The joys of shopping!

I never imagined I would ever concur with the title of this episode. I have always had a healthy horror of shopping, especially clothes shopping and most especially where bargaining is part of the game.

I CANNOT bargain. Its not that I haven't tried it out of sheer distaste or anything – its just that I cant convincingly hold on to my stand that the item being haggled for is worth 1/10th the price the seller has quoted. It's exhausting and in a perverse way, embarrassing!

Hence I have avoided haunts like Linking Road, Fashion Street like the plague. Their very name brings on a shiver. So, all this while most of my shopping has been done by my Mom. Luckily her taste and mine coincide (well, most of the times!) and I am happy to outsource my worries to her.

Yesterday, though, was another story. I HAD to shop and to shop ALONE since I am by myself here at Amritsar. And unfortunately, along with the yummy food, Amritsar is famous for its fabrics and Punjabi juttis (mojdis). I had directives from the High Command (aka Mom) to "at least look around and buy 3-4 materials, Aunty ABC has asked you to get her some". So with quavering feet and sweat-soaked palms I ventured into Amritsar's 'Kapda Bazaar'. I tentatively looked in at the display in the first store and was immediately hauled in by the enthusiastic salesperson. Before I knew it I was looking at a selection of materials as per my mumbled specifications – "Pure Cotton, printed or embroidered, around Rs x".

And……I had a nice time! Perhaps because I knew that I was supposed to buy these for someone else - they were not for me. But the gorgeous bolts of fabric – from soft-cotton-with-a colourful-floral-pattern that would have been a strict no-no(only saved by the matching softer chiffon crochet-lined dupatta) to the exquisite starkness of the black-and white embroidered suits from Pakistan (only 30 km away!) were a feast for the eyes – and fingers! Graceful embroidery, unusual colours – all made for a happy hour! I walked away after having contributed to Amritsar's economy by quite a pretty penny.

I hailed a cab and was nicely in a buzz of having shopped well (I now know why shopping can be an addiction – it gives you a high!) when the rick-wallah, like a rehab doctor shattered my euphoric daze. He told me that the suits I'd bought were available elsewhere at 1/5th the cost! Now I am not naïve enough to have taken him at face value – and I know the "elsewhere" shop he mentioned had a commission-based agreement with him, but my consumer surplus (as we say in Economics) took a blow! So I decided to follow his advice and stopped at a store he pointed out as having the best juttis in Amritsar. I stepped in with a wonderful feeling of liberation – for one day at least, I was not a shopaphobic, but a shopaphile! I sat myself down and told the salesman right away not to bother with expensive stuff – you know, chappals which cost you upward of 1000 bucks (The only shoes I can pay that kind of money for are my Scholls and Nikes)

I paraded around wearing all kind of juttis – from soft leather ones, to embroidered ones with curly tips to jazzy golden ones. Seeing one's ham feet approach a semblance of womanliness thanks to some clever kaarigiri of the shoe-maker is enough to warrant declaring shopping for juttis as a self-help therapy!

Later as I tumbled into my room, I started on my favourite post-shopping activity – to go over your purchases and gloat! J Seriously, neurologists who want to study endorphins should just choose their target group as women who like shopping and then indulge them in a shopping spree. The endorphins that kick in are something else!

Today, I am still happy about my purchases and will perhaps embark on another shopping trip before leaving Amritsar. But I am glad to note that I have not transcended from shopaphobe to shopaholic. In fact, I think I have not even reached the shopaphile stage. Yetserday just marked my graduation from shopaphobe to not-a-shopaphobe.

But I still think spending a day at Linking Road/Shoppers Stop/Westside is a serious waste of time. Rather, why not spend that time in a bookstore, browsing and buying blessed books? And before you counter that Book-shopping is a kind of shopping too, wait - let me read a chapter or two of the nearest book - I can argue better after a shot or two of my poison! :P