Seeing, Smelling, Shopping, Reading, Cooking INDIA!!!

Crawford Market, Mumbai

A friend returned from India and, when sharing her FB photos, titled the album "Indescribable India!!" I wish I thought of it - India is without a doubt, a land of contradictions.

She will at once inspire and despair.

She will invigorate and infuriate.

The cheap, beautifully made goods that tempt you from every corner. But you walk on by, for fear that the shopkeeper, already shaking his head at you and saying "Look only!", will haggle and intimidate you into buying something you never wanted.

The beggar lady and her children who will touch your feet and talk nonstop, gesturing to her mouth. You flinch at her touch and feel disgusted at yourself later. Out of guilt perhaps you over-tip your rickshaw driver.

You are endlessly fascinated by all the COLOURS and gild worn by the Indian women - bright pinks and turquoises, soft pastels and pure white, silver thread and gold sequins, glass beads, pleats and folds. And the jewellery! The more the better - shops specialising in bangles alone, and the women wearing armfuls of them. Enamelled earrings, gold filigree necklaces, bells on ankets, nose studs. But somehow it never feels gaudy, just really well put-together, sometimes regal, sometimes funky, always a beautiful sight.

In Mumbai, you were taken in by the crumbling colonial buildings that, if you simply bothered to look hard enough, are simply beautiful. And how could you not, being a downright sucker for colonial architechture? Wrought iron gratings, red brick, grey sandstone, curly white grilles like the windows of Paris or Basque country, gargoyles(!) at the Victoria Terminus, the Indian-themed scene in stone above the entrance to the Crawford Market.

You read Indian Vogue and Indian Elle, and love the the looks by their designers and how the Indian fashion elite so comfortably, so seamlessly blend their local designers and the Indian aesthetic with Roberto Cavalli,- and I do so love that they do this - Gap and Zara. So much so that you regret sacrificing your copy of Vogue India for a little more luggage space :(

I come away from this place feeling like I have to go again, that I have barely scratched the surface. I want to visit the golden city of Jaisalmer, climb the Meragarh fort and swoon on the Udaipur lake palace. Less shopping (maybe).

I would love to take more time in Mumbai, not to mention visit Chennai just for this fascinating and downright inspiring shop. I really love the Indian aesthetic.

In the meantime, I maintain my Indian fixation by reading The Holy Cow, which really isn't that great but an interesting read nonetheless - simply reinforcing the fact that there really is so much more to see and hear and feel in India. I also just took in an order for Maximum City, a highly acclaimed book (and hopefully something a bit more eloquent) about Mumbai, or Bombay, as some say is its more romantic name (I think Mumbai is cooler and more modern-Indian *shrug*), and am waiting for the arrival of India Contemporary, a modern Indian interior decor book (can't wait!).

And other than drinking Chai tea, I served a humble little Indian spread last weekend. I leafed through Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking, and decided on Tandoori Chicken, Spinach with Onions and Dhal.

The chicken, marinated overnight in yogurt, homemade garam masala (also from the book), was tender and perhaps could have done with a little more spice. The flavour of the dhal, enhanced with toasted fennel seeds and chilli powder, was wonderfully savoury and "meaty". The spinach with onions - so simple to make, and again could have used more spice. Perhaps Jaffrey's recipes were toned down to suit a milder western palate, but she teaches some great techniques.