Mahjong in India

It was 2001 and we were holidaying in Singapore. The tourist circuit of Singapore brought us to the very crowded but enchanting lanes of Chinatown. The quaint shops were a shoppers paradise indeed ; and it was there that I saw a small shop selling Mahjong sets!

Now, I had never played this game.... In fact, I'd never ever even seen Mahjong tiles, but  yes, I had definitely heard about the game.
I looked very expectantly at my husband, who although was open to shopping, but hated carrying extra weight.

So, it was decided.....we were buying a set!
But now, which one?
Like typical Punjus, we decided, bigger the better🤣... and went in for the biggest tiles available... Of course, they were the heaviest too... which we realised much later.
(I think my husband could not have imagined the weight of the tiles... 😜)

They were not the much lauded "Bone & Bamboo" tiles, but were beautifully painted in red, green and blue. The set has 160 tiles, including some Jokers, blanks and animal tiles etc.

The Jokers and the animal tiles were even more colorful and radiated a certain warmth.
But, like I mentioned earlier, I had no idea about the game, so this set was decided upon because it had the largest and maximum number of tiles
And of course, it had
Hindu - Arabic ( English) numeral markings.
This I recommend to all non Chinese players. Even if you have to pay a little extra, it's worth it.

Ok, so coming back to the tiles shopping.... The set was decided upon, and paid for. It was only then that
my husband picked up the dainty looking box... And "wow" it only looked dainty.... It was some 6 to 7 kg heavy!

Lugging that little box was quite an ordeal, and a reason enough for a not so small marital skirmish that lasted the entire day.
This  skirmish erupted again, the day we were boarding a flight back home; when the airline staff asked us to pay an excess baggage charge....