New Market, New Clothing

My aunt lives near Elephant Road - wicked name, right? Well, around Elephant Road you have couple of markets - some really old and winding. Remember when I wrote about pirated copies of CDs, DVDs and books? Nilkhet nearby is famous for its books - the least are original. Almost any book you need, you can find at Nilkhet. Nicely copied and bound, a copy of "The Godfather" shouldn't cost you more than 100 Taka.

And then there is Gausia, a market I consider for females, looking for Sharees, the traditional bangladeshi garment, dresses or bangles. So the last few times I've been to Elephant Road, I never went to Gausia.

I really liked to shop at New Market, a bazar with lots of of little shops, lots of bargaining and lots of "Torko". A couple of years back you could get clothes, that were meant for export from H&M, Puma, Zara or C&A. But they somehow ended at Hassan Uncles little corner stall and were up for sale.
New Market has changed recently but still is the best place to shop for bags and bagpacks. And since I needed a few things, I went to check out the stores. I was wandering on the fourth floor and all of a sudden ended up in a part of the complex, I had never seen before. And I was fascinated!

Printing, stitching and embrodery; lots of colorful cloths were upgraded by hand. That was impressive! Men and women were hand-printing patterns on cloth and adding designs with embrodery machines. If you want to have your bedspread customized, New Narket is your place to go to. How about your office suit taken to another level with green and red traditional patterns and some gold stitching?

Wie sieht der Himmel aus, der jetzt über dir steht?

Blah blah blah

"Torko" is fun - 95% of the time it is not. "Torko" basically is a bengali habit that you mostly have to deal with, when you are out shopping. Why? Because it is all about the money!

To understand this, I have to explain "Torko" to you. "Torko" is the unnecessary discussion, a waste of time. For example, I went to buy a dress shirt for work. It fit perfectly, except that my hands wouldn't fit without unbuttoning the sleeves. What was the salesman's comment? They will stretch after I wash the shirt. And what would have been the comment if everything was too loose? Right – that they will shrink after washing it and therefore will fit perfectly anyhow.

“Torko” can be annoying, like arguing over and over, when you know you are right; when you have bought something and go to buy it again and the price all of a sudden has risen. And then the salesman explains to you, that the price has always been that high, that you are wrong and maybe even laughs at you. “This stupid boy really thinks that people sell this for 150 Taka, haha. Come on, it’s 210 Taka. Everybody knows it!”

And “Torko” can be annoying when dealing with Rickshaws. I at least take the Rickshaw once a day, from Gulshan-1 to Gulshan-2 through residential area. In the morning and in the evenings, during rush hour, prices all of a sudden rise. Not because there is more traffic, because people need to go to office and back home quickly. So then of course the least Rickshaw Wallahs are willing to go for the regular price.

But “Torko” can be fun – 5% of the time. I went to buy a bag and a backpack the other day. Mostly, when you have a store specialized on selling bags, you have at least three of four more around it. So competition is high. I checked every store for the price of the things I liked and found out the lowest prices. Then this one salesman wanted to sell me his bags desperately and offered the lowest price, like the others. We argued, although I knew no one else was willing to go lower – “Torko”. I paid him 5 Taka less, which is only five cents, but the arguing and reaching that agreement was fun, when the total charge was 15.500 Taka. At least I can enjoy “Torko” every now and then...

Fun Fact: Bangladeshis like "Torko".

look/dekho 003

Kids waiting at the airport, waiting on the world to change!