The past one
year in Muscat has changed my shopping experience. Though we have malls and
super markets such as Big Bazaar, Reliance and Nilgiris back home, I have never
been so spoilt for choice. Of course that always lands one in a dilemma. Which
brand to buy, which is cheaper, which gives you value for money and how much to
buy.
The seasonal
bargain offers too lands one in a quandary. At LuLu and Safeer I always have to
argue with my wife and daughter about what to buy and how much. Back in India
this was no big deal. There were seldom real bargain deals. And we had limited options
too to choose from. If Big Bazaar stocked a certain brand then it would be
missing in the shelves of Spencer’s Daily or Reliance or More never.
I am fell in
love with bargaining for clothes and sundry at first in New Delhi’s Janpath
Lane, just off Parliament Street and Connaught Circus (They have renamed it to
Rajiv Chowk now. Erasing all traces of British Raj, I guess).
Back in the
1990s the shopkeepers in the lane used to call out: ‘Das ka Das ka, koyi bhi,
le lo’ (Only 10 rupees, take anyone) in a sort of chant that I was mesmerised
by it. Today they must be chanting in the range of 100s as in ‘Sau ka Sau ka,
koyi bhi, le lo’.
Janpath
remained my favourite place for bargain hunting be it a T-Shirt, a shirt or
bags or for just hanging out and have soda from DePauls during my life in
Delhi. Even the Chandini Chowk area in Old Delhi was a paradise for bargain
hunters. Come Sunday I used to head out to Darya Ganj, also in Old Delhi to
look for second hand books, which again could be had for a couple of tens. And
books could be given away which saved me the trouble of carting it around
Today the
favourite haunts of Delhiites are the numerous shopping malls that have sprung
up all over the capital of India. The malls in Gurgaon are the favourite what
with a couple of cinemas thrown in. Nowadays, shopping has become an all day
experience where one shop, see a film and eat out too.
The art of
haggling is slowly disappearing and my skills too have become rusted. True,
with groceries coming at such bargain prices as in Muscat, there is seldom any need
for bargaining. The shopping cart has become a de rigueur, into which we haul
in stuff and then at the counter we pay with our debit card. No questions
asked. And we find that we always end up buying more stuff even after taking a
huge list when we go for our monthly shopping. The monthly shopping budget in
Muscat is much lower than it ever was back home, my wife vouches.
As for me
give me a local shop or market any day. I love haggling over the price for the
sheer pleasure of it. The local mom and pop shop (or should I say the son and
pop shop as is the case in India) gives me much more. We gather the local
gossip and other important happenings in the locality we live. Alas they are
slowly disappearing in my town too.
The local
mandi or market gives me much more in
life that a super market or mall can never give in its airconditioned comforts.
I love the bustle and hustle of a market even the smells which the sanitised
atmosphere of a mall or super market can never beat.
