Make that mauled… At Spencer’s Plaza last evening. Sunday evening, and with a holiday the next day (today is elections day in Tamilnadu), Spencer’s was choc-a-bloc. No space to breathe freely, forget moving…. So much disposable income? Is India truly Shining?
Dina writes about malls in Gurgaon with their glass facades and Dalli types. Bangalore with its Big Bazaars and more recent Forum(?). Even Bombay, for all its purported space crunch boasts of huge malls in the (once-so-uncool) suburbs like Malad and Mulund. Could not understand this initially…. Madras, for instance has the excuse of ‘nothing-to-do’ on a week-end (except the beach and movies, of course)… but even Bombay, with its dynamic theatre scene (stage) and Marine Drive and multiplexes is getting more and more mall-happy….
But when you think about it, the reasons are quite obvious. Mall-hopping can be quite a gratifying experience, khao-piyo, gawk till you drop, catch a movie if you are so inclined. Get your hair braided and hands mehndied, play a few simulated games that aim at giving you vertigo. No mention of buying from start to finish. And all this in air-conditioned comfort.
And if in the next year or so, malled (malling, malls) becomes a popular verb, remember you read it here first…. After that, all you need to do is sit back and wait for the OED to add it, thus giving it the cloak of respectability…. But by then, who will care? Purists will have denounced this verb enough for it to become the next big thing among yuppies and Vinod Mehta will have added mall-therapy to his list of most-hated phrases (Killing Cliches, Outlook, April 19)…. Till then, Happy Malling!
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