Posted on 11/08/2010 1:16:02 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
New Delhi | Bedspreads, Ganeshas, toys...Michelle can't stop buying at crafts museum Monday, 08 November 2010 | http://www.nerve.in/news:253500351728 | channel: India
"The museum has over 20,000 exhibits reflecting Indian crafts traditions and seven galleries spaces for display."
New Delhi, Nov 8 - Indian textiles and handicrafts charmed their way into Michelle Obama's shopping bag Monday as the US first lady almost ran out of money, picking up bedspreads, Ganeshas and wooden toys which, she said, would make for ideal Christmas gifts!
Michelle went on a shopping spree after arriving at the National Handicrafts and Handloom Museum in Pragati Maidan complex at 10.45 a.m. She was in the museum for nearly two hours, shooting well past her one-hour scheduled programme.
Museum director Ruchira Ghosh walked Michelle through the galleries devoted to the traditional textiles, rural handicrafts and art of India.
'Michelle was so impressed with the Indian handicrafts on display that she did not want to leave the museum. She went on a shopping binge, buying almost everything that she came across,' said Ghosh.
Michelle said she would have bought more had she been left with more money, those at the museum said.
The US first lady exhausted her shopping budget at the crafts museum and said the Indian craft items were ideal gifts of Christmas, barely one-and-a-half months away!
She was clad in the same black and green dress she had worn at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat and from where she drove down in an eight-vehicle convoy to the crafts museum while her husband and US President Barack Obama left for Hyderabad House for talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Her shopping list included four embroidered kantha bed spreads, Kutchi mobile phone bags, Kutchi dolls and a from Gujarati 'yogi thaila', which was a cloth bag with sequins and heavy embroidery.
Michelle also bought wooden toys from Karnataka, wooden key chains, three wooden Ganeshas and a wooden toy train. Part of the gifts she bought were also elephants and fans made of rice grain and rice stalk.
Also on display for the first lady were patachitra art from West Bengal, phulkari weaves from Punjab, phoosa art from Karnataka, dushala shawls from Jammu and Kashmir and handicrafts from Himachal Pradesh.
About 20 women artisans from across the country exhibited their work on the occasion.
Michelle was impressed by the rich legacy of Indian crafts.
She also interacted with 15 underprivileged girls of an NGO who make handicraft items for a living and showed a keen interest in the welfare of the girl child, museum sources said.
To add to her cultural experience were 'baul' folk singers from West Bengal.
The museum, which is usually closed Monday, was kept open specially for the first lady.
The museum was set up over a period of 30 years starting in the 1950s when the area adjacent to the Pragati Maidan was envisaged as a craft zone for artisans to work for the preservation of traditional art.
The museum has over 20,000 exhibits reflecting Indian crafts traditions and seven galleries spaces for display.
Michelle is accompanying husband Barack Obama during his first trip to India from Nov 6-9.
All these countries always love tourists especially if they have big bucks.
Are they sending a plane for her loot?
As long as it’s her money, who cares?
big if there
...she’s just getting rinky dinks for future heads of state that visit as gifts from the American people...any ipads or DVD’s?
But won’t the unions be upset that she didn’t buy American?
“Part of the gifts she bought were also elephants and fans made of rice grain and rice stalk. “
we also decided to send Obama a nice gift of many elephants :)
We were told by Michelle and Barack to quote “Tighten our belts...we are going to have to learn to go without...this is a struggle to survive...we must surrender our focus to want and focus only on what we need.”
I guess we desperately need an entire line of Kutchi mobile phone bags
As long as she’s paying with her own money, I don’t care. Presidential spouses and families have always used state travel as an opportunity for a shopping spree.
It takes time to be properly fitted for a howdah.
Who is all this stuff for? Michelle and Barack don’t give their kids Christmas gifts, right? (My guess is that tradition was Barack’s idea and Michelle has been getting around it for years.)
Man, I sure wish we had a manufacturing base like that. How many union members do you think it would take to make a rice stalk elefante or some clay beads or some wood toys???
Didn't Imam Obamah say his family doesn't celebrate Christmas or birthdays?
She could have simply gone to Pier 1 or World Market and it would have cost the taxpayers less money!
Get real you guys. You know damn well taxpayers are picking up Michelle’s tab.
Looks like they’re addicted to other peoples’ money!
Ms. POTUS,
By all means, please use our credit card!
The American People
/Sarq off
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