I have to admit that my smoothest shopping experience was in Hyderabad. I quite liked the Food World shops - which are not as big as Food Bazaars/ Big Bazaars, and tend to be very conveniently located. On main roads etc. Which I guess was never a problem for me because I didn't own a car, and parking wasn't an issue. In a sense the Food World became like a Kirana store for me. It was small enough for me to know where everything was, and to actually call up the guy and sometimes ask him to deliver home.
There were also some "novelty" shops I ended up going to - like Tarkari (it's on Road No 1, Banjara Hills) - a very tiny vegetable shop - which sometimes sells veggies that you wouldn't find in the usual stores. (For instance, I found it very hard to get mushrooms in most places.) . The Rytu Bazaar (Farmer Market) in Hyderabad is wonderful if you have a long enough shopping list. Living alone, I never needed more than 6 tomatoes and half a kilo of assorted vegetables a week - and going all the way there just - was too big a deal. In Bombay - the Kirana stores - especially beyond Bandra and Sion are converting to the "walk through" store space business if they have that kind of area. In fact, I noticed that in Ahmedabad too. Neha Viswanathan +44(0) 77695 65886 London, UK http://withinandwithout.com | http://globalvoicesonline.org
