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Shopping in Kolkata bazaars is an adventure, and a test of your ability to shake off touts. In general, most shops are open six days a week and closed Sunday. Hours tend to be 10:30–8.
Kolkata has never been the place for trendy shopping, so you may want to concentrate on getting hand-loomed cloth, handicrafts, and artistic jute and metal gifts, most of which will cost you next to nothing. Things to look out for include long-necked terra-cotta Bankura horses, dokra metalwork, and Bengal saris, made in crisp cottons and luscious silks. And many galleries sell very affordable art.
Although government emporiums in Dakshinapan sell the best of what the various states of India have to offer, boutiques and other stores in south Calcutta offer a better shopping experience, with a more carefully curated selection.
Head up to Rabindra Sarani from Lal Bazaar Road (near the West Bengal Tourist Office) and you'll soon enter an Islamic world. Women walk by in burqas and men sit on elevated platforms selling Bengali kurtas (shirts) and pants, and colorful lungis and white dhotis (both are wraps) for men. Other vendors sell ittar (vials of perfume created from flowers). Rabindra Sarani is interesting all the way to Chitpur Road.
