Dilip Textiles

It must be my extensive gaming days that overdeveloped parts of my imagination. I swear that when someone first mentioned «Arab Street» to me, I imagined belly dancers, people in head-​cloths walking around with their camels, AK-​47s and ammo shops, and old guys smoking from long pipes sipping on STRONG coffee brews on the side of the street. So when the fair lady finally visited me in March earlier this year, I just felt compelled to visit this place with her to check out the scene.
Well, guess what?
It was totally NOT what I had initially imagined. And I swear some of you are laughing at my ignorance right now. It is Singapore after all right?
Dilip Textiles is a small shop among the many shops — ranging from Persian carpets, Kashmir scarfs, linens, bags, and clothing textiles to random souvenirs — along Arab Street. They pride themselves as «importers and exporters of all types of bedspreads, table cloths, wall carpets, curtains, and brocade mats».
The fair lady and I checked out a specific table linen that they had displayed at their store. One of the guys who worked there was very thorough and extensive in his explanation and description of the these hand printed linens — their origin, how to care for it, and what types of dyes were being used. She really liked the design and colors of one particular linen that used 100% vegetable dye and we purchased that for $ 31.
Three months later, I found myself back at Arab Street after the UYE set up by CM Marcus L. earlier in the day because my fair lady’s sister wanted the same table linen as well. I walked up and down the street trying to locate this store and missed it twice (I couldn’t remember how the place looked like because we had checked out practically every store the first visit). It was when I walked by and bumped into the kind gentleman from the last visit that I found this store.
Best part?
He remembered me.
He also remembered the fair lady… and the scarf photo that we took.
And to my surprise, he remembered the EXACT table cloth size and color that we bought more than 3 months ago!
The owner was there and after hearing how I was trying to only find his store (and wasn’t interested in anything else along Arab Street) for the last hour… went inside and came back out with a cold bottle of water and gifted it to me saying, «You must need this. It’s really HOT today.» He also took a good 10 minutes explaining how the specific linen I bought needed to be properly prepped before use in order to ensure that the 100% vegetable dye wouldn’t run as well as optimize the brightness of colors.
I really appreciate the friendliness, generosity, and kindness from these 3 ol’gents. We’ll probably meet again. I have a feeling someone else over at the lady’s side of world will want me to pick up another one or two.
Unilocal 100: ⁴⁵⁄₁₀₀