I absolutely love huge teeka's and for my best friends wedding, I knew I had to wear one. Wanting to wear a huge teeka was one thing, but finding one that matched my bridesmaid outfit was another. I was on a very short time limit & had a few hours at the most to find this teeka, so I headed down to the Indian & Pakistani area of Gerrard Street. If you don't know what area I'm talking about, it's pretty much a section of a street that has all Indian & Pakistani stores with clothing, jewelry, home decors, grocery, restaurants, etc.
I went from one store to the other & was disappointed with what I saw. The closest thing to what I wanted was overpriced & I wasn't willing to spend so much on something that I wasn't loving completely. I was almost out of time since I had to head back to the consulate, wasn't in a good mood (had gotten into a small accident while driving to downtown Toronto & was not happy that I couldn't find something I liked after visiting so many stores), & was just sick of the lack of good customer service, but I decided to try out one last store.
Business card of Sajawat - the store where I picked up the teeka from
Sajawat1475 Gerrard Street East,
Toronto, Ontario, M4L 2A1
(416) 519-6408
When I walked in the store, I didn't have any expectations & didn't expect to like a teeka here either. I was proven wrong quickly, when I started going through the teeka's and found something that I fell in love with. My mum was so relieved considering how picky I am, haha! The teeka came in 3 or 4 different sizes (I want to say 4 but I'm not 100% sure). I was completely sold on it & the hardest part for me was deciding between the 2 biggest sizes. I ended up choosing the 2nd biggest one because the beading on it was absolutely perfect! There wasn't that much of a difference between the sizes, but depending on your facial structure & size, it would definitely make a difference. I have a big face as compared to others, so this huge teeka suited me.
Taken with flash so that you can see what the red beads in the teeka would look like under sunlight, with light hair, or against fair skin.
I'm pretty sure the teeka was part of a bridal set because they had hand jewelry that matched & probably had everything else too - at this point I was overjoyed about the teeka & could care less about anything else. I was so happy that I was willing to pay the ridiculous price ($30-40) that most of the smaller teekas at the other stores cost. This teeka, however, only cost me $15! I was SO surprised that I considered contacting the other bridesmaids since we had all decided to wear teeka's at the wedding. I was already running late & didn't have a way to show them what the teeka looked like, so I didn't end up contacting them.
Look at how flexible that teeka is!
Besides all that, I loved that the teeka was flexible, so it wouldn't sit flat against your forehead.
Another thing (not teeka related) that I was happy with was the customer service I received at the store. Most of the time when I'm in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) & visit a desi store, I always have problems with their customer service. The people working at the stores act like they have too much pride to be working there, they don't seem like they want to help you, or they only want to help you to force the sale of a product on you & not because they care. This can also be because I'm accustomed to the customer service in the Niagara region, but most of the time the lack of customer service from desi people in the GTA annoys me way too much. At Sajawat, however, the customer service was great, which was a bonus for me.
Left - shown completely so it looks like a bridal teeka; Right - hidden to tone it down
The picture above shows 2 ways that you can wear the teeka. On the left, the teeka looks like something that would be fit for a bride. I didn't actually wear it to the wedding this way - the picture was just taken for the purpose of this post. The picture on the right is an actual picture of me wearing the teeka at the wedding. Even though the teeka is huge, I wore it so that my hair was covering most of it, which really toned it down & made it more appropriate for a bridesmaid.
So at the end of it all I learned that you can get good customer service from desi people even in Toronto & you can find an awesome, reasonable, huge teeka, but you just have to be patient & look a little.
Disclosure: This teeka was not given to me by the store to review or I was not paid in any way to write this post. I found a great teeka at a store that had good customer service, so I wanted to share it, especially since I have received questions from people on where I got this teeka from.
