it is my belief that the best place to buy something is in a dusty shop along an out of the way alley. every city in every town, all over the world, has a few such shops. usually there is an old man, equally dusty as his piles of treasure, and rarely does he seem very interested in relieving himself of his wares.

this particular old man happened to be smoking hash in a circle with his friends and a much younger dreadlocked girl, probably israeli. the room was no larger than most coffee tables and all the walls were covered in old offset hindu god prints. i had already flipped through the stacks outside the tiny shop, like lps in an american record store, and now reluctantly broke up their smoky group to peer through the dusty frames at these amazing 100 year-old prints. although i didn’t find the varma i was looking for, i paid 1000 rupees for an amazingly diabolical print and a half tolo of decent smoke.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 6:25 am and is filed under india.