Depending on what part of the world you're in, finding tampons is sometimes an exhausting experience, and when a girl wants to be comfortable tampons are the way to go (yes girls, you understand me). So you can imagine my chagrin when I realized that I'd have to go on a quest to find the little buggers here in India. Grrr
First, I called the concierge at the front desk to see if there was a pharmacy nearby (in my experience, the pharmacy is usually the place to go. Nope. Out of luck, no pharmacy in the huge mall right next door to the hotel. I'd have to take a car and ask a driver to go to the nearest one. However, I learned that if I wanted, I could call down and arrange for someone to pick up anything I wanted at the pharmacy. Now that's just ludicrous I thought...No, I'd call down again and ask a girl, woman to woman, where in the world did one find tampons.
The next time I called down, I struck gold! Not only did I get a girl, but she directed me to the mall next door where there was a big department cum grocery store, where I could find all of those goodies. So I slipped on a pair of shoes, threw on my Club Monaco camel wool cardigan with suede elbow patches (thanks Scott!) the very same garment in which I nearly passed out in the back of a cab from heat exhaustion earlier that evening, and took a jaunt to the mall.
The malls in Gurgaon are intense. There are many malls with many stores. After going every which way for a while (I learned here that most people who work in stores just really don't know where other stores or amenities are other than their store), I found Big Bazaar. And even better, I found a whole shelf of pads -- surrounded by aisles of clothes, trinkets and electronics. 'Hmm straaaange,' I thought but at least I was on the right track. A man behind a counter asked if he could help me, to which I replied,
- "Yes, do you also sell tampons or just pads?"
- "Yes there are pads behind you?
- "Yes but do you also sell tampons? Not just pads?" Gesture to the piles of pads on the shelf
- "They are right there" Gesture to the same humongous pile of pads on the shelf
- "Yes but those are pads, do you also sell tampons"
- "You want diapers?"
- "No, not diapers. I'm looking for tampons. You know...pads and tampons"
- "Ohh Whisper brand, yes they are in the grocery section"
- "No, not a brand, tampons. I want tampons"
- "Maybe if you can explain their function to me...?"
(To which point I thought...'Should I really say, you know every month women stick them into themselves to stop the flow of blood....usually men are kind of grossed out by the whole process but since you asked...')
- "Ermmm same function as pads," I decided to stay instead
- "OHHH yes, they are also in the grocery section to the left. So how about you look at some jewelry. It's 60% off."
- "Jewelry??? No I don't want to look at jewelry"
- "But very nice jewelry, good sale. I show you jewelry now. 60% off"
exit Kiyomi
But at least I found them AND discovered a treasure trove of grocery goodies under the Ambiance mall:
Buy this container AND receive a free kilo of sugar! Now that's what I call a deal!
Every samosa seller's dream: 5 gallon jugs of sunflower oil
Rice by the kilo flavored with mother hands, baby hands manly hands, store clerk hands, everyone's hands!
And I found a mini photo studio which does passport size photos. Even more amazing (spoiler alert if you have a birthday coming up soon), I can get my face printed on a heart shaped pillow!!! Amazing. Sigh, India is great. So ridiculous and fun. And I've successfully avoided the 12 day "welcome to India" present of digestive track issues. And since I just wrote this, I'll probably get sick tomorrow :)
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