Shopping Spree

Me and my wife planned to go out for dinner yesterday evening. I invited Mayur (He addresses me as "annayya" which means elder brother in Telugu, so it would be actually inappropriate to address him as friend. He is one "given" brother for me. Actually, how we got acquainted with each other is a big story, which I would share with you at a later point of time) and Lalita, who both got married to each other, a week ago, to come along with us. In fact, I made Lalita agree to treat us on the occasion of their marriage after great ordeal.

They apparently had a different plan of going to Hyderabad Central for shopping, because it was the last day of the "Happiness Sale" event that the mall has organized. So, we have modified the program slightly to me and Vaidehi, accompanying them to the mall and then going to the restaurant to dine. We reached the mall around 5:45 P.M, there was no parking place in the mall, so I had to drive my car to a small cul-de-sac and park it there. When we entered the mall, I have immediately understood what exactly people mean when they say population explosion. Mad Rush is what I would like to use. The number of people that were shopping was absolutely crazy. Lengthy queues at trial rooms, wash rooms and billing stations, people were literally dashing against each other while picking up stuff. We decided to be a part of the crazy bandwagon.

My wife and Lalita, formed a team and they disappeared into the ladies section, while me and Mayur and three of his friends/relatives who joined us in the mall made our way into the men's wing. Discounts ranged from 10% to 50%, offers were like, buy one get one free, buy two get one free, buy two get two free. When we entered the "Bare" aisle, we found these stacks of shirts on display, being offered on a scheme of buy two get two free. I have always had this fascination for dark colored plain shirts. I casually started selecting. I wanted to try one and see if it properly fits, but the length of the queue at the trial room made me withdraw the idea. I picked up the shirts basing on my past experience, size 40 is what I thought would fit me perfectly, hence went on.

I first picked up 4 shirts, later I thought I wouldn't get such on offer in the near future and hence picked up another 4 shirts. My wife saw my collection and was furious that I always buy plains and hence picked up another 4 shirts in checks and stripes. When this was over, I immediately realized that I have only one jean trousers and enquired with the sales guy as to where I would get the best offer on jeans, he suggested I go to Bare Denim. When I went there, I saw a good collection of jeans waiting for me. I picked up a 36 inches waist boot cut and preceded to the trial room, as I was unable to decide which size would fit me correctly. I was happy to know that size 36 is pretty loose and hence preceded to size 34 stack. However, I was not impressed by the boot cut style of jeans, comfort fit is what I like the best. Picked up 4 jeans on a “buy two get two” offer and started waiting in the queue for billing.

After I was done with my shopping, (in fact I wanted to shop more, but my wallet did not permit me) I met my wife in the I floor, she did not sound very happy, apparently because she couldn't choose anything for herself and here I am with four big bags of clothes. Then I accompanied her to the ladies wing and helped her choose three dresses. Finally when I checked the total, I bombed around 8500 bucks on shopping, but I felt it was a good deal, I got discount of 8500. The irony is that people who planned to shop that evening ended up spending lesser or equal amount, which made me apprehensive if I was suffering with some kind of shopping mania that some women generally suffer from.

Four things worth mentioning are.

Today, I had to exchange the entire set of shirts that I bought for size 42 ones. Although size 40 did fit me perfectly, I was more comfortable with size 42.

While I was standing in the billing counter queue, I was troubled by the looks of a teenage girl, aged about 17 years. Her mom was standing in front of me in the queue and this girl was standing right adjacent to her, but facing me. She stared at me with out blinking and whenever our eyes met, I was so inhibited and turned my looks away, but she never did. This went on for about 20 minutes. Even when their billing was over, she was standing there until I was done and went on staring at me. When I shared this with my wife, she thoroughly laughed out her heart.

Not that I am claustrophobic, but huge gatherings of people at a place, that too in a closed building, rings alarm bells for me. Looking at the maddening rush, I felt, it is a potential place for any terrorist activity, leave about actual terrorist activity, what would happen if there was a bomb threat or fire. I thought I should explain my wife what she should do in such situations, otherwise what good is the training that I received in fire evacuation and basic life support. I was the building evacuation coordinator for our building when I was in Karvy. He is the actual guy who would take a call whether the building should be evacuated or not in the event of fire or threat. To prove that my fears are not silly, the first thing that I saw on the TV when I returned home is that news channel reporting a bomb threat in a mall in Delhi.

Finally, the main purpose of the outing that is eating out did not happen because, by that time we went to the restaurant it was 11:15 P.M. and the captain was not willing to take the order for my favorite dish.

What was supposed to be an accompanying activity turned out to be a shopping spree.