I really wanted to find basil in...

I really wanted to find basil in Jaipur too...a lot of people told me that everyone keeps a basil plant in their house, but I was unconvinced. When I finally got to try some (the Hindi word is तुलसी tulsi) it was definitely some variety of basil-- it tasted like the "cinnamon basil" we grew when I worked on a famr-- but not the kind you'd put in Italian food, unfortunately. I remember buying a tiny thing of olive oil for something like 500 rupees in Jaipur-- but 100% worth it! There's a store in C-Scheme called Shoppers Paradise which sells a lot of imported products if you ever need to find something like olive oil.

Heading South?