Shilparamam, a Total Disappointment!

 

I was quite excited when our cabbie, Nizam, proposed the idea of going to Shilparamam after Golkonda visit. I had read a few reviews on Shilparamam before our trip and was thinking of somehow squeezing it in to the itinerary. One of the reviewers has remarked it to be an amazing shopping experience at cheap prices. She had said that you could simply spend all day there. Did I need anything more to impress me?

Shilparamam is the arts, crafts & cultural village in the Hitech city. Visiting from Pune, I was not very amazed at the concept of the Hitech city and had made a mental note to skip it. In the words of my husband, “I am not going there unless I intend to drop my CV in all the companies there.”

DSCN6662

Paradoxically, we had to pass through the Hitech city in order to reach Shilparamam. We paid the entry fee of Rs 30 per person (now this I remember because later on I thought it was like throwing Rs 60 in to a muddy pool of rain water) and entered the village. There was an array of shops inside which had anything from pretty little lanterns to bangles and glass beads. I did not find anything extraordinary (or native to Hyderabad) and I overheard another lady voicing out my thoughts. Most of the shop keepers looked distracted and damp (owing to a cloudy weather or the siesta).

I had liked a few brass bangles and tried a hand at bargaining which I knew was functional anywhere other than Kerala. They were not ready to reduce the prices. So I gave up and nodded a “lets go” to my husband. I was not ready to buy anything from Hyderabad at fixed prices, things which I could easily get from Tulsibaug, Pune. We probably surprised Nizam with our quick exit and as I remember it, I had entered the cab insulted.

Later on, I realized that Shilparamam was in the Hitech city. That explained everything!

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hyderabad Tour - Hotel Sitara and Ramoji Film City

Image
Girish and I @ GGB, SF We, my husband Girish and I, started this tour on the 16th of June 2012 after a lot of hiccups. We discussed a few spots in India which turned out to be very expensive. Finally, we settled for the princely state of Hyderabad. A friend said, "I am surprised that you did not chose a hill station." I found myself saying that I am not extremely fond of hill stations. I am more lured by the pomp and glory of the cities! Normally, travel agencies give you packaged tours which include accommodation, sight seeing and perhaps a few entry tickets as well. Our plan was sudden and our travel agent failed to give us good deals that matched our budget. So we had to try a few options before giving in for Hotel Sitara at Ramoji Film City (RFC). RFC is situated a good 30 kms away from the city. We chose to stay there as there was an extended summer carnival going on in RFC. Hotel Sitara in the Lighting Show RFC is not a one day affair. You have a plenty of s...
Read more

Lad Bazar and Lac Bangles :)

Image
  We reached Charminar after a sumptuous Biriyani, post Chowmahalla Palace visit. If you just licked your lips at the mention of Hyderbadi Biriyani, I would be speaking about Hyderabadi Delicacies later on in another post.   It was nearly 4 pm when Nizam dropped us in Laad Bazaar. Nizam was so eager to show us around Hyderabad that he belittled the idea of stopping in Lad Bazaar. I would have hit him from behind if he had re iterated his own itinerary  that did not contain Lad bazaar. One of the busiest and glittery areas of the old city, Lad Bazaar had swarms of women in purdahs walking across enjoying the heavenly experience of shopping. There are reasons why I call it ‘heavenly’. Laad baar is a small gali festooned with small shops of bangles, pearls and laces. What I had expected were tarpaulin covered stalls and not well established bangle shops like those. At first, they had looked intimidatingly expensive to me. I had learnt the art of bargaining from Pune and...
Read more