Rugs and Marble

After a delicious Indian meal, our guide took us to a place that sold rugs.  The owner of the store said all rugs were handmade; in fact, a student was currently there working on a rug.  The rugs were beautiful, but no one bought any.  Afterwards, someone in the group said, “You realize that those rugs were not handmade, right?  Handmade rugs show knots on the back.  And that “student” was just a “demo” for our behalf.  There were no weaving materials around, besides the loom, or anything to indicate that actual work was taking place.”  Tiki, who is from India, thinks that the rugs are indeed handmade and that the work is so exquisite because the tradition is passed down from one generation to the next.

The marble store was similar.  The owner gave a beautiful presentation,  there were people working, but none of us bought anything.  Again, the comment afterwards was, “All that was for our benefit.  No one sits around on the floor carving marble in a starched white shirt.”

 So our guide didn’t make any commission and announced that he was out of time and could not go with us to Agra Fort, so we went without a guide.