Shopaholic….Who ? No Not Me!

Where would you go on a shopping spree?

Post Corona I have become an avid online shopper. It saves money, time and energy. It took time for me to realise that the price tags of renowned shops include establishment cost too. However, chances are you may be duped into getting something unworthy while shopping online.

But I was never a market surfer. I had my chosen shops, pre-Corina, where bargaining was a criminal offence. Usually, it was Nalli for Sarees and the Emporia for myriad things, like dhoop, agarbatti, authentic silks or just window browsing. I love this part of CP. And the Coffee Shop. Last I shopped some souvenirs from Nagaland Emporium for my NRI nephew. It is privately owned and the counter girls told me to spread the word for their part of the country overseas. I did.

Emporia are government owned outlets showcasing the art and artefacts of different states of the country. These are the shops  astronomically expensive  just to fleece the tourists and the aristocrats. But you get to see the arts and crafts of the natives in one place ! That’s feast to the eye!!

The newbies go to Khan Market where a dress worth ₹700/- is sold at ₹7000/-, where the celebs frequent and where everything from food to furnishings are  overly hyped. And the shoppers during peak time think the roads are their own and park vehicles anywhere they feel like. The raees – Barbarians! Tax evaders! Those who refer to the aam  junta ( common people) as cattle class!

It’s also fashionable to shop in Dubai, Sri Lanka, I guess, just for the sake of  flaunting. Once we had neighbours who had migrated from the South-east Asia. The wife landed at the airport loaded with gold. Am not a jewellery person. Imagine paying for air fuel, hotel stay and the works returning with gold biscuits hidden in secret compartments of the attache and getting caught at the customs! No baba that’s too much risky, as the indigenous exclamation goes 😔! Off my limits.

I remember once B-I-L got textiles from some foreign locale which had Made In India tag cleverly camouflaged!!

Our country has so much to offer! When I see the shiny green and black cardamoms and peppercorns, crisp bay leaves, fragrant cinnamon sticks, dark and rich cloves beatifically beckoning at me I want to run away to the backwaters for these fragrance full spices! Kerala is famous for these!

When I yearn for mishti doi, taal shaansh, nolen gurer rassogollahs I rush to Shree Annapurna at Yusuf Sarai. Ideally, I should be at my birth place where exotic sweets are produced by Ganguram and Sons and others.

Can you beat it after spending my entire life in Delhi I haven’t once been to the iconic Chandni Chowk ( the old part of the walled city) to have the mouth watering street foods. It’s criminal!

Once in the suburbs of Kolkata I was looking for an out of production cassette – non filmy Hindi songs. A sole shopkeeper had one but refused to part as it was his prized personal possession. Who says Bengalis know business ?

Same with some of the shops in CP. Not the flashy ones but the obscure, small, under the staircases and loaded with CDs and cassettes of rare ragas and rarest raagis. The old owners an authority on the subject. However, most of them have downed the shutters because the gen next does not believe in continuing, looks for greener pastures elsewhere and quick money or simply does not understand the value of what they used to sell. Pure joy!!

For books, of course, College Street or locally known boi para or the book alley (does it ring a bell?), in Kolkata, where the primitive tramline lays supine on the tarmac. You get rarest of rare gems here. My cousin used to squander away his entire salary over an out of print edition! For old English vinyles it’s Mumbai. They just sell it on the roadside near the sea. Unimaginable!!

One of my colleagues gave me a list of the best and original food vendors in the city to explore. It’s on my to-do list.

Every part of the country is replete with some miraculous finds. You just have to sniff your way through. But the spree and sprint are missing now. It’s convenience and comfort. Yet, I miss the peculiar smells associated with certain joints. The sensuous reminders of ancient visits. Perhaps, someday I will wander through those boulevards once again.

Who knows my wanderlust takes me where?

Presently, I am looking for cleaner air, uncontaminated water and quieter space. Alas! You cannot shop for them even at exorbitant rates. These were God’s gifts to us for free but as usual, anything for free is not valued enough. So we callously misplaced them.

Let me now see which shop sells the appropriate technology to restore them.

Do you have the address?

I shall locate them through GPS for sure 😀😀

A Birthday Bash with colleagues in South Extension. Am, as usual, busy eating!! 😔

Coffee House stands renovated. You can spend hours chatting with a cup of coffee and nobody will tell you to vacate your seat. The ambience is homelier than the side dishes they serve. But who goes for gourmet to CH? It’s just the buzz of conversation across all age groups –  that’s the first striking auditory feed as you enter the premise. Everything else comes later. CHs are meant for addas. You cannot buy them, of course!

Trivia : Indian Coffee House was established in 1957. One hundred years after the Indian Mutiny and still going STRONG!!