The Great Sari Adventure

I'm back in India again. Third time's the charm, right? Lol….

Tonight I have the privilege of attending the wedding of some friends from the US here in Hyderabad (that's a story for another blog). I invited one of my fellow rotators to go with me because she's never been to an Indian wedding either and the company would be nice. She didn't have a sari to wear so we decided to go shopping yesterday (Thursday) morning to see if we could find something for tonight (I already bought a sari on my first trip). Wednesday I got a recommendation for a sari shop from my expat - she even gave me a copy of a receipt so I could show my driver the name, address and phone number of the shop.

We get in the cab and proceed to explain to the driver where we want to go and I give him the receipt. He said he knew exactly where it was and we take off towards downtown Hyderabad. We pull up to a store called "Lifestyles". The name of the store on the receipt is "Nalli's" with "lifestyles" in very small print below. I begin to get into a disagreement with the driver about whether or not this is the correct store. I win. But he then tells me that he doesn't know where the store is and he needs a landmark to help him. I tell him that I've never been to the store before and that he should just go by the address on the receipt. He says the address is not enough and he needs a landmark. Once again I explain I've never been there and I can't give him a landmark. Isn't the address good enough? So the driver calls the cab supervisor and puts me on the phone with him. The supervisor explains that the driver doesn't know where he's going and needs a landmark. Once again, I explain that I've never been there and can therefore not provide a landmark. We go back and forth a couple of times and finally hang up. I'm so frustrated at this point that I just want to turn around and go to work. So I try calling the number on the receipt and it didn't work. So I tried calling my expat. She answered, passed the phone to one of the staff who gave my driver some good directions. The store was less than five minutes in the direction that we'd come from, in a building set back a little from the street.

So we go into the store and start shopping. I'd told myself that I would not buy a new sari on this trip, but I decided to take my frustrations from the morning out on my wallet and buy a new sari. After we'd made our purchases, I asked one of the store attendants about purchasing a petticoat (a necessity for wearing a sari). He didn't understand my question so he called someone else over. Store attendant number two didn't understand my question so he called someone else over. Store attendant number three understood me and told me that they didn't sell petticoats at Nalli's and I needed to go to a different store. I asked for a specific store name and he started rattling off directions. I stopped him mid-sentence and asked him to repeat everything to my driver. And then we were off to the petticoat store….

We reached the area that store attendant number three had described to our driver. I pointed out some cloth stores down a side lane, but the driver went straight towards some jewelry stores. He pulled the car over, moved a fruit cart forward, drove the car forward another couple of feet, and then "parked" the car. He walked up to a non-petticoat store and asked for directions. He got back into the car, made a loop around the block to the side lane I'd pointed out and then picked a store for us to go into. My co-worker and I then walked into the matching store (ie matching sari fabric to petticoat & blouse fabric) and we immediately assisted in trying to find fabric. A nice Indian elderly woman, Leena, started speaking English to us and helped us match fabric. She told me how her grandkids lived in the states and how she had some family in Texas. I then asked her if she knew of a tailor to sew our blouses - one that could have them ready for Friday night. Leena called her tailor to see if he could make something happen. He said no problem. She then offered to lead us to her tailor's shop (her car leading our car), which we gladly accepted.

Ten minutes later we're at the tailor's store being measured for our blouses. Leena once again confirmed with the tailor that we'd need them ready be 5pm on Friday. So we really were going to have new sarees ready for the wedding on Friday! :-) As we were walking out Leena asked me which church I attended. I told her and then she asked if one Sunday I would visit her church. She told me of how it'd grown from 500 people to 2,500 people in the last 5 or so years. And her son is the pastor there! So I gave her my number and told her I'd go to church (English speaking service) with her this Sunday.

I love how God works in the tiniest of details! He knew that we needed to get frustrated and lost finding the sari store, so we could end up at the matching store at the right time to meet Leena who took us to the tailor's store and invited us to church. God is just so awesome!!

"Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. He turned the sea into dry land; the passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him, who rules by his might forever, whose eyes kept watch on the nations - let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Bless our God, O peoples; let the sound of his praise be heard, who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip." Psalm 66:5-9