My First Love Letter in India

Well, it's more like a love post-it. Remember the one Sex and the City episode when Burger breaks up with Carie on a post-it note? Well, a shop owner in Mamallapuram expressed his fond feelings for me in the same way, on a 2x2 inch piece of paper.

Each morning in Mamallapuram greets me with the clank clank of stone artists chiseling away at their sculptures. My days and evenings are sprinkled with greetings from shopkeepers as I walk by them. In this town, the majority are from Kashmir, the northern most state of India that is only accessible by road four months out of the year. Many of them sell bags, beautiful rugs, wall hangings, pillow covers, and bed spreads from Rajasthan, and shawls from Kashmir. During the winter months, the shop owners work in Southern India and then return home to Kashmir in the spring and summer time to run their other shops.

I had fun getting to know many of them. The shop owners are very nice and a few of my afternoons have been spent chatting with them. They genuinely enjoy learning about those who walk by and browse their shops. With the shops I've visited, I've been invited to have a seat and drink some chai. They always reassure me that they're not trying to sell me anything and it turns out they're not.

The shop right next to my budget hotel is owned by a Kashmiri shop owner who told me today on a note that he likes me. I'm not interested at all, and then I found out he was 21 - way not interested. He's been involved in the family business since he was 15 and it turns out that many of the Kashmiri shop owners are young, in their twenties and in their fourth or fifth year of running their own business. Amazing.

It turns out that I may be in the business of breaking hearts in India. The most common question I get is if I'm married and then if I have a boyfriend. I was hoping from this crushed out shop owner that I could get a good deal on a ring that I could stick on my wedding finger to avoid the inquiries. No such luck.