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Tracy Kitching is sitting in a Rajasthani den amid swathes
of jewel bright slippery silks and gilded brocades. 'These
are 100-year-old wedding saris,' declares the salesman
as he sends yet another one billowing towards her.
Tracy raises her eyebrows at me. 'They're old, but not
more than 40 or 50 years. You take the patter with a pinch
of salt.'
'Jeremy irons buy 12 coats from us!' continues the salesman.
'Beatle buy antique gold jewellery for his daughter Stella.
The Queen buy many thing here!'
'Really, the Queen?' I ask with surprise.
'Yes, madam. The Queen drummer, Roger Taylor.'
You need a good eye, a cool head and a healthy dose of
cynicism to buy goods from India. You also need endless
patience, humour and a taste for chai, the sweet,
milky, cardamom tea that is proffered as soon as you're
enticed over the threshold of any store. Tracy has all
these attributes, plus loads of style and enthusiasm,
which have made her jewel-box of a shop. Opium, back home
in London's Chelsea, a magnet for lovers of Indian furniture,
textiles, jewellery, stoles, sari cushions, photo albums
and other Oriental exotica.
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