Convo in Nalli-

We come in, a nice attendant (Attendant #1) approaches us: “what would you like to see madam?”
Us (me, vibha and my grandmother): “we’re looking for plain cotton organdy sari material” (notice HOW specific we were)
Attendant #1: “Printed silk sari’s are on the 3rd floor”
Us: “um, no, PLAIN ORGANDY.”
Attendant #1: “oh yes yes, that’s on the 2nd floor…take the elevator up”
….and so up we go, and there we meet Attendant #2.
Attendant #2: “what do you want?”
Us: “plain organdy sari”
Attendant #2: “That’s not on this floor, but how about some nice chiffon saris?”
Us: “what? No, thanks. What floor do we have to go to?”
Attendant #2: “The basement”
….and so down we go, by elevator then by stairs (the basement is the -1 floor~ very confusing if you’re mathematically challenged like I am. In the basement we meet Attendant #3, and of course he can’t help us- not surprising. (“who told you to come here???? No, we carry no such thing, but here, look at these nice men’s suits”; “No, please- where should we go for the organdy?”; “upstairs, 3rd floor”)
At this point my grandmothers is tired, poor thing, and behaving much like juju when he’s suffering from lack of sleep- scolding and snapping at anyone and everyone who’ll listen to her “when we go upstairs, they say go downstairs, when we go downstairs, they say go upstairs…”
So up to the 3rd floor we go- where, surprise surprise, they look at us like we have mustard on our faces and tell us that what we’re looking for is, and always has been, on the 2nd floor.
Poor paati- all three of us looked at each other and just burst out laughing, totally uncontrollably…infact we were laughing so much that all the store attendants started laughing too (prolly at us, rather than with us but whoop dee do).

We did get the material, finally- so I suppose all’s well that ends well.