Recently we went to Phoenix Mall in Chennai just to spend some quality family time and do some shopping. It had been long time since we went out exclusively for shopping. Pre Covid shopping online and going out to a store was only 50 50, but after Covid it has become an ritual to do shopping only through e-commerce websites. This is going to be the future and soon you can expect an online store from Zakapedia as well, the options are being explored as of now. Though online shopping is very convenient and affordable when compared to these Malls, going out in person for shopping's will always be an exuberant feeling.
During my Childhood days, going out for shopping is itself a festival and will happen once or twice in a year, mostly only on occasions. All our purchases would be done in T.Nagar, the one stop destination to buy from everything to anything. Those memories are still a afresh in my mind and would give an ecstasy when I visit the place even today.
A quick flashback from the vault:
I don't remember travelling for shopping in the morning or have never done that till now. But practically I feel the best time to go out for shopping is in the mornings. This is the time employees are with a fresh mindset to start their day positively. Sometimes it might also help in getting that additional discount if by chance we become their first customer for the day.
Keeping the facts aside, on the day of shopping I would enthusiastically get ready with the best set of fashions from my wardrobe. The shopping routine would start after lunch, and since I used to live in a place which is quite far from T.Nagar the common mode of transport was MRTS (Mass Rapid Transit System) aka local trains. There are still no direct buses from my place to T.Nagar. We have to do a switch in transit if we choose to travel by bus. Also going by local train is the best option as the railway station is very near to Ranganathan Street (The Shopping Street) and it it also saves a lot of time. So the route was always from Home to railway station via Auto Rickshaw and from there to Mambalam (station name) via train. Boarding a train to Mambalam was always an easy task as we would board from a place where the train starts it's trip, basically the last or first stop. But alighting at Mambalam was an uphill and challenging task. By the time the train would reach Mambalam it used to be 100% full and there will be another 20 to 30 percentage crowd waiting on the platform to board the train. The ideal way to get down at the right station is to start moving towards the exit door a stop earlier than your actual stop. By the time the train reaches your destination you should be in a position to quickly get off the train else the crowd waiting at the platform will push you back in and you will never be able to make it outside.
Once you get down, the floating crowd will push you towards a foot over bridge which is the gateway to an esctatic world. As soon as you get down from the steps Hotel Aishwarya would welcome you with a softy (cone ice cream) kiosk at their entrance. Sometimes when the shopping list is big we would start before lunch and have our lunch in this hotel. Right opposite to this hotel would be a sugarcane juice shop which is the last mandatory stop before board the train back to home.
Ranganathan Street: From what I've seen, on the street can be found many commercial establishments ranging from street hawkers selling safety pins to big stores selling gold jewelry. Many vegetable vendors also sell their wares here. I could never imagine how this place would look like without people as never in my life I have ever seen this place empty until the lockdowns started.
With all things set, high josh and enthusiasm the shopping spree would start. The elders of the family would take me from one shop to another ticking the shopping list in their minds. Mostly the first stop would be in Jeyachandran textiles as it is closer to the railway station. There would be chances that all our shopping would get completed in the same shop very rarely though, and sometime even after visiting all the shops we might end up not liking anything. Eventually we would have to get satisfied with what is available at that time since coming back again is not an option. The next stop would be Saravana Stores. Back then we used to say "If you could not find an item in Saravana Stores then its difficult to find it outside too". Before all these shopping malls came into pictures for Chennai, Saravana Stores was the only shopping mall for all the middle and upper middle class families. Once you get into any of these stores, you won't know what is happening outside (sunshine, sunset, rain, storm).
By the time we get to the bottom of the shopping list it would be around 7 or 8 PM, sometimes even 10 PM. We would have to rush back to the railway station with all those full shopping bags to not to miss the last train. Usually the return journey from any place to home would feel longer than normal, but this return journey would feel forever due to the excitement to try out the stuffs bought earlier.
Cut to current day: Whilst all those memories, shopping now a days is all confined to only Malls. They are convenient to reach with our own vehicles though the convenience comes with a price tag attached. Malls give you a different level of shopping experience. Rather than squeezing ourselves to move around and hastily scan through available option malls have these exclusive stores specializing only for a particular a niche, a Manyavar store in the mall for example deals only in ethnic wears. They also have theaters, food zone, and children's area to keep the kids entertained. All in all its a complete different world worth spending a day provided you are ready to burn a hole in your pocket to experience everything.
The biggest advantage of going to a mall is your options are unlimited on a particular shopping list item. You may not have to feel contented with what is available in the store where everything is available rather can go into a store which specifically serves the purpose. One such stores is Hamley's which deals in toys for kids.
Back story: Of late Tahir (our son) had stopped playing with the toys that he had, may be they have become old / he felt bored of playing with the same set of toys. So we tried to take him to a nearby toy shop and let him choose his variety of toys, but he did not choose anything fancy but rather settled for a ball. This seemed quite unusual for me as I had only seen kids grabbing everything that they could when they enter a toy shop.
With this in mind I thought to give a second try in Hamely's again. He continued to do the same thing ignoring all the fancy toys and did not pick any. So we tried to show him the toys by ourselves one by one, how to play, how it works. Slowly he opened up and started exploring. He picked a pop it square and held to it. I was quite relieved by then that at last he is chose something. Then after sometime he grabbed a beach set. His shopping spree had just started, then he went on to pick a ball as usual.
After exploring all the sections it was time to leave. All the time while he was exploring he held on to the pop it square and never let it go or even give it to me. Somehow I took it from him explaining that we would have to pay for it to take it to home. The queue at the billing section was quite long so I asked my wife and Tahir to keep looking for other stuffs while I go ahead and make the payment. I had three toys in my hand 1. Pop it, 2. Beach Kit, 3. A ball so I had a rough figure of around 1000 to 1200 to settle in my mind. When my turn came for billing I gave the three toys and the person in the counter started scanning the tags. After scanning all the three toys he said "Sir, just for your confirmation the Pop it square is 2599 rooobeess and your total would be 4K something". I was like whaaaatt. What is there in this for 2.5K. The shopkeeper said its a quality product and would last for longer days. But for me no matter how long it lasts Tahir is going to play only for a day with it. So totally not worth the amount and asked him to remove it.
After paying when we were about to step out, the first thing Tahir asked was about the Pop it and refused to leave without it. "Ennada itthu Madura karanuku vantha sothanai" moment. After so much convincing that they would pack and deliver it to home directly we managed to leave the place. From one perspective we were quite perplexed by his behavior on the other side we were also disappointed that for the first time he picked something for himself and we had to reject it (Sentiment vs Practicality). So the very next day I ordered the same pop it from namma kadai Amazon.in but at a price much lesser than 2.6K :) satisfying both me and Tahir.
Hope you all would have also faced similar situations. Comment your unique experiences that you have had while shopping. See you in another interesting story.
0 Comments