SHOPPING PARADISE Souvenir collectors to obsessive shoppers, know how to keep everyone happy. With multifarious cottage industry and handicraft repertoire, choices are endless. Choose ambiance from coastal, street or up-market shopping.

INDIA TODAY NOVEMBER 2010 TODAY NOVEMBER 2010 MAHARASTRA TOURISM GUIDE 80 DECEMBER 2011 MAHARASTRA TOURISM GUIDE 81 DECEMBER 2011 OPTIONS OPTIONS GALORE GALORE

You can soak up the fragrance and pamper yourself or your loved ones with lovely carnations, chrysanthemums, marigolds, gladiolis and orchids from ’s flower market. You will get a bunch of flowers at dirt-cheap rates here. Pick : them up on the way and cherish an aromatic experience. Do visit Mohammed Ali road and shop to your heart’s content for ittr (scent), embroidery and zari work besides artefacts, kinck-knacks and souvenirs.

STREET HAUNTS Mumbai is also famous for its specialised leather market at . You can buy latest leather handbags, shoes and THERE IS NO BEATING THE INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE THAT STREET jackets from here at extremely pocket-friendly rates. SHOPPING IN THIS CITY OFFERS. All the needs of a street shopper are beautifully taken care By Richa Taneja of by Mumbai. If you know the right shops, pick up the right stuff and bargain it right, street shopping is going to should not be missed. Chor Bazaar that literally means be a pleasurable experience for you. After a day of street ouring Mumbai and ‘No Shopping’ just doesn’t ‘thieves market’ has a phenomenal range of antiques, shopping, the triumphant smile will come with some beads go together! Mumbai’s streets know how to jewellery, leather ware, wooden articles, miscellaneous junk of sweat, which will indeed be very well-earned. loosen your clenched fists and reach them out and general bric-a brac. Antiques like old railway clocks, for ‘checking out stuff’. In the next moment, you’ll brass trumpets, colourful lanterns, gramophones, ship find that your fists are clenched again, but this wheel, victorian furniture, wrist watches, pocket watches Ttime, with a shopping bag! After all, it is for a reason that and olden style phones can be spotted here. You name it and Mumbai is called - Shopper’s Paradise. Chor Bazaar has it! Sometimes even the branded stuff can be found here amidst the indigenous reproductions, in fact, Street shops are makeshift shops set up on the pavements, stunning replicas. contrasting from a posh showrooms but the quality is first- rate. For trendy summer clothes, colourful junk jewellery, But a word of caution, watch out your pockets, keep a sharp belts, stoles, scarves, latest bags, sunglasses, shoes or eye on the ‘real’ stuff, show indifference towards the products perfumes – your stoppage points would be causeway you like and ensure that you bargain real hard. Shopping at market near the , market on Chor Bazaar is an unmatched experience. Lots of surprises Mahatma Gandhi road, Lokhandwala market in , await you here.

Like many visitors to Mumbai, you’ll undoubtedly want to pick up some movie-industry kitsch. Mini Market, a store in famous Linking Road and Hill road in . You can pick Chor Bazaar sells original vintage Bollywood posters and up t-shirts and casual tops for as cheap as rupees 100, cool other movie collectables and trinkets. The other destination MUST BUYS: accessories in rupees 100-150 and footwear for rupees 200- for old hindi film posters is , near Grant road l Lokhandvala in Andheri and Linking road in Bandra: 250. Hill road has the best footwear at the least price. station. Clothes and footwear l Colaba near Gateway of India and Fashion street on Ma- hatama Gandhi road: Junk jewellery and clothes Famous for chic fashion, these places will sour your feet, For rare old books at cheap prices, at l Dharavi, Sion: Leather jackets, shoes, bags but you will not complain. Street shopping is a craft and you Hutatama Chowk is the best available option. You will not l Lamington road, near Grant road station and Alfa, Ville can’t do without bargaining reasonably. In fact, you must. regret going here! For colourful and innovative carpets, head Parle: Electronics Worth checking out! for Mereweather Road in Colaba. l Chor Bazaar, Mutton street, : Antiques l Mangaldas Market and Gandhi Market: Sarees and Indian wear For Indian wear, Mangaldas Market is a great place to buy Answer for cheap electronics- laptops, ear phones and phone l Mereweather road, Colaba: Carpets Indian textiles and traditional clothes. You can easily get accessories is Lamington road. You will never get laptops l Flora fountain at Hutatama Chowk - Books clothes in wholesale as well which will be good on your in the prices offered anywhere else in Mumbai. Crawford l Mohammad Ali Road, South Mumbai: Ittr (scent) and pocket. Also Mahatma Gandhi Cloth Market is best for Indian market is famous for its electronics too. Game CDs, PSPs, artefacts l Dadar flower market, Bhavani Shankar Road: Flowers wear, especially sarees. Music systems etc. are the best bet here. Irla in Vile Parle has l Mini Market in Chor Bazaar and Lamington road, near Alfa, the hub of cheap electronics. Heera Panna Markets also Grant road station: Vintage Hindi film posters If antiques and artefacts are on your mind, Chor Bazaar houses accessories and electronic goods.

INDIA TODAY NOVEMBER 2010 INDIA TODAY NOVEMBER 2010 MAHARASTRA TOURISM GUIDE 107 DECEMBER 2011 MAHARASTRA TOURISM GUIDE 107 DECEMBER 2011