I Love Malls, I Hate Malls, I Love Malls, I Hate Malls ......

[JUSTIFY]I HATE shopping in malls :rant. At least I do these days. I hate stepping into a mall especially on weekends. It does things to me that makes my alimentary canal very active with disastrous results. BH has to rush me home immediately and that means NOW. :hide::bonk

It was not always like this. I used to love shopping in high street chains. My favourite haunts used to be Boots, Marks and Spencers (affectionately referred to as Marks and Sparks), Sainsbury, Safeway and Tesco. I loved buying little things like scented soaps, Yardley's perfumes - rose and lavender fragrances (makes me feel like Ms. Marple. I don't know if she loved these two fragrances, but I suspect she would. They are just the kind of fragrances that a sweet old lady like her would, though I was neither sweet nor old), bubbly bath soaps (I once bought one big bottle because I got 3 for the price of 1 and landed up gifting 2 of them at the end of my stay of 4.5 years in the UK to a friend because I never got through the first bottle - don't get me wrong, it was not that I did not bathe, it was just that I did not always have time for a bubbly bath and preferred to shower and for the occasions I did my friends always gifted me soaps and stuff for Christmas - again not as a subtle reminder to bathe or anything like that, just that they knew my weakness for the stuff and it is not uncommon among students to gift each other such things as they are fairly affordable). As for the other chains, I need not elaborate on why I loved going there. The food shelves used to be calling out to me - loud and clear, beckoning to me, making eyes at me, begging me to go out and reach out for them.

But I don't quite know what happened to me once I was back in Mera Bharat Mahaan. I hate shopping in malls. I love the old fashioned shops where I can buy what I want and have a chinwag with the shopkeeper - gossip, bargain, whatever. I like supermarkets when their check out counters are not crowded. But malls????? On weekends!!!!! No! Illa!!! Naheeeeeeeeeen!!!!! Save me. I suffer from claustrophobia which I discovered only when I stepped into one on a weekend. On weekdays I am a bit braver, go in if my life depends on it, buy whatever I have to and rush out.

So it was that when my dear friend Kelly called me last week and asked me if I could meet her at a mall in the afternoon, I bravely agreed. After all Kelly was there to save me from the big bad mall if it wanted to swallow me up. I took as little money as I thought I would need and went along. Kelly needed to buy some stuff from the shops there. So I would go along with her and look around.

Just then we were passing M&S, my dear Marks and Sparks. I did not even look at the shop or show any intention of entering it. Just then Kelly - baaaaaaaad girl, temptress of poor souls like me - asked if I would just like to take a look round, there was a sale going on. I said why not. After all I had no intention of buying anything. We went in. We looked at the clothes. Nothing looked even half enticing. Pretty enough, but not good enough to tempt ME. We went around. Just out of the corner of my eye, I caught a sight of ..... the shelves with perfumes, soaps, moisturizing lotions ..... HELLLLLLLLLLLP!!!!!! I am sure there was some strong magnet on those shelves. How could I escape its attractive force with that metallic rod and screws in my spine????? I ambled along slowly ..... or no, did I run towards them????? I don't quite remember. Now I don't even know if I quite registerd the speed of my movement at that time.

What followed was utter confusion. What was I to pick up? The lotion or the cream? The soap or the gel? There was only one way out. I begged Kelly to help me out of the mess she had landed me in. I would close my eyes, she could switch the stuff that caused me such confusion between both her hands and I would take whatever was in the hand I picked. Mercifully for her the sales woman came to her rescue. She offered to let me try out the products. Stupid me!!!!! In my excitement I had even forgotten that I could test their products. Finally the choice was made and I came out the poorer out of that shop. Now don't go giving me such disapproving looks. I shall redirect all those in Kelly's direction. It woz she who suggested I go into that shop in the first place. Hrrmmmmmmph..........

Well, now Kelly needed to check out another shop. We walked in. She did not find what she wanted. I picked up something I needed. Then I noticed some nice dinnerware displayed on the side. Now had BH not wanted some soup bowls sometime ago? Well, of course he had. So that was it. I picked up 6 of those and walked out with my purse left with just enough dough to get me to another friend's (outofthebox) house by bus and back home by bus :drowning :bang And for all that she had not even bought what she came to buy in the first place.

And of course I HATE malls. Or do I? Or may be not. I still LOVE them when I have a friend to go with me on a week day in the afternoon and especially when we stuff ourselves with chaat at the end of it. :rotfl[/JUSTIFY]

 

You bet cuppcake. This is called having the cake (whether it be in a cupp or not I dunno) and eating it too. You can live in Mera Bharat Mahaan and have all the joys of shopping in M&S once in a while when you feel like pampering yourself. Am waiting for the day when Tesco comes to town.

 

Hi Sabitha, I don't go shopping much these days. It is a once in a blue moon phenomenon. Malls are pretty exhausting if one spends too long there. It is alright to spend a while there, buy whatever you need, eat something nice and come out.

I remember going with a friend to watch a film on a weekend in summer here in a mall. It was a pretaste of hell and I am convinced hell would be enticing after that. The A/C was not on, the lounge was choc a bloc ..... oh it was awful. Though I have had better experiences of movie theaters in malls. Yes, one does miss the experience of the old time ones too.

Looking forward to your next visit to India.

 

Hi iamsrihere, now that is a good, no, it is a wonderful idea. But the only catch is I never step out of the house if I have to go to buy anything - I am just too lazy :rotfl

 

Thanks Deepu.