Shopper's Paradise - Mumbai

I had little though of shopping while flying to Mumbai from Bangalore as carrying a 9 month old baby, shopping was definitely not on my mind. Well I had equipped myself with a baby carrier just in case if I had will and energy to go around shopping carrying her. My initial attempt to fight boredom was to do window shopping and to an extent I was successful. I was not keen on doing any mall kind of shopping rather was eager to explore the less visited and above all value for money shopping.

Malad
Inordbit Mall: The biggest mall of mumbai, located in Malad has numerous branded shops.

Natraj Market or New Muncipal Market: This market is at a walk able distance from the station. This is about 488 shops selling party wear sarees and salwars. I was enchanted seeing those glittering sarees which are draped at the entrance of the shops.
• Hastmelaf Collection, Shop No. 32/33: Has kids wear mainly for girls below 10 years.
• Rajesh Saree Centre, Shop No. 30: This shop has lot of nice party wear sarees and is very reasonable in his pricing. No scope to bargain.
• Sree Mahalaxmi Jewellery, Shop No. 20, Vasant Plaza Shopping Centre, and Opp Natraj Market: This shop has good combination of antique and fancy jewelry, they are nominally priced. No bargaining will work!
• Anjali Collection: Has exclusive party wear salwar kameez, good anarkali ones too. I purchased two anarkali chudidaars (grand ones) for Rs 700 each. I did some research before buying here and many shops just quoted double for the similar ones. You need to bargain hard.

Bandra
Linking Road: A very famous shopping place in Mumbai where one can find local and international brands, inexpensive Chinese makes and fakes too. There are plenty of shops selling salwars, footwear and bags.
• Primona Art Gallery, Shop No. 533: I had been to a boutique way back in 2006 and had picked up a nice skirt for 150 bucks. Incidentally this time the auto guy stopped me at the same place and I remembered having visited this shop earlier. The lady owner of the shop was very friendly and offered to look after my baby while I tried out few tunics. The shop has wide range of tunics, skirts, shirts and is of export quality. Most of them were available for 325/- bucks. The lady also suggested me to pick some baby clothes at Tan-Zeb.
• Tan-zeb, Shop No. 504: It is one stop shop for all the baby products and accessories. I was looking for baby tights and I got two of them for just 300 bucks.

Andheri (W) Station
A small lane opposite to McDonalds is a busy area most of the time. There are number of shops lined next to one another selling bags, tops, footwear and jewelry. Interestingly everyone quotes a same price for same item and there is no scope to bargaining. A footwear shop at the dead end has few unique pieces of footwear and you should bargain.

Powai (W)
Galleria, Hiranandani Gardens: I did no research on any of the shopping places in Mumbai. I was told by someone saying Hiranandani Mall has lot of small shops and is a must visit place, so I set off to visit this place one day. Auto guy was confused with the ‘Mall’ and he dropped me off at City Park near Hiranandani Gardens. I was impressed with the buildings as they seemed to be unique with domes and regal arches. Few yards away from the City Park is the Central Avenue. Westside store on the first floor of Central Avenue is cramped and small; it was a sheer waste of time. Galleria Shopping Centre is just across the Central Avenue.
• Leather Galleria, First Floor F-195: Has good collection of trendy leather bags. He also has few branded ones like Levi’s which he sells out for a lesser price. Bargain hard!

Vile Parle (W)
Alfa Market: Five sets of shops form Alfa and the area is called Irla. Alfa 1 has imported baby accessories, imported toiletries, imported electronic products and dryfruits. They sell most of the products at a reasonably lesser price. Alfa 2 has few shops that sells clothe and bags, Kurtis are must buy as they are cheap and trendy. Alfa 3 has a gifting items, household accessories and electronic stuff and bags. Alfa 4 sells electronic gadgets.
SOGO Collection, Alfa 2: Sogo has few nice collections of tunics, leggings and skirts.

Lokhandwala
Kamdhenu Shopping Centre: This shopping complex located in Lokhandwala area has many shops mainly selling clothes and jewelry.
• C K Collection, Shop No 74: The owner ‘Tiwari’ is very friendly and is really good at marketing skills. He has few export quality tops and tunics like Papaya and George. I liked the fabric and the colors. He has few good party wear halter neck gowns and frocks. I am damn sure one won’t go empty handed the moment they land at this shop. Typically sells the tops for 150 bucks. Good thing is that he has clothes for plus size.
B K Garment, 14/B, Bon-Bon Lane: This shop too has good tops and tunics. The shop is cramped so you don’t get to see all the varieties displayed. Need to bargain.
Soft Tot, Bon-Bon Lane: Great party wear frocks for girls below 10 years. He has amazingly good quality party wear frocks in the range of 600-700 bucks. I quite did not like the attitude of the owner, so on my first visit did not pick the frock that I fell in love with. Next time when I went the same frock was out of stock but the staff helped me deliver the same frock in a span of a week’s time. That was something very commendable. No scope to bargain.
Aby Baby, Bon-Bon Lane: This shop has good options for picking the B’day frocks for girls. I wanted a real good one for my daughter’s first b’day party and I found one which is too good for 700 bucks. The similar ones on Westside or Shoppers Stop cost about 1200 bucks. No scope to bargain.

Colaba
Fashion Street: I had a glimpse of the fashion street from a zooming cab during my first visit. The thought of not having visited kept lingering on my mind, so I gave a visit during my second visit to Mumbai. FS is about a kilometer wide and has around 150 shops and is more popular among the younger crowd and tourist. All kinds of trendy tops and kurties (mainly petite size) are available for a cheaper price. Plus size kurties or tops are rare thing to find. Apart from clothing, there are shops selling shoe, jewelry and bags.

Victoria Terminus
Manish Market: It has around 50 shops which are not more than 4*4 feet in dimension and they mainly sells cell phones, watches and toys (mainly Chinese fake brands). For a person like me who is not into gadgets it was waste of time. It was hard for me to make my way out as it was jam packed with males all around.
Mangaldas Market: This market is indoor and is exclusively for clothes and jewelry. It has around 100 shops selling chaniya cholies, sarees, salwar kameez materials, suitings and shirtings. I quite did not like the attitude of the shop vendors as many did not show any interest in selling. They were more interested in making an export deal.
Luggage Plaza, Baria Building, Opp Crawford Market: This shop has imported (from Dubai) leather bags and trolleys. Need to bargain.

Goregoan(E)
The Hub: This mall has departmental store, few restaurants, and a multiplex. There is a shop for the little ones called ‘Little Planet’. Not a must see mall.
The Oberoi Mall: Probably a well designed mall according to me as it is very spacious. Caters to your shopping and entertainment needs. I had the best shopping experience.

Magnificent Mansions of Chettinad

Chettinad, once a land of Chettiars has about 75 villages in southern part of Tamil Nadu state. It is famous for the palatial house built in the 19th Century by Chettiars. Many of them migrated to Burma, Singapore, Malaysia and Ceylon for trading and left behind wives and their children in huge mansions. Their trading collapsed after World War II and they returned back to their homeland and sold their furniture and fitting. As per tradition, Chettiars not only accumulated wealth, but also spent it in three ways: they built their mansions, donated for charity, and threw lavish parties marking weddings, important birthdays and anniversaries. Well, the last one is still being followed in most of the Chettiar families. We choose to stay in one such mansion called Chettinadu Mansion in Kanadukathan. This is about 16Kms from Karaikudi.

How we reached: We left B’lore and stayed over night at karur. Next day we reached Kanadukathan via Tirchi.
Bangalore – Hosur – Krishnagiri – Dharmapuri – Salem – Karur (approx 220Kms)
Karur – Tiruchirapalli – Kiranur – Pudukottai - Thirumayam - Kanadukathan (approx 190Kms)

Accommodation: Chettinadu Mansion was built in 1902 till 1912 by Mr. Chandramouli’s grandfather and has about 100 rooms out of which 7 rooms are given for the guests. Entrance to his mansion is through a huge marriage hall with black and white Italian marbles, copper plated celing from England and the pillars of shining black marbles. The giant portraits of the Ancestors on the walls of this hall don’t go unnoticed. This hall is now converted for reception and dining purposes. On the either side of this hall is an identical dining area which reminds me of Bowling Alleys. One of them is now converted to museum and the other as a conference room. What really amazed me were the curtains to the huge windows. An old Chettinad sari was used as curtains but it still looked so elegant on those windows. After the marriage hall is first courtyard with iron pillars supporting the rooms on the first floor. Beautiful Athangudi tiles are seen in the inner courtyard floors.

All the 7 rooms are named after different persons in their family. We were given a room called 'Valli' which is supposed to be the best room available. It had a terrace, which gives a view of the other mansions surrounding. The hand painted wall inside the room looked like a tile and having a AC was just a bliss as the temperature was soaring. The bathroom was spacious and you will not miss observing a stool with a designed tile embedded in it. This royal home stay was restored by Mr. Chandramouli after his retirement. We got to meet his daughter Solai who is temporarily looking after the mansion as he is out of country. She was very friendly and gave us an overview of the mansion and has her own blog on Chettinad cookery (solaiachiskitchen.blogspot.com). We took her permission to see the remaining portion of the mansion where the access to guests is limited.

Tariff: Rs 5000 per couple for one night including breakfast.

Food: They serve Chettinad cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I really felt they should have included more cuisines in breakfast and lunch as they charge exorbitantly high (Rs 500 for lunch per person). Alternatively there is ‘Saffron’ a veg restaurant in Hotel Subalakshmi Palace in Karaikudi.

Bookings: They have their website and the staff is very friendly. Surprisingly they did not ask for an advance payment.
Tel: +91 484 2321518, 2317052
Mob: +91 098463 44305
Mail: info@deshadan.com


Activities: A ten minute documentary on Chettinadu Mansion is also shown to the guests. There are photo albums available showing the beauty of the mansion. Chettinadu Mansion has a indoor museum, which we could visit at any hour.


Bullock Cart Ride: There is also a bullock cart ride for an extra 100 bucks which goes around the village. It was nice to see few mansions in good condition.














Raja Palace: Another huge mansion behind Chettinad Mansion is more famous among tourist called ‘Raja Palace’ and was build by Dr. Annamali Chettiar. The last courtyard of this palace is magnificent and the artifacts are displayed in the main hall. Open at 9 am and Closes by 4 pm.



Visit to another mansion: This mansion is on the lane before Chettinadu Mansion and is badly maintained. The only uniqueness about this mansion is the richly carved teak main door. Some local folks are appointed to take care and it was really painful to see the state of the mansion.

Visit to Karaikudi: There are few antique shops and one could even pick Chettinadu sarees. It was unfortunate that we happened to land there on Sunday and most of the shops were closed. There is a mansion consisting of 1000 windows. As it is located in residential area, one could easily miss it.