Day 2 - Driving in India is only for trained professionals

At around 1:00pm the temperature was in the mid 90's with dry heat. It feels like Texas in late June (not too hot yet). From the office Ravi (Manohar's driver) and I headed out in the afternoon to the Shilparamam artisan market. I’ve heard rumors about how crazy the traffic is in India but until you experience it you won’t believe it. It appears to me that half of the vehicles are motorcycles, with the other half being composed of a combination of 3-wheeled moto cars and standard automobiles. Now visualize this … take thousands of those vehicles and spin them off into different directions with no rules while honking on your horn every 5 seconds. My number one observation in India so far is that honking your horn is just another way of saying “Hello, I’m here”. We went through several red lights, were cut off ten times, almost side-swipped 20 times and honked the horn 30 times and before you know it we were at our destination! No worries. When we arrived at the market I found that it was surrounded by a green vegetated park and a small pond with row boats. It is filled with silk cothing, jewelry, pottery, woodworks and textiles. Of course I took this as an opportunity to shop for my wife Jan (age unknown), daughter Taylor (18 going on 21) and son Austin (16). Unfortunately for Austin there is not as much merchandise here for us guys as there is for the girls so I may have to shop another day for him. As for my girls I was immediately attracted to a stand selling silk wraps and scarves from Kashmir. I took my shoes off and sat Indian style on a stack of rugs as the merchant from Kashmir presented me with a multitude of wraps. We first had to differentiate the "real" silk from the somewhat blended silk by passing the material through a small ring. If the material passed through smoothly without getting stuck it was deemed real. Of course I wanted to focus on the real stuff so that cut our selection in half. As the merchant placed color after color and design after design in front of us I could see Ravi from the corner of my eye wondering what he had gotten himself into. Thirty minutes later and a bit lighter in the pocket I purchased a few colorful wraps and headed back out to the streets of the market. I probably could have gotten a better deal if I had bargained a little more but I just treat it as an extra fee for the experience itself. We browsed around for a little while longer but my shopping brain was running low and I was ready to get back to eating and drinking. Life is good. By the way, Ravi the driver is the guy standing under the Shilparamam sign. Pictures to capture the essence of driving in India will be coming soon.