So today we three made a pilgrimage to a nearby Indian bazaar for the first time. Talk about an experience. We heard about the place on good recommendation from a friend of Kiwi's and decided to check it out.
The place is an Indian restaurant that we didn't visit + an Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi grocery store with a wall of Indian films and soundtracks. Of course, we were mostly after the films even though we curiously browsed the grocery.
So, a wall of $2.99 Indian films -- many of the ones we've been yearning for and cursing Netflix for lacking -- was pretty much heaven to us, although we played it relatively conservative this time. We walked out with a mixture of films we've already seen and fallen in love with (Dostana, DDLJ, Welcome) and new ones (Dhoom, Dhoom 2, Chalte Chalte, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Kambakkht Ishq). And you can bet we'll be back.
What was really nice was that the folks working there didn't treat us like three silly American girls out-of-place in the store. The man assisting us even recommended some Indian restaurants for us and brought an older man to make some movie suggestions too. Even though we've already fallen in love with his best suggestions or added them to our Netflix queues (i.e. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Jab We Met, Devdas), it was nice to have someone taking the time to make recommendations for us.
During our little chat with the folks, we also got a question that should probably be added to the Q-and-A: Do we speak any Indian languages? Do we speak Hindi? Well, the answer is complicated but mostly goes like this: Kiwi doesn't, Papaya knows words here and there, and Mango can painstakingly string together simple sentences. None of us can read or write it, and needless to say we're not confident in our speaking abilities to say anything to a native Hindi speaker, even one as nice as these folks.
Anyway, I guess that's all there is to say. This was mostly a rambling post of excitement about finding another outlet besides Netflix to fuel the fire of our obsession.
Also, T-minus five hours until the Cricket World Cup final! Go India!
The place is an Indian restaurant that we didn't visit + an Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi grocery store with a wall of Indian films and soundtracks. Of course, we were mostly after the films even though we curiously browsed the grocery.
So, a wall of $2.99 Indian films -- many of the ones we've been yearning for and cursing Netflix for lacking -- was pretty much heaven to us, although we played it relatively conservative this time. We walked out with a mixture of films we've already seen and fallen in love with (Dostana, DDLJ, Welcome) and new ones (Dhoom, Dhoom 2, Chalte Chalte, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Kambakkht Ishq). And you can bet we'll be back.
What was really nice was that the folks working there didn't treat us like three silly American girls out-of-place in the store. The man assisting us even recommended some Indian restaurants for us and brought an older man to make some movie suggestions too. Even though we've already fallen in love with his best suggestions or added them to our Netflix queues (i.e. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Jab We Met, Devdas), it was nice to have someone taking the time to make recommendations for us.
During our little chat with the folks, we also got a question that should probably be added to the Q-and-A: Do we speak any Indian languages? Do we speak Hindi? Well, the answer is complicated but mostly goes like this: Kiwi doesn't, Papaya knows words here and there, and Mango can painstakingly string together simple sentences. None of us can read or write it, and needless to say we're not confident in our speaking abilities to say anything to a native Hindi speaker, even one as nice as these folks.
Anyway, I guess that's all there is to say. This was mostly a rambling post of excitement about finding another outlet besides Netflix to fuel the fire of our obsession.
Also, T-minus five hours until the Cricket World Cup final! Go India!
Hi, I just found your blog and only read this post, but it looks really good - also always nice to discover new blogs.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to Hamburg, Germany's 2nd largest city, for a 2-week internship next week, and I've been there often before, so I know about those shops with freaking inexpensive DVDs... Loooove them!
Sounds like you had a nice experience. By the way, Hindi isn't that hard to learn, if you really want to. Learning to write and read went really fast with me, like a month or so.
We're really new to blogging here and haven't posted much of substance yet, so never fear. Glad to have you reading. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm going to New York for an internship this summer, and I hope I can find a similar store there to fuel the Bollywood love.
And we're all kind of learning Hindi just from watching the movies and listening to songs. I probably have the most experience with learning it because I have an old Rosetta Stone, a Hindi-English dictionary and a Hindi/Urdu/Bengali phrasebook. I just haven't had enough time to dedicate to learning it lately. Hopefully that'll change soon. :)