths we have become accustomed to in Western salons. Indian ladies are more "communal", the therapists can be on the rough and ready side, the pedicurists are always men, ' threading', a whole new experience, but you should come out glowing.
Jewellery
Jaipur is the diamond capital of India, yet tourist scams, from fake stones to credit-card copying, abound. Padma Gems in New Delhi: jewellers to the stars - by one or two removes. Jennifer Lopez and Nicole Kidman are both fans of the diamond chandelier earrings, sold on by society jeweller Fred Leighton of New York at a 250 per cent mark-up. The small shop feels modest. Teak cabinets contain the more everyday pieces (rings from £100, drop pearl earrings £200), but from a safe in a back room are glittering rose-cut diamonds, Burmese rubies and Kashmiri sapphires worked into stunning confections for seriously high-maintenance women (£6,750 for diamond and ruby earrings; £12,500 for Nicole's earrings - £32,500 minimum if bought in New York). Yet Padma Gems - where Princess Michael of Kent is a frequent visitor - will take commissions to suit all budgets: design your piece, continue your holiday around Rajasthan and pick it up on your way home. Padma Gems, 9-A Sunder Nager Market, New Delhi (011 2435 1513 ).
Antiques
Under the country's 1972 Antiquities Act, you can't export antiques from India and the authorities are increasingly vigilant about smuggling. (The trend now is for Indian collectors to buy abroad because, ironically, they are cheaper in the West.) Today's "antiques" are under 100 years old, though there is an excellent market in "new" antiques with vendors showing remarkable honesty with regards to age and provenance.
Art and sculpture Natesan's is a small chain of up-market antique shops where you'll find fragments of carved, wooden "temple chariots" from Tamil Nadu from £100, and many "museum-class" sculptures that look antique but are new: £1,250 buys a big, dancing verdigris bronze Shiva. Natesan's, 13 Sunder Nagar Market, New Delhi 3 (011 2435 9320).
Mehra's Art Palace in Greater Kailash in south New Delhi stocks a particularly interesting range of genuine antiques.
Furniture
Hauz Khas Village is the Camden Market of New Delhi. The greatest range of furniture is found at the cavernous Country Collection, owned by a cosmopolitan smoothy sporting Cuban heels and a gold medallion. The items include: an ivory-inlaid teak and rattan planter's chair ("new antique"), £180; Nepalese pot lamps, £25, huge teak mirror frames, £32. Country Collection, 2 Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi (011 2656 1410,
Silver
Ravissant in New Friends Colony and in better homeware stores. Think of Ravissant as the Tiffany of India. This shop specializes in exquisite silver, selling gorgeous silver tea sets, delicate filigree bowls and accessories like napkin rings and solid silver photo frames.
Leather Goods
Hidesign, a label of international quality started by an “Aurovillian”, much less costly than Italian designer bags, yet well designed and contemporary. Further, they claim their vegetable tanning is not detrimental to the environment. They use no chemicals or industrial practices, which harm the surrounding population, agriculture, forests or wildlife, but follow traditional methods of manufacture and tanning that reflect a care for the craftsman, craftsmanship and the environment, using processes which have long since disappeared from the modern leather industry. Leather is full grain cowhide, vegetable tanned and hand dyed. Connaught Place and Greater Kailash II.